We acquired a 6 week old Lab/Aussie mix, he was part of a 12 pup unwanted litter from a rescued bitch. The person who rescued the mom, just could not take care of her and all the pups. At 6 weeks she began to re-home them.
I would normally not take in a dog so young away from the litter, but the condition of the litter was pretty sad. Both the pups and mom were very underweight, as the new owner wasn't all that sure what she was supposed to be doing/feeding, etc. The new owner was talking about surrendering the litter as well, as she couldn't keep up with them anymore. We decided to rescue one of the pups before that happened.
So anyway, we brought the 6 weeker home, and began trying to get him to an acceptable weight. He's been with us for a week, and has been doing great. He's gained the proper weight, is very active and happy (when we saw him with the litter he was pretty lethargic). He's a fun little ball of fuzz, however now I'm taking on the duty of teaching him bite inhibition, and having never housed a puppy this young, I'm not entirely sure how to go about it.
He is very smart, he's already learning to only go potty out in our protected porch (he's not allowed in the yard due to his age), he is also responding well to the "sit" command.
Any tips for teaching him proper bite inhibition would be great. He's a bit of a nipper and a bit mouthy (nothing abnormal, just regular puppy behavior), but we would like to curve that asap.
Thanks
I would normally not take in a dog so young away from the litter, but the condition of the litter was pretty sad. Both the pups and mom were very underweight, as the new owner wasn't all that sure what she was supposed to be doing/feeding, etc. The new owner was talking about surrendering the litter as well, as she couldn't keep up with them anymore. We decided to rescue one of the pups before that happened.
So anyway, we brought the 6 weeker home, and began trying to get him to an acceptable weight. He's been with us for a week, and has been doing great. He's gained the proper weight, is very active and happy (when we saw him with the litter he was pretty lethargic). He's a fun little ball of fuzz, however now I'm taking on the duty of teaching him bite inhibition, and having never housed a puppy this young, I'm not entirely sure how to go about it.
He is very smart, he's already learning to only go potty out in our protected porch (he's not allowed in the yard due to his age), he is also responding well to the "sit" command.
Any tips for teaching him proper bite inhibition would be great. He's a bit of a nipper and a bit mouthy (nothing abnormal, just regular puppy behavior), but we would like to curve that asap.
Thanks