Plea For Advice! ;)

[smartmove]

We have an 8 week old cocker pup. The past couple of days the play biting has really started to become an almost full time occupation of hers! We're a little concerned as now when we shout NO! at her and point she will end up actually growling and seeming to get quite agressive. Should we be concerned about this at her age? We don't want her to grow up getting even more agressive. Any advice welcome

[Whistler]

we went through this with Ollie we just ignored him and he soon stopped.  If he was in our laps when he was biting was put him down and ignored him.  he is still doing it a little bit but not as much with me as he is with Lynda (she is much softer on him)

[Jane S]

You'll find plenty of advice on playbiting in our FAQ section HERE. At 8 weeks old, your puppy is very young & it will take a while for her to learn that biting human flesh is unacceptable - puppies don't understand what "No" means She is not being aggressive - she is playing with you in the same way as she would play with her littermates, ie by using her teeth & mouth. If you watch puppies playing together, there is lots of growling & barking - it's all normal behaviour for a pup. If you are patient & consistent, you will see an improvement eventually but be prepared for it to take a while - remember puppies have very short memories If you're a new puppy owner, I'd recommend a good book on puppy behaviour & training, such as Gwen Bailey's "The Perfect Puppy".

Jane

[Annette]

We're not out of the woods on this one ourselves, but there is a lot of really good advice in the COL puppy section.

I think a quick yelp, withdraw your hand (or whatever!) and ignore the pup for a few moments. It often works.

However we have found that Buddy will have "mad" sessions where we can't seem to stop him, so we yell "NO" and put him into our small hall for time out. I would suggest you don't use a crate for time out, as they are supposed to enjoy being in there and you don't really want them to associate it with punishment.

We only leave Buddy out there for 1-2 minutes, and try not to let him back in while he is making a fuss.

Let us know how you get on

[suki1964]

We have an 8 week old cocker pup. The past couple of days the play biting has really started to become an almost full time occupation of hers! We're a little concerned as now when we shout NO! at her and point she will end up actually growling and seeming to get quite agressive. Should we be concerned about this at her age? We don't want her to grow up getting even more agressive. Any advice welcome

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I remember those days so well, I was in tears at the end of the first week feeling I couldnt cope, that I had a vicious pup on my hands who would turn out to be completely unmanagable However its all normal and it does get better

As you have found out, shouting doesnt work. They just think you are playing. Best advice is if she starts to bite when playing, a sharp "ouch", put her on the floor and ignore her (no eye contact) for a minute or two. Repeat each and every time. If she still carrys on then put her out of the room, not allowing her in till she is quiet. If she starts again then put her out again. If you read through the old posts on biting, you will see that this method does pay off although at first it feels like they are forever "shut out"

The other bit of advice is for everybody she is in contact with to be consistant. No point in mummy doing the putting out and ouchies if daddy reacts differently - confuses the poor thing and she wont learn whats acceptable and whats not. My other half tended to tap on the nose, just taught Alfie that wagging fingers were good to bite

Other things to help are to have a toy at hand when playing so if she starts to mouth, give her the toy and praise her for chewing that. Also a few raw carrots and raw hide to chew on will give her teeth a good working out. (dont leave her alone with them)

Do read the old posts by putting biting in the search, theres a wealth of advice and experience there. And remember that they do grow out of it once their teeth come through

Good luck

[PennyB]

Yes I had a demon biting cocker pup who's survived to celebrate her 3rd birthday this month and is the sweetest thing and definitely not aggressive. It takes time and feels like forever but you'll get there with patience. They're like babies at the moment and have the shortest of concentration spans so you'll find you have to go through things over and over again

[Mary]

I can only reiterate what people have said.  Lottie was terrible for this   Be prepared for this to take quite a few weeks though.  Be consistent and do not play any aggressive games with her that may over-excite her as this seems to make the situation worse.  It will stop eventually but you need lots of patience

[Shirley]

Yep, we though we had the puppy from hell with Morgan.  He's 3 next month and now he much prefers pigs ears rather than hands for chewing    The only thing that worked was 'time out'.  If you decide to give it a go, make sure there is nothing in the 'time out' space that she can occupy herself with     The FAQ section is really good     If I were you, I'd start there  

[smartmove]

Just a quick update. She is now coming up to 16 weeks and 99% of the time she is an absolute nightmare. She is still biting (and its now very hard) and growls in what seems to be an aggressive way if she gets shouted at. We've now started locking her in the kitchen each time she misbehaves but so far I can't see any change in her. I really do hope she grows out of this soon. Don't get me wrong, when she's tired (after long walks etc..) she can be really good. Just a little frustrated at the moment that she hasnt improved.

[PennyB]

It sounds like you may need some help with her (I don't mean over the phone/online). I took mine to puppy classes and 1-2-1 classes with a good trainer who can show you ways to engage your pup in activities not involving biting. Pups are generally hard work, harder than some can imagine, and some pups are just generally worse than others (but that doesn't mean they're bad). Training is also sometimes as much about training the owner the 'think dog'

Timeouts are great and need to be short, not locked away for ages.

At 16 weeks she shouldn't be having long walks though but exercise her in other ways through play and training. Why not try clicker training (need to spend time sensitising her first to the clicker before starting, my trainer says 2 weeks of just click-treat, click-treat, etc. until they instanty know what the sound of the clicker means) short periods only though as she still has a short concentration span. Variety is the key and little and often.

Patience is so important even though I know how frustrating it is when bundles of fur try to take over your life. Shouting at her obviously isn't working (as much as we want to do it it just doesn't work)

Crates are also useful if used very wisely though. I used mine to give me a break from the demon Ruby, not as a punishment but I pre-empted the situation and would put her in there at regular intervals to play with a toy or chew. This lessened the time that she could be naughty.

Have you got the Gwen Bailey book (the Perfect Puppy book)

Don't play any games that involve pull type toys as these can make a pup like this more aggressiv, and spillover in to more biting.

[Pammy]

At 16 weeks she shouldn't be going for long walks. If you need to tire her out you need to think about mental stimulation as that is just as exhasuting. Too much physical exercise too young can damage their joints in later life.

I would avoid shouting at her - thats clearly not working so you need to take another approach.

The second she goes to bite pick her up firmly saying no firmly, but not shouting and put her out. 2 minutes later bring her back and carry on and repeat this over and over again if necessary. They have incredibly short memories at this age and are learning so much.  Cockers can also be very stubborn so you have to find what makes her tick.

Puppy training is an excellent idea (just seen what Penny wrote - was distrubed while writing my reply - so finishing it off now) It will give her something to think about something really tangible for you too with positive outcomes.

Make sure she gets lots of praise when she is being good but gentle soft praise, avoid excitement

The use iof the crate and timing play as Penny as suggested is also a good way f preventing her getting to the biting stage.

This can be a long and hard stage but the vast majority do get through it and it becomes a dim and distant memory - but only if you work at it and remain calm, firm and consistent throughout.

hth

[smartmove]

When I said long walks I guess they're about 20 minutes long. Is this still too much?

I think we're going to look into taking her to puppy classes and see if that helps.

Thanks for all your advice.

[Sheila]

I started taking Lottie to clicker training classes at 14 weeks and agree with everyones comments, it worked wonders.
I think she needed the mental as well as the physical stimulation.

Good luck and give training classes a try.

[Cob-Web]

I would avoid shouting at her - thats clearly not working so you need to take another approach.

Molo didn't respond to a firm NO, even though he knew what it meant  . We gave him a low growl when he bit or nipped; followed up by a time-out if he didn't stop    The growl seem to stop him in his tracks - he was probably just confused  

They do grow out of it in time; and all puppies are different, some are very bitey, and others not so much