Hi. Just joined the forum. We bought our puppy home a week ago for the past 2 days he has started lunging and biting. He responds to ignoring the biting during the day. However it gets worse in the evening and appears to be from nowhere when we are sitting on the sofa and he doesn't respond to what worked earlier in the day. This is proving a problem towards my teenage son. Was hoping to get some advice. Thank you in advance.
Hi Sue and welcome to the forum The biting is a normal phase that will pass but there are a few things that will hasten that along. There is a lot of guidance in this article here and the others that it links to: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies-biting/ It's also pretty normal to have a bit of a 'devil hour' in the evening when they just seem primed to go into a frenzy of biting and attention seeking. It can help if, before this starts, you do some training with him to wear out his brain a bit. That can head off the craziness at the pass. Teaching tricks is sonething you could do at this time. Maybe your son might be interested in that too. After the session some people find it useful to pop their pup in a crate or pen with an edible chewy thing, for a rest. The devilishness can be due to a bit of over-tiredness so a spell in the crate/pen can help there. If you can it'd be good to ask your son to read the information that I've linked to above. As I'm sure you would agree a consistent approach from the whole family will help.
Evenings are generally the worst in the early days. I used to divide the time up - training, Kong time, teaching settle using her lead and her soft cushion bed. We also put a crate in the sitting room as she would get overtired so she had a sleep - 'time for a rest'. When she got a bit older I took her out for a walk but you could carry your puppy out and about - good socialisation opportunity/getting used to people, traffic etc and if you are in the U.K. It's the right time of the year to do this. In those early days, I didn't try to sit on the settee and relax - it was impossible but it gradually comes back. Your teenage son should stand and turn his back to the puppy.
Hi and welcome. Pups are a bit of a shock as you imagine them to be gentle playful things. But that's not the whole reality. You've been given some great advice above. Consistency is the key.
