Help me with my aggressive puppy

Becoming the ‘alpha dog’ works only with OLDER dogs. Your puppy is still a ‘baby’ and needs to be treated like a ‘baby’ … pay her LOTS of attention when she is being nice, and IGNORE HER (and have a ‘safe place’ to put her where she can ‘see you’ but can’t get out to ‘reach you’ or have access to her ‘toys’) when she’s wanting to be aggressive and bite. THAT will teach her very quickly that a ‘nice’ dog gets lots of attention, while a dog who does ‘bad things’ gets IGNORED.

sounds like she might have rage syndrome. i saw it in a young spainel just recently. owners had to put there oup to sleep because he had bitten a boy on the face.. go talk to your vet about it. it is not normal.

I find when I had my puppy, if she bit me, I made a loud squeal type of noise, and she’d let go. That’s what dogs do with each other when they play, you’ll notice them squeal if they get hurt. Also try a loud noise such as a stamp on the floor, or a clap of the hands, and a much more raised voice.

What type of dog is it?

Good luck.

you will think it is animal abuse, but smack her around a little bit. she will quit, especially if she is ignoring her toys to bite you. when you see her coming, knock some sense into her. It would be bad for someone to have to take you to court for a biting later on. I am not telling you to abuse the animal because if she is not doing anything wrong, then you can be affectinate with her, and pet her, play with her whatever, but when she bites that is it. Too bad Ceasar Milan isn’t on Y!A. Though he doesn’t believe in that form of punishment. He asserts dominance by his presence, not force.

another thing, when she bites you, let her do it, and grab and hold on to her mouth (with your hand inside of it) she will start trying to get away, but you will have control of the situation, don’t let go until you are prepared to let go. You be the boss.

Good luck.

this don’t sound good. if she does not out grow this you will have to have her put down. you have to consider her blood line. talk to a vet. you could also try raising your voice to her and being firm. use a news paper to swat her with. dogs do not like the sound of paper when you swat them. you have to get control of her. make her think you will kick her **** if she does not listen. i have a German Shepard who was like that. and she knows when she hears me telling her to stop she stops. i can make a sound when she is trying to mess with the cat and she stops in her tracks. good luck to you.

matt c has said what i wanted to say with out sounding cruel. slap her around and she will learn. **** do not hurt her when you discipline her. as you slap her make sure you tell her what she is doing is wrong. like bad dog, your not suppose to bit or what ever it is she’s doing.

you really need to get yourself a training/chocker chain. training a puppy takes constant work. yes, you can put her in the dominant position, but you have to stick with it even after you let go and she still bites. use a stern voice. never use treats, ( some say you should ) for good behavior. your dog will depend on treats just to mind. i got my puppy to the point where all she has to see the training/chocker chain and she stops her bad behavior. once your puppy knows your the dominant one, she’ll stop the aggressive behavior towards you.

A two month old puppy is still very very young. Usually, it is in the dogs intellect to chew or play bite while they are young. This helps their teeth grow strong. Give her bones to chew instead of toys. Maybe she has that thing called I dunno, distemper? Have the vet take a look at her. She might need vaccines and stuff.

This sounds terrible and im not an animal abusser but i have a two year old shizu who had the same problem and i found rolling up a piece of newspaper and just smacking the puppys nose an saying NO loudly works.. the main point is consintency.

I suggest you go to your nearest dog obedience club for advice and assistance
Talk of having dog put down is very premature and a bit of ill informed scaremongering
If you have ever seen a 2 yr old child having a temper tantrum you will see similarities and we dont have our kids put down
Dont Give Up on Your Dog

please dont worry too much about this stage. i went through excactly the same stage with my husky, it was almost like she hated us one minute then loved us the next. you must show her you are the boss and you can play but only with toys, if she is biting you or chewing on you replace your hand or arm with a toy that she can relieve her teething on. she is not only teething, shehe is also trying to establish her place within the family. heres what we did… and after what seemed like a while she is a lovely sweet dog at 6 months now and everything we wanted, please give her/him a chance its down to you now as you are the teacher and she will learn everything from you.

first when she would bite us or chew on us we would show her that she was only allowed to chew toys, if she tried to chew us instead of the toy we used a specific word like NO!! or AH AH loud enough to startel her, and then we ignored her

if she carry’s on running up and trying to do it again, we held her down firmly but without hurting her, she makes a huge fuss at this and you feel really mean but she will eventually give in with each day she will struggle for less and less time. you must hold her untill she will not get up unless you say its ok to get up.

eventually she will learn that she can only bite or chew toys and not you, when she no longer needs to be held down you can always just turn your back and leave the room you are playing under your rules ot not at all.

the other small thing you can do is nip her on the ear, koda used to get hold of some chicken she was not allowed and i would go to get it from her and she would do the same. run away and growl, so at first when i finally got to her i would try and prise it from her jaws but this may end up with a dog that really snaps at you every time you come near.

dogs have stances within a pack or family, if you are above your dog you need to show her in a way she under stands, in the wild another higher ranking dog would not use there paw to take the food from the mouth of another they would bite on the ear. i did this with koda i held her and grabbed her ear with my teeth, and bite down gently at first then if she diddnt get the message a little harder and put a little more pressure on until she didnt want me hanging of her ear any more! she let go of the food and submitted to me a couple of times, now when i say drop it she knows i mean it and she does.

i was so scared that she wouldnt pull through and thought i would have to have her adopted untill i put my foot down and really had a go. now she is great i cant remember when she stopped being such a hand full and turned in to a beautiful best friend.

you can check her out on YOUTUBE my name is lilhuskyluv and hers is koda you can see there how relaxed she is now. and if you need any more help you can write to me through that. i hope you do maybe i could see your dog too. x

I think you have to punish your dog. Not beating of course. But show that it’s not good. Puppies understand people intonations, say something with proper intonation, you can just say NO in a strict voice. Then turn dog’s attention to another thing, draw away it from doing smth. nasty.

I had the exact same problem with my dog but we tried different methods the one I found more effective, is when the puppy is doing something wrong is ignore, for example if he is trying to gnaw or bite your hand make your hand floppy and “dead” and don’t say anything to the puppy as you are saying his/her behavior is unacceptable and your dog will soon get feed up …………..so do not interact with your dog if being naughty but reward good behavior and it will soon learn.

She sounds like she really wants to be the dominant one. I think she is a bit young to act this way. And from what you described, you may have a serious problem when she gets older. Puppies at 2 months old usually do not display this behavior. And if they do you can usually correct them easily because they are puppies. But this does not seem like the case for you.
I would suggest contacting a trainer/behaviorist as soon as possible. Also talk to you vet for suggestions too and to rule out any medical problems.
You can also try the time out, although if putting her in a dominant position isn’t working, time out may not work either. Try getting a water bottle, fill it with water and vinegar. Everytime she does something you don’t want her to spray her along with the firm NO.
You definitely need to find something that will change this behavior. Especially if she has drawn blood. As she gets older her bites will become worse if you don’t stop her now.

For God’s sake! She is only two months old! She is NOT aggressive!!! She is a PUPPY! She is doing what puppies DO!!!

Your biggest mistake is that you are listening to the idiots on here who have absolutely no idea ANYTHING about your puppy. Many of them have never even seen a puppy, much less trained one.

What you need to do is get her to a trainer. By taking her to a trainer, you will learn how to train her. This will be training for both of you. This is EXTREMELY important because will the way things are going, you won’t be able to handle her when she becomes an adult.

Your pup is playing!!!!!!!!! My Border Collie was the same when I first got him, you just have to persevere. The shouting and yelping didn’t help with him either so in the end when he got too rough I called him a bully and left the room!!! He soon got the message that if he was too rough he would lose his playmate and be left alone!

With regards grabbing toys and running away, your pup is playing a game of chase that you are joining in with! I keep my dogs most prized toys in a cupboard and I bring them out for us to play with when I choose. He also has general toys to play with. I have never had any problems with him hogging toys or food because I have always made sure that he knows I am boss and not through using any dominance techniques but by teaching him to respect me. You need to be a good leader and make your pup look up to you, not be scared of you!!!

This phase will pass and your pup will become more enjoyable to be with, make sure she doesn’t get too hyped up when playing. Dogs can get over tired and start acting up like toddlers so make sure she has a quiet space to rest in when she wants too!!!

My pup is 13 months old now and I can sympathise with your concerns, I was terrified he was going to be a vicious dog but he’s come good now, we still have a ways to go regarding training and his social skills but I can’t imagine ever being without him!!

Try this website for great info on dog behaviour and training tips. Good luck!!

kris is right you should just ignore her when she is being mean. but remember that puppies are like human babies. they grow their teeth at this age. she is teething. it just feels good on their teeth when they chew something. my dogs did the same thing when they were puppies. they grew out of it. your puppy will probably grow out of it too. good luck

She’s still young, puppies learn not to nip and mouth from their mother or litter mates. Usually a litter mate will yelp loudly when nipped. Try yelling “ouch” when she nips and then ignore her … turn your back on her, stand still, no eye contact, hands up if she’s jumping to mouth your hands. Trying to restrain a very young, active puppy and yelling makes them more excited. I don’t know why you’d be scared that’s she running away from you, it’s a good game for her. Put her on a 12 ft. leash or piece of rope when you’re home and have 5/10 minutes for quiet “training”, call her with a command (maybe come or here girl) and reel her in gently with lots of praise. She’s only 2 months old, don’t expect miracles and stop trying to yank her mouth open you might hurt her. I saw an amazing video several years ago on dog
behavior in pack situations (can’t remember the name). When a new, excitable young dog is introduced to the pack the more dominent members will yawn (yes yawn) and turn away. Get a book on dog training, some of the suggestions I’ve seen for answers here like whacking and manhandling pups into submission isn’t the way to do it. Good luck with your pup.

Katslookup gave you an excellent answer, listen to her. Yes, she is a puppy, but, some behaviors are not acceptable. Dominant position at this age does not mean much, but, scruffing her will. Grab dog by the loose skin in the back of the neck, lift off the ground and hold in that position til she calms down. If, after you put her on the floor she tries again, repeat til she understands by the sounds that she makes that the behavior she just showed is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. Mother dogs use that method for teaching their puppies how to behave so don’t think you are being cruel by doing it. Good luck.

Hi. Have a nice time with your pets!

Lady of the spam, of her two month old Cavalier wrote: “Puppy is aggressive and biting and growling?”

Tony comments:
Get the book “The Art of Raising a Puppy” (Monks of New Skete), read and do.

But come on people, an aggressive 2 month old anything?! How about a Kuvasz that sends his owner to the hospital with a belly bite, a Rott that breaks the arm of a skate boarder, a Golden that brutalizes a ten year old boy, a GSP that bites the lower lip off his mistress, a Beagle that suddenly attacks a two year old girl, a Labrador that kills two of its owners smaller dogs, a Pit Bull that rips its owner apart causing permanent and unrepairable damage to her extremities …

Do you people really think your 2 month old ANYTHING is ‘aggressive?’ Either toughen up, or trade your puppy in on a goldfish!

Tony Ancheta

This is how puppies play. She does not understand that biting can hurt you. When she bit her littermates like this, they thought it was great fun. She needs to learn more appropriate ways to play. If you don’t train her and learn how to deal with her, yes, her behavior can get serious, but at this stage she is just a clueless puppy.

Like katslookupsaid, take her to a puppy class. At puppy classes, the pups play together, and when one pup bites too hard, the other will cry and refuse to play. This teaches your puppy to watch how hard it is biting. Puppies have to learn about their mouth.

Also, the class should teach you how to work on “bite inhibition” at home. Basically you need to get up and leave your puppy EVERY TIME she bites you. Quickly leave the room, and close the door. Stay out for 30 seconds to 1 minute. You might have to do this 50 times the first day. But she will quickly learn that she loses you (the source of food, games, and all things fun and exciting) when she bites you.

When you sign up for the class, ask and make sure it will go over how to teach bite inhibition.

Everything will work out fine if you take this dog to obedience and learn how to deal with her. It’s normal puppy stuff. As long as you teach her the right way, you’ll be fine. She’s not an evil dog or anything.

You also might want to call the breeder and make an appt to go out and talk to them!!!!!

I have to agree with Katslookup and Greekman on this…it a puppy…it could turn in to agressive behavoir… and scruffing a pup does work…look for a trainer…not just on here. for all u know we are a bunch of nuts!