Our 12 week old chocolate lab (Lily) is biting, growling, jumping and tearing clothes. Right now my forearms and the backs of my calves (where her head currently reaches) look like I've been in an accident. They are covered in bruises and scratches. I understand that puppy biting is normal, but this is too much. It doesn't seem to stem from over-excitement as she will start doing it first thing in the morning (after bathroom and eating) before I have even started playing with her, or gone for a walk. She does it at all times of the day. One minute she is calm, the next she is growling, lunging and ripping my trousers. I think it is her version of play? There is no distracting her when she is like this. No toys interest her. If we want to put her in her crate I have to wrestle her in there and it doesn't calm her down, as soon as she comes out she goes straight back to it. Lots of time it is happening when we are in the garden, so the crate isn't right there to use. When we are inside I have put her outside the backdoor to give her a chance to calm down (she doesn't wonder off, and is fenced in). The only thing that gets her attention when she is like this is food. I sometimes pick her up when she gets like this, as then the only thing she can reach is my arm, and not very well, but she goes straight back to it when you put her down. Plus she is getting bigger, so this option will run out soon. No amount of talking, shouting, saying ouch, making noises, petting, distracting etc. will get her attention, or get her to calm down. We have nick named her 'Cujo' as it feels like she has gone crazy. It started with her only doing this to me and now she is doing it to my 3 teenagers too. She has also tried a couple of times with my husband, but he isn't around her too much for her to try. We walk her twice a day, she is also in our back garden with lots of space to run around and sniff to her hearts content many times a day. How do we stop this behavior?
Hi there, and welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear you are having a tough time with your puppy right now. As you probably know this is peak bitey time for many pups and things will improve so hang on in there. There's no one single thing that make biting improve, rather a collection of small changes that you make so that things improve steadily. You'll find lots of information in this thread Help with biting puppies At 12 weeks you can really get going now with some basic training. It's great that she's food focused as modern training uses a lot of it. You can start by trying to spot behaviors that you like. Such as having all 4 paws on the floor, looking at your face, or just standing quietly for a second or two! Try to catch her in the act of doing these simple things and mark them with a word like YES! Then immediately give her a piece of food. Have food in your pocket, in a pot on the kitchen table, another pot next to the kettle, and so on. See if you can use half of her food ration each day up like this. Keep a tally on the fridge, and get your teenagers involved. You can mark things like getting in her basket, or touching your hand. There's a four month old cocker puppy learning a hand touch in the video in this article. Keep your puppy busy and teach her that working with you rather than play fighting, is more rewarding. Let us know how you get on
I just want you to know, that I am dealing with the same thing and my forearms look like mincemeat. I try to hide my puncture wounds ( puppy claw marks ) and my scratches with big band aids then I have to roll down my sleeves when I go out ! After two weeks with this, when my boy was 2.5 months old, during the Covid, I found a great trainer on-line and he has been a great help just with the Zoom meetings during shut-down...This trainer does house calls and that is in the works for the future. My puppy is four months old, never stops moving, jumping, etc. We have mastered curtailing the shoe-grab, etc. but its been tough. He is a wrecking crew all by himself. I am crate training him, and he can't be left out of the crate by himself without extreme supervision and on a leash in the house. We don't have the fence for the back yard yet and I know that is part of the problem, because he really needs to go on a dead run around and around in a safe environment, and that is not possible right now. I know that this will get better, but its really been challenging. Hang in there, they do grow up, my last lab, whom I got at 8 months old, was a very different story....even before we trained him....he was quiet, gentle, sweet and very trainable. Unlike my new little maniac. When we got him neutered my other lab was even more manageable. But I have four months to go LOL ! Just know you are not alone.
