Hello iownazoo,
Sorry this is long, here are some suggestions and I hope that they help out. I hope other members will offer some tips to you.
Too much of a good thing:
Could part of this issue be constant access to too many toys leading to overstimulation and subsequent desensitization? I remember having read in a dog training book that if a dog has access to dozens of toys all at once, that the dog will devalue and not appreciate them since he can 'have at it' with any quantity of them whenever he desires.
As a result, you are giving too much power to the pup and are lessening your effectiveness as leader by providing too many choices to the 'baby'/puppy. Its kind of like handing a 2 year old child a menu at a restaurant with 40 choices which is too much for a kid to handle. You know how a parent will say to a toddler: "Ok, do you want Cherios, or Life Cereal for breakfast?" (Not, here's the room service a la carte menu for a huge restaurant and you decide from 40 choices including creme brule, crepes suzette, and pancakes too!).
Perhaps if you pick up and completely put away 35 of the 40 toys (especially the ones that encourage the growling/distressing unwanted behavior such as the squirel noise toy because that one is triggering an undesirable response in your pup) and only leave out 4-5 toys. The growling is something you want to discourage so if you know a toy will make him react like this, get the toy out of his environment and never torment or tease him with it because then you are positively encouraging and reinforcing that the growling and agreesion behavior is ok. This is behavior that you don't want to provoke and you don't want to encourage it or make it easy for him.
Has anyone in your household been playing "tug of war" games with this pup? Since you already see aggression in this pup, never play tug of war with him and do not let any children or spouses play tug of war or wrestling with the pup. Such games reinforce aggression and these games will absolutely worsen the situation. Definitely do not let anyone (relatives, friends, neighbors, etc.) engage in tug of war games with this pup.
If you limit access to toys and there are only a few available, then, if he has something in his mouth that shouldn't be there [such as shoes, or a small piece of something, an electrical cord, or anything dangerous] you can TRADE with him by offering him a Kong toy filled with something completely desirable. Fill the kong with such tempting things as soft cheese or natural peanut butter (avoid brands like Jif, skippy, Peter Pan etc. with tons of sodium and preservative and use that natural kind that you have to stir and keep in the fridge because it only has ground peanuts as the ingredient and is better for the dog than those ones mentioned previously). Anyway, if you have a much more tempting treat to trade, the pup might just drop the undesirable object and when he does drop it, at that exact moment give the command "drop it" and offer up the trade toy. This is so he learns that you are not a "taker" or thief of his toys but a "giver" or "sharer" with this exchange idea. You want the dog's trust and you won't get it by yanking something that he feels is desirable enough for him to growl over it unless you replace it with something that he finds even better than what he gave up. Don't be a taker; be a trader/sharer and the dog will be more trusting.
If I were you, I'd take away all of the RAWHIDE for now and hide it somewhere so that the dog can't get to it because it is also encouraging the possessive/aggressive behavior. Rawhide often contains proplene gylcol which is a sweet substance that is the non toxic but quite similar to the toxic ingredient in antifreeze. The rawhide with its p.g. ingredient is encouraging your dog to seek super sweet stuff and making him a 'sugar fiend'. It doesn't help him to be hyped up on a sweet and seemingly addictive substance. And, it also teaches the dog the scent and smell of something that could kill him such that if he ever came upon some antifreeze in the driveway, that he should lap it up because the sweet taste reminds him of rawhide. Therefore, if it was me, I'd make sure that NO Rawhide is available to your any of your dogs. If rawhide isn't an option, then you aren't placed in the position of having to wrench a too small rawhide piece from his mouth. When he is older and has gotten the hang of 'drop it' and learns that you will 'trade' exchange a better toy once he drops the undesirable thing he has in his mouth, then maybe at that point you can reintroduce rawhide to your household pets.
Puppies don't realize their sharp teeth is hurting you when they decide to bite you. Pups play by biting each other and their birth mother dog. Since he was taken away from the mom at such a young age (which was a necessity if she was killing the pups), then he didn't learn from the mother that he would get nipped in the nose by Mom Dog if he dared to bite her too hard. However, since this pup was deprived of his mom teaching him that if he bites too hard, she'd bite him back and he'd learn not to do that type of behavior. Since the pup was deprived of this experience, maybe a gentle tap on the nose with a flick of the finger might be required? Kind of like if you were the mom dog and nipped him on the nose but instead you used your finger tip instead? What do other board members think?
Please note, I'm not encouraging violence towards the pup and I have never struck any of my dogs at any time and I didn't train them with choke collars of violence. Please note that I'm not talking about whacking him on the nose or hurting him in any way or traumatizing him. What I'm describing is being gentle but firm, while using one finger only to tap the pup on the nose at the momen he is biting you while giving a firm, sharp verbal "No Bite!" to get the pup's attention. And he may be too young to be getting "NO". But still use "no" because the sooner he starts learning that or "UH-UH" the better. You can't do it in anger, it needs to be done with you as a leader and teacher guiding him to the right behavior.
Say he bites your hand, once your hand is out of his mouth, give him a desirable toy and put that in his mouth and teach him that biting the toy is what will get him a toy and praise. And that biting the toy is more fun and enjoyable than biting you.
Since there are tons of opinions and training techniques to discourage biting in pups, you could go to your local library and check out the many pup training books and try out all of the many techniques they suggest to discourage this extremely undesirable behavior.
When my dog Elsa was little, she would get too excited and bite me not realizing that those sharp little puppy teeth hurt. "No" wasn't registering with her as a 8 week old. But if I made a whimpering sound like an injured pup and said "ouch it hurts" "no bite", she'd immediately stop and start licking where she just bit me. I was trying to convey that what she was doing hurt me and soon she learned that all play stops if she bites me.
Perhaps some of the other DOTD members have some suggestions as to getting the pup to learn not to bite will share their ideas with you. You are absolutely correct in that you need to nip this aggression/biting/growling behavior in the bud RIGHT NOW because if not, the pup will grow into an impolite and biting household member. And if the dog grows and learns that biting is ok, then you could have a tragedy down the road, not to mention a possible lawsuit or having to euthanize the dog if he bites a child or neighbor later on down the road. So you are right, he needs to be taught how to be a polite and reasonable member of the family. You need to be the leader and teach this pup how to be polite through training and teaching.
I personally haven't had a pup showing as much puppy assertivenessas as your pup; so perhaps other members of the board can give you better advice on how to stop the biting behavior.
You can also look up articles on the web by doing searches such as :Canine aggression, Puppy Teething, Puppy Biting, Dog Bites.
Of course, puppy kindergarten, obedience training, and socialization of your pup are a must.
Good Luck and I hope I helped some.
Best regards,
Anna Lisa & her 3 dogs
Attached is a St. Patrick's day photo of my Alpha Dog Elsa:
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