My Dog's Possessed

[lcr100]

MY PUPPY JUST TURNED EIGHT MONTHS AND HE'S OUT OF CONTROL. FOR THE MOST PART HE'S A SWEET, LOVABLE PUP. BUT LATELY, EVERY NOW AND THEN HE STARTS TO BARK/GROWL AND BITE MY WRISTS. HE'S DIFFICULT TO REDIRECT AND BECOMES DOWNRIGHT POSSESSED. IS THIS TYPICAL BEHAVIOR FOR HIS AGE? ANY SUGGESTIONS ON WHAT TO DO? A FRIEND SUGGESTED A PRONG COLLAR?

 

[Mommyof3kck]

I am in no way, shape or form an expert in this area.. But to me it sounds like you need to put your puppy in obedience training. It can't hurt.. I would also try the search button at the top of the page, on the right. Type in "biting" or "aggression" there are lots of posts on the boards about this.. Hope you work it out soon..

 

[Jan]

First off, please don't type in capitals. It is considered yelling. :(

It sounds like your puppy needs some obedience training. You need to find a trainer that uses positive training methods. You will get much further rewarding good behavior, than you will by punishing bad.

Please don't use a prong collar. It is a very negative way of training.

If you do a search on biting, you will find lots of previous threads on the same topic.

Good luck,

It looks like Melissa and I were replying at the same time.

You might want to check out this thread as well.

http://www.boxerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=20041

 

[Lusi]

Our little Lusi is about 7 months old and had been showing signs of the same behavior. She is very willing to please and knows hand signals and verbal commands for sit, heel, stay, down, and others. What worked for us is when she first bites at our sleeve cuffs, we tell her no sternly and walk away from her. Surprisingly, this has been very effective. I think she had been trying to get our attention, and the worst punishment is having us turn our backs! Then, after a few minutes, if she does not try the cuffs again, we give her the attention she was looking for. Also, we had noticed that on days she had plenty of exercise, she was less likely to try to 'entice' us to play with her. The days she was really persistent were the days she did not get out as much. It was always during her hyper times. 2:00 in the afternoon and one last bout of energy before bed at 9:30 pm. She replaced nipping our sleeves and barking obnoxiously with a quick boxer-scoot around the house before bed. Maybe try an extra half an hour of exercise and see if that helps?? Good Luck.

Jen and Joe

 

[Alex Carroll]

My chap simply hates baths. So anytime he misbehaves at home, I just say, "do you want a bath?" and he runs and hides under the table or dives into bed and pretends to be asleep. It never fails.
I can't promise it will work for anybody else. Give it a try but maybe your laddo loves baths!
Alex Carroll

 

[Peggy G]

Puppies go through lots of stages. I have read and experienced that at about 9 months they go through a "testing you" stage. This is probably a new way he is trying out to get some attention. We needed to go back to our early training methods when Scarlet went through this and she found that nothing had changed about her order in the pack so she settled back down in a short period of time. We didnt need to use a prong collar at all, just a little patience. No offence but I think a prong collar is the lazy way out of training, plus it's mean.

When he bites at you...yelp like a dog or cry out "OUCH!" then turn your back on him and walk away. It may take several times over a period of time but it will work. He will get the idea that by biting you it is having the opposite affect of what he wants. Then, when he is playing nice with you praise the heck out of him.

Also, do you give him lots a play attention & exercise each day? When we added daily walks to Scarlets schedule this helped alot. They really start needing some extra play at that age. Even just a 30 minute game of tug or ball throwing in the yard will help. It will give him the attention he is asking for.