My puppy bit me hard!

[mycatoscar]

My collie x lab girl is 17 weeks and doing brilliantly with training. But ... She just but me quite hard and it's bleeding. I put her lead on at the end of the woods before we got near the road and she began chewing the lead and growling, then wrapped her teeth round my calf, it's only a slight wound as I was wearing jeans but it could have been worse.

I'm shocked and upset. When I shouted ouch she let go, backed off and looked shocked herself.

Should I be worried?

My border terrier drew blood on me many times...always trying to i initiate play rather than aggressively - if that makes sense? He is much much better now. It took a few months of quite slow progress but it did get better.

Ouch dint work for us, I had to ignore him (well try and remove him then ignore him), also I had to work outbwhen it was likely to happen (eg after a walk) and try to avoid the circumstances - eg he went into his crate for a sleep after a walk rather than bouncing around getting more worked up.

You OK?

No. There is no need to 'worry'. Your dog is still too young to display true agression.

She needs to learn that was not an appropriate response to having her lead put on though. Mouths and teeth are a means of expression for puppies - if they are confused or happy or too emotional or pretty much anything, they use their mouths to show it. Have you googled bite inhibition by Ian Dunbar?

What was her demeanour like during the episode? Was she trying to get you to play? Grumpy about the lead? What about her tail and body language? What was it doing?

The wrestling with the lead and growling indicates stress to me; how long had she been walking for?

I'm okay now thanks.

She was annoyed about having the lead on I think and perhaps knew from where we were that we were going home. We had been walking for approx 30 minutes but have had a weekend if lovely long walks so possible she was over tired. We've got home and she was chewing her rubbery bone and growling at it, I wonder if her teeth are hurting her.

She looked very shocked and subdued when I shouted ouch, I think we were both shocked.

They wrestling with the lead thing, she often does it at the end or beginning if walks - I've often assumed excitement or annoyance but not stress.

Puppy motherhood is definitely never dull!

There is always something! The first time my pup drew blood I was quite upset - i knew he was just playing but it was still unsettling! Daisydot set me right!

Unsettling is certainly the word! She is the most loving happy little dog and this seemed so out if character

Mines coming up 5 months and her adult teeth are finally through. She is always a bitey nightmare but these last few weeks have been infuriating. Everyone in the family has taken to carrying tug toys wherever they walk for redirecting sharp teeth. I've got quite a spectacular cut on my arm where she jumped for my sleeve and grabbed my arm instead. Most of the work was done by gravity, as her canine hooked in and ripped and I know she was over tired and playing too hard but it did bleed quite a bit and it hurts.

Hang in there though. This stage does pass eventually. :)

If she isn't usually nippy she might have surprised herself!

Grrrr it turns out she's just this to dh a couple of times. But again, quite out of the blue each time. I would bet in it being either over tiredness over excited ness or teething. Just hope it's not a habit and she doesn't do it to dd!

Mine hasn't badly nipped the kids - I have been ultra careful though, they are never alone together and if there is a hint that the pup is over tired they aren't allowed anywhere near each other....

It is probably worth you and your DH being consistent about how you deal with it. The Ian Dunbar stuff is interesting, and it will get better!

From your posts, you've implied that todays walk was a short one for her when compared to the weekend walks.

She is only 4 months old; she should only be walked for in the region of 20 minutes per day. 30 minutes wouldn't be the end of the world for her, but longer walks will result in a pretty over tired pup - and an over tired pup is a horrible pup.

I don't stick religiously to the 5 minute rule, but do find it is a good guide to how much exercise a puppy can take before behaviour begins to suffer. Puppies will run and run and run on adrenaline for hours if you let them - they don't have an off switch. It's not good for them though, it puts a lot of strain on very fast growing, developing bodies and the same as an overtired child - behaviour also deteriorates. A lot.

Slow down on the exercise. Limit to about 20ish minutes each day and things might improve a bit. She is certainly over stimulated and probably knackered too.

She gets about 45 minutes a day. This is what has been advised by both my vet and puppy training teacher.

I had been led to believe that the 5 minutes per month was "on the lead" walking? Is this not the case?

On days when she gets less walks shes is quite mad, if you've seen my other thread she got timed out at puppy class last week and the teachers advice was to tire get out more.

Now don't know what's best.

I'd say its a bit too long of a walk, tbh. My boy would have walked forever at that age but would have just ended up manic and hyper. Try some more mental stimulation to tire her out? Games, clicker training, foraging for her dinner. That was you end up with a relaxed chilled out pup and not a very very fit one who needs hours of fee running.

Point taken, I'll keep her walks to half hour then. Happy to try anything. She's currently whining because I've had the audacity to come back from school run and eat breakfast rather than walking her immediately shes been out in the garden with her latest hole

Also I'll keep going with the training, we are working on stay and roll over ATM. I hadn't thought of hiding her food either!

Thanks ladies, wish me and the hulk luck tonight back at puppy class!

Yay, the joys of puppy classes. I've got entirely the opposite problem with our classes. She hides under the chair and refuses to do any of the exercises. Even the instructor can't jolly her into doing anything. :)

Good luck!

We have a Springer puppy who is 4 months old. Our Vet has advised that we can pretty much ignore the general advice re 5 minute rule. We do a lot more tham that, usually 40 mins in the morning an a bit longer later on, and then some play in the garden, which is large! However, that is because the vast majority of our 'walks' are potters round woods or through fields where he goes at his own pace (even with other dogs, he will pootle by my side if he's had enough of charging round with them). We also have a breed that isn't prone to hip issues and we also know the hip score for both parents which is far far lower than the breed average. He's also pretty placid so tends not to do manic (well he does, but it's all relative compared with other dogs I have seen), so I don't get that behaviour when over tired.

She did state clearly though that had we got a large breed dog or a Lab, who have known hip issues then she would have stood there giving that advice and she would be saying go really carefully.

We do a lot of training too, or stuff to make him think, like hiding a few bits of his food in an egg box, today it was a wine box that had compartments for the bottles (empty!), that foxed him as he couldn't figure out how to reach the food, he fell into it, which was funny

The training does really tire them out (especially as DH is a bit manic with it at the minute after starting puppy classes!) but I do like being out and about too.

Just thought I would let you know what the vet advised me

Sorry for typos, bloomin phone! I didn't proof read very well at all, sorry.

She 'wouldn't' give that advice.

Wish I knew how to get our puppy to go in the garden without me though!! He won't leave my side in the main. This will be fine in spring when I have jobs to do in the garden but at the moment I just stand there, especially as he's not too bothered about toys so sits there chewing a twig or whatever and I stand there too, or randomly sweep a few leaves up just to do something!