snarling/growling puppy?

[rsjenni]

hey... our 9wk old when he plays gets pretty rowdy...it escalates and it may be our fault for playing too rowdy (possibly), but he sometimes snarles, meanly and nips a faces. Not a good sign in a young one and we want to prevent and stop this before it gets worse or some child gets bitten. Any suggestions... don't want to use the crate as negative reinforcement... don't want to scream "no"... don't want to do anything negative... then how do we control this behavior... any help?

 

[xenaprincess]

Best thing to do is a search of the forums..training...puppy forum, etc. Tons of information on this topic can be found! Remember, he's a puppy and it's up to you now to let him know what is acceptable and what is not. Give him lots of chew toys. When he nips you...ignore him. He'll eventually get the message! He should outgrow this in a short time. Our Spirit was the same way! Now he will be 1 in a few weeks and he is much tamer when playing..he knows nipping is not acceptable! Good luck!

 

[boxbud]

Mine did stop nipping as he got older. I just told him no biting in a normal tone and I would walk away. He seems to have gotten the message. He is 19 months old. If he gets very hyper, sometimes he forgets and I remind him again. He has never bitten hard but he knows no teeth on skin.

He does growl when he plays with his toys. I was told that is acceptable because it is a play growl not an aggressive growl. I was worried about that but I did some research and the trainers told me it is OK.

Yours will settle down. They do as they get older but please be sure to get the message across someway. Research on the site and you should get some more advice.

 

[Thomas Liggin]

Do a search on bite inhibition.

The best technique that I have found to discourage aggressive biting is to "abandon" your pup. Puppy play in Boxers and even adult Boxers is frequently noisy and vicious sounding.

When your pup gets aggressive, go where he cannot follow. Put up some baby gates that you can step over and he can't follow. leave him alone for a few minutes to ponder the consequences of his action.

When one puppy hurts another during play, the "hurt" puppy will go off to "lick his wounds", which brings play to an end. Since puppy teeth are like needles, they can cause sharp pain without inflicting serious harm.

Since dogs only have their mouths and paws to use in play, they learn how to mouth without applying pressure.

What you are experiencing sounds like typical puppy behavior. If everyone in the home is consistent in "abandoning" your pup, he'll pick up on it quickly. It may only take a couple of times, or a couple of days for him to get the point.


Tom

 

[Jaime&Louie]

I agree with Tom. Distraction, or abandonment worked really well when mine was a baby. He never had much problem with it, but he'd get a little rough and so I had to set parameters of how agressive he was allowed to be. Now, that he's almost 3 he knows his limits, and if he crosses the line, he knows that too.
Good luck!!!

 

[PawPrintBoxers]

Items of Advice

1. Never put your face near a puppy or older dog. Especially not in play.

2. If you notice the playing is getting escalating, simply stop. You are in control over playtime and the puppy is looking to you for boundaries.

3. Puppies growl and bark in play all the time. Just as human kids make fearsome sounds when they are play fighting. And just as adult Boxers growl in play.

4. Give your pup plenty of doggy toys to chew on to direct his chewing needs. He needs to chew and he needs boundaries on what is acceptable to chew and what is not. But if you don't give him good items to chew on, he will have to search elsewhere. Even my adult Boxers have quality chewables among their other toys

 

[SkippyToo]

It is not uncommen for a puppy to go through a stage where they bite too hard.

I have always done one of two things:

1) Immediately give the puppy a bone (I use Nyabones) to encourage the dog to bite/chew on something other than me.

2) Make a loud noise (ouch worked for me) and ignore the puppy. By ignoring, the puppy gets the message that you are NOT giving him the type of attention that he desires.

Do not get within a range that allows the puppy to bite somewhere on the face during play time, such as an ear, because it can happen. They get excited and nip (before we train them not to). When sibling puppies are together, at least the ones that I have witnessed, sometimes it is a dominence thing, chewing on the other pups face, ear, chin, etc... , so we have to train them that we are the ones in charge, not the less dominant sibling.

Good luck!

 

[BoxerLoverNC]

Oh man, Koda is ten weeks and we call him the rabid pit-bull. Man he can get going. We do tell him NO! sometimes very loudly, especially when he hurts us or snaps at the face. He will stop and act like we killed him for yellin at him. This being our third, I can tell you, it does stop. All of our puppies did this. Sometimes you would think he was seriously trying to hurt somebody but he's really not. He just doesnt know any better. I even have a pic in my gallery of him going after Shayna "AAAARRRRGGGGG". Vicious I tell ya!

 

[lisabethshaw]

Aggressive Puppy Play - Are we teaching her the wrong thing?

Hi.

We just brought home the sweetest 10 week old girl, Kali, last week. She is completely content to sit in your arms or on your lap. Never even nips at people's fingers. It is unbelievable!

Her older brother, Shiva, will be a year old this week. He was pretty rough with her at first, so we held him on his leash when they played for the first two days. Now when they play, it looks and sounds rough, but he is actually very careful and pretty gentle with her.

Yesterday friends brought their new (8-9 week old) beagle puppy over. Kali was really aggressive to the little guy. (She is 12 lbs and he's only 8 lbs.) She growled the way she does when playing with her brother and though she wasn't biting him hard, she was relentless and totally overwhelmed him. When the beagle's owner picked Kali up to give his puppy a little break, she was sweet as can be again.

I know boxers play hard and it sounds vicious to those who aren't prepared. My fear is that Kali is learning that aggressively is the only way to play. Unfortunately Shiva wasn't very well socialized and perhaps isn't the right role model to teach Kali puppy manners. Will bringing her around other kinds of well-socialized dogs help her learn to play less aggressively?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Lisa

 

[Thomas Liggin]

Ava has always been very sweet and gentle with us. She has always growled viciously in her play with Indy, even to this day.

He has never growled at her, but will moan and whine when they are playing, and she will utter that most threatening growl. He understands that it is only in play, so he doesn't back off, and she never makes good on her "threats".

People who aren't used to seeing Boxers at play are quite likely to be alarmed at the ferocious noises emitted during play. If it seems to be serious, you would be wise to intervene. When one of them means it, the other knows the difference and will usually back off.


Tom