Growling

[dgrace]

So Tyson is officially six weeks old now (yes, I already know he's extremely young) and is progressing from lazy puppy to explorer. His reflexes are much faster, he is finally capable of running around, and he's staying awake for longer periods of time which gives the entire family more of a chance to play and socialize with him. There is a downside though!

Tyson has taken to growling and snarling at random. He doesn't growl at the other dogs; heck he's pretty darn pleasant with them! Actually our oldest dog is the one taking a hand in his education. She snarls at him if he bites her and he immediately backs off. He's growling at people. And if we're on the same level (i.e. sitting on the floor with him), he tries wrapping his paws around our arms or legs and biting the hell out of our skin. Now I know he's just a pup and this probably isn't a display of dominant or aggressive behavior but my question is this:

How can my family and I better address this behavior?

So far, we've tried giving him a firm "NO" and redirection. There's always a fair number of his toys in the rooms he frequents most which are my room, the living room, and the kitchen. He seems far more content on trying to bite my hand than the toy though.

I have tried keeping absolutely still so he loses interest but no cigar.

I have also tried squealing loudly and saying "No biting!" or "No growling!". He doesn't even pause or hesitate so I've quit doing that.

Lately what we've had to do is shut him up in another room with a toy and completely ignore him for about a half hour until he settles down and if he growls at us, then we do it again. It usually works after a while.

I'm not exactly sure if this is relevant but his growling was worse when it concerned me and the reason, I think, is that I went on a trip all day long on Saturday, returning around maybe 11:30 p.m. I came back smelling of thousands of different people and considering we didn't socialize Friday night nor all of Saturday, he growled pretty badly when I came back and tried to pet him.

He does have his calm moments (right now he's asleep on the floor) and this morning he actually let me pet him and basically tell him what a good boy he was for going potty outside without a single growl.

I'm not exactly sure if we might accidentally be triggering the growls though. So any advice will definitely be helpful! Thanks in advance!

[zorro13]

Puppies sleep, eat, eliminate, play, and bite the crap out of everything. Make sure you have lots of toys and keep with your redirection training. Work off that energy, on the puppy level of course, take him outside with toys and get him busy. If he continues to go after skin, keep getting him off of you and redirecting. I have found wrapping up towels and soaking them in water to make them squeeshy or freezing them and offering that in their mouths instead can help and let them bite the daylights out of that. I won't go into the young age of the pup sermon, others will be along to offer insight on that as well.

[dgrace]

We are still doing the redirection and we are still ignoring him for a half hour if it escalates to a level we cannot handle. He's settled down considerably since I posted this but this morning it was a pretty nasty affair so back into his room he went.

I have found something he loves to chew on though - jeans, sandals, and edible dog bones. My solution was to buy him the bones and let him gnaw on them throughout the day and - because these jeans were ready for the garbage - cut off a considerable amount of jean and give the piece to him. This morning (before the episode with my mom) we were playing tug. Now the hard part is getting him to understand that he's only allowed to play with that scrap of cloth but wearing shorts and the bones have been helping with that.

I like the idea of a wet towel though. I'll give it a whirl later on today if he gets unruly.

[NowYoe]

Glad you know that you yourself think that six weeks is extreme young to be leaving the nest, because in a pup's live everyday with his mum and sib's is another trainingday! Ignoring such a young pup, to my opinion is not a good training, he just feels lost from the pack, witch could cause anxiouaty. If there's a teething problem; a washcloth filled with icecubes and playfull been offered is an option. However, wouldn't offer him any recogniseble thing's like jeans, socks or so, because a pup doesn't understand if its old or that its a new pare! Good luck with your Pup and make reservations for a pup train. course!

[dgrace]

Ignoring him is what works the best, unfortunately, as he prefers our skin to the toys we provide. I'll try engaging him with the wet towel or one that's wrapped around some ice cubes as you suggested. As for the jeans... well I know it's a bad idea but seeing as he really likes it we just let him have it. Anything to get him to quit biting. He nearly broke the skin a few days ago and that HURT.

And yes, I know he could have learned vital information and now it's lost to him because he's here at home. Luckily, he's got dogs to interact with here. My 5 y/o is, as I mentioned, teaching him to quit being a pest, especially toward her. It's semi-working as now I've figured he's just got a lot of energy to burn and letting him chase her and her correcting him is leaving him tuckered out and a learning experience.

[Scorpion5]

Sounds similar to our 12 wk old girl. Especially when she is sleepy, she gets really nasty then.

[bliss7373]

Ignoring him is what works the best, unfortunately, as he prefers our skin to the toys we provide. I'll try engaging him with the wet towel or one that's wrapped around some ice cubes as you suggested. As for the jeans... well I know it's a bad idea but seeing as he really likes it we just let him have it. Anything to get him to quit biting. He nearly broke the skin a few days ago and that HURT.

It does hurt when they break the skin. I have a high drive, working GSD...my hands looked like I took a weed whacker to them for weeks. I do feel your pain.

Just keep in mind that you have to be consistent and patient. This isn't going to stop quickly...it will take several weeks, quite likely more, considering that your young puppy is missing out on the bite inhibition portion of his time with his littermates.

As far as ignoring him goes, I would say that 30 minutes is far too long. Verbally correct, redirect - and don't forget to praise for successful redirection, even if it is .5 seconds - and only remove him from the situation if he cannot be redirected at all. This should not be happening frequently, he's not learning anything when he's removed. Give it 5 minutes at most, then try again. You need to keep giving him the opportunity to get it right.

Don't forget to really engage him when you redirect. Shake the toy, drag it on the ground, praise him for tugging or even looking at it. It's up to YOU to make the redirection work, not him.

Best of luck!

[NikoJ]

I agree with what Bliss said. My puppy was a crazy chewer. He still is to some extent. Keep your pup stimulated by animating his toys for him. You need to make the toys appear more enticing than your leg.

I can't offer more help with the growling, because we growl back and forth with our puppy when we are playing tug. When he would growl at us we would growl back and then laugh. It is incorporated into our play time. But, there are different levels of growling and I am not sure we are talking about the same thing. As soon as the tug is put away, Niko knows the growl game is over.

[kath]

Originally Posted by Scorpion5

Sounds similar to our 12 wk old girl. Especially when she is sleepy, she gets really nasty then.

My son's 13 week old male also gets "bitey" when he is tired.

[tigerpaw709]

I found that squeaky toys are hard to animate so pups get a bit bored of them quickly. Go to an auto shop and buy a shammy. These are fun for pups because you can animate them pretty easily. They are soft enough to sink their teeth into but rigid enough so that it can satisfy the need to chew.