Please help with biting puppy

[Roni]

Hi,

I'm new here, my names Roni and I have a 9 week old show type sable cocker spaniel called Fallon. She's a lovely little girl but she is getting really bad for biting, usually when my children are sitting on the floor. I've been around dogs all my life and I know they mouth etc but I have 4 children a 13 and a 12 year old - who I'm not worried about - but I have 3 year old twin girls and whenever they are sitting on the floor 9 times out of 10 Fallon will jump up and bite their hands, face, arms, legs anything she can get really. She grabs onto their clothes and pulls and growls and anything I do doesn't really seem to be working. I've tried the yelping, giving her a toy, time outs etc etc but it just isn't deterring her. The only thing that slightly works is if I softly hold her muzzle for about 10 seconds and tell her "NO" I just don't know what to do. She bites the adults and older children as well. She is not biting very hard but I'm really scared she's going to hurt my little girls. Is this normal behaviour? Can anyone suggest anything? Otherwise she's the sweetest little girl on the planet and is fantastic with my cats.

Just a bit of background information - we live in Scotland and I got her in Yorkshire, her breeder is a lovely lady who has done all the health checks on her dogs etc and she was brought up in the family home with other dogs and the breeders own young children. Thank you

[Pearly]

Hi and welcome to COL!

I have a blue roan show type called Pearl who is 3 today! What you are describing is my experience also and given the number of threads on here, that I've seen over the last 3 years, is all completely normal behaviour for a cocker puppy 

Cockers are lively, inquisitive and playful dogs with a lot of energy  but do get over tired and I found Pearl was far worse when her routine was disrupted. Its very tempting to let the pup decide for her self when she needs rest but cockers are so nosey they will keep going and going! Do you have a set routine for Fallon? (Fab name  ) I found Pearl was best with 2 hours sleep in a morning, 2 hours in the afternoon and again  in the evening before retiring for the night which was late so she didn't have so long to last... I did make the mistake of letting her stay awake all day at the weekends... Talk about a flying set of teeth 

Jayne

[Roni]

Hi,

Thank you and happy birthday to Pearl!! 

I'm glad to hear that this seems normal, it's Samoyeds I've had before and they never ever did this to this extent. She's in a pretty set routine and she really likes her sleep, I have to wake her or she over sleeps, do you think I should just leave her to sleep longer?

Do you think I should carry on with holding her muzzle lightly when she bites? This seems to be the only thing she listens to slightly.

I also had her out yesterday - carrying her, to get her used to outside stuff etc but she seemed quite nervous and a bit shaky. Do you know if this is normal?

Thanks again 

[Pearly]

Thank you for the birthday wishes for Pearl 

I've only a few minutes so apologies if it's a short reply.....it's worth having a look through the puppies section on here as the questions you are asking as often asked - there are some really good replies and helpful hints and tips !

In answer to your questions...I wouldn't hold her muzzle - appreciate it's only lightly but cockers are really responsive/sensitive dogs and inadvertently you may be creating a problem later in life if ever you need to give tablets or hold her for grooming etc - she may associate it with negative behaviour....

Sleep: she really is a baby at the moment and they use huge amounts of energy when awake  I would let her sleep as long as she needs to at the moment - others with more experience will be on later and may offer better advice with this

It is a big scary world out there and the more socialising you can do outside, just as you are doing the better she will be - sounds as though you have it all under control really!

Fallon sounds a wonderful pup, full of life and once through the cockerdile stage will be a delight with your family if she's so excited with them now 

[Roni]

Thank you so much, I'll have a good look through the other posts and see what I can find. I'm just so glad that this is quite normal for cockers!

Thanks again 

[minimoo]

Honestly you have a normal cocker pup , there are so many threads on here where people are first time cocker pup owners and they think they have got a demon dog  , but cocker pups love to play bite and hang onto trousers sometimes ripping clothes etc , I wouldn't hold her muzzle either, try getting a toy or something to distract her , and if she gets over excited a time out is usually the best course of action , also a frozen puppy kong may help with her teeth , of course 3 year old excited children will be much more fun , but shes still very young and everything is new and exciting to her , your cockerdile will turn into a lovely dog , this site is great with advice and help and just encouragement so stick around 

[PennyB]

Do you think I should carry on with holding her muzzle lightly when she bites? This seems to be the only thing she listens to slightly.

Never do that - she could end up being hand shy which will be far worse than the problem you have now

[chrisp]

The first time Mollie did 'zoomies' we all thought we had a monster and sat with our feet on the chairs in horror!!!    .  Now we know different and it's part of her amusing trait that spaniels have and we love it!

[ollie nathan's mum]

Hi, I smiled when I read your post, it brought so many memories back. I swear I had a cocker pup attached to the bottom of my jeans ! And those little teeth  it is normal, they do grow out of it but not for a while.

[April Shower]

Hi Roni, I have a 12 week old choc & tan boy, Archie, who I've recently posted about because of the way he snarls and bites.  I've found it difficult to believe this is the "normal puppy nipping" which I keep reading about which sounds much 'nicer' than the lunging snarls we get from Archie.  I'm a complete novice but, as Jayne mentioned, I have quickly learnt that Archie needs way, way, way WAY more sleep than I'd imagined but he doesn't do this without encouragement.   I make sure I close him in the kitchen (with his crate open in there) with no disturbance for at least 2 hours in the morning after breakfast, and again for 2 hours after lunch, and then again late afternoon.  He usually sleeps the whole time during these time-outs although does sometimes make an initial fuss.  And often during the evening he sleeps for an hour or so on someone's lap while we're watching tv. These sleep times are minimums - some days he needs more   He goes into his (closed) crate by 10:30-11 ish and sleeps til about 7:30am.   If I don't 'encourage' him to sleep with these time-outs he will stay awake and get really crabby, snarly, bitey (flesh eating monster , not just wimpy clothes chewing.... ) thoroughly horrible. My earlier posts give other reasons why I think he gets cranky. I have a lot to learn but I'm following various bits of advice and hopefully it will pay off soon!  Good luck, let's hope we will look back at some point and say "remember when...." 

[PennyB]

Hi, I smiled when I read your post, it brought so many memories back. I swear I had a cocker pup attached to the bottom of my jeans ! And those little teeth  it is normal, they do grow out of it but not for a while.

I've been known to wear wellies in the house sometimes with some pups LOL

[PopPops]

Pops was another one who needed compulsory frequent naps in her crate, she turned into a bitey flappy monster when she was tired. Nine weeks is such a baby still.

If it's any consolation, she was HORRIBLE for cockerdiling as a puppy but at 18 months she has the softest, gentlest mouth, all that learning time and mouthing paid off in the end. They just grow out of so so much of all the hard puppy stuff, it passes on and you end up with all the gorgeous stuff left behind. Honestly.

[LadyLexicon]

hia, again this soiunds like normal cocker behaviour to me! Roux, who is now 15 weeks, has in the last 2 weeks stopped with the biting thankfully, and now just does it when hes really wound up (thanks to my OH who like a bit of rough and tumble play witht he puppy) or when hes tired and or hungry. He does seem to do it more around his food times...

Youre using all the techniques i know off already, with Roux disrupting the play and ignoring him seemed to be the most effective along with the yelp as that did stop him mid bite. I would be worried with your little girls though, is there any way you can keep them a bit more seperate just for now? He'll grow out of the biting in the next few weeks hopefully, personally i wouldnt want to risk my girls getting an aversion to dogs, as it must be scary for them especially if he gets them quite badly! Could you use a stairgate to keep the puppy in the kitchen when hes got it on him, and just let him around your girls when hes calm/?? If he ever gets calm. You need to teach him how fragile your girls are- he wouldnt want to hurt them im sure