Puppy is testing my Wife!

Doberman Squad · 07-31-2008, 09:40 PM

Puppy is testing my Wife..lol

He grabs her jeans and pulls and growls at her! He's 9 weeks!
Is this normal? SHould she just tell him firm no's?

I think it's funny, but not if he was 95lbs!!

howsefrau32 · 07-31-2008, 11:07 PM

I'm sure someone here will give you the best advice, but I can tell you that when we adopted Greta at 11 weeks old, she went through this horrible puppy biting stage that scared the crap out of me, I thought "wow, this dog is just vicious", until I started to learn more about how this breed plays, and she was playing with us like she did her littermates. She got so out of control a couple of times she actually got us on the elbow and drew blood! I was freaked! What we usually do is just ignore her jumping, we walk away and don't play with her at all, but a few times we have had to physically hold onto her and give her a very sharp "NO", and just hold her until she calms down. She is learning, but when she gets wound up she still has a tendency to get jumpy and nippy, but it is improving. She is now 18 week old, and it is getting a lot better, but we still have to occasionally hold onto her and hold her still and tell her NO. Good luck with your littel biter, it will get better!

buddydobe · 08-01-2008, 12:43 AM

Mine at about the same age, nipped a lot with my Mom when she came to visit for an extended stay. I think in my Mom's case, she was getting too reactive to him when it happened...she kind of got worked up about it, so Django thought it was all "play"...he'd do it just to get a rise out of her....but my poor Mom would get very flustered...She'd actually sort of flail her arms around making them look like doggy toys, and so she got a few nicks and dings. So I had to train Mom a lot more...Although she is a saint, training her was much harder than training my pup! Stick to the "Ow" and ignore/leave the room...after time those reps will work...the little pup just wants attention! If they don't get the attention, it'll pretty much stop....knock...knock. However, I personally treat growls as a pretty serious offense. Both times it was him being protective of a treat item...I gave him a very harsh NO, and immediately took his treat away. As result, he's only done it twice.

hbwright · 08-01-2008, 01:10 AM

It sounds like normal puppy play that you have to teach is wrong. It's fun getting this kind of attention and your wife obviously in her own special way encourages it. When this happens she has to be immediately released from the pants and ignored. Play time is over when she does this play. Then, when she is calm, give her the good toys, the appropriate toys and encouraged playing with them. Again, if she goes to the pants, playtime is over, immediately. She'll eventually learn what is acceptable and what is not acceptable play behavior. The trick would be to try to get her to unlatch from the pants without using physical touch as much as possible. Any physical touch at this point is attention to the little pup. Pushing away, shooing away, all good to her. Try as she might ot pull the pants away (not too roughly on the teeth) with as little physical touching as possible. Phew, I say this and it sounds very impossible. LOL. I promise it won't be like this forever. Your pup is young and is still going to be very mouthy. Did you just bring her home or did you get her earlier than 8 weeks? You may want to learn a LOT about bite inhabition. It is difficult for people to teach, but extremely important. In time your pup should be able to mouth you with the perfect amount of pressure as to never cause any kind of physical pain to you, completely necessary if you have children or ever plan to have them visit, and just all around makes a very much more controllable dog.

Doberman Squad · 08-01-2008, 06:33 AM

I see...Ok Thx for all the advice Guys and Gals... I got him at 8 weeks.. He's doing good, just being a puppy I guess.. My Wife def needs more training!!

eclaire · 08-01-2008, 07:39 AM

Rainah did the exact same thing... she was bad for nipping and got myself and my boyfriend more than once. We would give her a sharp NO and walk away from her. Sometimes it worked and sometimes she would just chase after us wanting to 'play' more, but we would just continue to ignore her.

She is just over 5 months now and she doesn't nip anymore (since her puppy teeth fell out and her adult teeth came in she has pretty much stopped the nipping) but now she chomps at us when we are playing with her, but it is totally just a play thing with her. We still give her a NO command as we don't want her to think she can chomp at everyone else. (We don't mind it bc we know she is playing, but my 3 year old neice would probably get freaked out)