# Biting, Aggression Help



## Bella16 (Jun 17, 2016)

Hi our Cockapoo is 16 weeks on Thursday and is going in for her last jab.She's been great to a degree apart from the nipping & biting,toilet trained well and is putting weight on.

The past few weeks have been tough  She seems to be biting a lot more drawing blood and has now started to growl and go for us when picked up . 

Its our first dog we've been told everything from hitting the dog on the nose to pinching her when she bites but we've done neither as we don't agree its right,I've read its just a phase and its a case of saying no firmly and also time outs.

She gets 2 walks for around 15-20 mins atm twice a day.

She's still got her puppy teeth atm so all were able to get her is the puppy nylabone which she loves are there any other chews available as we've searched pets at home and there all for dogs with adult teeth


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

You are not alone.
16 weeks is often the peak of biting. Her baby teeth will start shedding soon... her mouth may well be a bit sore. Try giving her a frozen raw chicken wing, she can eat the whole thing.
Try and redirect her or distract her.... keep bits of kibble in your pocket and reward her for sitting or giving a paw. Also keep a soft toy in your pocket so you have something on hand to play with.
You can also soak an old tea towel, wring it out and then freeze it - let her chew on that. A fridge cold carrot may also be enjoyed.
Biting or growling when picked up..... Don't pick her up. She is a dog not a toy. Never try to pick up a sleeping pup - wake her up by rustling a treat bag and then call her to you. 
If she was a wolf hound puppy you would not be picking her up. 
With my dogs I teach them an up command so they know when I'm going to pick them up.
Are you taking your pup to training classes?


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## Bella16 (Jun 17, 2016)

Marzi said:


> You are not alone.
> 16 weeks is often the peak of biting. Her baby teeth will start shedding soon... her mouth may well be a bit sore. Try giving her a frozen raw chicken wing, she can eat the whole thing.
> Try and redirect her or distract her.... keep bits of kibble in your pocket and reward her for sitting or giving a paw. Also keep a soft toy in your pocket so you have something on hand to play with.
> You can also soak an old tea towel, wring it out and then freeze it - let her chew on that. A fridge cold carrot may also be enjoyed.
> ...


Hi yes we've been giving her frozen carrots, I've read about the tea towel trick soaking in chicken stock then freezing? 

She's only being picked up when she's been caught digging in the garden or when she's diving into our plants lol. 

We've been spending 10 - 15 mins on training she's fine with the basics sit, leave, roll over give paw etc that all seems to go out the window when we're trying to control her when she's misbehaving. 

Ive been looking into puppy classes and it's something we definitely need to do. She's been introduced to alot of dogs where we walk we come across 2-3 each day. It would be nice to make it round without all the constant lying down and sitting when she spots another dog approaching


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## bearthecockapoo (Mar 17, 2015)

I also highly recommend puppy classes, both for training and socialization purposes. I would try to incorporate positive reward-based training as often as possible, both for the end goal of having a well trained pup and for the daily mental stimulation, which should help tire her out a bit. Don't pick her up unless you absolutely need to if she's growling - it is a warning that she doesn't like that behaviour and may feel threatened by it. She should lose her puppy teeth soon and the biting will eventually subside! In the meantime, a glass of wine should help.


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Excellent advice so far. She is growling when you pick her up as you are doing it when she is doing something she is enjoying and you are using picking up to stop her - if she was a small child she would be equally annoyed with you.

As Marzi says stop picking her up and distract her instead. 

Short training sessions are excellent and no reason at all why you can't fit in a few a day


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## halfpint (May 10, 2016)

Our pup is 15 weeks and also quite bitey mostly when overexcited. We are finding that he needs more exercise than the recommended 15-20 mins (5min per month of age). If we don't get him out he goes a bit bonkers and that's when we get a lot of the biting. Mind you we came in from evening walk tonight and he had the zoomies for a 10 minutes. At the moment we are trying offering him a toy to bite, turning away and ignoring until he calms, rewarding positive behaviour and worst case scenario a brief time out in crate to calm down. I am also finding that a well placed training session to redirect his energies into something positive can calm things down.


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## Bella16 (Jun 17, 2016)

Ours seems to be a nightmare at the moment apart from the biting the other problem atm is at nighttime when we go to put her in her crate she's now started to bark and become restless she's crated at the bottom of our bed, she's been fine for the past few weeks all seems to be happening at the same time 

Also struggling with walking she just keeps lying down all the time lol


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## Tesseract (Feb 3, 2016)

Bella16 said:


> Ours seems to be a nightmare at the moment apart from the biting the other problem atm is at nighttime when we go to put her in her crate she's now started to bark and become restless she's crated at the bottom of our bed, she's been fine for the past few weeks all seems to be happening at the same time
> 
> Also struggling with walking she just keeps lying down all the time lol


Give her a treat, like a frozen treat or something that takes a while to chew when you put her in the crate that way she will associate the crate with good things.


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## halfpint (May 10, 2016)

Sounds like we are at the same stage. Crate isn't an issue but the biting and walking sound familiar. Ernie will become quite stubborn if he has decided he doesn't want to go for a walk or doesn't want to go the way I am going. Conversely he has spent this evening constantly trying to get out to the beach. We don't have a garden and the beach is his preferred location for toileting - however often he just wants to go down there for a sniff and to see if there is anything exciting happening. He is quite restless in the evenings. We do a decent walk, play, do a training session but sometimes he still won't settle. It feels like we've had him ages and he has learned so much - sometimes I have to remind myself he is just a puppy and still learning.


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## Bella16 (Jun 17, 2016)

Tesseract said:


> Give her a treat, like a frozen treat or something that takes a while to chew when you put her in the crate that way she will associate the crate with good things.


We've been giving her a treat when we put her in the crate at night. She gets a frozen kong when we go out and it's worked well so far


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## kjnew74 (Jun 17, 2016)

Sidney came him Friday night and apart from him not letting us sleep too much he's doing well. Eating fine and doing most of his toileting outside. And getting a bit more confident each day in exploring the garden and playing with his toys. Hoping the sleep deprivation doesn't last too long as it's only day two and we are like zombies and both at work tomorrow. (Part time). Here are some photos of the cutie.


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## kjnew74 (Jun 17, 2016)

Apologies. First time going on the forum from my mobile and I've posted this in totally the wrong place and have no idea how to delete. Sorry ?


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

Don't apologise - Sidney is lovely  
Hope he lets you sleep more tonight!


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## kjnew74 (Jun 17, 2016)

Thank you and unfortunately not. Another night of constant barking. He just doesn't like being left on his own at night. He cries a little if left during the day, but nighttime he cranks it up to a whole new level. ?


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## Annabellam (Nov 3, 2015)

Have also used nyla bones and kongs pretty much and they seemed to work well.


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## Bella16 (Jun 17, 2016)

Bella's now 20 weeks old just thought I'd update

She's still biting which isn't getting any better both mine and my gf's arms are covered in scratches. She's still snapping at times when she's being told not to do something. 

She's also discovered our bed is alot more comfortable than her crate and won't go back in there at night now she'll just constantly bark. 

She starts puppy classes at the end of the month although we were in two minds if she should go to the puppy class or obedience classes?


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## Bella16 (Jun 17, 2016)

We've still got the issues with biting & now maybe guarding? 

Today whilst brushing her she decided one of the brushes was hers and went mad & went for us when we tried to get it back this is happening alot more at the moment. We tried to pick her up to put in the kitchen for a time out but you can't get near her without making it alot worse. 

Any ideas on what we can do?


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## Bella16 (Jun 17, 2016)

Once she's had her tantrum she goes back to being all loving


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## Cat 53 (Aug 26, 2012)

Maybe you need a trainer to come into the house to see what's what and how to correct it. I believe 2ndHandgal, knows someone. I don't I'm afraid, but someone might.


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## wellerfeller (Jul 12, 2011)

Get professional help, most importantly. 
In the mean time, stop trying to pick her up, it sounds like it's not something she is comfortable with. While she is supervised in the house leave a light weight lead on her, if you need to remove her due to aggression you can do so without putting your hands on her. Until you get help do not give her access to things she is likely to guard. Do not let her up on any furniture or your bed. Again if she gets up on there use the lead to remove her with a firm command.


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## Lexi&Beemer (May 5, 2013)

Please please head the advice of very knowledgeable people on this site and get professional help. As you try all sorts of solutions on the internet you run the risk of worsening the problem. Beemer growled once at me and I took everything away. Poor Lexi suffered as well but listening to sage advice on this site I knew I had to nip it as I didn't want him to learn to be aggressive toward me or toward his sister. They are smart dogs, so the behavior can be changed. It just sounds like you need some face to face help. 


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Please get some professional help now before things deteriorate more - if you are in the UK if you can let me know roughly where you are I can find someone to help. If you are close enough to me in the West Midlands I would be happy to come myself.

You really need someone to see what is going on and give you proper strategies and it is completely resolvable but you need to handle it right.

By the sound of previous posts she has been objecting to being picked up for quite a while and you have not listened so she is escalating her warnings to you - use a house line to move her and stop picking her up and avoid all confrontation in the meantime.


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## Bella16 (Jun 17, 2016)

Hi sorry for the late reply, she's OK most of the times but today for instance she managed to get a packet of spare tips for headphones and we couldn't get them back off her no matter what we tried in the end I ended up being bitten to get them off her . She knows she's done wrong I think

We seem to be having trouble when she's picking stuff up on walks and we've no chance of getting the stuff back without making her aggressive and at home when she gets stuff she shouldn't. 

We live in Leicester if that helps


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## Gill57 (Mar 20, 2016)

Bella16 said:


> Hi sorry for the late reply, she's OK most of the times but today for instance she managed to get a packet of spare tips for headphones and we couldn't get them back off her no matter what we tried in the end I ended up being bitten to get them off her . She knows she's done wrong I think
> 
> We seem to be having trouble when she's picking stuff up on walks and we've no chance of getting the stuff back without making her aggressive and at home when she gets stuff she shouldn't.
> 
> We live in Leicester if that helps


Not sure if this will help or if you have tried it - but I had similar problems with Freddie in picking things up and not always giving them up ..... I would put a treat on the grass at home and then would exclaim "ooh look what i have found" he would then come over and eat the treat. Then if we were out and he got something in his mouth I would say "look what I have found" and he would more often than not drop what he had in his mouth to look to see if it was one of his treats. Just a thought and maybe worth trying!!


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## Lexi&Beemer (May 5, 2013)

It sounds like you need to work on commands such as 'leave it' and 'drop it'. My two are almost 4 years old and we continue to practice those commands at home at least once a week. 

While she may be ok most of the time, your description of what happen seems to highlight the need for someone to help you get a handle on it now. 


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

If you can make it to Hinckley which is not far from Leicester please contact Marie Miller http://www.pawsnlearn.com/

Marie has a rescue cockapoo herself and will be able to help - but you need to get help now or things are only going to get worse and harder to resolve. 

From her point of view you are the ones being aggressive and she is defending herself, she does not know she has done wrong - she knows she is in conflict with her humans and they are angry and she is probably worried and scared by it.

Was a packet of spare tips for headphones really worth being bitten for? you need to back right off confronting her until you have got some professional help or you will just be making things worse.


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## Bella16 (Jun 17, 2016)

2ndhandgal said:


> If you can make it to Hinckley which is not far from Leicester please contact Marie Miller http://www.pawsnlearn.com/
> 
> Marie has a rescue cockapoo herself and will be able to help - but you need to get help now or things are only going to get worse and harder to resolve.
> 
> ...


Thanks yes Hinckley is less than 5 mins away from us. 

We had no choice to intervene as she'd started to eat them and we wasn't sure what they were.

When we practice leave it and drop it she's fine as she knows she's getting a treat but in times where she picks things up randomly we more often or not don't have treats on hand


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## Bella16 (Jun 17, 2016)

Gill57 said:


> Bella16 said:
> 
> 
> > Hi sorry for the late reply, she's OK most of the times but today for instance she managed to get a packet of spare tips for headphones and we couldn't get them back off her no matter what we tried in the end I ended up being bitten to get them off her . She knows she's done wrong I think
> ...


This has so far worked great for us she is now responding to us when we say "what's this" then show her the treat. 

Ive tried to contact the dog trainer and left her a voice mail but haven't had any response


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## Lexi&Beemer (May 5, 2013)

Bella16 said:


> This has so far worked great for us she is now responding to us when we say "what's this" then show her the treat.
> 
> Ive tried to contact the dog trainer and left her a voice mail but haven't had any response




That's great. I know when we went to puppy school they said make commands single word commands. I've found that phrases and speaking to them in complete sentences to be much more effective. For example, I've tried using "go potty" "go peepee" to cue them to do their business quick. But what works is telling them to "be a good boy" or "be a good girl" since that's what I say every time they went to the bathroom. I think the tone is different too. One is a demand. The other is a request and I don't know about yours but my two do much better with requests. Shifts in how we do things can make a world of difference in how they do things. Yeah! For a good result!!!


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## Bella16 (Jun 17, 2016)

Thought I'd post an update to our problem. 

We've just spent 2 days at my parents house with my family & sisters dogs. 

The 2 days weren't great! Lots of stress with Bella picking things up and guarding . It felt like everything was hers in her eyes. 

She had to be removed from the room at one point due to trying to get one of the kids toys then guarding, she then went for my sister's husband who removed her.

The last thing we want is for her to show aggression towards the kids and scare them. 

On the odd occasion she did drop stuff she was rewarded with a treat and lots of praise, but half the time it feels like it's impossible to get stuff off her 

I'm going to give the Hinckley number a ring again and see if there's any answer if not is there anyone else we could try?


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## Bella16 (Jun 17, 2016)

2ndhandgal said:


> If you can make it to Hinckley which is not far from Leicester please contact Marie Miller http://www.pawsnlearn.com/
> 
> Marie has a rescue cockapoo herself and will be able to help - but you need to get help now or things are only going to get worse and harder to resolve.
> 
> ...


Just to let you know we had a session with Marie today with Bella,weve now got some practicing to do and lots of homework. 

Marie said we also needed to work on our off command

We've also switched to a ttouch harness anyone got any reviews on them?


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## Lexi&Beemer (May 5, 2013)

I have the updated Victoria Stilwell one which is very similar and it has made a huge difference in our walks. 


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## Lyra the Cockapoo (Feb 24, 2017)

Its been great reading all your stories of tips and problems.
Being a new Mum to a 10 week old Cockapoo who is now 15 weeks has been comforting knowing I am not the only one with a biting/nipping puppy.
I tried the screaming "Ouch" and at the beginning she would just lock onto my hand/arm leg still without letting go. 
The only method for when she gets over excited is to put her in her cage and say "time out". After a couple of minutes of her just sitting or laying in there I would let her out. She would come out in her own time much calmer but if she started again straight away she was straight back in the cage.
This can become quite tiring but now when she goes to bite or launch at my ankles/feet I shout "no and she backs off (occasionally). Its a working progress.
The trouble is also I have to make sure my husband and 2 teenage children are consistent with this to!
She sleeps on our bed at night from about 10pm till 6am without any bites or fuss. 
She is going to puppy socialisation classes at our local vets and is the best behaved!!
She can be really loving and have cuddles etc but I think when she get over tired she becomes "Jaws".


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## BenjiBoy130 (Apr 1, 2017)

Hi there,
I just got my little man about a week ago and he is 2 months old. He's been nipping since day one. The other day he broke skin despite all of my efforts to get him to chew on a toy or bone instead. I've been trying to redirect him to a toy whenever he tries to nip at me. Unfortunately, there is no real solution for this except to just try to get him/her to play with the toy instead.


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