Puppy Question

Denise91980 · June 2012

When we got Belle, she was 8 weeks old. We got her through our niece's friend. Her boyfriend brought Belle over to us after keeping her overnight (so we thought). He has a dog, who is very aggressive and come to find out that he actually had Belle with him for about a week before we got her. He was over a few days ago with his dog and said, "My dog beat the sheite out of her." We are super pissed because she is very nippy with Pumpkin and Sasha, and now we figured out why. The question is how do we break her of the biting? Pumpkin was not nearly as nippy as Belle and Sasha put her in her place right from the beginning. Nothing seems to scare her and she is relentless with Pumpkin and Sasha, and Sasha is 13 and was really sick last week. Any advice?

TIA

cheeseandrice · June 2012

Get her to training classes. Make sure you don't let her bite (nips for teething is one thing, but aggressive biting is a totally different thing.) With Puck, we'd make sure to yip like a puppy whenever he bit us. They need to learn that bite inhibition somewhere.

Levi was abused when we got him too (I think more than we were told, to be honest.) He was the opposite though- incredibly timid. It was so sad to watch him completely shy away from everyone. For us, we had to let the two dogs work it out a little, which was hard. (They never hurt each other- but they played very rough and Puck did, still does, let Levi know when he's crossed a line.)

Denise91980 · June 2012

I feel bad for the other two, especially Pumpkin. We keep finding scabs on her from Belle biting her too hard. I am so pissed that he let his dog beat on a 7 week old puppy.

Windsor81 · June 2012

I second the training class.

The other thing you need to consider is allowing her to socialize with other puppies and dogs so she learns what her limits are. The best way to teach any animal it's manners is to put it into a controlled situation with other animals who know THEIR manners. If she harasses another dog that puts her in her place she'll start watching her Ps and Qs a little more.

FWIW - that doesn't mean allow it to aggressively beat her up. It just means allow them to work out their differences. Puppies have to learn that a loud yip or "scream" means to stop. They don't necessarily learn that from people. Plus, puppies are by nature rambunctious and overly pushy. They have to be taught that that's not appropriate behavior.

Other things to do are to make sure she's getting ample walks and exercise - a tired dog is a good dog. A lot of behavior problems stem from dogs not getting enough exercise(even little dogs need walks to help their brains!). Also, when she starts harassing the other dogs, redivert her attention by playing with a toy or doing something else to get her focus away from the older dogs.

And, if she starts getting really riled up and obnoxious (some dogs get over stimulated), just give her a "time out". If she's not crate trained, put her in a quiet room with a toy and give her a break from the other dogs and the other dogs a break from her. To start with, she'll probably bark, whine and cry (which is tough to ignore, but you have to). When she settles, let her rejoin the "pack". She'll learn that that behavior gets her nowhere except on her own, and will start learning to modify it.

LetsHikeToday · June 2012

Both the dogs that we adopted were abused and it's so sad. We didn't have many issues when it came to aggression but Ike was definitely nervous, shy, but wouldn't back down.

The best thing we did for the dogs was socialize them. We took them to a doggie day care twice a week. They were around about 50 dogs all day and the women who worked there taught them how to play nicely. They definitely still get rough with each other but they now understand how to play with other dogs who don't like to be so rough.

Check out doggie day cares around your area. It's like an all day training if you find a good one.

Denise91980 · June 2012

Thanks ladies! I will definitely try these and find a training class for her. She is socialized with our other 2 dogs, but she doesn't back down to them and I feel bad for them because she is relentless and doesn't leave them alone at times.

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