We've had some really positive milestones today with 12 wk old Luna, but they've just been overshadowed by a horrible hour and a half battling with her behaviour and I wondered if I could have some help. I don't want this to become normal behaviour. There are 2 main things that I'm really struggling with because I feel like I have absolutely no control over her. It feels like she is calling the shots and not me. 1) Lead pulling. (We're having to lead walk her in the garden for toilet trips at the moment because she's hurt her paw and isn't allowed to run or jump too much). As soon as the lead goes on her, she grabs it and starts pulling it like a tug toy. Once we are outside, she'll get so over excited that she'll forget about needing a wee (if she ever needed one in the first place) and she'll tug and jump and grab at the lead like a maniac. I try to ignore it by turning my back on her and not engaging, but because I can't let go of the end of the lead without defeating the point of it, she's still able to have a game and she tugs so hard it almost pulls me over if I have my back turned. If she wants more attention then she'll nip my ankles or bite my feet. It's impossible to ignore, especially as we can't let her jump or run too much because of her poorly foot. I just end up resorting to picking her up and taking her back into her crate/pen area to calm down and then I'll ignore her. But I can't do this for long because I know she's well overdue a wee, and as soon as she's in the pen area she'll whimper as if she needs a wee or simply do one indoors if I don't watch her. I ended up having to repeat this 5 times over the course of an hour and my patience eventually ran out. 2) Growling. This is the first time she's ever done this and it was horrible. I was actually scared which is ridiculous as she's only 12 weeks old. Luna loves picking up bits of bark in the garden, and if she gets hold of a piece that's a bit sharp I'll take it away from her. This time, I bent down to look at what she'd found and she growled - a proper growl with teeth snarled at me, and tried to snap. I tried again and she did the same. I couldn't get her to do anything that I wanted her to do, so again just had to pick her up and carry her back inside. She did the same thing when I tried to take her lead out of her mouth. I left her in her crate and removed all her toys so she couldn't reward and left the room for a minute. She laid down, but then whined as if she needs the loo again, and off it all started again. It was such a departure from the lovely, engaged and responsive Luna only a few hours before. I just don't understand it.
The lead pulling/biting sounds like frustration in a young pup. When Luna starts biting the lead just drop the end of the lead. It's hard to pull and tug if no-one is on the other end. How much training are you doing with her on a daily basis. Exercise may ve restricted but there are still lots of things to do with her that doesn't require running around but helps to tire puppy brains and relieve frustration. The growling is normal behaviour. From yiur description it sounds like resource guarding So with a young pup I would advise a 121 session with a trainer/behaviourist to put modifications in place for both you and pup. The first thing to do in the interim is not to just go to take things away - as a minimum do a trade for sonething if higher value. By taking away things that a pup regards as high value only teaches them that they are right to growl and snarl to drive you away from their precious possession - and it must be pre ious as you are trying to take it. Taking her toys away because you were cross and frustrated on the pretext of preventing her 'rewarding' by having them is pure nonsense. Having her toys in her crate is not a 'reward' it stimulates play and interaction from what js otherwise a barren cage.
Thanks for your reply @Jojo83 . Having observed it for a few days now, I think you're right that it's likely to be frustration or just general overexcitement. Since her accident a few weeks ago we've been trying loads of things to keep her mind occupied with some fun training at various points in the day, giving her her meals in a Kong Wobbler and playing games with her, but for a pup that just wants to run around the garden I'm almost certain it's not enough for her! I spent twice the amount of time with her in the garden yesterday and clicked and rewarded every time she released the lead rewarding her with treats and a good sniff of the garden. It seemed to ease things. There was no pretext with the removal of the toys. I genuinely believed this was the right thing to do having read (and most likely misinterpreted) some articles online. Thanks for the guidance though - they'll stay firmly in her crate now for more interaction I guess I'm making lots of mistakes at the moment, so hopefully that will be one less to make now...
