7 week old puppy with EXTREMELY bad temper... help please!!!

[guster girl]

That sounds great to me, I've just always used different areas for time outs. But, whatever works.

[3CaniBellisimi]

Hello Iownazoo,

Just wanted to let you know that the photo of your yellow lab mix pup is absolutely adorable. He is a very beautiful puppy! Hope you are having luck with some of the suggestions people have given. Please update us with how the pup is doing.

Best regards,
Anna Lisa

[guster girl]

How is this puppy doing? I hope it's getting better.

[delidog]

Any word on how the pup is doing???
I hope that all is progressing well!!!

[iownazoo]

Hello all.

I wanted to thank you all for your many responses and for being very, very helpful. I also wanted to apologize for not writing this sooner. One helpful thing that the local trainer told me is, when he bites, put him on his back, to MAKE him be submissive. Keep him there until he starts giving kisses or calms down. My pup has definitely improved in most things, but we have found out he is food aggressive, but slowly learning not to be. He still gets an attitude, but knows it's wrong. He can't seem to help himself. We've also used the spraying water method when he bites us. Of course, not to hurt him, but he doesn't like it and has made the connection. Overall, has improved so much and I want to thank you all again for your helpful replies. He is enrolled in a puppy class that has not yet started. We love him very much and I can't believe how big he's gotten!

Attached is the lastest picture of him.
He is 3 months old now.

[iownazoo]

Oops!!! It didn't attach, sorry about that. Let me try again.

[guster girl]

He has a very similar body to my Finn! He's much lighter than Finn, but, check out the pics in Dog General, and, you'll see what I mean! I'm glad things are going better with his aggression. And, as far as food goes, I didn't have that much of a problem with Finn before I switched him over to more of a prey model diet (He eats half chickens or leg quarters and things like that). But, I just pet him the whole time he's eating, and, he's calming down. He never bit me because of it, but, he was growling if he thought I was gonna take his bird away. Ha. Thanks for posting the update and the picture! He's beautiful!

[MariaM]

Sounds like its going good. If you have any more problems though, be sure to tell us. I don't agree with the bahaviorist of making it go on his back. It may work, but I think the dog should have the chance to run. They have their three options, flee, freeze, or fight. They should be able to have all 3 options available. Not sure if this is making any sense. Just saying sometimes I don't agree with behaviourists.

[guster girl]

Any updates on how the puppy is doing? I think the idea of putting him on his back is appropriate, considering the point is to let him know that you are the alpha dog, and, that's how a submissive dog would act towards a dominant one....they roll over exposing their bellies. I'd like to see more recent pics, though!

[dragondawg]

I'm going to disagree with just about all suggestions made thus far.

"Time outs" will do nothing. The less interaction puppy has with you, the more fustrated it will become. I currently have two dogs (1 yr, and 8 months). The older one never did take to crates, and went nuts in them. The younger one thought the crate was a neat place to be. Thus the older one would have been tramatized by a "time out" or at the very least too busy crying. The younger one probably would have enjoyed it.

Neither will an abundance of toys over load a puppy. A puppy's attention span is so short that an abundance of toys means most toys will be bypassed. In fact you will find they will pick out 1-2 favorite play toys, and leave the rest more or less alone. The alternative to toys is becoming bored with associated distructive (chewing) behaviors.

A key clue to all of this is that you say the puppy is never aggressive towards your mother. Obviously your mother is the Alpha dog, whereas you in the mind of the puppy are something else. Although another poster suggested tapping on the nose (while presumably using the other hand to grab under the throat), that tends to work best on dogs past 1 yr- and it is an extremely effective alternative to mouthing your dog- yuk. But a puppy tends to be too squirmy to even pay attention. Especially one trying to nip at you.

Since I stated up front I'm not into new age doggy parenting the methodology I will suggest is a little bit more physical.

Case 1: If puppy comes over and starts nipping at you, your response is to whack it on the nose preferably with a paper, with a loud NO! Thou shalt not bite human parts! You can not let it even play nip at you.

Case 2: Puppy growls at you when you go to take something away from it. Whack a folded ( 1 section only) paper on your hand to produce as loud of a crack sound as possible, and a loud NO! The sound is the most important part. It will surprise said puppy to the extent that you should be able to reach down and take away the rawhide bone or whatever it is you wish to remove. If puppy snaps at you, the paper ends up on it's nose, or side (but never hips).

Basically your puppy is trying to wiggle into the Beta position behind your mother as the 2nd puppy in the pack. Don't let it. That's why the modern day time out just won't cut it. It does nothing to establish pack authority.

Each puppy's personality is different and you have to adjust your response to their behavior. My older one (most likely abused in its first 3.5 months of her life) almost has a nervous breakdown when I yell at it. The younger one wags his tail at me when I yell at him (got him at 6 weeks). Obviously I tend to try to be more passive with my correction of the older one. If I remember your original post you have a golden which tends to be a layed back personality, and should be very responsive to correction- once you get past this dominance pack issue.

[Dixie's mom]

hello everyone i am thaving the smae problem with my puppy she just will not listen and she is always hyper i just dont knnow what to do i even get so mad i wanna get rid of her but i know i will not because i love her.

[guster girl]

I didn't use Finn's crate for time outs, but, I've used other rooms where I leave him alone for a minute or so, and, it worked wonders with him. Loud sounds work really well, too, with Finn. I don't know how he'd respond to physical reprimands, because I haven't used them. When he did play bite, I just stop playing with him completely. He doesn't use his mouth on hands at all now. But, i wish we could hear how this dog is doing!

[heinz57_79]

I'll toss in my 2 cents too, since I was dealing with something fairly similar with Arthur (my 10 wk old rotti). He'll still get a little angry if you try to take your ankle out of his mouth, but he now knows that no means no. Establishing the Alpha is a big thing. Arthur knows *I* am the boss, not him. Now, if he starts getting too "chewy" or "growly" I pick him up, pin him down and get in his face. Sounds a little strange, I know, but it works. I did it with Chloe, when I realised when I got her she was a little dog aggressive. I rolled her once, and she never did it again. Another good anti-chew deterrent is Bitter Apple. I used it with Charlie when I first got him. Chewing on your hand? Spray your hand with bitter apple. Chewing on your ankles? Spray your ankles with bitter apple. Eventually he should learn to associate chewing on people with a horrible disgusting taste in his mouth.

Just a couple of ideas in the short term. I've had to use a behavioralist a couple times, and if you find a certified one they can really help! Good luck and welcome to PT! Keep us updated!

[iownazoo]

I have attached the most recent picture of him.

Heinz, what you do with Arthur also works really well for me.

Thanks everyone for everything !

[heinz57_79]

I'm so glad things are working out. Puppies can be a handful, so much so that a lot of people just give up on them. I'm glad you asked for advice and actually worked with the pup. You're a good furmom!

Keep us updated!