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First of all let me just say, I'm new to this forum, but it has been a godsend so far. I've spent hours on here just reading and re-reading some of the posts on here. I've read a TON, but this is the first post I'm actually making. I wanted to be sure I had educated myself a lot on various things before bombarding all of you with questions. This will be a very long post I'm sure, and thank you so much to anyone who reads even just a little part of it and is able to hopefully offer some advice.
I have a female twelve-week old Shepard/Lab mix puppy named Juno. She is not spayed yet and has had her first two rounds of shots. We got her at 8 weeks old from a farm in a rural town near us. She was raised in their barn with her littermates and had access to an outdoor enclosure where she could play. We did not meet either parent (something I regret, but of course, hindsight is 20/20). Our living situation: my husband and I just moved from Southern California to Ontario, Canada. We are looking for an apartment, but will likely not move out until around May. So right now there are 5 of us in the house, as well as an older dog, and a cat. Me, my husband, my mother-in-law, my husband's two 15 year old sisters, a ten year old dog (Cody) and a cat (Limerick).
I have several issues where I am concerned or things that I am not sure are actual problem issues, or just normal puppy behavior. My husband is of the mindset that she will grow out of these things, but I am worried that she will not, and everything that I read on here has said that taking a wait-and-see approach with aggressive behaviors is not good to do, as they grow into bad habits in older dogs.
Issue #1: Biting/Nipping/Growling/Snarling/Barking
She has gotten progressively worse with this. She will play bite, nip to get attention, and sometimes it escalates into a very intimidating snarl where she bares her teeth will bark and growl and then lunges at me. She has drawn blood on several occasions and has at times grabbed onto my hand and refused to let go. I have cuts and scratches all over my hands, and noticed last night that I have bruises up my arms where she will nip and pinch my skin with her small little front teeth.
Giving her a smack on the nose does not work, instead it seems to escalate the reaction and pushes her over from just play biting to the snarling attacking aggressiveness. Yelping does the same thing, it only seems to excite her more and escalates the behavior.
I also have tried redirecting her with another toy. She sometimes ignores the toy and will continue to try to go for my hands. Other times, she will take the toy, and then, if I praise her by petting or even talking to her and saying "good girl" she will focus back on me and try to attack my hand. I have tried just not praising or petting her after giving her the toy and it only half seems to work. Sometimes she will take the toy, sit down with it and start chewing on it, and then, she will stop chewing, watch me for a few seconds, and then pounce and attack my hand.
I am not waving my hand in front of her face or anything like that, and I try not to encourage her. I know that sometimes, when I pull my hand back out of her reach that she feels like I am playing, and I guess I'm just not sure what to do from here. This is by far the #1 issue that I am having with her. If this is the only one I could have solved, it would save me so much anxiety and heartache. I have sat crying over this. It is not just me she bites, she will also bite my husband, and although she does not interact with the other members of our family often enough, she has nipped at them as well. She does not have any food aggression and in general does not have toy aggression. I routinely pet her while she’s eating and talk to her and pick up her food while she’s eating and hold it for a few seconds and then put it back down again. I usually drop a treat in it when I do this, because I want her to learn that I’m going to give it back, and that it’s also beneficial to her to let me take things. I also occasionally take a toy away while she’s playing with it and give her a treat and then give the toy back. If she was bitey, and that’s why I gave her a toy, I don’t take that toy away though until I know she is calmer.
I feel like a large part of this is just her having too much energy in her and not being able to get it out, and I am more than willing to take her on long walks, but that brings us up to my second issue.
Issue #2: Pulling on Leash and Refusal to go on Walks
We are using a harness with her as opposed to attaching the leash to a normal collar. I focused a lot on getting her used to the leash and harness when we first got her and she is comfortable having both the harness on her and the leash attached. She has no fear of either, and I have made it a part of her routine when she is coming out of her crate. She immediately sits and lets me put the harness on her and she doesn’t fight me about it at all. I am home all day and so I keep her tethered to me at all times unless we are in my bedroom, and then I allow her off the leash but I keep a close eye on her.
Her pulling on the leash started I guess when she would be tethered to me during the day, she would pull sometimes and I would correct her by saying no and jerking her back. It didn’t seem to curtail her pulling, and then a friend told me that I needed to establish myself as the alpha so I should just drag her along and force to accept that she has to go where I go and then she would learn that struggling against me wouldn’t get her anywhere. And that got us I guess to where we are now. When I take her into the backyard to go potty I have her on the leash because we do not have a fully fenced in backyard, and she pulls back there. I have tried just stopping when she pulls, and praising her again when the leash goes loose. This doesn’t seem to be helping, but maybe I haven’t been patient enough and need to give it more time.
A big problem is her outright refusal to go on walks. She will lay flat on the ground if I try to get her to go out the front door. I have to hold the leash directly above her and pull her up and pretty much drag her out and she struggles the whole way. When we get outside she will either be way behind as far back as the leash will let her go, and she’ll stay low to the ground with her tail between her legs, or she’ll be RIGHT UNDER my feet causing me to step on her, which only makes her more scared, or she’ll be pulling ahead of me. The stopping and waiting seems to be ineffective on walks as well. If a car passes us she will sit down immediately and watch it while it passes or she’ll lie down on the ground and dig in and refuse to move. I tried this morning to start our walk by going out the back door instead and the moment we got around the side of the house she dug in and refused to move. I KNOW this dog needs exercise. She runs circles in my bedroom jumping from the bed onto the floor and racing between corners of the room. I know she needs exercise but she will not go on walks and I worry that I have somehow done something to make her not want to go on walks.
She is little still right now and I can for the most part control by strength while she’s on the leash, but she’s going to be big, and I have to get a handle on this before it gets to the point where she’s big and I can’t control her. I want to be able to take her jogging with me in the mornings and as spring and summer is coming along, I want to be able to take her hiking with me, and I won’t be able to if she is always pulling.
(continuing in new post because the forum said it was too long )
I have a female twelve-week old Shepard/Lab mix puppy named Juno. She is not spayed yet and has had her first two rounds of shots. We got her at 8 weeks old from a farm in a rural town near us. She was raised in their barn with her littermates and had access to an outdoor enclosure where she could play. We did not meet either parent (something I regret, but of course, hindsight is 20/20). Our living situation: my husband and I just moved from Southern California to Ontario, Canada. We are looking for an apartment, but will likely not move out until around May. So right now there are 5 of us in the house, as well as an older dog, and a cat. Me, my husband, my mother-in-law, my husband's two 15 year old sisters, a ten year old dog (Cody) and a cat (Limerick).
I have several issues where I am concerned or things that I am not sure are actual problem issues, or just normal puppy behavior. My husband is of the mindset that she will grow out of these things, but I am worried that she will not, and everything that I read on here has said that taking a wait-and-see approach with aggressive behaviors is not good to do, as they grow into bad habits in older dogs.
Issue #1: Biting/Nipping/Growling/Snarling/Barking
She has gotten progressively worse with this. She will play bite, nip to get attention, and sometimes it escalates into a very intimidating snarl where she bares her teeth will bark and growl and then lunges at me. She has drawn blood on several occasions and has at times grabbed onto my hand and refused to let go. I have cuts and scratches all over my hands, and noticed last night that I have bruises up my arms where she will nip and pinch my skin with her small little front teeth.
Giving her a smack on the nose does not work, instead it seems to escalate the reaction and pushes her over from just play biting to the snarling attacking aggressiveness. Yelping does the same thing, it only seems to excite her more and escalates the behavior.
I also have tried redirecting her with another toy. She sometimes ignores the toy and will continue to try to go for my hands. Other times, she will take the toy, and then, if I praise her by petting or even talking to her and saying "good girl" she will focus back on me and try to attack my hand. I have tried just not praising or petting her after giving her the toy and it only half seems to work. Sometimes she will take the toy, sit down with it and start chewing on it, and then, she will stop chewing, watch me for a few seconds, and then pounce and attack my hand.
I am not waving my hand in front of her face or anything like that, and I try not to encourage her. I know that sometimes, when I pull my hand back out of her reach that she feels like I am playing, and I guess I'm just not sure what to do from here. This is by far the #1 issue that I am having with her. If this is the only one I could have solved, it would save me so much anxiety and heartache. I have sat crying over this. It is not just me she bites, she will also bite my husband, and although she does not interact with the other members of our family often enough, she has nipped at them as well. She does not have any food aggression and in general does not have toy aggression. I routinely pet her while she’s eating and talk to her and pick up her food while she’s eating and hold it for a few seconds and then put it back down again. I usually drop a treat in it when I do this, because I want her to learn that I’m going to give it back, and that it’s also beneficial to her to let me take things. I also occasionally take a toy away while she’s playing with it and give her a treat and then give the toy back. If she was bitey, and that’s why I gave her a toy, I don’t take that toy away though until I know she is calmer.
I feel like a large part of this is just her having too much energy in her and not being able to get it out, and I am more than willing to take her on long walks, but that brings us up to my second issue.
Issue #2: Pulling on Leash and Refusal to go on Walks
We are using a harness with her as opposed to attaching the leash to a normal collar. I focused a lot on getting her used to the leash and harness when we first got her and she is comfortable having both the harness on her and the leash attached. She has no fear of either, and I have made it a part of her routine when she is coming out of her crate. She immediately sits and lets me put the harness on her and she doesn’t fight me about it at all. I am home all day and so I keep her tethered to me at all times unless we are in my bedroom, and then I allow her off the leash but I keep a close eye on her.
Her pulling on the leash started I guess when she would be tethered to me during the day, she would pull sometimes and I would correct her by saying no and jerking her back. It didn’t seem to curtail her pulling, and then a friend told me that I needed to establish myself as the alpha so I should just drag her along and force to accept that she has to go where I go and then she would learn that struggling against me wouldn’t get her anywhere. And that got us I guess to where we are now. When I take her into the backyard to go potty I have her on the leash because we do not have a fully fenced in backyard, and she pulls back there. I have tried just stopping when she pulls, and praising her again when the leash goes loose. This doesn’t seem to be helping, but maybe I haven’t been patient enough and need to give it more time.
A big problem is her outright refusal to go on walks. She will lay flat on the ground if I try to get her to go out the front door. I have to hold the leash directly above her and pull her up and pretty much drag her out and she struggles the whole way. When we get outside she will either be way behind as far back as the leash will let her go, and she’ll stay low to the ground with her tail between her legs, or she’ll be RIGHT UNDER my feet causing me to step on her, which only makes her more scared, or she’ll be pulling ahead of me. The stopping and waiting seems to be ineffective on walks as well. If a car passes us she will sit down immediately and watch it while it passes or she’ll lie down on the ground and dig in and refuse to move. I tried this morning to start our walk by going out the back door instead and the moment we got around the side of the house she dug in and refused to move. I KNOW this dog needs exercise. She runs circles in my bedroom jumping from the bed onto the floor and racing between corners of the room. I know she needs exercise but she will not go on walks and I worry that I have somehow done something to make her not want to go on walks.
She is little still right now and I can for the most part control by strength while she’s on the leash, but she’s going to be big, and I have to get a handle on this before it gets to the point where she’s big and I can’t control her. I want to be able to take her jogging with me in the mornings and as spring and summer is coming along, I want to be able to take her hiking with me, and I won’t be able to if she is always pulling.
(continuing in new post because the forum said it was too long )