Help! 13 week old pup biting and growling at us

[rockofages]

This is our second dog of the same breed. First one was very calm and docile. This one is feisty. How do we cope with her biting our hands, feet, clothes etc as well as furniture, eating stones, sticks in the garden and when we try to stop her she growls and snarls. In despair as she keeps being put back in her pen, comes out sorry but 2 minutes later is doing it again.

She doesn't know it's wrong, she is just learning and play fighting! She is still really young.

Have you tried replacing whatever she bites or chews with an appropriate toy? Every time she nips you, redirect her to an antler or rope toy and praise loads when she takes it. You could also try teaching her to sit, lie down etc and whenever she gets carried away with biting give her a command and then praise and treat when she does it. Make positive associations rather than negative ones like time outs.

Thanks Butfirst, good advice. What should we be saying to her? No! or just ignore and distract? Sometimes we try to walk or turn away rather than shout but it flipping hurts and she keeps coming back for more!

I'm not sure what the official advice would be, we don't tend to say "no" to ours much because it doesn't do much good in it's own! If he gets too excited (usually humping...) we give a sharp "ah ah!" and try and distract with a toy or command.

She's also probably teething and in a bit of pain. You could try frozen raw chicken wings to sooth her gums and keep her distracted for a while!

Thanks - will persevere with kindness and positivity rather than shouting and putting in her pen. How long might this teething stage last? We start at puppy training class next week so hopefully will get more tips there.

Distract immediately and then praise the good behaviour. I used to say "Ah! Ah!" Then give a command or toy to distract. Never use the crate as a punishment. They need to be happy to go in there, particularly for their own safety when they are young.

When she nips you could try doing a sort of yelp and turning away from her so she gets to learn that nipping loses your attention and play time, but only for a very short time.

As ButFirst says, when she is chewing something she shouldn't take it away and give her one of her toys, lots of praise and a treat when she takes it.

Otherwise say whatever you fancy, she won't understand. But what you shouldn't do is shout at her. She'll hear your scary loud voice and either join in by barking or become fearful of the scary noise.

Putting her in her pen just makes that a place she'll associate with the end of playing and, if you're shouting at her, the sound of your frightening voice, which is not what you want.

Keep anything you value out of her reach, so put away things you don't want her to chew.

Lots of calm, positive reinforcement is far more powerful and effective than punishment and loud voices.

It would be very unusual for a 13 week old puppy to be biting, snarling and growling.

Are you sure it's not mouthing for attention and puppy play growling?

What breed is it?

My puppy (fluffy white Bichon Frise) has been renamed "killer" because of his terribly vicious sounding snarls, growls and barks. If one didn't know better it could very well be mistaken for aggression. It is often accompanied by flashing teeth that used to be used on my poor hands. He is now 15 weeks and finally starting to remember that teeth are for toys not hands but he does still get over-exicited of an evening and too mouthy.
We've stuck with diverting his attention on to toys whenever he bites. He isn't aggressive, he is just playing. He likes something he can hold one end of and I the other and we can then tug and growl and snarl and shake the thing to death. He has proper toys for this purpose but seems to prefer and old dead beach ball!
We haven't punished him with time out but sometimes if he is over tired and wildly over excited he will go in his crate to calm down for 5 minutes. I don't think telling him no helps - he doesn't understand the word - but I suspect we say it a lot, that and "stop biting me". Diverting his teeth onto a more appropriate toy helps. You can also wrap a towel round your hands to protect them if he is properly wild!

It gets better!

They're so funny at that age when they're all growly and fierce.

Want to play tuggy with a puppy now after reading your post Cath.