# Biting Puppy



## Ash_CA (Sep 15, 2015)

Hello,

I am a new puppy owner to a 13 week old male Cockapoo whom we have had now since he was 7 weeks. 
I have been reading many posts on here regarding puppy biting but I feel I am at a loss now. Our hands are scarred from the biting the past weeks. He will be good and then turn on you biting really hard and staring you in the eyes, his dead straight on with ears back. If he gets a hold of a sock or paper towel he goes absolutely mental and will not give it up. Once we get it from him he growls, snaps and bites bad. 
He is also crate trained throughout the day & my sister goes over during the day to let him out. He will be fine with her and then after some time will turn against her as well. 
He is well exercised, walks 1-2 times per day, lots of play and mental stimulation. 
I have never owned a dog that has been prone to this much biting and snapping. On the other hand he is really good, house trained, sits, comes when called, great with kids & sleeps throughout the night. But this biting and episodes of "devil dog" are going to make me have a breakdown. When does this madness stop and what can we do?


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## Marzi (Sep 17, 2012)

Hi.
Your pup is a pup and he is doing what pups do.
It does get better, but there are things that you can do that will help:
Make sure that he gets enough sleep time - tired puppies get cranky really fast.
Be careful of how you 'get things off' your pup - he will defend what he has if he feels frightened and having big people removing his prize by force is likely to cause confrontation.
My advice would be work really hard at not having to 'get things off him'. Don't leave things like paper towels or socks where he can get hold of them and play lots of fun games with him where you trade him a toy for a tasty treat - he will learn that if you ask to swap and he gives you what he has you will give him something better (chicken often works well )
Check out loads of threads on here for good advice. Try and keep calm and be gentle with him he is a baby and is only just learning how to behave - how you teach him will influence the sort of dog he grows up to be. This is a link to one thread which is current at the moment and may give you hope that things will improve http://ilovemycockapoo.com/showthread.php?t=91993


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## fairlie (Sep 7, 2013)

Ash_CA said:


> Hello,
> 
> 
> I have never owned a dog that has been prone to this much biting and snapping.


This is a sentiment experienced by most posters here with one dog, and one that would no doubt be expressed by all the sibling dogs in the multiple dog households if they could type too! 

They can be demon biters but when they transfer that dogged determination onto toys, playing fetch and training all will be well. Try as hard as you can to model the gentle, affectionate, calm demeaner you want to him to have, hard to do while he seems possessed but it'll help him come around faster.


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## beekeeper (May 3, 2015)

Try as hard as you can to model the gentle said:


> Fairlie, are there any circumstances where you would discipline a puppy? I totally understand what you mean by modelling the behaviour you want but is there ever a place for a stern "No!"? I am reading and learning so much from you all and wanting to do my very best when I can at last bring a puppy home - hopefully in the new year.
> 
> Sorry for slight hijack of thread!


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## Ash_CA (Sep 15, 2015)

Thank you for your advice. I am telling myself and reading that this is just a phase. Although a tough one to get thru. We are so affectionate and loving with him so it is hard to see why he reacts in these ways. But he is a baby, a really really cute one at that. Crazy as he may be! Lol
There are times when we are playing with him, playing fetch and then all of a sudden he will just jump at us and bite. Or if we are on the couch he will jump at us and bite as well at random times. I have tried to distract with a toy but he really just wants at our feet, legs and hands at that moment and won’t give up. And then trying to pick him up or redirect him to his crate when he gets like this if we can is scary, he doesn’t stop. I mentioned in a previous post my trainer telling me to put him on his side with my hand on him so he cannot bite and calm down, she says it teaches them who is boss/pack leader. I hate this approach personally, it is heartbreaking to do and I am here to find another way. We have only tried it a couple times and I cant do it, it is just not the way I want to treat my dog who really is still a baby. 
How long in most of your experience does this “demon phase” last??

Also Marzi, when he does get certain items we do react in panic. So I imagine this triggers his defensive mechanism to do the same and not give things up. We have been really diligent about not having things on the floor, it has happened a few times and that was the result. I will continue to train with toys and treats to make him give things up for sure!


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

beekeeper said:


> Fairlie, are there any circumstances where you would discipline a puppy? I totally understand what you mean by modelling the behaviour you want but is there ever a place for a stern "No!"? I am reading and learning so much from you all and wanting to do my very best when I can at last bring a puppy home - hopefully in the new year.
> 
> Sorry for slight hijack of thread!


I am not Fairlie  but my dogs don't get a stern no. I would much rather tell them what I do want so sit, off, leave cover an awful lot of options and if the dog can not do that I ask if the dog has truly been trained to cope in that situation. So sit at home is easy, but sit next to an agility ring with dogs jumping and running is very different and needs building up to - if the dog can not sit in that circumstance it is my failure to train not the dogs failure to comply 

That is all very theoretical and of course I sometimes do shout - but I realise it is my failure to teach which is at fault not the dog 

Sorry - back to the original post - you sometimes need to look at it from the dogs perspective and biting legs, feet and hands is quite often good fun as we wave them around trying to stop the biting and becoming a large animated dog toy  practice stillness despite the biting and also teach some self control - I love Kikopup videos 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEeS2dPpPtA


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## fairlie (Sep 7, 2013)

I am no saint and I absolutely did lose it with Rufus on a couple of occassions. Never with the biting though, and he was relentless. I would scoop him up matter of factly and put him in a time out when he got over the top. I also kept him leashed alot even indoors and I recall alot of "no we don't chase cats, no we don't eat walls, no you can't eat that table" and so forth. The times I did "lose it" were for peeing inside after he knew how to ask to go out and to pee on request when we got there. I think he just didn't know *not* to go inside as well. and when I did admonish him (nothing physical just a growly ahhh noise meaning no) he looked at me as if to say "why didn't you explain this to me earlier?" and then never had an accident again. The second time was about loose leash walking. I spent hours and hours and hours going by the book and turning around, refusing to walk, rewarding him for staying by my side and so forth. What finally stopped him was quite a harsh leash correction and the same growly ahhh. Having said that Rufus has always been an incredibly confident over the top exuberant boy. I would never use that technique with a timid dog or even a normal dog.


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## Ash_CA (Sep 15, 2015)

We have been diligent in keeping him off our hands and feet and re-directing him with toys this past week since posting. He has gotten better or should I say we have in re-directing! The really difficult part is getting anything out of his mouth. We were on a walk and he picked up a piece of plastic. Puppies are puppies and I know they put everything in their mouths. But any advice on getting things out of his mouth or teaching him to drop any and everything? He ended up biting one of us so bad from taking it away from him and its been the case with several things he's had.


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## 2ndhandgal (Aug 29, 2011)

Well done on the success with the redirecting 

Taking things off pups often can lead to them getting quite worried and ultimately it can lead to resource guarding and it sounds like this is a source of stress for both him and you. Pups naturally explore the world with their mouths and want to pick things up so you need to assess risk and only actually interfere if it is truly dangerous.

You also need to teach the pup some self control so teach a leave or off both with food and also with toys so they learn that letting go of things is actually a good thing that is rewarded and they don't get worried about you forcing their mouth open 

Another nice Kikopup video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xVQG3G7JUg 

I tend to teach slightly differently with a young pup and just have a small toy I can hold in one hand, play tug and when you have good animated play gather the toy into one hand and hold steady against your leg (stops as much movement as possible) then just wait. Pup will eventually let go as the game is now boring and as soon as they do be enthusiastic and play again. They quite quickly learn to let go quickly to get the game to continue. Once they are responding quickly you can put this on verbal cue so they learn the word for letting go.


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