Hello all, I will introduce myself I am Nicola, my pup is a black lab named Lenny and he is 15 weeks old. He very regularly get very snappy, I mean it can happen once an hour when he's a wake sometimes a bit more sometimes a bit less basically anytime your near him and or are telling him off. Lenny is getting frustrated when he is told not to do something or restrained from jumping up or getting something he shouldn’t have and turns his head and looks out of the corner of his eye and tries to bite you or air snap near you. This often comes with barking and growling. He's been doing this since we got him at 9 weeks. It is much much worse when he comes in the living room and can start almost instantly if I am sat on the sofa/floor or the boys are on the sofa watching TV he will jump up and start snapping and biting and jumping on you and more often that not draw blood as he is biting hard and pulling. I push him off or tell him off but it makes no difference and he only comes back harder. I make sure it's only his toys out and the boys are sat on the sofa calmly but he will jump up at the table trying to get stuff or take the kids toys off the shelves and again if he is told off even with treats he will take the treat then jump at me biting and my face and hands. I have only just started letting him in the living room with kongs and toys etc but as soon as its gone he starts biting again I try to remain calm and play calmly with him but he winds himself up throwing toys around. If a visitor is in the living room he behaves even worse and is snapping and trying to bite them relentlessly. When he does this now I will ignore it as much as possible after saying a firm no or hold him by the collar until he lays down. I don’t force him down I wait for him to do it. In the past I have tried shouting or putting him in his crate which was making him dislike the crate and the shouting made the biting worse. If he doesn’t stop quickly I will step over the gate in the kitchen which sometimes he whines and sometimes he doesn’t seem bothered and starts chewing the chairs, I can't do this in the living room as he needs more supervision in there! I am covered on my arms and legs from bruises and cuts from when I haven’t moved quick enough and some are quite deep, he also like to get your socks when you're sitting down. Any further details: I haven’t had a puppy before so I am unsure if it's overexcitement/frustration and I am worried its aggression and I cannot have a fully grown Labrador biting my boys I don’t know whether this is normal for a puppy and he will grow out of it or whether he needs training to become a relax adult dog. I am very worried about it as I got a lab for their good nature It seems to be happening all the time and I barely ever get to cuddle him or bond with him. We play fetch, tug of war, he gets walked every day and is fed on Wellness Core Puppy food. Anyone have any advice or reassurance or should I be worried and contact a behaviourist? Thank you in advance. x
Deep breath - it's all perfectly normal. Read some of the other threads on the Puppies board and you will see virtually all Labrador puppies go through this stage. The good news is most of them stop once their big teeth come in, which should start happening in another week or so. Hang in there, stay calm - this will soon seem like a bad dream.
Karen has said everything I was going to say. If you have a quick look around the boards you will see many, many posts about the dreaded "crocopup" and the horror it causes Also if you look around the main site, you will find some great articles. This one gives you an overview and has links to other articles that might help http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies/ And this one is all about puppy biting and what to do about it. http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies-biting/
I agree with it all marley is now 6 mths we have to show him who is boss he has just got adult teeth which are just as sharp he jumps all over my boys who are 9 and 4 he forgets himself a lot and 4yr old gets hurt have you thought about getting another gate for living room so that when he get too much and doesn't listen put him out so he can still see you but not get to you same as you would put a child on naughty step it will take a little while for it to click but works with marley. Also marley still gets nippy with me especially he trys to be the boss but that's not going to happen I gently tuck 2 fingers in his collar and put him on the floor saying no firmly he will then go submissive as it's what their mum's do to tell them off you might need to repeat this a few times another thing I need to do sometimes when he gets to much is put him in the garden to let off steam he run around like a loony same works for my boys weirdly enough I feel like new puppy owner as my last lab arnie was born and old man never had any trouble out of him this site is brilliant
Ahhh the crocopup...lots of old threads on here to read about this...have a good browse. Distraction worked for us...I didn't tell her off...didn't give her time out....just kept her busy....then it passed . Try things like stuffed kongs, frozen carrots and she chewed up loads of cardboard boxes...my house looked a state for a while..she is now the sweetest dog and that early bitey phase made no difference to us all in the long run...best wishes Emma and Meg X
Hi and welcome. When I got Harley she was my first ever pup/dog. I was lucky that she wasn't a massive biter, but I still do have scars as do most people on here. I wouldn't push the pup off the sofa for 2 reasons - 1. You could really hurt his joints and do serious damage, 2. Using your hands, he will see it as a game like when you play tug. I would stand up and ignore him, or remove him from the room. I personally would not hold their collar and wait for them to be 'submissive' as this could make them fear your hands coming towards them and become even more snappy. The other thing you can try is give him a toy everytime he goes to bite or starts getting excited. I done this with my girl and even now, at 3 years old, she goes and gets a toy whenever anyone new comes in. This really stopped the biting fir us.
Hi and welcome to the forum from me and my boy Bailey. You are experiencing the normal crocopup lab puppy stage - I went through it and yes I have the scars to prove it - particularly on my arms. Bite inhibition training got me through the tough patches there is an excellent article on the main site about this. I also firstly gave him a toy to chew instead of my arm, if that did not work it was folded arms, turning my back and ignoring him, just seconds at a time, then I would restart the game but if I got bitten again then I stepped out of the room, again just for seconds. It took a while and I could not wait until the needle puppy teeth had all come out, but with being consistent with my actions the biting reduced. Also like @Naya because of giving him a toy to redirect his biting he now picks up something in his mouth before coming for cuddles, or when anyone comes to visit - most visitors are now greeted with a wagging tail and a stuffed toy (often a disembowelled soft toy when they have got past repair!). Keep consistent with your training and these horrid little crocopups soon get the idea and become a beautiful dog that is a joy to have around - but don't expect that to happen in a day, it takes quite a while - and sometimes even now at 14 months old Bailey sometimes gets overexcited and forgets his manners but I have trained a "no teeth" cue which calms him down and he once again plays nicely.
Oh do I feel your pain. But it really does get better. Biscuit is 6-months old now and while she still has moments of craziness, she is so much better than she was. A couple of months ago nobody in my house walked around without shoes for fear of her chasing toes, and she attached my boys' (8 and 5) shoes literally every step they took. She still gets wild with them now, but generally only during the witching hour, or if she hasn't had a lot of activity. They've gotten better at limiting their reactions and not getting her over-stimulated, and she's gotten better at listening. If she is being really impossible I find a short time-out in the bathroom works wonders to remind her that only well behaved puppies get to play with the human puppies.
He's not trying to be the boss, honestly. Dogs don't think that way. They don't need - or want - to be the boss, the leader, the master, the alpha, whatever way you want to put it. That way of thinking is outdated, debunked and potentially harmful. He just wants to interact and play with you, and he still needs to learn the best way of doing that is without teeth.
Agree entirely with @snowbunny. Puppies and adult dogs don't really understand why we want to be boss. Indeed trying to be boss to your dog, and using techniques to encourage submission can be deeply confusing for them. It is much better to accept if our puppies do something wrong or something we don't like, then it is our fault and we need to look at specific training techniques to help. Here is an interesting article from the labrador site which goes into more detail: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/should-you-show-your-labrador-puppy-who-is-boss/
