Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? Hi Amber is 12 weeks old today and the biting is showing signs of improving or we are getting better at avoiding the jaws. She is quite careful on bare flesh now except during the early evening when she is tired.T he weak point is her trying to take a chuck out of us through clothing. We also start puppy classes this week!!! Paula
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? So glad to hear both Minnie and Amber are improving regarding the biting!
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? YAY! Zac too!! 14 weeks today and his biting has calmed some. Except for a few rogue nips, he is leaving less wounds in his wake! His weakness are naked toes.... but it's ok - it's cold here so that is not a common occurrence. And he is getting much gentler when he does nip. However - he has taken to biting other objects and NOT LETTING GO! At a loss of how to get things out of his mouth sometimes. He has jaws like a steel trap! So far - we started working on "drop it" when playing fetch in hopes of that command carrying over. nothing yet, but it has only been a few days. Oh - and humping. That's new... our legs, pillows, blankets, towels..... Not a clue what to do with that!!!!
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? We use the leave it command pretty successfully to get Bella to let go of things....it's not a sure bet quite yet, but it is something we're working on. We also routinely do a mouth inspection with her, so she is used to us opening her mouth and fishing out things - cardboard, rocks, etc. It was a bit harder to get a rib bone away from her, but she did ultimately give it to us, and we praised her greatly. We opted not to "swap" it this time, since there really wasn't anything better in her eyes available, so we just launched her into a game of fetch with one of her squeak toys.
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? Hello everyone, it is nice to know others are having the same issues as we are. Finley is 19 weeks and has gone through everything from biting to humping. His biting is getting better although he is losing his baby teeth so he does like to chew on our arms He just needs to loose the eye teeth and I think we will be in the clear. He has been a little life saver for me, we lost Jack our yellow lab in September and got Finn in October. Even though as a puppy he has been a lot of work, he has definitely made our loss a lot easier. He snuggles to sleep with us every night since the first night we brought him home at 8 weeks and sleeps right between my husband and I. Take care!
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? So sorry that you lost your doggie Jack, it is terribly hard.... Puppy cuddles definitely help. As does the massive distraction of a little bundle of furry mischief! Welcome to the forum
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? Sorry for your loss Finn.. I am amazed at the amount of joy these little beasts, I mean puppies, bring to our lives. Any tips on the leave it/drop command training? Do you have to constantly have treats with you?
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? ALWAYS have treats with me, even now with a well-behaved adult dog, but definitely with a puppy! One of my neighbours has a lovely, but slightly willful, black labrador, who always ignored her owner's recall. She comes back to my whistle though... because she is very greedy, and she knows she will get a treat : My neighbour kind of said this was cheating, and that I was bribing the dogs to come back. We had the conversation about positive training, and making recall a pleasant experience for the dog. I notice she now carries a little bag of doggy treats with her, and the dog's recall is unsurprisingly much improved!
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? Not cheating at all! Time to stock up on treat bits! 8)
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? No no no no no no no no no! Not bribing or cheating! Our trainer calls treats 'information' as they let the dog know when they have got it right.
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? Quite frankly, if all I had to do was carry a bag of treats to have a reliable recall against the distractions of Wimbledon Common I wouldn't care if it were cheating! ;D ;D ;D
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? my lab is six and a half months old now and her biting is getting a little out of hand. She's got all of her adult teeth and is gentle at taking treats and will gently mouth now and again but more often than not she will bite me HARD. She doesn't really care where to bite me either. She likes to bite my feet, arms, legs and when she can reach she'll also go for my stomach. When she gets excited her default is also to bite and she when she's on a walk she will take a full run up and then jump up biting full force. She has adult teeth now and a strong bite and I've got bruises. A lot of the time she does it because she's excited and other times she will do it just for attention. Other than her biting she's a lovely dog. She has cuddles and plays mostly nice and she's responding well to training and learning how to walk on a leash but the biting is just dampening down what a lovely dog she is. She's not afraid, the biting is purely at me to wind me up. She bites no other people in the house and she doesn't even really get a reaction from me. I've tried ignoring her (very hard when those teeth are digging into sensitive areas!) and I've left the room, turned my back on her, rewarded her every time she approached me nicely and even put her in her crate for time out but she comes straight back and continues where she left off. She's really pushing me and I'm starting to wonder if it'll get better at all.
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? Thanks for all the stories everyone, makes me realise how lucky we are with Welly (short for Llewellyn)! He's now coming up to 7 months old and the biting has stopped completely, as I believe his habit of eating fox poo (well mostly!) still 'helps' me with the gardening though and sometimes does some on his own! Last weekend he managed to steal the roast chicken carcass I'd left on the side in the kitchen, now that he is bigger he can reach the work surfaces! bless him though it was no problem getting it off him ...he's such a lovely boy, but my older dogs (14 and 15 respectively when we lost them) never jumped up at the work surfaces, although my parents dallies used to, and of course when Welly was smaller he never even tried. Guess we will have to continue to make sure he does self reward if I'm to stand any chance of kicking this habit! However one of the things I could really do with some help on is car chasing! Welly has never been allowed to chase a car or managed to do this, he's fine with stationery cars and sometimes when on the lead he pays them no attention, but if he's very excited he sometimes lunges at them as they drive past...particularly vans, pick ups, and leather worryingly larger vehicles! Sometimes when we are out walking I can see him looking at vehicles on the road miles away!!!!! So far I have tried to distract him with sit/C&T for ignoring them, when he has lunged I've tried to reprimand him with sharp tug on lead/NO etc but not sure this behaviour is getting any better. Anyone got any thoughts on what else I should do? Am I doing the right things? How long does it take for behaviours to become extinct? It's not getting any better nor worse, feels at same level of occurrence/intensity it always has...but with other 'little' puppy behaviours dying out this one remains and is obviously one I'm most worried about We don't come across too many cars so I did think about sitting next to a busy road for a few mins every day to really try and reinforce things. If anyone has any thoughts or experience I'd love to hear them Thanks
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? [quote author=LisaB link=topic=1722.msg136041#msg136041 date=1420876063] We don't come across too many cars so I did think about sitting next to a busy road for a few mins every day to really try and reinforce things. [/quote] That sounds like a great idea. Every time he looks at a car, click and treat him. Over time, lengthen the time he has to look at the car before he gets the C&T. I'm using this same tactic with Willow who sometimes lunges and barks at people wearing hoods or hats (of which there are plenty in a ski resort!). It's working really well to date.
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? [quote author=LisaB link=topic=1722.msg136041#msg136041 date=1420876063] However one of the things I could really do with some help on is car chasing! Welly has never been allowed to chase a car or managed to do this, he's fine with stationery cars and sometimes when on the lead he pays them no attention, but if he's very excited he sometimes lunges at them as they drive past...particularly vans, pick ups, and leather worryingly larger vehicles! Sometimes when we are out walking I can see him looking at vehicles on the road miles away!!!!! So far I have tried to distract him with sit/C&T for ignoring them, when he has lunged I've tried to reprimand him with sharp tug on lead/NO etc but not sure this behaviour is getting any better. [/quote] I'd stop reprimanding him, and stop tugging on his lead. This might be making things worse. Does he chase anything else or don't you know? Does he get off lead time, and if so, does he chase? If so, what? If he doesn't get off lead time, does he show the same behaviour on lead to other things that move?
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? Thanks all. Yes he's gets quite a lot of off lead time. So far not chased anything apart from the odd dog when we meet them. I have even managed to recall him from pheasants, but he seems to want to 'attack' anything with wheels. Perhaps it's. It about the chasing but about attacking. May be he's scared? For example he 'attacks' the wheelbarrow if we wheel it across the garden, he frequently 'attacks' the Hoover if turned on and I'm using it. He doesn't seem scared far from it ..he's a really confident little chap. Today whilst out walking (practising our recall away from other dogs!) there was a tractor ...I saw it coming so put him on the lead...but despite the best chicken pieces I had with me, I couldn't distract him, tried anything I could...he still made a mad lunge for it. I stood on his foot by accident and he yelped but I'm not sure even this put him off as he stared at the darn thing for ages till it disappeared over the hill I also have to watch him with joggers, prams, bicycles...he once chased a jogger but got stood on...I was so worried about him as I thought he might have hurt himself, but he bounced back and I was hoping this would have put him off but I think not. Since then I've been really careful to stop him doing this again by putting him on the lead/heading off in another direction to avoid the situation but may be the lead is actually making it worse...??? I thought perhaps if I took him to the road and kept C&T for when he is looking at me/sitting calmly (assuming I can get him to do this, which I can sometimes) perhaps I could bore him out of it? What do you think? All suggestions gratefully received
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? going to the road is probably a good idea....and working on a look at me - focus on me kind of command will probably help too. If he is being reactive to even small wheeled objects, you can probably start in the garden with a helper. Get him to ignore everything else except for YOU.... Working on a good heel would probably help too, so you can keep him in that kind of a position. Essentially, it's back to the basics I think. :-\
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? Thanks. I think seeing all the responses has helped me reflect on where this behaviour might be coming from and I'm thinking that I need to stop him reacting to the wheelbarrow and other 'moving' things as much as cars . Today we sat at the side of the road for a few mins whilst cars went past and he did quite well, only lunging once but I will also need to make sure we practice walking past cars as well as sitting...otherwise he might think I'm rewarding him for sitting or he might sit every time he sees a car
Re: Puppy problems - will things EVER improve??? Hello everyone! My fiance and I just brought home an 8 week old lab mix puppy about a week and a half ago, he very much has the lab personality. His name is Diesel due to his tan and black markings, he looks like he rolled around in the stuff. We already have a year old yellow lab. He's still very much a puppy but is much more settled down than when we got him. His name is Bear, he was the largest of his litter. Bear seems to do really well with Diesel, and Diesel was very timid at first but has really warmed up to Bear now. Bear seems to just be old enough to understand Diesel is a baby but still young enough to keep up with that puppy stamina haha. But for whatever reason Diesel insists on yapping and growling and barking as loud as possible every time he and Bear get excited. Is this just a puppy trait or will it be something that continues? At first I thought it was because Diesel didn't want to play anymore but now when he gets too tired to play he just goes to his crate and lays down.
