Aggression/Biting?
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Hi Phoenix, sorry to hear you're having problems with Kaya. I know where you are coming from. Malaika is 15 weeks old and we can't realy get down on the floor and play with her due to the constant biting, we play games like fetch so as to try and not whip her up. However she constantly leaps at us, particularly me or my younger son. She actualy hurts. We immediately stop play and tell her No Biteing. I did try the yelping approach but found it whipped her up worse, on another thread i discovered that a high pitched yelp can trigger the prey drive :O
I try to distract her by doing a little training session.
We do however get lots of cuddles from her when she's tired, do you manage this with Kaya. When sleepy she likes to mouth our hands very gently so i guess she must be learning about a soft mouth to get what she wants. -
I have never heard that, yelping triggers prey drive?…. In the litter, when play in too rough, that is what litter mates so, yelp (or scream at the top of their little lungs)... and Mom's "roar" as do other adults when the play is too rough.... it breaks the cycle so that you have a chance (small one at that) to redirect the behavior.
Maybe people are confused by thinking that it "stops" the behavior?... it doesn't, it sends a message that it is not appropriate, but then you don't have but a couple of seconds to then re-direct that behavior or stop the play. And even when you (the human) stops the play, doesn't mean they will...
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It doesn't sound like you are having an aggression problem. It's more, like the others have said, bite inhibition and learning how to keep teeth from poking. Baby teeth are much sharper than adult teeth and thus, hurt more when they contact skin.
Regarding rambunctiousness, that's a bit tougher with young dogs. They just have so much energy! She may seem exhausted when you return from your exercise sessions, but often that doesn't last long. "Down" training is a great idea to work on this. With patience, consistency and lots of reinforcement, I believe you will have a well balanced girl.
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The thing that I find, is that many people don't really "mean it" when they yelp. Often they are not very loud and not very convincing that it hurt. When I am working with a mouthy puppy and I "yelp" it is loud and startling so it interupts the play. If your puppy isn't reacting to your yelp then you should try different tones and volume.
If you watch a litter of puppies play when one gets bit too hard, they can really screech and everyone sort of scatters for moment then they usually hop right back into play. If it happens again, the pup is likely to walk away and stop playing with "the bully". This is what we are trying to simulate when training soft mouths and bite inhibition.
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-Or perhaps the bite was preditory drift?
http://www.alldogsgym.com/content/view/378/
squealing children can trigger preydrive.Pat, this was what i meant.
I have tried squealing, yelping very loudly but i find she instantly leaps again for me, you can see the sheer excitement in her eyes. Maybe i'm not quick enough at redirecting but it startles me :O. -
-Or perhaps the bite was preditory drift?
http://www.alldogsgym.com/content/view/378/
squealing children can trigger preydrive.Pat, this was what i meant.
I have tried squealing, yelping very loudly but i find she instantly leaps again for me, you can see the sheer excitement in her eyes. Maybe i'm not quick enough at redirecting but it startles me :O.If she is leaping at you the instant you "yelp" then IMO, as lvoss stated, you need to try a different voice level/sound. It should be very sharp, very loud, enough to give them pause.. sounds like for her, something in the line of a air horn might give her pause… (and nope, not kidding.... it is loud, sharp and it will startle...).... and that is it... the sheer excitement... that she was playing right though the noise she is hearing from you and to her it doesn't mean what you think it should.
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I have to say this since I think words are important. In the title of this thread, the word "aggression" is used. IMO, this is just a puppy being mouthy not aggression. While I don't think anyone responding has responded with the thinking that this puppy is exhibiting "aggression", I do think if the OP (or a side-line reader with the same problem) is thinking that their puppy is exhibiting aggression, that thinking needs to change. Thinking that you puppy is aggressive, puts you in a different mindset of addressing the behavior than the mindset of "this is a mouthy puppy doing what puppies do".
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I have to say this since I think words are important. In the title of this thread, the word "aggression" is used. IMO, this is just a puppy being mouthy not aggression. While I don't think anyone responding has responded with the thinking that this puppy is exhibiting "aggression", I do think if the OP (or a side-line reader with the same problem) is thinking that their puppy is exhibiting aggression, that thinking needs to change. Thinking that you puppy is aggressive, puts you in a different mindset of addressing the behavior than the mindset of "this is a mouthy puppy doing what puppies do".
Well put, you are totally correct and I totally agree and since I have two of the little "monsters" with their "shark" teeth right now also… ggg... I also have the "marks" to prove it... and yes those little teeth hurt, but there is no way my two would even be close to aggressive... just mouthy puppies being puppies... and human body parts get in the way...
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Mouthiness is a weekly topic in Puppy Kindergarten. Every week, someone brings it up. Every week, the class is reminded that we have puppies and that puppies are mouthy.
Yesterday, in puppy class we talked about mouthiness with regards to handling. One of the things we were asked to do as part of our homework was to observe how puppies react to touch. Some dogs are calmed by touch where other dogs are aroused by touch. For some just stroking them calmly gets them excited and wound up and that is when the mouthing starts.
We spent a large part of the class working on handling. We would get a food bank in one hand and then touch the puppy with the other hand. This process helped not only to help get the puppies used to being touched all over but also to help them to be calm when being touched. You can use the food to get the puppy in a down while being stroked so it is being rewarded not only for being touched but also for being in a down.
You don't have to just feed your puppy its meals out of a bowl. You can use their meal times to work on calm behavior and rewarding calm behaviors.
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Thank you all so much for your posts, they truly helped me a lot. Being my first puppy, it is nice to be reaffirmed that she is just a puppy and that this is normal puppy behavior…. I will definitely continue with the training and try to be more consistent with my approaches.
I truly did not think that this was aggression and I'm sorry for the misleading title post; I guess I was involving my own feelings as it has been a little frustrating to say the least. I see how the other puppies are in puppy class, and then there is little Kaya running around barking/yodeling for the entire hour - She is a little diva. Thanks again, and I look forward to continued interactions in this forum!
