I've just had enough today. He's been a total monster this afternoon. He's been pulling the curtains, barking, biting me, tearing at my clothes and when I told me off he stared at me and then barked aggressively. I just don't know what to do for the best. He's 10 weeks old so I can;t take him for a walk to wear him out, I can't spend hours training him - his little baby mind can't take too much. I don't know whether he's over- or under- tired. When I shut him in the kitchen for some time out he howls and whines and barks and then hurls himself at the door and there's only so long you can ignore that until you fear for his safety. I just feel totally at my wits end with this pup who's an angel 95% of the time but the 5% lunatic is almost unbearable.
Sorry to hear you are at the end of your tether. Puppies can wear you out. You probably need to just go through all of your strategies . I am wondering if your pup can see you from the kitchen. Putting him in there might worry him if he can't see you. Can you play with him in the garden? Does he have toys that will occupy him? Cardboard boxes to chew and shred? When my pup was like that I would pick her up and carry her down the road to see the world go by for 10 minutes. Just doing little things with your pup will settle him. They do need lots of your time and hands on attention and it is tiring. Sometimes I still pop a collar and lead on mine (16 months now) and go for a short walk if she is bored. I hope between us we can give some helpful advice.
Oh he isn't aggressive at 10 weeks, probably thinks it's a game when you tell him off. Try to give lots of praise when he is calm without winding him up. Good luck!
Dexter was like that all day on Monday, I was the nearest I could be to crying and exhausted. I've found that telling him off just entices him to do more of the same. Our patio door curtains are taking a battering, so much so that I'm going to get them taken down for now. I've found that if Dexter is in his crazy mode, and attacking curtains, I now leave the room and shut the door, once he realises he's on his own he comes running to the door. Now when he bites my clothes, shoes, jeans, I get him to his crate without saying anything and put him in. He can still see me but I don't look at him or speak to him. He's 14 weeks today and although still doing this stuff, he is getting better slowly but surely. I've asked my husband not to keep saying 'leave it', over and over again and to just go straight to time out and repeat it as often as needed, which can be several times on the trot. It has had the biggest impact so far. I found this forum from googling puppy biting as I really thought we must have an aggressive puppy, but it's not aggression. When Dexter is being calm and quiet I give him a treat or a kibble, the medium puppy Kong with soaked and frozen kibble has been brilliant at keeping him occupied, also ice cubes. Keep your focus on the 95% angelic puppy. If you use kibble for food you can play find it, to distract him. I get Dexter to sit and then I throw one piece accross the grass and say find it, he loves this game, only started it a couple of days ago. Sending you a (((hug))) and wipe the slate clean everyday and start again afresh. We can both get through this with the help from other members.
I think we've all been there, so please don't feel you're alone on this. Hey, I'm an uptight middle aged guy, (and of course, men don't cry!) and puppy Gemma reduced me to tears on occaison. You never appreciate how much work a puppy is until it happens! There were times I was wandering around the house like a zombie mumbling "I can't cope, I can't cope". But we do. AND YOU WILL GET THROUGH THIS. And one day you'll look back and laugh it off, I swear. Great advice from Jane. Take a deep breath, get a cuppa and take stock of your training regime. I hope there may be the odd thing here that could help : Biting. If you're playing, or fussing him, and he bites, stop interacting with him. The lesson is biting brings anything nice to an immediate stop. If tiny Gemma was on my lap and she started getting bitey, I'd call a firm "NO" put her back on the floor. Nice lap time over. Another great trick, I assume he just loves a good tummy rub. And it makes him get all bitey as some kind of pleasure release. So what I did with Gemma is during a tummy rub, I drop a chew toy into her open mouth. You can instigate this, and each time you do (with the chew toy) you're helping him learn what you want him to bite on and what you don't. I also used "gooooood good girl good chew" and "BAD chew, thats a BAD chew!" and I'm convinced this helped. You might hear some folk say that you should keep toys in a toy box, and you decide when it's toy time or not. A way of stamping your authority so to speak. I refused to buy into that, if Gemma has the urge to to play or chew then she should have free access to her toys to unwind, otherwise she'll find something of mine instead! Make sure he has toys which fulfill varies desires, e.g. soft balls, squeeky fluffy toys, tug toys and safe chew toys designed to take real punishment such as nylabones. She had hours of fun with large Amazon boxes too, doubling up as a play den and something to shred. Do you feed any of his meals in a Kong wobbler? I don't bother so much nowadays, but back then, 1 or 2 meals a day would be in a kong. A great way to give a mental and physical work out, having to push and chase the kong around the floor for 20 minutes until it's all gone. Bitter Apply Spray was a magic bullet for us, Gemma can not bear the stuff. I remember soaking the bottom of my curtains with it! And skirting boards, table legs, and absolutely anything she was trying to destroy that she shouldn't. Which sometimes included spraying it on my hands or ankles! I used a lot of timeouts too. Including what I call the "reverse timeout" where instead of removing the dog, remove yourself. When she was full of beans and joy first thing in a morning, we had a chronic problem with her biting and clinging onto my trouser bottoms. So each time this happened, I tugged my leg free and locked myself in the kitchen. Only for a minute. Back out, she's biting my trousers again, away I go again. Repeated 3 times over 3 days and the behaviour ceased. That's all it took! She quickly learned it made me leave her, and she didn't like that. It is difficult to do a timeout when they are getting all frustrated and jumpy about it. I still have the scratches on my kitchen door to prove it. It wasn't so much hurling herself at the door though, it was jumping and trying to push it open etc. It possibly sounds worse than it is? But for me there were no two-ways about it, she simply had to learn that frustration is completely unproductive, and the lessons will be completely lost if released in that state. A 1 minute timeout is plenty for a 10 week old, but the rule has to be 1 minute, OR until he's calm, whichever comes first. Blimey sorry for going on so much....!
Yes, I remember how exhausting it was. Do you have another adult around who can look after your pup for an hour to give you a break now and then? Have you tried rice bones? (Not real bones, made of compressed rice so unlikely to cause an upset tummy). With puppy teeth they last about half an hour. Try putting a few pieces of kibble into an empty plastic bottle without the lid. Encourage your pup to bash it around to make the kibble fly out. If you're not too garden-proud, let him have a dig. If you live somewhere with passers-by, stand in the front garden so people will stop to pet him. Carry him around the park. It will get easier soon - think of it like having a new baby. Molly was a shocker, but here she is now lying beside me quietly, my gorgeous girl, and your pup will grow up too.
Don't despair, there's some great advice here to help you, but telling your puppy off has little impact as he doesn't understand what you're saying but a raised voice is likely to excite him even more. Does he like balls etc and to retrieve? I used Juno's long, her teether, her tugger, her ball as distractions by tossing them across the room and encouraging to fetch. A great game to tire them out and can be played inside or out.
Just want to add support by saying that it really will get better and when you look back on this time it won't seem to have lasted that long, even though at the moment it feels overwhelming at times. Any time it's getting a bit much just come on here and post about it - so many people here have gone through or are going through the same experience and we all understand
Your pup,is still very young. Very young animals, including humans, get hyper when they are tired. They get so wound up that there is no reaching them. I am guessing that you are somewhat sleep deprived at the moment which won't be helping at all. Try feeding all his food in play items, Kongs, Buster Cubes, Treat Balls etc. This gives the little darling something to do, it occupies their mind and gives you a breather. I hid Molly's food all round the room, she had such fun running around the room sniffing it out. This, very usefully, evolved into her sitting and watching me distribute the food and waiting until I told her 'Go find' to seek it out, which gave her the beginnings of impulse control. Another good plan is to toss a handful of kibble on the lawn. This works best if the grass is on the long side, an excuse to not mow the lawn. Now that cannot be bad Puppies are extremely hard work. Lots of short training sessions are the way to go. They cannot take in too much at a time.
salieri75 I can 100% sympathize with you as we're having the same exact issues with our 10-week old puppy. I've cried not once but several times! I'm jealous that your puppy has a 95% angel percentage as mine is more around the 40% angel 60% satan distribution. We're bearing down and just trying to wait out the storm with consistency and firm rules in the meantime. Sometimes the best thing for me has been to come on here and read all of the reassurance that it will get better! I mean... I don't think it can get any worse! I'm pretty sure my puppy has to be at the peak of his insanity so I'm hoping it will be begin to hit the downward slope soon.
Awww bless you salieri. He really is just being a pup. You need to take a step back (maybe ask someone to pup sit for an hour or two) and think how you can deal with each thing so that you get some peace. If he has had food, poo, pee and play you can safely assume it's time for a nap. Like children, some pups, when tired - instead of quietly going to sleep - get over wrought. So pop him in his crate with a Kong (all calm and friendly) and let hin settle. If he doesn't settle sit by him and read a book - it works! He isn't being agressive at all and none of it is actually aimed at you, much as it feels like it! My Twiglet (16 weeks) is TERRIBLE in the evenings. Come 8pm she doesn't know what to do with herself and does all the crazy stuff you describe, and more, she won't leave anyone alone (especially the dogs) but can't play without going too far and hurting us/them. So I put her on an old lead which is nothing like her real lead (she bites it and I don't want her biting her real lead, this one is made of rope and we both treat it like a toy) - then surround her with toys, especially chew toys as she's teething like mad - and keep her in a small circle by me away from everyone. After 10-15 minutes she zonks. But if I give her freedom she will bite everyone and the poor older dogs simply don't know what to do with her when she's in crazy croc mode. If they tell her off she comes back twice as crazy - so telling off doesn't work even in DOG language (and it usually does when she's not in hyper-drive!)
You say you cannot take him out to get tired, but you can carry him to a busy supermarket, a childs' playground, this will tire him. Take him out in the car, park up somewhere, open the back (if he is safely contained) and let him look at the world. Puppies need a lot of sleep, so perhaps he is overtired? Mine had a crate in a quiet place and when he fell asleep I popped him in there so that he could sleep as long as he needed to. It will get worse, usually in the evenings and then at about 6 months it starts to get easier. In the future you will forget all this upset I promise.
Thanks so much for the advice everyone. It's so reassuring to have support and learn from your experiences, as well as just to know it's not just me! Within in an hour of that message I was lying watching a film with a little ball of gorgeousness asleep on me. My other half is around and on hand but he's working shifts and on training himself so the lion's share of the pup watch is with me. Hopefully today I can leave the boys together and have a bit of a nap. He's been better about biting so far today and responds quicker when I say "NO!" - I know we'll make progress. I can deal with him being a bit naughty and energetic and biting, it's just when it crosses into the demon behaviour I lose the plot I think today we need to focus on learning about Time Out and trying to stop him whimpering uncontrollably when I give him 5 minutes in the sin bin (the kitchen). The kitchen door actually has a glass upper half so he can see I haven't abandoned him and the whining obviously relates to his mood at the time as I've left him happily on his own while I've had a shower/got dressed and he's been quiet as a mouse. The whimpering actually I found very cute, he's quite musical but I'm not sure the neighbours will feel the same way....
Dexter had a mega biting episode early this evening, I managed to get myself out of the room and went back in once he seemed calm. Then he started again, biting at the back of my thighs and then my bottom. I couldn't get him off until he nearly got my my jeans off me. When I was sitting on the sofa he kept jumping up and trying to bite me, the sofa and anything else he could get his gnashers on. All because we had blocked another area in the room that he was getting into and don't want him there due to cables so he started biting the furniture and I told him no. I tried offering a toy instead but he takes the toy and then went straight back to the furniture. I now have another holey tshirt. I eventually managed to get him into his crate to calm down. I think he was over tired as we had visitors today and he didn't settle to sleep as much as he would have done otherwise. He really was a monster to me for about an hour and I lost the plot. On the upside, I hoovered the downstairs floors and steamed the lounge and kitchen floors once I got him in his crate. Then took him for a walk up the road. He's now put himself in his crate for a kip. And there's me saying keep calm in my earlier post, at least I didn't get many bite wounds today but will have a few more bruises on my legs. My back curtains are now down as that's a battle I can live without. I do love this pup but boy it's so hard sometimes.
Well at least I don't feel so bad about Ripple now, seems lots of us are going through it. He is 18 weeks and still a real shocker when in hyper mode. My curtains have been tied up in a knot since day one - I just have to keep tieing them higher and higher as he grows. I've lost count of the number of trousers and tops he's put holes in; today I went to the boot fair to stock up on cheap clothes to wear when I'm with him. I've been practising the 'standing like a tree' as he has taken to jumping up and biting my arms when we're out, usually taking me unawares and me ending up in a tussle with him. I'm sure my children weren't this much trouble!
It is good to know we are not alone. I have another hole in my t-shirt and another bruise on my arm. Again when Dexter was tired and I'd just given him a treat for being good but he wanted more. He's now fast asleep in his crate after a run in the park.
You are definitely not alone and I 100% feel your pain. I went through all of this also. While I never considered my pup 95% angel and still don't at almost 8 months old, she is a good pup. I say that now but I was at my wit's end many, many, many times with mine. I shed a lot of tears. Mine had a bit of an aggressive issue which is almost completely gone now. There were a few things that helped me tremendously... besides this site. They are bitter apple spray, clicker training, doggie body language, doggie daycare and crate. The bitter apple spray helped her not to destroy our furniture though she had already done a good job of it by the time I learned about it. It did prevent further damage. Clicker training - the beautiful thing about the clicker is that it is a noise that a dog can always identify with a treat. No inflections of voice for them to decipher. She didn't seem to like to be pet so I used it to help her get used to our touch... and then to "look" at me. What seems to work with my pup best is to wait until she does the behavior, then you treat. So, I had her sit and then I just sat there looking at her eyes waiting for her to make eye contact with me. This is not a normal behavior for a dog but I want her to learn to look to me before she does something... and that she can. So, once her eyes caught mine, I clicked and treated. She liked that. Mine will do anything for a treat... as long as she knows what you want her to do. Force doesn't work for her. Like to push down her behind to make her sit to learn it.. doesn't work on my pup. It works far better to just have the treat.. make sure she knows I have the treat. When she sits, treat. As soon as she does the behavior on her own, and gets a reward, she seems to remember it than if I try to push her into it. The doggie body language I googled and still have it stuck to my refrigerator along with sheet that shows the look of the eyes. Many of the mistakes that we made as a family in training our pup came down to us not understanding her and her not understanding us. So, I printed this out and learned a lot about what my pup was trying to tell us through her body language... mostly that she was anxious, stressed and frustrated. What an eye opener! Since I spent the most time with her, I had a better understanding of her than the rest of the family but it definitely helped me get that point across. We would all look at the sheet to identify what she was trying to tell us. It turns out that there is a reasonably priced doggie daycare just minutes from my house. I started bringing her there on Saturdays at about 4-5 months old. She loved it and was exhausted when she came home. Because she was so tired, she didn't constantly pull on our clothes or us to play. I don't think any of us have a pair of long pants that don't have holes in it from her biting our pants. Better our pants than us but either way, one or both were getting pulled on. It's starting to be cooler weather now and I'm not sure how she will be with the long pants again, but I am ready with treats and the clicker to start that training. I started her off in the crate and she did great in there at first. At some point, she peed in her crate and that was when I realized that there was something more going on. Dogs don't usually go where they sleep. Actually, one time she even started to drink it! I knew something was really wrong and that's when I found the body language thing. So, I moved her to a different space.. in the kitchen and she improved dramatically. She was out of the crate for probably close to three months before she went back in. The interesting thing about it is that I was getting ready to get rid of it because she didn't use it anymore and then when I wasn't home (but my teenage daughter was home), she put a hole in our vinyl floor. The floor is just 2 years old. She put a hole right in the middle of the kitchen. This was the last straw as she already put a hole in our laminate flooring which is also 2 years old and a hole in the wall by our fireplace. The wall is the easiest to repair but the floor! We just put this floor in! I was so upset that when I came home and was so furious, I said nothing to her. I just ignored her. I walked right to the hold and just looked at it and gasped... but never addressed the dog. Then I proceeded to put things back in to the crate. At this point, I had no choice but to use the crate when I'm not home. There are no options. I cannot have her tearing up my house and costing me a fortune. We simply don't have the money to keep making these repairs. Oh, she's also chewed the doorways, the walls, the siding outside, the seats on our office chairs. I never said another word. I just put the stuff in the crate and she went in on her own. I said nothing. I wasn't punishing her. I didn't say anything. Then I started feeding her in the crate.. and when I wanted her to go in there I threw in treats and toys. She goes in the crate no problem now and doesn't seem to have any issue with it. I also thought I'd never get her housetrained. That happened after the floor incident as well. So, remember the deep breaths. They are very important. As everyone here assured me and they were right, it will get better. Lisa
