Hello, New pup mum here. We have a 3 month old red fox lab Cooper, gorgeous boy but he is absolutely bonkers! He’s doing well with toilet training and sleeping in his crate etc which is great but he is crazy most of the other times! He bites you 24/7, jumps up and claws you, we do everything we can to play with him but he just insists on biting or scratching you. If you take him into the garden to play he spends the whole time trying to get stones or anything he can get his hands on even though we try to make his toys seem super exciting! He loves his kongs or chew treats but can’t give him them all the time as it will upset his tummy! We walk him 2/3 times a day now he’s had his jabs but it hasn’t calmed him. Can only walk in 20 minutes per walk (wish we could do more as he loves it) as instructed due to being so young. He’s started puppy school and we are following everything we’ve been advised! I just wanted to know, is this behaviour normal? And If so, any tips on how to help with the biting and calming him down? And did anyone walk their pup more than the allotted time? Thanks Rebecca
If you look through other posts on here, you will see that a lot of people have the same problem. My thoughts are often that the pup is overstimulated and needs more calm time, not more entertainment.
Yes, totally normal. You can read lots of other similar posts on here. There is a thread just for biting. Search the puppies section. Stick to classes and be patient
Hello and welcome Definitely normal, our Lola used to try and get stones but we just had to persevere with the distractions and showing her toys and treats more exciting than stones. Same with biting, swapping arms for chew toys or completely removing attention and she soon got message. We found doing 10-15mins training with Lola a day started to help calm her down as it’s mental stimulation and that is apparently the key as opposed to exercise. Exercise is good but getting them to use their brain is better as it tires them out more. We’ve spoken to vet and various puppy owners and (I’ll prob get in trouble for this) but we go with Lola while keeping vet advice in mind, vet said 5mins for every month old she was so at 3months we would take her out for 15mins , 20mins for 4 months and so on but if she was having fun we may have ran over 5mins as we want her to enjoy her walks/play but at same time don’t want her damaging joints as growing. We found when Lola was over tired she would have zoomies so we eventually managed to work out if she didn’t get a certain amount of naps during day this is when zoomies would occur so watch out for over stimulation. You’ll get into a routine and it will become much easier. X
Thank you all so much for your replies! It’s really encouraging knowing it’s totally normal!Really trying our best to swap biting us to toys or distractions! Thanks for the advice regarding 10-15 mins of training a day- that’s a great idea and I’ve started doing that more now! We’re doing the same with walking, sticking to 15-20 mins a time but will sometimes go a tiny bit over if he’s reaaaally loving it (he absolutely loves his walks in the fields so I hate stopping him but I know we have to for his joints) Thank you all again I really appreciate the time you’ve taken to respond
Plastic bottles are great and provide so much fun for a puppy. Loads of biting to help their teeth and makes noises each time they chew. Another thing to help with chewing/teething is rope toys/face clothes soaked in water and frozen. The cold helps with the swelling on the gums and also feels good for the pain.
