Puppy Aggression

[Lindsay03]

I recently rescued a 5 week old Rotweiler mix. We have had him home for about a week now. I have never had a Rottie before and it's been a while since I have had a large breed dog (we have a 2 year old JRT). The puppy is very playfull with the other dog, but he is biting constantly. Biting us and the other dog. He also growls and barks while playing which makes me believe he is getting more aggressive than playful. He is also starting to destroy anything he can get in his mouth. Iam just not sure if this is common with the breed and nothing to worry about, or if we should be worried. I have never seen a 5 week old pup like him! Any suggestions??

[JaniceH]

IMO just being a typical boisterous puppy.

Do a search on puppies and mouthing because there is a wealth of information to help you. The pup needs to learn about bite inhibition and unfortunately it has been taken away from its siblings far too early, to learn this from them. Good luck.

[Llcouttien]

Now I don't think that is aggression at all. When puppies are so young, they use their mouth to explore the world much so like human babies. They are also puppies who are more vocal then others in times of play. I have experienced this with all of the puppies I have gotten over the years. He is doing the same thing with your JRT he would be doing with his litter mates at this stage. I have found that redirecting the biting from me to a toy works best instead of yelling or being angry at the puppy. Whenever the puppy bites you, replace your hand with a toy and the dog should eventually get the clue that the toy is the end result so why not just chew on it. I have also been told to when the dog bites you, to give a little high pitched scream, but I never felt the puppy understood what I was doing. That is just my opinion and I know you'll get a lot more helpful information from this site. And for a more personal insite, my 9 week old puppy right now is a really sweet dog, but is just a vocal player. He is not trying to be aggressive in the least though. Your JRT will naturally put him in his place if it gets out of hand, and will be a great teacher for your growing puppy.

[Sharon Marples]

Please read these threads, you have a lot of work ahead of you because this pup was taken from his siblings way too early. You will need to do lots of work with him with directing him to other things when he starts to bite, etc. Read through all the stickies in the Behavior and Puppy Development forums, they will give you lots of information and you can also do a search on here for "puppy biting" or something similiar and come up with lots of posts as well. there are also similiar posts at the bottom of this page that you can refer to.

http://www.rottweiler.net/forums/pup...nance-etc.html

http://www.rottweiler.net/forums/pup...velopment.html

[jakesfostermom]

Originally Posted by JaniceH

IMO just being a typical boisterous puppy.

I agree completely! I hope you will read/learn/educate yourself on owning a rottweiler mix puppy to put yourself at ease on the typical puppy behavior as well as the leadership/training needs your pup should get from you, to mature into a great family pet. But he won't get there by himself.....good luck to you!

[Lindsay03]

Thanks for the good advise. I just want to make sure my husband and I do it right with our pup since he was taken so young.