Have a pup 16 weeks and two other labs 5 and 11 years old. The pup continually bites older labs quite hard at times. Just wondering if this is common and will eventually stop as pup gets older. Older dogs do retaliate and things can get quite heated at times. Pup knows the command leave and we do divert his attention to stop this biting. Advice would be appreciated. Pup is from Gundog stock and is very bright. Many thanks David Murphy
Re: Lab pup biting older dogs Hi David, Most adult dogs are extremely tolerant towards small pups but this tolerance tends to dwindle as the pup reaches the four to five month mark. So what you are seeing is pretty normal. As the puppy grows older even the most tolerant dog will become less and less tolerant of being bitten and will initially growl at the puppy and may even threaten the pup with some pretty fierce looking teeth clicking or ‘air snapping’. A dog that has shown plenty of tolerance in the early stages will rarely hurt a puppy that is a part of its family. Though the ‘snapping’ may give the pup a bit of a fright. The pestering does diminish over time, and your pup will grow out of it, aided and abetted by some pretty stern warnings from your older dogs. Whether or not to intervene is a bit of a judgement call, and you know your dogs best, but the pup may learn to leave them in peace more quickly if you let them tell him off, obviously stepping in if things get a bit too rough. You are probably doing this already, but it can help to give the older dogs regular breaks from the pup so that they don’t feel cornered or constantly pursued. HTH Pippa
Re: Lab pup biting older dogs Hi David, When you say the older dogs retaliate, do you mean by growling and snapping, like Pippa describes as normal behaviour, or are they actually biting the puppy back? Sam.
Re: Lab pup biting older dogs Hi Sam, The older dogs do sometimes bite back when things are really heated. Hopefully this biting will stop as pup gets older. Funny thing is when I tell him to leave he does and sits down. He does know the leave command. Regards.
Re: Lab pup biting older dogs Hi David Thanks for your reply. I only ask because it might not be safe for the pup to be left alone with the older dogs for prolonged periods until he grows out of this phase? Every now and then you hear a horror story about a pup that's been really hurt by older dogs ( Hopefully he will grow out of it soon! ) Sam
we have a 8wk old lab in teething stage so likes to bite at our 9 year old Miniature Schnauzer. Haylee will tolerate him a bit then she growls and barks back at him and runs away. She has never bitten him and I am not worried that she would. she is a really sweet nature dog and does well with our new lab.
