New puppy, desperate for help

[polopolopolopoo]

11 week old pup, very settled in for last 2 weeks with us. For last few days she's turned into a monster and I don't know why or what to do!

It's the constant biting and attacking, she jumps up on the sofa next to me and then goes for my head with teeth and claws, biting and pulling my hair. She bites my hands, my arms, anywhere she can reach.

I've tried to ignore, I get up immediately and turn my back to her. I've put her off the sofa, I've left the room, I've put her in the hallway. Nothing works. She keeps attacking. What do I do? Last week she was the sweetest floppiest furball who slept on me all day.

Is this normal??!

@Iridescentsy the dressing gown cord was my life saver! Quickly became my pups favourite toy and suited me fine. Although he’s coming up two years old and hasn’t grown out of it, I still get dragged around the house 😆

Fuck me don’t do this to your puppy op what terrible advice

@Iridescentsy hi, this is what we had to do with advice from a professional. We had tried everything else and he was beginning to become aggressive. It may be breed specific but this is what worked for us as a last resort and he has grown up to be a lovely dog. He is very well loved and spoilt rotten ☺️

She's using you as the toy - so get something between you that you can both hold or play with.

Throwing a bit of kibble on the floor for her to sniff out can also calm them down.

If she bites or scratches and it hurts you let out a high pitched yelp and turn your back for a min. Rinse and repeat. She’ll soon learn bite inhibition.

Anyone can call themselves a professional dog trainer - just because scaring your dog into submission worked doesn’t mean it’s a kind or effective way to train a dog.

I maintain that it’s terrible advice and nobody should be doing this to their dog in this day and age.

also given that this was given to you as advice for dealing with an aggressive dog as a “last resort” in no way means it would be appropriate advice for dealing with routine play biting in the OPs very young puppy.

if you’re still treating your dog like this then that’s up to you but don’t advocate it for other people - such tactics are as likely to increase aggression as to sort it

I agree with pp, your puppy likely needs more sleep. They need up to 20 hours sleep when a puppy reducing slowly to around 12-14 hours when an adult dog. We don’t let our pup be awake for any longer than an hour in one go. Often he takes himself off into his crate for a snooze if we’re distracted and haven’t popped him in.

Ok I've spent the day with pup, implementing some of your advice. I've crated her during the day for more naps, have always had a toy to hand to replace my own hands, when she bites I've said a firm 'no' and pushed her gently away, and lots of praise when she sits next to me quietly. I'm happy to say that she's reduced her land-sharking by about half this evening. So THANK YOU 🙏 MN doggy people 😀

Fantastic news op! She will keep trying but just be kind, consistent and firm and she will get there!

Yes over tired, my pup was a nightmare when over tired, he is 19 weeks now and so much better, he only gets a little bitey just after breakfast when he gets the zoomies and between 5pm and 7pm when he is hungry, tired and obnoxious, but he will zoomy then zonk and after 8pm he is a cuddle bug, but he couldn't switch off, so need to be put in his crate where he then fell asleep almost instantly, he has never been left to cry or bark in it before the crate haters come for me.

As to dealing with the biting, I did a mixture of withdrawing, saying 'ah ah' and using a toy and if they all failed then a quick time out in the kitchen, now I ask to him focus and can do a little training session to snap him out of it, hang on in there, as they grow out of these phases ever so quickly.

So pleased that puppy’s calming down for you! They’re adorable, but they are absolutely not people and don’t think or feel like we do. (They absolutely DO think and feel, but quite differently than we do.) People who anthropomorphise dogs and drag them everywhere create anxious, highly-strung, unhappy dogs which are unable to self-soothe. They’re absolute nightmares to live next to when the owners go out and can be destructive and aggressive too.

Not a professional - I can guarantee that (as in, someone academincally trained with scientific techniques). Just someone who calls themselves one. None of the accreditation dog training organisations would accept a member who used those techniques.

I am glad you got away with it and I am very glad you now have a lovely and spoiled dog. However, it is worth realising the risk of real harm you cause when advocating such techniques which have been proven to increase the chances of dog-human aggression developing. This kind of action could really damage the relationship between a dog and the owner and could lead to the dog becoming mistrustful of all humans - to the point of aggression.

You gambled and won. But that doesn't mean gambling is good avice.

I have a flying bitey 14 week old land shark,I’ve found that replacing my hand/feet/arm etc with a toy works well.
lots of praise when she’s being calm and lots of down time in her crate to rest.
She had lots of wooden (puppy friendly) dog chews which I also swap for my flesh.

Terrible advice e. No wonder yhere is so much dog aggression about.

We did no eyeballing, no 'NO' ing (dog's can't learn to do a 'no') and every time the teeth came out a toy was shoved in the gob. It mostly stopped when the adult teeth came in and now as an older puppy she runs off to get a toy and shoves it at us when she wants to play.

Better to teach them what you want then damage their confidence by telling them off for very normal behaviour.