hELP WITH PUPPY BEHAVIOUR PLEASE!

[controlfreakythecontrolfreak]

My lovely 20 week puppy is great. she's done v well with house training, sleeping, learning basic commands etc. she's just coming out of a phase of being a bit scared and nervous of the world when we take her out but is generally calm and amenable....

BUT, in last week or so in the evenings she has a bit of a mad meltdown and gets v barky and bity with us (actually not with me but with dh and ds1). she is noisy and a bit scary. while she's doing this she is however wagging her tail.... she's certainly not afraid / scared when she's doing it.

is it being teenage? attention seeking? what?

what should we do with her? have tried distracting her with toy, putting her out of room for a few mins. (but hard to pick her uup when she's barking and nipping).

HELP!

What kind of pup is she? Can you identify what sets her off? Is she getting enough exercise/ play at other times?

she's a bedlington terrier and gorgeous. she has usually 2x 30 mins exercise, (more at weekends) and i play with her on and off during day. she's out and about a fair bit as she often does school runs with me (tube an a walk) and is sociable.

the setting her off is us sitting quietly watching tv / with laptop(!) in evening... not when we are playing with her or trying to get her to do anything iyswim....

thanks for answering.

try taking her out and playing with her just before she normally starts her mad dash.
If you give her a toy to try to distract her you might be unintentionally reinforcing the behaviour.
I would say ignore her until she is calm and then praise her but its hard to tell if thats possible if she is jumping up and biting.

Our puppy does this at 8pm everynight which is when she is due her evening walk.
Could just be pent up energy that she needs to release (try a walk in the evening)
If she's biting you must stop the behaviour - she's only 3 weeks younger than our pup so is prob testing her boundaries and also learning bite inhibition. So when she bites shout OW and give a toy to distract, if she bites you again take her out of the room,
One tip my puppy class trainer gave me which works is to leave a lead on around about the time that puppy starts naughty behaviour (I put it on at 7:50) and then instead of trying to grab a collar or pick up you just pick the lead up and walk them out of hte room.

HTH although I'm sure Bella will be able to give more help.

thanks. will try tomorrow to pre empt her. it's quite hard to ignore her when she's snapping at us and going a bit bonkers. really trying to get things right with her from the start.

the lead idea sounds good. will try that. she was a bit nippy when smaller (grabbing hold of trousers etc.) and have always done the "OW!" thing when she has nipped us... that has tailed off, this snarly snappy thing feels quite different... is she just testing the boundaries? and if so how do i reset / enforce them?

That does sound different, it sounds as though she's pushing it.
I'm not too sure on how the reaction is for that. I know I've been told to completely ignore and remove as soon as it's done but I'd ask someone with more knowledge than my mum, just in case

Snarly?

Thats the part that makes me think its different too. Tizz never snarls/growls she just nips/mouths.

snappy definitely, and i think a little bit snarly too. hard to describe but it seems a real mix of playful and serious. her body language is waggy tail, head down and lots of jumping and noise, but the snappiness has intent if that makes sense. ie if dh tries to just block her with his arm she yaps and jumps and tries to nip.

Yup - am going to hand you over to one of our qualified behaviourists now:

Minimu?

Smartmars?

Anyone?

Putting you on hold

oops - x post!

Bedlingtons are terriers with a high prey drive so if she's excited and you put something in front of her she'll most likely try to grab it.

But if you think she's actually snarling - curling her lip, growling - that's a bit different.

meant to stress this is a small part of overall behaviour, but is worrying me. will be back to puppy class at w/e and will ask lovely dog training women.

LMAO - you are on a roll today Bella!

no lip curling. a little growling. maybe snarl isn't the right word... v difficult to describe behaviour in detail with clunky old words. v much appreciate the replies. ta.

Why thank you, Lucky. Glad there is at least one other person attuned to my bizarre humour

Will quit while I am ahead, ladies. Good night, all

x post - like growling when a puppy rags something, do you mean?

yes bella, but has edge that is not playful if that makes sense...

Yup. I think it would be irresponsible of me to try to advise you then, tbh. Hope you get some good advice soon

Can you video it on your mobile ? that way you can actually show it to the lady at puppy classes. It does sound like 'normal' puppy play fighting to me ,does she put her head down and bum up ? I am no expert though

yup... head down, bum up, tail wagging.... but a bit fierce and scary! will try to film her in action, good idea. thanks.

What do you feed her and when it relation to her crazy moments?

Is this the only time of day she reacts like this?

What does she do say at other times of the day when you are sat still?

is the door shut to the room?

Our Scottie (just over five months old) was like this for some weeks. She's growing out it now. It took some very growly shouting of NO! at her. Now she's much gentler. Her teeth have come through a bit and I think that's helped, too.

What is she eating? One of my springers used to do this (at about that age too) when on a diet of IAMS (I didn't know how dreadful they were at the time ). Once I put him on Burns it didn't happen at all.

I think the key thing is the % of protein in their food. If it is around 20% or more this makes them go a bit loopy.

20% isn't much for protein. Our pup's on Orijen Puppy (after much online research because there has been such a scandal about dog food in the States) and that's about 75%.