Cooper is 41/2 months now and I feel like things should be getting easier...and they're not. He's my first dog so I don't know but I feel like I have NO time other than when he naps. If he's up I can't do anything else. Im a stay at home mom and other than errands and carpool I'm home. I love being with him ...sometimes as he still bites a lot. I also don't know what to do to occupy him if it's not food related and walks. I don't know...
You're doing it right, giving him so much time in these early days. I felt the same at this age but we turned a corner at 5 months and now at 6 1/2 months I can't believe I ever felt like you do now! Food related training and play is quite key at this age. Also ball throwing. Do you have a crate to put him in to sleep? After our morning walk I put Libby to bed for a good couple of hours and justify it by thinking I'd have to if I was out at work. Or I go shopping in this slot, it's just my time. Again, she is out to bed after lunch and a play. Don't feel guilty about putting him in his sleeping place. It will get better very soon!
He's still a baby! Would you expect a child to be doing grown-up things by now? No. They mature so much faster than us rubbish human beings, yet we expect them to be adults from almost the get-go. Give it time, it will come. It may take longer than you'd hope, but I bet he gets there faster than your kids ever did
I have no good advice, just wanted to say I feel the same way. Titan is 4 months old next Thursday and I just have to tell myself (and boyfriend!) that he's only still a baby. Someday things will feel easier
It will get easier, as @snowbunny said your boy is still a baby. I've felt that feeling too, but now at just over 9 months old thing are easier, and getting better all the time. My boy loves playing "find", just hide some kibble in things around the room for him to find, a particular favourite is using an old muffin tin with kibble/treats hidden under tennis balls on top of the muffin tin holes. Training also tires them out, and don't feel bad about putting them to bed (just like a kid) and using that time for you!
Libby just turned 5 months and things are getting better - a little. It's a slow process. At least she has me in tears less often now Our turning point on the biting happened last week. We were told by a friend who has had a lot of dogs to get a metal can. Put some coins in it and put a metal lid on it. Tape it up good so the coins can't come out. I've had to shake it only a few times. The first time I shook it was when she started biting me the same day. I shook it once and it startled her and she sat back and quit biting. Had to only do that one more time that night. Then it happened again the next day, I shook the can once, and she stopped. Now ALL I HAVE TO DO IS PICK UP THE CAN - I haven't had to shake it for days. She immediately stops the biting and goes on to something else. This has been a MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH for us! At least I'm finally starting to heal up now. I have found that I need to spend time with her when I get home from work before I do anything else. She especially likes it when I sit on the floor with her and hold the 'chew stick of the day' - whatever variety it is - and let her chew while she's in my lap. Then we go on to some indoor fetch. By that point, I can finally get some dinner, change my clothes, etc. This takes me back to when we had toddlers which was MANY years ago. Always trying to keep her busy. Sometimes she has a particularly bad day and has to go to time-out behind the baby gate. I notice that it tends to be on the weekends when we're really busy and she doesn't get enough naps. She does pretty well during the week when she gets more sleep during the day. Now that she's bigger, we're dealing with 'counter surfing'. That's beginning to be a problem. They keep telling me here that things will get better. Hoping so!
I have heard that about the can. Never tried it but will now have to! It's true they mature and things change just like with our human kids but when you're going through it you start having crazy thoughts like you have the exception to the rule and it will never change. That being said I can't picture my life without him and wouldn't want to!!
Please don't. If it works, it's because you're scaring your puppy. Do you want to do that? If you're not scaring him, it wouldn't work. Eventually, it might stop scaring him, and then what will you do next that's worse to scare him again? No, using aversives (punishment) is not the answer. He's a baby puppy, exploring the world with his mouth just like human babies do. Would you try to scare a human baby when he picks something up and puts it in his mouth? The thing is, human babies have hands, too. Puppies only have their mouths. Be patient and kind, please. Yes, it's uncomfortable. Yes, it can draw blood. You know what, I've heard what human babies do to their mothers "on the way out" and during breastfeeding. What your puppy is doing is no more intentional than that.
I'm with @snowbunny on this, the noise will scare your pup. Bailey was a determined crocopup, I just stayed constant with standing up, turning my back and folding my arms - no talking, no eye contact - apart from the first time when he jumped up at my back and nipped my bum (thank goodness I had jeans on) he will sit and calm down. If it all got too much then into his crate or behind his gate until he calmed down - and to be honest he usually did fall asleep almost within seconds. Now when he is really tired he likes to hold my hand in his mouth and just lays across my lap! When we first got Bailey I made the decision that I would train with positive reinforcement, my sister is and always has been a fan of Cesar Milan but I don't like those methods...the difference is her boy is a lot more nervous than my boy...is it down to the different training methods, I don't know but I have my suspicions!
I can assure you Libby is not scared. She is 5 months old and weighs 43 pounds. She knows exactly what she is doing when she does the biting. We had to do something to break this behavior. We have tried many, many things over the past months and we're at a loss. The damage to my hands and ankles was getting worse and worse especially since she got her adult teeth. Now when she bites, she draws a lot of blood. The noise gets her attention. Same thing as an 'ouch' or a 'yelp' (which never worked). I have not had to so this now for at least 4 days. She is trained with positive reinforcement in all other aspects of her training. She and I are very close and have no problems getting along.
@babs75 please read this article: http://thehappypuppysite.com/dog-training-discs-rattle-bottles-and-pet-correctors/ It's an aversive, pure and simple. If you believe it to just be an interrupter (which it isn't), then train an interrupter. Using a noise as a punishment (which it is) can lead to noise sensitivity, among other problems. The article explains it all and why you shouldn't use a rattle bottle or similar. Training with positive reinforcement in all other aspects doesn't detract from the point that you're using punishment here.
It's not the same thing as an ouch or a yelp. If it was, it wouldn't work, would it? Have a look at this article too: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/punishment-in-dog-training/ I think noise correctors are a particularly terrible idea. There are enough dogs in the world already that are overly sensitive to fire works, crashes, bangs etc. without deliberately startling a dog with noise.
It slowly, slowly gets easier - then one day the puppy days have gone and you have a dog which snoozes when not out and about. Then you miss the puppy days!!
Stanley was a bugger for biting. At one point I went round my mums and was presented with a plastic bottle with stones in. She said it was to shake at Stanley everytime he went to bite us, my auntie had told her about it. I said no way - I didn't want him to learn to be scared of loud noises. Funnily enough, on firework night her dog was terrified and mine was fine. If you stood still Stanley would just keep jumping and biting, getting your feet - anything he could. What worked for us was what our trainer suggested. You kept him on his training lead. If Stanley started biting he got one chance. You gave him an interrupter - ours was "ah-ah" or "enough". If he continued with the biting you very calmly, without saying anything, walked him out of the room and closed the door (trapping the lead in the door) so there was nothing fun for him to do. After 10/15 seconds you let him back through, if he started biting again.. straight back out. After a couple of days he settled down and stopped the majority of the biting. Now he sometimes mouths a little bit but it doesn't hurt at all. If he gets over excited and gets your clothes and nips your skin it can still hurt a little bit. But an "ah ah" seems to be enough now. They do get better
For me there were two breakthroughs - the first was toilet training, the second was the biting. Xena's biting started easing off at 4.5 months, and was almost gone by 5 months. Some pups take longer, but please hang in there! As soon as the biting stopped I actually started to love and enjoy my dog. I found those early months so restrictive. I was just like Mad-Eye Moody - CONSTANT VIGILANCE. But suddenly you'll realise that you can leave your dog for a few hours while you do some shopping or catch up with a friend. Or you'll potter about in the garden and the dog will potter about with you and then head back inside for a snooze when they're bored. Or you'll go and run some errands with the dog in the back of the car and it won't even be a problem. Or friends and family will come over and you won't stress about it because you've got the dog under control. Xena's almost 8 months now and I was just marvelling today at how everything seems to be coming together. We've got a long way to go, and I'm anxious about adolescence *yikes* but I'm so much more relaxed than I was 4 months ago. I do think that I kind of struck it lucky with Xena. She really is a smashing dog.
Not me - I'm a sucker for the puppy days! I have to be with my job! But Mollie is soooooooo laid back I think the next one will be a huge shock!! ...
Having never had a dog I don't know what to expect. Do they sleep lost of the day and you just go about your business? Knowing me I would feel bad thinking he's sleeping because I'm not "entertaining" him enough.. Actually at 4.5 months I have noticed the biting is less and when I say off he stops for the most part. We are now able to bond so much more. If I sit on the floor he doesn't go to bite me he now puts his head or paws in my lap and snuggles...sometimes.
