Puppy Advice (merged)

A question about : Puppy Advice (merged)

We are brand spanking new to all things doggie,[& to posting!] so need all the info we can get! I've read through the other posts on this forum & found out so much already-thank you for that.

'A' is a 15week old white Staff/English bull terrier who is developing a somewhat psychotic side to his otherwise friendly nature. For most of his waking hours, he is inquistive, comical, loving & content. Then,with no prior warning,he will lock on to whoever he is sitting next to-hand, sleeve, back, leg-while growling 'with intent'.

At the moment, it is usually the 'victim' who will restrain 'A' by restricting his bite area....how can I explain it? It is an adult [predominantly male] household so we use the space between thumb & forefinger to make a hoop rather like in croquet, to keep 'A' jaws away from anything that will hurt! Because he is still little we do not make actual contact with his neck or throat, & if need be have a spare hand to settle his hind quarters as he scratches to get free. He makes terrible gutteral growls, almost as if he is cursing like some drunken yob. We try not to talk or make eye contact with the pup until he settles, when we will gently stroke him as you would a sleeping baby.

He has 600g of tinned Winalot Puppy with either Pedigree Small Mixer or raw fruit & veg three times a day. We also have a four year old green iguana so they share things like plum, nectarine, beans, pepper, parsnip, celery-I did wonder if it was the grated carrot that started him off, but he hasn't had any for a couple of days & there's no change. I hasten to add they don't eat all of that every day, but I thought it may help if I listed the sort of things we give 'A'.

He also seems to sleep quite a bit, two or three hours after breakfast, maybe another two after lunch, so he is only having one walk a day & that's not far. Usually my son & he will spend an evening visiting with a friend who has two staffies but by all accounts 'A' will grab a quick 40 winks there too!

We have an indoor kennel[crate] but are loathe to use it for punishment & will invest in puppy training when the classes begin again in Sept, but anything we can do before then would be a big help.

Best answers:

• it's part of the terrier make up to lock onto things they're biting. And it's a puppy thing to explore the world with their teeth. I'm not sure how much of what you're describing is play though as it depends on what's going on before it happens. It may well be that he'd practising and has turned it into a game with the person interactign with him by adding to the game by pushing him away so giving him something to test his strength against. In a litter pups the other pup will yelp if the pup has gone too far in the play so it may be worth trying a high pitched 'yikes' or 'ouch' as soon as he does it (with no other contact) to see if he'll then let go. If that works then it's a matter of teaching him what he's allowed to lock onto and what he isn't - maybe buy a kong or other strong toy for him to lock his teeth into.
  Personally I wouldn't feed Pedigree but there are others who can give better advice on diet.
  As for sleeping - it's perfectly normal and it's what dogs are basically designed to do and puppies will do it even more.
• Get the pup - or more importantly yourself - into a puppy training school pronto. They will show you a number of techniques to control this - and control it, you must, before the pup learns that it might be acceptable. Locking on with puppy teeth and a puppy's weight is one thing - but the fully grown dog, with huge gnashers locking on to a child in five years time, really doesn't bear thinking about.
  Off to school
  Unusual (around here, anyway) for puppy school to take holidays. Would you consider paying for one-to-one sessions with a trainer before September? I paid £30 for 1.5 hours and it was absolutely invaluable - worth every penny as the trainer focuses on YOU and YOUR pup.
  HTH
• Puppies do bite - it's what they are designed to do - they certainly don't need needle sharp teeth to suckle....
  Here is an excellent article on puppy biting - they whys, and how to stop it https://www.jersey.net/~mountaindog/berner1/bitestop.htm
  I too would consider changing his diet - The four I hihgly recommend are 'complete dry' foods - I notice at the moment you are feeding him a mix of tinned and mixer so he may need a little more time to adjust to a dry complete (he'd probably appreciate it moistened a little). The following are probably the better end of the market - Arden Grange, Nutro, James Wellbeloved and Burns. If you want to keep to moist food, try Nature Diet or Natures Menu - these too are complete foods, so don't need any added mixer.
  Whilst we're talking about moistening food - he's probably teething, so he may have connected the discomfort of teething with having his mouth restricted - if you had tooth ache you wouldn't want anyone near your mouth would you? Cooling things are often appreciated by teething puppies - so stuff that Kong with moist food or even low fat yoghurt, and freeze it. Alternatively, he may be experiencing a reaction to something in his food - if there's a pattern to the behaviour and it's happening X min/hours after being fed.
  I would also be careful about the type of play he's indluging in with his doggie friends - he may be getting encouragement to play seriously rough there - and a good puppy class will help to teach him to play nicely as he can be exposed to a variety of puppies, large and small.
• Another good free tip for teething is to slightly moisten a flannel, tie it in a knot and freeze. The texture of the cold flannel is great for teeth and gums.
  This is my 8month old pups fave toy and always has been! Or even an old towel washed and ripped up then tied into interesting knots. Make sure it is tied so he knows the difference between toys and your towels though!
  But dont play 'tug' with him for another few months, you could pull baby teeth and newly grown adult teeth out.
• What Raksha said .
  Seriously, biting's probably the easiest thing to sort out when it comes to puppy behaviour - and also one of the worst things to screw up on, so well done for addressing the issue. The growling and gripping are very probably down to breed and age, but definitely need to be dealt with promptly. I had a quick scan through Raksha's link and it looks really good.
  Provided everyone in the home follows the same procedure I'd say 90% of these cases are sorted in a couple of days. Puppy bites = it hurts = victim yells 'ouch', and leaves the room. It's important not to make any other interaction with the puppy at this stage - withdraw all eye contact/no shouting/no talking/don't use the word 'no'/don't 'wrestle' with the puppy. Just walk away - 15-30 seconds out of the room is probably enough. Puppy learns extremely quickly that biting results in withdrawal of the attention-giving, squeaky-noise-making, generally-fun-to-be-around human being. Puppy stops biting.
  Good luck!
• Thank you for the swift replies! I had read before about the kongs & freezing them, but wasn't sure if the little angel was old enough for things like dairy.
  The towelling is something else we will try-I've some old nappies in the airing cupboard that should do the trick[if the moths haven't had them first!].
  There does not seem to be any pattern to why A should start this behaviour, & it can last from 5 to 25mins. We've yelped; turned our backs; tried giving him a chew toy or rawhide bone-so leaving the room will be next on the agenda.
  From my point of things, I'm really enjoying learning alongside the pup & watching his character develop. Even though we are very new to this ourselves, the whole family have always agreed that you don't get dangerous dogs-just pathetically moronic owners.
• Can I recommend a book? The perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey might help.
• just a thought...does it look like an epileptic fit??
• I don't think it's anything medical. I guess I'm just looking for some guidance as to how wee young things try to assert their authority.
  Being a mum to three sons, I've seen plenty of stroppy testosterone thrown around & kinda thought it may transverse the species!
• Puppies are really unlucky - they get teething AND hormones at the same time
• puppy classes are great fun for both - first stop to try
  Have you tried a - water pistol b- empty can of stones and shake or c - makeing a loud slap noise with paper.
  All should be immediate along with a command thats the same every time and time out or whatever you choose........ he's still little (and stubborn!) so keep at it... I would think a hand signalplus a command might be clearer as well (you can drop/reduce as he grows older).
  Dont forget the praise bit (immediate) if it works - he'll want to please
  sounds a great character
  you are going to get loads on this ..try and go by gut instinct and what works best for your situation
• LOL sounds completely normal!
  I breed bull terriers (for over 10 years -not to mention show, judge and sit on local BTC committee) and currently have a 15 week old !!!!! who thinks an enticement to play is locking on my trouser leg/arm and trying to drag me along the floor while growling.
  Its called Growing Up and she will gradually grow out of it. In fact in my breed I have found out that the naughtier these pups are the more intelligent and well balanced dog they grow into.
  I had one woman phone me once who had taken a similar age pup (not one of mine) to a dog trainer and the trainer told her that the pup had a medical problem all for play fighting like this!!! Obviously she knew nothing about terriers and especially Bull Terriers. So pick your dog trainer carefully.
  Foodwise, my pedigree BT is currentley on three meals a day, breakfast rice pudding, lunch raw meat (chicken,tripe, beef) with a small amount of mixer and her dinner is the same as lunch.
  Have owned Staffs previously but think you will find the Bull Terrier side will make a very funny, eccentric dog who likes nothing better than to make you laugh.
• Hi
  Ok-I have 2 young large breed gundogs that I had have since 8 weeks old.
  My advice to you would be:
  1) I use dried,complete food on advice as it is the best as they grow,for healthy bones,teeth and coat.They are still doing great on it and will keep them on this until they are around 18 months old.
  2) If you are using the crate as a house training aid and also to use in the future as his 'den' for when you need him to have calm time,need him out of the way or to sleep in...you must NEVER use it as a punishment! Make it cosy for him and entice him in with a treat then fuss him when he's in there. Build up the time,try shutting the door and build up the time in there.Both my girls are crate trained,sleep in there at night and if used properly-are a great idea.Never leave him in there for long periods of time though in the day in a crate (even as an adult dog)and always leave toys etc for him to play with.I cover the tops of their crates at night with a blanket like a budgie,cuts down visual stimulation and make sit seem more like a den to them.He will think of it as HIS space within your house.
  3) The sleeping is normal for a pup-they are growing like mad,they bounce around then collapse in a heap snoring-let him sleep as he is just recharging his batteries.He may also get 'nazzy' like a toddler if he isn't getting enough kip or is being disturbed.Don't overwalk him either at the mo-build it up gradually as it could cause joint damage in later life.Also-expose him to as much as you can as early as you can,praising good behaviour..for e.g other dogs,bikes,cars,skateboarders,kids,joggers...the last thing you want is a dog that is either scared or chases anything that moves!
  4)The behaviour you describe sounds like soft mouthing-which may not seem like soft to you.Look it up on the net as there is loads of advice about it. We used the yelp thing-but my 2 thought we were just playing.We then tried a rattle bottle and the No command and then tried the water spray on the nose technique-again with the No command. Just don't turn it into a game.Do it and then turn your back-no fuss or loves until he calms down.
  He may just be bored and want to play-thinks that his humans are littermates as this is normal behaviour with pups playfighting etc.Distract him with positve play and avoid pulling/tugging games where it is a competition.Make sure you start the game and end it.
  You have to become pack leader and instill it fast-as pack leader/Top Dog demands respect...otherwise he will think he is the boss and you will have problems.
  One more thing,as I have got carried away-we train our dogs with sardines as a treat.They will do anything with this smelly treat on offer-and it is also really good for keeping their coats in fab condition.
  Good luck-the more you reap the more you sow with pups-love,time,attention,praise and positive discipline (not smacking etc) and lots of it is what I say!
  x
• I think Arfer may have been sneaking a peek at this himself, as he is sitting on my foot quite happily chewing on the knobby end of a beef knot I brought home yesterday pm!
  We are already doing 99.8% of what has been suggested because I've used you guys for research since he came to us-I'm a long time lurker of MSE & always find an answer somewhere lol!
  Just a quickie if I may....he is-for all intents & purpose-pure white, but it's beginning to look as if someone has flicked a fountain pen in his direction. There are little misty patches appearing, or could this be his father's liver & black colouring making a late entry?
  Tuh-new pet owners.....ooood av 'em!
• I have a bulldog as a puppy would just lunge at anyone when she was having a mad half hour .
  Wwe tried a can of air avaliable from pet shops that make a hissing noise, this worked for a while but was quite costly now we have a tin can with pebbles in it if she was being naughty we would shake it just as she started the bad behaviour.
  Now we just have to show her the tin and she stops straight away. Its a bit of trial and error and timing with these pesky dogs.
  Regarding food i only give james well beloved, raw beef or cooked chicken,
  My two are crated but never for bad behaviour they are there beds at night time and while we are away from the home.
• Hi,
  My OH has decided that he wants a puppy fo his 40th, I am looking to for help with where to get one from. I have checked out a couple of sites but all the puppies I want have gone before I get to them.
  So if anyone has any knowledge of where a litter of blue merle collies or collie x retrevier I'd love to hear from you
• Once you ve found a breeder find out when their next litter will be available and then book at puppy.
  We had to wait six months for ours but its now hardship if you know what you are getting and what you want.
  It doesnt matter if it is not there on his actual birthday.
  A dog is for life not just your birthday present.