Hi this is my first post. We have a gorgeous fox red male pup 17 weeks old. He is brilliant in every way exept this. He was crate and house trained by 12 weeks, when out he will stay by us and has good recall. He has learnt to sit, lie down,paw ,high five ,stay ,wait heel when walking. He seems to learn everything really quickly and he sleeps all night. He shows restraint around food too. But and its a big BUT when the children move him in or out of crate or pick him up to move him he aggressively snaps and bites unpredictably and last night i moved him out of the kitchen (his collar was off but he still does this when you use his collar) he bit me in the face causing my lip to bleed. He has caused injury to them too. I have trained him so well and monitored the kids around him totally. He is brilliant with other dogs. Sometimes he must get overwhelmed with three playing with him but i try and centre it around training or appropriate play and he seems to love the interaction. He does attack them play biting when they are trying to watch something which can be hard to manage but getting better. I have a lot of children in and out if our house so feel desperate to stop this before it escalates. Its shocking when it happens. We also live next door to a park and he eats his faeces so not hygienic at all!.
Hell, they are really bitey at this age. It’s not aggression it’s just developmental until their teeth settle. I didn’t let my children near Meg at this age...as you say it’s too unpredictable and will hurt. It’s not worth it. We didn’t pick her up much either....I think holding a wiggly puppy is a recipe for trouble. I called Meg if I needed her somewhere else..treated with kibble. It all helped her recall too. Meg has a fabulous relationship with my kids, keeping them apart in the early stages didn’t not impact on their future closesness at all.
Just call him out of his crate with treats no need to pick him up. My rescue spaniel would snarl and snap if picked up. Maybe someone hurt the pup once when being picked up and this could be why he is snapping. If I want my puppy out of her basket I call her with treats she does not like being man handled.
