Often an owner of a dog has to change his attitude and ideas about proper behaviour, before he can achieve the result of good manners from this best friend—his dog.
No one wants the new puppy biting children, friends, neighbours or the designated master. Thus there are things you have to understand about puppies and steps you can take.
Just to provide a little background, remember that puppies like to bite and chew. There are going to be some incidents. Older dogs, that have been rescued, will chew of stuff that younger dogs usually ignore. However, concentrating on puppies and their behaviour, your first step is to visit your veterinarian.
You want to rule out any vitamin deficiencies or other problems that may be causing the puppy to be attracted to a particular item. Furthermore, puppies are curious, so be sure to keep all cleaning supplies, air fresheners and other items out of the puppy’s reach.
Not a one step process
Unfortunately, there is no single cause for aggressive behaviour in a puppy and accordingly, no one-step remedy. Among the things that could be the cause of a puppy’s aggression can include worms, contagious stomach maladies, old injuries and even pups that are going through a rapid growth cycle.
Certainly, your puppy has been to the vet for his shots. However, he may need some follow-up visits if you are having trouble controlling him. Just like all humans cannot take the same medication, sometimes the medicine used to prevent various ailments have to be altered.
Besides physical problems resulting from medications or injuries, the next cause of aggression is fear—often fear of the master or the alpha person who is primarily responsible for training and housebreaking the dog.
Things that may seem perfectly normal, like holding your puppy and letting strangers pet him, or putting the puppy in an area with larger dogs can increase the infant, i.e. puppy. Yes, we pass around our newborn babies, but there are usually some consequences at the end of the day. The same is true with puppies.
There Is a Natural Process
New puppies are basically a small body attached to a mouth. Thus the annoying habits of biting and nipping are a part of the normal development for puppies. Therefore, biting becomes a habit after six months.
Now there is biting that hurts a little and biting that draws blood. It is up to the master to determine which methods to use to teach puppies bite inhibition and how much pressure they can use with their teeth.
The best method is to redirect the biting away from your $100 shoes, that you left by the bed, to a chew toy or treat. Have plenty of snacks and chew toys around the house. Some people wear some type of bag around their waist, so they always have a treat or something that will re-direct the attention.
Constant reinforcement by petting and telling the dog, he is being good when he abandons your shoes and goes to the rawhide toy will produce positive results. Furthermore, you direct the puppy’s attention to the object that he should not be chewing and say “no,” and then give the substitute item, such as a treat or toy to chew.
In time, a puppy will learn what items are his toys and will leave your items along, as long as he gets positive reinforcement for good behaviour from all members within the household.
Do not hold a puppy’s mouth shut. It would bother you and naturally it will make the puppy angry. The main step is to redirect the attention of the puppy’s undesirable behaviour to that which is desirable.
Some puppies are harder to train than others. There are training techniques, which are too numerous to mention here. Therefore, if adequate progress is not being made, enrol your puppy in an obedience class. As you can probably guess, classes held at parks or pet stores are better than classes held in parking lots.
The trainer might be good, but the bigger the class class and there is a greater chance of a dog getting away or injured. Choose a class that has 10-15 dogs or less, and you’ll notice that your puppy will learn faster and will be less distracted.
Ultimately, you want your growing puppy to know that he is a member of the family and will be treated with love and kindness. He has to do his part to be part of the family. With proper training and attention having a well trained puppy will really pay off over the long term.
