Please help! Over the summer we lost our beloved 10 yr old chocolate lab, Bella. Her loss left such a hole in our hearts and our lives that, even though I initially thought I wanted to wait awhile, I was finally persuaded to get another female chocolate lab puppy. Her name is Molly. She is 11 weeks old and we've had her for 11 days, and things are not going as well as I'd hoped. When we got Bella we didn't have a clue what we were doing, but we managed to housebreak her, teach her to have a soft mouth and not chew on things, and she was very obedient. I don't remember training her being a big deal, in spite of our inexperience. The only thing she was never good at was walking on a leash - she was a terrible puller. But she was sweet and gentle, and we always said of her that everybody was her new best friend. We could trust her with anybody - our new grandbaby, or my 90 year old mother. So in preparation for this new puppy I watched tons of training videos and had all kinds of plans for overcoming the couple of things that we never got right with Bella - leash training and being polite when meeting new people (she was jumpy, especially when she was younger). I started working with Molly right away, taking her on walks, try to teach her to have a soft mouth. I was treating her with 1/3 of her daily rations each day - working with her as much as I could. She learned to sit, she's pretty much housebroken, and she sleeps 8 hrs a night in her crate next to our bed. The first few days things seemed to be going well - she chews things and was a bit nippy, but we expected that. But as the days have gone by and she's gotten used to us, she's become more "assertive". She's not just nippy with our granddaughter now - she actually jumps up and deliberately bites her, and she's started leaping and lunging at us. She doesn't want to go for walks. She chews the furniture no matter what I do to try to discourage it. I try to ignore the bad behaviour, or put her in time out - but now even when I try to reward her with pieces of kibble for doing something good, she lunges at the treat and bites me in the process. When I scold her, she barks and growls at me - right to my face. Fortunately she can't jump up on the furniture yet, but I'm scared that by next week she will be able to and there will be no way to keep her from biting us - especially our granddaughter. I've been trying really hard to divert her attention, and to not "reward" the bad behaviour by reacting. I've given her time outs in her crate. It just seems that nothing I'm doing to try to teach her even the most basic manners is working. I'm beginning to worry I've ruined her already, and that scares me. I don't want a dog who lunges and bites and barks and has to be confined to her crate. I want a dog we can take anywhere, who will behave in every situation and love everybody. I want to take her to puppy classes but they don't start again until after the first of the year, and I'm worried that's too long to wait. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. If anybody has some suggestions, I'd be most grateful.
I am so sorry to hear of your beloved Bella. Please don't think you are doing anything wrong, she is adapting. When Molly first came into your home she would have been tentative as it was all new for her and now she is settling in and knowing who her humans are. Our pup Luna was exactly the same with me when we first got her. We used time outs but these were no use, she just got distressed and was more wound up when she came out. When she starts mis-behaving try to go straight into training mode, sit/paw and use treats to reward the good behaviour. It could be that she needs stimulation be it play time or mentally. Also pups just want your attention 24/7 if they could get it! We never went to puppy classes and have been able to do all the training at home. Are you at home during the day? Is so it might be worth trying to do 2-3 15 minute blocks of training a day, its great to help them learn and also to keep them engaged. While Molly is young you might want to look into a house line so that when your granddaughter is there so that you can restrict Molly and allow your granddaughter to 'get away' if she needs to. Stair gates are also good to help with this. The first two months of having Luna I was covered in bruises, now I have a couple but they are from when she tries to cuddle and stands on my legs - 21kg isn't light! Good luck and hang in there!
its So difficult to deal with isn’t it. My pup was often having fun biting , though it didn’t look like it sometimes . Plus it was far worse when she became over excited, which was a quite easy for her. I’m thinking that ‘scolding’ may actually be rewarding to her . Ignoring means totally blanking, which can be difficult as it’s hurts I know. We also kept her apart from children in the family for a while as she was OTT with them. House line as suggested may help with you grand daughter as you can control your dog Hope it improves over time for you.
Hi there, it's a terrible shock to go from a lovely calm old lab to a crazy puppy isn't it . It doesn't make it any easier right now, but your puppy sounds pretty normal. I have five grandchildren and my puppy is only allowed access to them under very strictly controlled circumstances. The suggestions for house line and gates are really important. You also need a plan for what you want the puppy to do while she is with your granddaughter. I suggest you work on the puppy keeping all paws on the ground as a start, and a have bag of food ready before you let her into the same space as your granddaughter. Then get another adult to focus on the little girl while you focus on feeding the puppy a stream of treats (literally one per second to begin with) Concentrate on feeding her while all four paws are on the ground. You can even use a clicker to mark this for her. Make being around small children all about getting reinforcement from you. In general, the escalating jumping and biting sounds as though the puppy is getting very over excited and you'll find lots of information on this very common situation in this thread. https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/biting-puppies-help-for-new-puppy-parents.24782/. Hang on in there, puppies this age are very hard work and it does get better!
