Help - very bitey puppy

[QueenJuggler]

Hi,

We've had several dogs from puppyhood before, so not inexperienced owners, but are having a massive issue with a new puppy. Male Springer, about 10 weeks old when it came to us, after being rejected by mother - and it has a massive biting problem. Way beyond normal puppy biting - my DD is terrified of it, and I honestly wouldn't let it be around any children right now. He bites everything in sight (can live with that) but that includes people, and very, very hard.

I am covered in bites - the only time he's not biting us is when he's sleeping. I've tried the "praise/treats when not biting" method, but because there are almost no times when he's not biting, that's not really working. He has a gazillion toys, and will happily run around the garden playing with them, and the suddenly launch at you and bite - he even managed to bite DH in the testicles the other day.

I think we need the help of a proper behaviourist. DH thinks there must be something we're doing wrong. The only thing that seems to work is having a long toy (e.g. ball on rope) and shoving that in his mouth when he launches at you - but I'm not sure that's going to work long-term, it's just distraction rather than learning.

Any ideas?

polite cannonball will do just fine!!!

So I've found an old stair gate and put that up across the utility room door so that he has a space for timeout that isn't his crate.

I've borrowed a different crate from a neighbour to use for crate training.

He's been not too bad this morning - mornings are definitely the worst. Once he's had his second set of vaccinations (which will be late because he didn't have his first set until we got him), and we can take him out for walks on the forest, I think that might help with mornings - he needs to get his ya-yas out a bit.

Last night was miles better - I made sure he had a lot more downtime, which seemed to keep him calmer.

I'll keep you all updated to how he's getting on. Now that I think about it, he's actually got worse since we got him, so I think we've just been going about this all wrong. Your help is brilliant - together we can get this chap happy!

Our Goldie didn't have agreed start in life and was quite bitey and had resource guarding issues. He was also quite anxious
Despite having Goldies before and wanting another one so much if I thought someone I could trust would take him I might have given him away - I used to regularly cry at the fact we had made a horrible mistake getting him. Even DD who had wanted a puppy for years and loves all animals wasn't keen on him.
We worked with a trainer and now he's 9 months old and starting to be the wonderful dog we hoped for. I realised that he had to get to know and trust us too. He's visibly relaxed with us now and even DS who hated him has a great relationship with him
It was bloody hard but we are getting there - just need some better recall now!!!

I know what you mean Hopping, I feel a bit tearful at times. Mainly because I'm so absolutely determined to give this guy a good home, and feel a bit like I'm failing him right now. Plus I hate the fact that DD is visibly scared of him.

I'm not going to rehome him - he's not dog-aggressive, or even really human-aggressive, just piss-poor social skills. He get's ridiculously over-excited at even a tiny bit of attention, and then starts to bite in a playful but painful way. The doggy equivalent of trying to stick your tongue down someone's throat the second they say hello!

I do realise that if I don't deal with it now, this could escalate into something much worse. I think I need to relook at how we've sorted his living arrangements - an almost totally open plan downstairs makes it a little difficult, and we need to think about the safe spaces for other house pets a bit as well. But right now, we can't move through the main space without him jumping on us - and he sleeps in a space where anyone coming to make a cup of tea wakes him up. I think he needs a quieter, away from the main run, safe space. And a different time out space. Making the two areas the same one is just confusing for him.

This is harder than having a baby!!!

Our mutt was also a nightmare for this (rescue pup got at 9 weeks). Every dog we've had from puppy age ever has been through this phase but some definitely worse than others.

We tried every single suggestion I found on every single forum. Nothing worked. I didn't even notice when it stopped but gradually, it did. She is 2 today and totally grown out of it. She also seems to have bite inhibition which, when she was a pup, I couldn't imagine ever happening...

Springers (and spaniels in general) are very "mouthy" dogs. Try to channel this by teaching him to retrieve, and give him something to distract him if he insists on jumping up and grabbing at you.

Short, frequent training sessions are the way to go, and not too much rough play, because he obviously hasn't learned any bite inhibition yet.

We now have a highly recommended dog behaviourist (recommended by a lady who fosters rescue dogs, backed up by vet and one other person we trust) coming for a visit tomorrow. Hopefully she can set us on the right track!

We've rearranged the pet areas, which means he now has a quiet area away from the main run of the house. This seems to be working better - he has clear "needing downtime" signals, and after about 3 mins of protest, falls straight to sleep in his bed when popped in there.

We haven't put a crate in there yet - and he still has a time-out area (DDs playhouse which she has outgrown with a stair gate across the door).

Today has been markedly better as a result. He's been visibly happier, less bitey, more mouthy (which is fine, he's a spaniel after all) and generally more content to mooch around and rootle in the bushes (I'll worry about by herbaceous borders another day!)

Joffrey you give me hope!!!!

Just thought you would like to know that two lessons with the behaviourist have made an enormous difference. He's still a bit jumpy and nippy sometimes, and is still chasing our cat, but a massive improvement.

He's happily sitting at my feet right now!

We'll work on the cat chasing soon - the cat doesn't seem too pissed off and gets plenty of cuddle time still, so is happy, but it won't be great for him if it continues. Anyone got any good suggestions about that? I haven't asked the behaviourist yet about it - will do that next week.

We had a really bitey puppy when I was younger. If bitten, we'd yelp, then hold their nose and firmly say 'NO BITING' then ignore them for 20 seconds. After the 20 seconds we'd go back to playing or fussing them and if there wasn't another bite, they got a treat. If they bit again, we repeated the whole thing.

Another update - we had a wonderful weekend with puppy where he was completely happy playing with all of us, or just mooching around whilst we were doing other things, with barely a sign of a bite. The only negative behaviour was when he was tired - when he got a bit growly, but he went to his "room" very happily and fell asleep, waking up happy and chilled again.

This week has all been positive so far. He's a soppy little thing - I think this is going to work just fine!!

It sounds like excellent progress so far

Please keep updating

I will do - I think I'm falling in love with this gorgeous puppy! We're doing a tonne of training and "activity" based stuff with him, which seems to be providing the mental as well as physical stimulation that he needs.

He spent a good couple of hours sitting next to me with his head on my feet. Farting away, but nobody's perfect.

Even DD comes running to see him when she's home now.

He ate one of my gardening gloves yesterday, but that was my fault for leaving it lying on the grass. You live and learn!

He's had a couple of encounters with next doors' dogs through the fence, seems a bit scared when they bark. He had his second set of vax yesterday, so outdoor walks start this weekend, let's see how that goes. I have a feeling that could be a bit challenging!!!

Cat still hates him - we'll work on that.

We have a boxer that was very interested in chasing our 2 cats but they've sorted it out amongst themselves, the puppy still wants to be best friends with the cats but after a bop on the noise from the angry black cat who's arse he'd just licked he now has a healthy respect for they're personal space.

Great advice from everyone and I'm really glad that things are getting better. I dont know if you've had a Springer before but they are wonderful dogs, once he's over the real puppy wildness, they are so easy to train and so loving. Ours is 14 and you can still teach him to do new things.Well done for perservering

Picture of soppy puppy - he's mastered sitting, at least!

In case anyone still has an eye on this thread, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who posted advice. After following a lot of it, I'm delighted to be able to report that the canine cannonball with teeth has miraculously transformed into, well, just a canine cannonball!

He occasionally still mouths my toes when he's super excited, but the teeth are well under control, he's learning all kinds of commands and agility tricks (recall is still a bit ropey when other dogs are around), he's sleeping well, feeding well, playing well, walking well, and has become a very much loved member of the household. He's unbelievably fast to learn, and is really enjoying his training, and, dare I say it, living with us.

The cat still hates him, but tolerates his presence, so that's fine. And cat gets plenty of one-on-one time with DD, which is what he craves.

DD now wants another puppy to add to the crew! I might say no to that request. Maybe.

I don't have any advice but just wanted to say how heartwarming it has been to read your dedication and obvious love for your pup. Thank goodness you were destined to bring up this little one.

We nearly have a matching one. Here's our little rescue.

Gorgeous dog!

I do feel a bit like we were destined to have this crazy spaniel. He's completely besotted with by DH and follows him around everywhere - very cute to watch.

I may be a little late to the party here, but we managed to solve the same issue with our golden lab puppy earlier this year.

It's quite common in young dogs to like to bite things, not only because it's just playful to them, but their teeth are still growing as this can be quite uncomfortable for them. When they bite it's somewhat relieving, even just in a phycological way.

We were advised by a dog trainer to try and make it obvious that a bite was painful to us. Trying to imitate the noises a dog makes while in pain.