9 week old puppy - chaos!

[pigsinmud]

I have a 9 week old puppy - our first dog, so we are new to all of this. We've had her a couple of weeks and she has settled really well.

How do I control her when she is in wild puppy mode? I have steps down to the garden, so am having to carry her down. When it's time to go back in I have a job catching her and she bites my hands to shreds. Once back in she is so excited that I have to leave her on her own - is this the right thing to do? She jumps and tears around wildly, so i leave her in the kitchen ... have a bit of difficulty getting out of said kitchen without puppy following!

She will sit when asked (most of the time) and is lovely, but during the wild times the children, especially the youngest two (5 & 2) are scared to be around her as she jumps and bites.

I'm assuming wild times are the norm with puppies, but the nipping is getting a bit out of hand. A friend suggested trying to ignore when she's biting ankles, but find this hard to do as it hurts! She also suggested yelping and walking away - well, she lets go for a split second when I yelp, but then reattaches before I can leave!

She is a mixed breed - mother is springer, father is lab with a bit of collie and staffie chucked in.

We have a 17 wk old goldendoodle. He is beginning to come out of the nipping phase but he is worse around my DS4 who is 4. He treats him like another puppy .

When she is going mad around the children, tell to stand very still and fold their arms across their faces, she will soon understand that the behaviour is not welcome. Do not allow your children to have tug of wars with her and her toys. We also have a shaker which distracts our puppy (a few coins in an old toddler beaker (all I had to hand at the time )) when he is doing something we don't like, usually refusing to leave something that he is chewing eg chair leg. A water spray can also be used for really bad stuff - we use this when he is trying to steal food.

As I say, mine is getting better with the mouthing but he is definitely worse with my youngest who encourages him.

You also want to get your DC to feed her and also take away food that she is enjoying eg we gave my puppy some roast lamb so whilst he was tucking into it I got my youngest to take the bowl away (and give it back again) so that the dog doesn't become possessive over food. I did this with my old dog and he would give up any food to a child. Do this with her toys as well as you want to discourage any possessiveness.

Good luck.

Thanks countingto10. I like the sound of the shaker - that sounds like a great idea. I think she does treat the younger two as puppies as she goes into jumping up overdrive when they appear. She is much calmer with my older two boys.

Dd2 is actually quite good at standing still, but dd1 starts waving her limbs wildly which, of course, encourages puppy even more!

I'll do the food thing too.

you are supposed to give high pitched yelp if their mouth touches you (ie not even biting) and then ignore them - don't play or give attention.

Apparently it is what puppies do if one of their playmates gets too rough - and a puppy understands it means clam down and play more gently.

If you can get the kids to do it too - that will help.

Have you got a cage ? they are good for an overexcited puppy too.