Giving up 12 week old puppy

[Ridusofyourstupidity]

Please please be kind.

I’ve been quite honest on here about losing my last puppy suddenly to anaphylactic shock and getting our new puppy a few weeks later. Now I’m not sure I can keep her due to her behaviour. It goes beyond anything I’ve experienced. She is 12 weeks old, weighs over 14kg and can reach chest height when she jumps against me.

She is repeatedly attacking me on a near constant basis with seemingly no reason. She will be chewing on a toy, lying down and get up to lunge and jump at me and bite my stomach, legs and arms while growling if I’m standing in the room even if I haven’t moved to draw attention to myself. If I ask for a sit or similar to distract her she’ll snap at me and ignore the request, although she does know ‘Sit’, ‘Down’, ‘Touch’ and will give both paws. When I have to carry her in from the garden she’ll growl and snap at my face. She is a large breed who isn’t meant to do stairs so this is unavoidable.

I can’t enter the room without her attacking me, she’ll bite the backs of my legs or jump up at my side to bite my arm. She’ll try and mount my leg while biting me if I’m still Leaving the room does nothing, she’ll try and block me leaving and she’ll continue when I return, even if calm. Toys do nothing as she will ignore them to jump and continue biting higher. Or she’ll pull my clothing like a tug toy while growling. I’ve tried every kind of toy but she let them go, snarl and dart under them to get back to biting me.

It is either very rough play or something more but it’s unmanageable. I’m now having to leave her alone in the kitchen as I can’t be in there with her, even when calm she will without warning launch at me. I keep trying to go in but it soon becomes too much as she doesn’t stop trying to get to me to bite. 15 mins is the most I’ve lasted with her ignoring toys and being latched on to me.

She’s incredibly difficult to walk even with no distractions as she’ll still attack me and bite me while we’re walking. She refuses all treats on a walk (I’ve tried several) and will pull, be incredibly hyper, running from left to right, and lunge and bite when I stay still.

I’ve done everything we covered in the puppy classes with my last puppy with her from the day we brought her home and none of this has made any difference. She has a marker word and all other commands are the same as before so everyone is on the same page. I’m not sure I’m going to make it through until Friday when I have a private training session booked. I’m utterly miserable and defeated.

I recognise that I may have acted rashly with the breeder. I was just so upset that her first response was that that I couldn’t bear to take her there, the further abuse just fuelled my fire. I do want to talk to the vet tomorrow first but I have composed a message to the breeder for my partner to send. I won’t have anything to do with her.

Hopefully she’ll have calmed down too and they can talk rationally. I guess we’re all just hurt and disappointed that’s like this. I don’t want her going back because I don’t trust them, but at the end of the day it’s still preferable to having her PTS.

Good idea to sleep on it as it seems to be very high emotions today, and quite understandably. Vets are not behaviour experts, they just fix physical problems, so I'm not sure what you are expecting to hear from them really?

The breeder asked specifically if she’d been checked by the vet. She has no signs of anything physically and was signed off as before the last time we were there ( a week and a half ago) but I thought it would be helpful to go back to reconfirm this. I’m not expecting them to do anything behaviour wise.

Signed off as healthy that should say.

Vets are not behaviour experts, they just fix physical problems, so I'm not sure what you are expecting to hear from them really?

Vets often work closely with behaviourists and at my practice they have staff that also specialists in animal behaviour. It's also good to make sure there isn't any physical cause for changes in behaviour such as pain.

I guess it might be useful to get that double checked again, for your peace of mind. Rule out any pain issues.

It does sound to me like an issue with her relationship with you though. Not your fault but identifying this could be the key to resolving it, if you decide to keep her or just in the short term while you wait for her to be rehomed. When can you get the behaviourist round?

Also I wondered how you reacted to her when she is biting you? Do you ignore, crate, tell her off, punish her, what? And does your reaction fuel her zeal, stop her, reduce it, or just make no difference?

It may be that some experienced dog owners here could give you some good suggestions for dealing with the incidents when they happen. There may even be some trained behaviourists here on MN.

I could suggest some things from my own experience, but not without more info on how you react and then how she responds.

@Ridusofyourstupidity Whereabout in the SE are you?

and I second @StrongTea 's suggestion of a muzzle for now. It manages the risk of her hurting someone for now. Until/if she can be trusted.

You can’t just muzzle a dog. They need to be muzzle trained.

I tried turning away, she would bite the back of my legs or jump and bite my side.

I tried redirecting on different toys. Long rope ones, squeaky ones and soft ones. This increased the growling and she would reject them in order to get around them to bite my arm or to jump and bite my stomach or upper thighs. This sounds ridiculous but you know how dogs sniff crotches, she bites at mine. If I throw a toy she watches it and then turns to bite my hand.

I tried redirecting to a desired behaviour so asking her to sit for example to break the focus on biting and give a reason to treat a good behaviour. She’ll either ignore the treat or take it and continue. This worked well for my last puppy.

When all that failed I left the room quickly and calmly and waiting until she was calm before entering again. This when she is most likely to be occupied with a toy which she would drop and continue the behaviour.

Introduce the muzzle slowly and before she gets any bigger and stronger, use treats make it fun. One of mine needs to be muzzled as he hates being brushed. Now he knows after the muzzle he gets a treat. Main issue here is keeping the owner safe.

I’d also try a plug in like adaptil, won’t do any harm. Dog just sounds so worked up.

She plays with toys by herself and isn’t fussed if I pick them up and move them at all. She doesn’t often like to engage with me playing with them with her, even in the garden if I throw her ball, it seems to trigger something and she’ll leave the ball and turn and lunge at me.

All of the behaviour I’ve mentioned is on a regular daily basis. Not necessarily every time I do something, I can go in the kitchen sometimes and she’ll be fine and then others it tips over. Sometimes I can get her to play with her rope toy or her ball but then others she rejects them completely to turn and bite.

When calmer, she’ll listen to me and I can do her basic training with her in the house and she’ll take treats. It’s just when she gets these flashes, they’re like the zoomies as in they just happen and it’s very energetic, but with the snarling, growling, snapping and biting. It can be at any time of day not attached to tiredness. She has puzzle trainers for her mental energy but rejects them.

I have tried to cover every base I can to get to the bottom of it.

Stupid question alert! You don’t look like the breeder or someone there do you?

The man I spoke to at the Dog’s trust asked the same thing. I’m about the same height, slightly bigger build and slightly lighter dark hair.

Sorry, my hair is darker, her’s lighter.

Voice at all similar? What happens if you put on OH’s coat?
I’m not suggesting you should keep her BTW. Just worried you could get hurt!

Voice is different. Him and I share hoodies so I must often smell like him and him like me to be fair but it’s made no difference, she still only reacts to me.

It’s weird. My pup was a bitey little (giant) shitbag but she aimed it at everyone. Especially when overtired or overstimulated.

The thing is, all breeders are out to make money. I’m sure some make money in a reputable way, but they are still making money.

I admire you op. Good luck.

I could understand it if I had accidentally stepped on her paw or something that had scared her and she associated me with it hurting.

I’ve just gone to see her over the stair gate and got a waggy tail licking. She’s absolutely lovely like that until she’s not.

Sorry just coming into this after reading all through. I was thinking if she was picking up your anxiety? Animals are very very sensitive and if she thinks you're highly strung she will be reacting to that? Aggressive behaviour could be for many reasons but as shes singling you out I would be thinking if shes just decided she doesnt feel comfortable with you? Not saying in slightest you're a bad dog owner but you could be making her feel insecure with your desperate need to be the perfect dog mum, especially after what happened not so long ago with your other puppy. Or, what was she like with the breeders when you saw her at theirs? Was she shy of the lady, scared? Was she the most boisterous of the little or seemed reserved? Being taken away from her litter at 7 weeks old is too young in my opinion she needed her mum and litter mates to learn from and with x

She was 8 weeks when she came home, not sure where I said 7 weeks, unless I mistyped?

I honestly don’t think I’ve been overly anxious, though maybe I have and not realised. I’m not scared of her in general, just aware of what’s been happening and what her capabilities are. I still go and be in the kitchen when she’s calm and continue spending time with her. She merrily falls asleep with me in there if she’s calm and will lie on my feet sometimes to chew a toy. She likes a belly scratch or ear rub.

Someone said it’s a filling stress bucket, that overflows and tips them over? I can definitely see that with her, but the bucket seems to change size, and what tips her over isn’t always the same amount of excitement before.