My boys have been begging for a dog for a year now, so we finally gave in and got a 2 month old shar pei lab mix last month. He's a great dog but, since he's just a puppy, he still has a LOT of energy and that translates to him playing kind of aggressively with my boys. They get him wound up and he nips them to the point where it kind of scares them sometimes. How do I get him to not bite when he plays? I know puppies gonna puppy, but I'm trying to figure out the best way to train him to not nip so hard and so often. Any suggestions from you dog owners?
When I first got my dog, he had a horrible habit of trying to play bite and a trainer told me that whenever he did it to make a high-pitched yelping type noise because that's the sound that puppies typically make when another puppy starts playing too roughly. Sometimes I felt a bit emasculated when doing it but it worked like a charm over time and he stopped.
I had a great shar pei that I rescued before I had kids. He was a great dog. Post a photo so we can see what this Shar Pei Lab mix looks like. Sounds like he'll be a good dog. As for the biting Anticope is right on with making a sound to let him know it hurts and then giving him something that he can bite. Puppies like to bite things and chew things and will bite and chew on each other if left to their own devices so keep plenty of ropes and toys around to shove one in his mouth when he starts to nip at them. I'd also recommend against saying no all the time... use a sound/phrase like naught/not and say it sharply. My dogs respond to that as well as when I see them about to get into something they shouldn't "Nnnnntttt Nnnnntt" with a shake of the head followed by 'leave it' or sometimes just 'leave it' works. Good luck and lets see a photo of ima_puppy2k.
Nice, congrats on the new pup. My pitbull mix used to always want to chew on my hands and fingers when he was a puppy. I introduced him to the toy chuckit balls, and he now walks around everywhere chewing those like it's gum. Almost an immediate fix.
You must pee on him while stomping a foot on the ground repetitively to establish dominance. The rest will take care of itself, as you are now the Alpha.
Had a Rott and he would do this constantly. Did the high pitched noise thing but mainly distracted him with toys and let him take his energy out on those. Eventually he got over it. They're supposed to shed that early and be taught that by their litter mates. They will naturally put him in his place because it does hurt.
Never heard of the high pitch thing. Interesting. Sounds like a cool thing to teach the boys. For me as owner, if the puppy is nipping at me, I'd probably do something else like what the momma dog would do to ween One tip about toys if you have many different types lying around: this can lead to them thinking everything is a toy, including shoes. But I've only experienced that once with a dog that was left alone during the day.
Dog didn't play bite me, but he'd bark a lot (vacuum cleaner and such). When he barked, I squirted him on his back side with a water mister. He hated it, and stopped barking at the thing. I have a smaller dog I did that with too, but he just turned around and tried to drink the water.
Hmm, I can't think atm (just lost my dog last night at ER, he was 8 and lab/retriever mix and so random... all vacs/heartworm etc done regularly, just had bad luck w/ undx'd internal tumor, no indications until too late, just went fast from internal rupture, vets assured me nothing could be done but I wanted another 4-6+ years...), so one tip is to spend a lot of time, it goes quick . Sorry for that, just sad atm... And congratulations on puppy addition! anyway, high pitched sound/loud sound (as mentioned), can of nails/pennies that you shake etc. there's lots of options on stopping the dog from biting skin too hard that work. Even not playing with the dog or stopping when aggressive, lots of easy options that establish simple feedback system. Another important thing to do with young kids is have them play with the dogs food while he's eating/pull him away etc, I can't remember steps atm (so def look up..), but basically it gets dogs accustomed to the kids and knows they can't get aggressive/show dominance even in a feeding situation. It's important to do this while the dog is a puppy. I had my dog pretty well mannered with humans/all kids by a couple of months in. Never growled or got mad if food was taken or messed with, never nipped any kids even if they were playing rough or pulling on his tail, obviously I didn't want his tail pulled so got the kids to stop, but it's example of dog knowing they can't snap/nip/bite humans. Like my kids would feed him and could take his food or pull him away any time and he would be fine, none of that crazy Cujo stuff where the dog snaps when food bowl is reached for. It's important to do this young, once the dog is old it's hard to change, I want to say starting step was having you and the kids take turns with the feeding, the dog basically needs to know that humans get priority or you'll end up with Cesar Milan using broom to test dog with food they're eating etc. Sorry , that's just easy example of simple training gone wrong. And start commands ASAP, I would start once the dog knows name (I honestly can't remember when but it's early), like Sit, lay down, stay (even when food to retrieve), come etc were all learned early on. Then add from there/combine etc. Anyway, good luck with the puppy, I wish I was at that stage again! On a side note that's great you got a puppy, that's easier time to train with the kids, especially vs an older dog that wasn't around any. It's a great bonding experience that can be shared.
Ima, this technique really works. Also have you or your boys just turn away from the puppy after you yelp in pain. Puppies will learn this really fast. As others have said, do NOT say "no" all the time. In fact, don't use any increase in volume unless you're saying something fun during play time and do not REPEAT any command, or they'll ignore you more than ever. The best dog training is a kind of low, soft voice when you mean business, at least indoors. They have great hearing and will listen. Also am a real advocate of crate training when the dogs are young. They (usually) learn to love the crate after just a few days and it becomes kind of a refuge. Our dog still looks for her crate as a safe space when we get the vacuum out, even though the crate has been gone now for years. Have fun. I think it's a natural and healthy thing to have a dog in the house. And all kinds of studies show they lower your blood pressure, increase your immune system health, etc. (Even while they chew the **** out of something valuable, like your hands.)
I can't host images at work, but this is pretty much exactly what he looks like: Sounds like we're on the right track. We have lots of chew toys, we have a (beer) can full of pennies we shake at him when he gets too aggressive. Seems to be working, but I guess we just have to be patient. When he nips at any of us, I immediately yell "OW!!" and give him a chew toy. He prefers our toes, but I guess we just have to stick with it. Getting a little better every day. He's getting much better at peeing and pooping outside and holding it all in until we can get him out there, but he still has a spot on the carpet he occasionally pees on. Is there some kind of spray I can buy to deter him from picking that spot?
Lots of good advice in this thread. A number of interesting comments on the use of "no." Besides not using it too much, I read somewhere a long time ago that you should distinguish between behavior that is never acceptable (biting or jumping on people), when you say "no" in a low and stern voice, and behavior that is sometimes acceptable but not at that moment. For example, you may want your dog to bark when someone comes to the door or is in the backyard, but not after you have acknowledged you are aware of the situation. For those times, I used "enough." This distinction may seem silly to some folks, but it made sense to me and worked for me and my dogs. Good luck.
Whenever my dogs would act up, I simply turn my back away from them and ignore them. Negative reinforcement is still giving a dog attention which is what they really want. They want you to notice them and play with them. If you turn your back on them when they start to jump on you then they can't play. Eventually they pick up what is good behavior (not jumping on you or your family or using their mouths to play bite on clothes, shoes, fingers, etc.) and what is bad behavior. Never tried the high pitched yelp but it does indeed work whenever I've seen my dogs play a little too rough with one another. Some owners would think this could be cruel but I really like prong collars for teaching a dog not to pull you when you go on walks. A prong collar has little pinchers that pinch on the dogs neck when it tugs on the leash that eases up whenever they walk more by your side. It's the fastest fix I've ever used to teach my dogs not to pull when we walk and it doesn't harm them like a choke collar would which can do real damage to their neck. The idea behind it is a mom dog pinches her puppies neck slightly when trying to correct their behavior when they're young and the prong collar operates similarly when it pinches on them when they tug on the leash too much. I'm pretty sure you can buy them at Tomlinson's if you're around the Austin area or online at Amazon. Some dogs can be aggressive with food. I would try and get everyone in your family to do a rotation in feeding the dog so it respects everyone in the house equally. Otherwise it will play favorites if say only one person feeds the dog everyday. If you get your kids to feed the dogs, it'll start to recognize them as a food source and will be less of a pain as you wean it out of bad habits. The biggest thing is consistency. So that means making sure everyone in your family is on the same page in how to encourage good behavior and what to do when your dog displays bad behavior. If you got one family member who isn't on the same page as everyone else, it can confuse the dog as to what it acceptable and what isn't. Above all though, all dogs up until about the age of 2-3 are pretty hyper and have a lot of energy so keep it busy especially for the next couple of years until it starts to mellow out on its own. Once you're sure your pup is all up to date with it's vaccines like Parvo, start taking it to dog parks so it can get used to socializing with other dogs. Try taking it out with you to a restaurant with an outdoor patio that's dog friendly so it can get used to being around strangers. It's really important to do this especially when they're puppies because this is the best time to teach them good behavior and how to socialize properly with other people and dogs.
