Pug Puppy is driving us insane!!

[PinkSpring]

We adopted a pug puppy a few months ago, he is now ten months old and is a total pain.

We have a toddler who loves him, but he plays far too rough with her. He constantly jumps and pushes her over. She cannot play with toys on the floor because he steals them and destroys them.

With us, he is very bitey. It's play biting but he hurts and doesn't seem to understand we don't like it. He also jumps all over us if there is food anywhere near by. He rarely just sits down and is quiet, it's like being attacked constantly and it makes us not want to spend time near him because it's not an enjoyable experience!

He also barks ALOT!

We have taken him to training classes and despite the trainer saying he is very intelligent and picks it up quickly, at home it's not the case. He just refuses to listen.

We are expecting another baby in a few months and honestly, I am not sure I trust him. We have considered re homing him, but it feels wrong. We knew about pugs and their puppy stage but we hadn't quite realised just how bad it would be.

If he doesn't settle down and become less aggressive/bitey/pushy, I cannot see how we can keep him.

It is upsetting as we did a lot of research and planning before committing to a dog, but he is like no dog we have ever had.

We haven't had him neutered yet as the vet recommended we wait until over a year, they also said it would be unlikely to change his behaviour anyway.

I am at a loss as to what to do, on one hand - he is causing so many issues for us, I think we should rehome and just accept we were wrong to bring a dog into our home OR do we persevere with him.

I am normally the person who would say they would never imagine re homing a pet but honestly, he has got us so down that we are seriously considering it!

Any advice?

Just a normal pup, but if you are not training him, he will be the one training you

Op do you like the dog? Reading your opening post and subsequent replies I’m not sure you do. My advice would be to rehome. Rightly or wrongly they are a very desirable breed at the moment and it would be kinder for the dog to be rehomed whilst still young (and cute) than you persevere and rehomr him 12 months down the line.

I think at the moment it's a love hate relationship.

He is causing us so many issues that I haven't developed the attachment to him that I had hoped. However, re-homing would be a last resort as it isn't something I particularly want to do unless we had no choice.

I have contacted the person we did training with before and she offers 1:1 sessions in the home so we might try that. We have tried with the training but he seems to be going through a phase and won't pay attention!!

Hi OP, cut his balls off. 2 months later you won't recognise him. Don't wait if it's causing you an issue.

The issues you are having with him are definitely a combination of training (lack of) and just his youth. Our boy was a right handful the first year but we made sure to not encourage barking etc and he basically never makes a peep now (4.5 years).

In regards to cocking his leg, there isn't a set time. I think our boy started cocking around 9 or 10 months but could be wrong.

If he's not loved though it would be best to find him a loving home and while it's still going to be relatively easy for him to be retrained.

Sounds to me like you've already made up your mind and maybe you want reassurance that what you've decided is the right thing? You're not in the right head space to give this little creature what he needs. You call him "rubbish" among other names. Let someone else have the pleasure of taking care and training him.

This will sond horribly blunt and I don't mean it to but he's just untrained. You need to teach him what you want him TO do and not just focus on what you dn't want him to do. How much training do you do with him? For the issues you mentioned you need to be doing a few short sessions (5 mns) every day. And be consistent with the rules. He's not stubborn...he's just doing what works for him. Just make sure any training you do is positive reinforcement based and doesn't use corrections...there's no need and it will backfire int he long run. If you need specific advise in relations to interactions with your daughter or in relation to the new baby there are specialist trainers who can help you with that - google Family Paws Licensed Educators to find someone in your area who can help you

OP please think carefully and do some research before neutering him early in an effort to improve his behaviour.

Modern thinking very much is that this won't help. It's a large and quite complex subject which elicits strong opinions.

Neutering will remove his testosterone which can and does make dogs less brave. This isn't generally a good thing, especially at a young age as it reduces confidence and most real aggression stems from lack of confidence and fear.

As I say it's worth doing your research before making a decision.