Hello, I’m sad to be making this post but I’m not sure how to address the issue. My 14 week old puppy who we’ve had for about 6 weeks now, has for about 4 or so of those weeks been being very bitey with me. I’m with him most of day, he doesn’t do it with my partner who isn’t here during the day. It tends to happen when he’s over excited, though nothing in particular is done to encourage the over excitement. This to me is different to puppy play biting which he also does as expected. He will start pulling really hard at my trousers or top and when I manage to get him to release them he’ll lunge back and do it again, all the while growling and sometimes barking. I don’t feel like he’s scared or trying to actually be aggressive, but it’s a very aggressive behaviour and if he didn’t it to anyone else like a guest I would be horrified. I’ve tried various approaches to dealing with it, such as shoving a toy in his mouth to chew, walking away but this is difficult as he is continually snapping at my legs and pulling my clothes as I try to walk and it really hurts, saying ‘no’ loudly, giving him a tap on the nose, sitting on the ground and being quiet and gentle and trying to calm him down which often results in him running behind me and pulling at my clothes from behind and/or biting my back. If we are indoors I’ve put him into his pen and give him down time but this isn’t always practical, and now that’s he’s around 10kg I can’t be picking him up all the time either to put him in there. He’s drawn blood on a few occasions, it’s hard not to feel a bit mad when it’s really sore, but I don’t want to lose my temper either. I’m also fed up of all my jeans and tops getting holes in them. He is having one good walk every day now and gets outside on multiple occasions in addition to this for a run around, so I don’t think it’s boredom or lack of exercise. Is this really typical puppy playful biting? It feels like more to me and have had a lab in the past who didn’t do anything like this.
This is very common, please don't worry about it. Many puppies go through episodes - usually in the evening, for some reason - of hyper-behaviour. For some puppies this manifests as zooming around in circles with their tails tucked under, leaping on and off furniture. For other puppies, it results in hyper-bitey behaviour. Either way, it is over-arousal. When your puppy is in this state they really are unable to hear you or respond to you - they are way away with the fairies for a few minutes. So giving them obedience cues (sit etc) is not going to work, because their brain can't process those cues in that state. Please don't do this, you will only either stir him up more because he will think you are barking back at him and playing with him in return - or you will damage your relationship with your puppy through coming across as punitive and scary. Instead, recognise that he can't control himself in these states. This is a good one if he isn't yet too worked up. Better than a toy, though, is a very large cushion or bunched up vet bed, or an extremely large soft child's toy. You want something as big as he is. This isn't likely to calm him down, but it will give him a more suitable outlet for the behaviour than your own body and oftentimes the mood passes. Walking away isn't really going to achieve much. With your legs and clothes, you can do a great deal to help by wearing non-flowing clothes with a puppy. That means no baggy trousers/pants, no skirts, no exposed legs (bare skin) - the safest and best material, is denim. It doesn't flap around temptingly for the puppy and it offers you some protection when he does bite your legs. He will grow out of this behaviour, but you do need to weather it until then and it can be very obnoxious. So the denim is just going to help you get through it... BUT - if you also don't want your jeans to get holes in, see below about the puppy house line... Yes, when a pup is in this mood, they will continue to try to play with you - they want you to play back. So what to do?? This is totally the right thing to do. Sorry if 10kg is too heavy, but you just gotta do it for a while longer. Better though, rather than putting him in a pen which involves picking him up is: Have him trail a puppy house-line - this is a 2.5m tag line which is light weight and has no handle on the end. The puppy wears it all the time around the house (take it off when unsupervised). You can buy them from Amazon and they are made by Clix. (In the UK at least, no idea if they are available in the US.) When you need to get hold of the pup, just grab the line instead of the pup. You can then lead him towards his crate (not pen) and ask him to 'crate up' or whatever cue you want to use and put him in the crate with a Kong. It involves zero picking up of heavy puppies. If the pup goes to bite your ankles and you don't want your jeans getting ruined, you just grab the tag line and restrain him so he can't reach your jeans - whilst leading him towards the crate - and then getting a Kong out the freezer to add to the crate. You absolutely need a crate and not just a pen, and it's important to introduce it in the right way so your puppy loves it. There are loads of good crate training guides online This is totally normal puppy behaviour and it will get a lot better when he gets his adult teeth. The good news for you, is this will be very soon as it starts to happen around 16 weeks. Then, even if he bites you with the same force it just won't hurt or damage clothes - because his adult teeth will be much blunter than his little puppy needle teeth.... Hope that helps
Thank you for the very helpful advice. Just to clarify - when I said tap I really did mean tap, more to distract him for a second in the hope he'd let go of my clothes at least, I don't mean hitting him. This behaviour actually happens more frequently in the garden, maybe since he's buzzed up and running around a bit more. It just makes it a bit more difficult to get him to his crate but I guess the line can help with that. He does have a crate too, its just inside a larger area which we can close off. I'm a bit confused about giving him a kong (or similar treat) in this scenario - he really loves kongs and of course treats being a greedy labrador puppy but won't this potentially mean he associates this behaviour with getting a treat? Thanks again
Oh yes I remember this stage well - sometimes this happened with Nibbler when he was overtired and putting him to bed he would be zonked within seconds . I had a bed outside our bedroom for him and would escape from him and close the door - I could calm down and catch up on sleep and he would immediately settle down in his bed ( they seem programmed to follow you at that age.) We didn’t want to use a crate but had a gate over the kitchen which we had to use at times and st do at night. This kept me sane. It will pass and you will have a brilliant dog eventually. Good luck.
It seems that you can almost predict or anticipate when the puppy is going to go into this frenzy because you've been observing it....observing and anticipating are two valuable tools in surviving the puppy weeks (and months). The trick then is to use what you have observed and anticipate the behavior by giving him a frozen Kong in his crate before the times that he is typically going to enter the frenzies. And I wouldn't worry about the Kong being interpreted by him as a "reward" for his frenzies, it is a substitute for them. His focus will be on the treat he is working (and tiring himself on while working) to free from the frozen Kong that feels really, really good because his mouth is hurting because he is teething. The Kong is similar to the teething ring we give our babies to soothe their pain and stop them from crying....your puppy get frenzied rather than crying and gets a frozen Kong rather than a teething ring. Hang in there, it does get better.
No, because you can't reinforce an emotion (only a behaviour) and the situations you are describing are driven by emotion - of hyper activity and over-excitement. Or (with the Kong) of calm eating and self-soothing. You are teaching the puppy to learn to move between high arousal and being calm. When done over and over, they will be able to calm themselves effectively because they are used to moving between these two emotional states. You are not using operant conditioning (behaviours have consequences/4 quadrants of learning theory).... you are changing the emotional state of the puppy.
