Hello Cockersonline
It has been a long time since my last post. My beloved Sam (my profile photo) passed away three years ago at 14 1/2 so it’s a long time since we last had a puppy.
We are now owners of the lovely Cooper. He is a 12 week old orange roan. He has been a great addition to our family. We have been enchanted by him. I have a couple of areas I need a wee bit of assistance on and I wondered if Cockersonline can help.
1. My daughter is 22 and she and Cooper are great friends. She has worked so well with him. Not only training him with voice but also by hand signals. He has now got really rough with her and jumps and snaps at her often. No one else is getting the same level of roughness. When he snaps or jumps she says no and turns her back on him and either walks away or sits out of reach. He is persistent though and rips at her clothes. She is not being rough or provoking him. Any suggestions?
2. Chewing. We have been very lucky and there has been no destruction of anything. He chews his crate and the edge of metal stools in the kitchen. Should this be discouraged? We were going on the basis that he was chewing at nothing of value but should all chewing be discouraged?
He has been really good. Sleeps all night from day one and is toilet trained. We are in love x
Hi Rhona,
I went through similar stuff earlier this year- it's a shock going back to puppies, for sure!
I had a similar experience as your daughter and was told it's most likely that my puppy had bonded most with me, so saw me as their playmate/ buddy- hence the rougher treatment. What worked for me was getting up and leaving the room for 10-30 seconds anytime my puppy got too bitey etc. Just long enough to show 'hey, that behaviour makes your buddy leave'. Then come back into the room calmly and carry on- no reprimand needed. It took about 2-3 days of me doing this over and over for the penny to drop.
With the chewing, my pup tried to chew his metal crate quite a bit, I'd try to redirect as much as you can because the metal could potentially damage the growth of the adult teeth coming through. So, have a variety of different options- soft toy, rubber toy, tuggy toy, frozen toy etc, and shove that in his mouth when he heads for the metal!
Good luck, it gets better soon!