The older dog is calming down. Frankly, I bribed her. Every time she would sniff the puppy without growling, I’d give her a treat. It worked-- maybe too well. Now, if the puppy is on the couch, and the older dog can’t reach her with her nose, she’ll reach out with a massive paw and scrape the puppy towards her. Scares the poor little squirt, and probably hurts, too.
Polaris is learning pretty quickly. She now knows “sit” and we’re working on “down.” She also whines to go outside. Pretty good for a puppy who’s not yet two months old. The only problem we have is that she wants to chew on me, and won’t take “no!” for an answer. She also growls at me if deterred from doing so. I know she’s still just a baby, but this is a habit which I have to break quickly.
When she first came, I did the “dominance test”, which entails laying the puppy on her back and holding her down, firmly but gently. The amount of struggle is supposed to show you how dominant the puppy is. The first few days, she lay like a limp noodle when I did that-- I now know that it was because she didn’t feel good. Now when I do it, she struggles, gives up, and then struggles again, trying to nip at my hand. I don’t know if this means she’s a dominant dog or not, because she doesn’t do it with my husband. She just lays there passively.
Nor does she try to chew on him the way she does with me. Now, she doesn’t see him as much, so maybe it’s that she’s more comfortable with me, but perhaps it’s because she sees him as “alpha dog” and me as a fellow puppy.
For those of you who wanted to see her, I’ve got pictures.
if she bites your hand or growls, smack her face (this is the only time I would smack a puppy on the face). Maybe just a good shake may work. This sort of behaviour needs to be checked promptly before it becomes fixed. It’s cute in a tiny puppy; it quickly becomes less cute in a growing dog.
I am concerned that what you are training your older dog to do is harass the puppy in exchange for treats.
Our dog harasses our cat mercilessly - or used to. Now every time she approaches the cat, we watch her closely. As soon as she grabs him, we quietly and quickly grab her collar and pull her away … we take her to another room, not saying a word … and then sometimes we play with her, sometimes we just have her practice “sit” and “down” etc … sometimes we just hold onto her collar for a couple of minutes but otherwise ignore her. We do not say a WORD - not “No”, not “Stop”, nothing. What we are teaching her this way is that it is NEVER acceptable for her to play roughly with the cat. If she just sniffs him and carries on, she gets a “good girl” … if she completely ignores him, she gets a “VERY GOOD GIRL!!!” and love and praise and sometimes treats.
As for the puppy biting and growling, have you tried ignoring it whenever it does that - signal that playtime is OVER by saying a quick loud “OUCH!” - very dramatic and sad sounding - and then stop playing ASAP. Turn away from the puppy for a few seconds, and then start playing again. As soon as she’s rough or growly, do the whole routine again.
It is much more humane than physical corrections- you don’t want your puppy to be afraid of you or to see you as a source of pain or fear. ESPECIALLY your hands - that will teach her that your hands are unpredictable and sometimes mean. I think that is the last thing you want her to learn. Hitting her in the face is the quickest way to have a skittish, unpredictable, frightened and therefore aggressive dog.
Would you hit your child in the face if he/she played too rough? No. You would stop playing with them.
I think if you keep in mind how YOU would want to be treated, you’ll make the more humane and kinder and much more effective choice.
I know you’ve had the other dog for a while, but have you thought about getting a book about puppy training & behaviour? There are also a TON of resources on the internet.
I tried this when her behavior became especially egregious. It made her growl more. She does it when I try to remove something from her mouth-- my sleeve most of the time. (Though I have to admit that it’s an adorable sound-- sort of a loud purring.) I realize that she probably can’t yet tell the difference between my clothing and the plush toys she plays with. Today, I tried just distracting her with a different toy when she chewed on me rather than trying to correct her. I don’t want to be the human that seems to say nothing but “No!”
I have several. Unfortunately, they tend to leave me even more confused as to what to do because they contradict one another. For example, one book suggests playing tug-of-war with a puppy to help her get out her aggression. The next book says never to play tug-of-war with a puppy because it encourages aggression. One book says that training using treats is ideal, while another says that your dog will learn to ignore you unless you have a food reward handy. One book says to avoid saying “no!” to your dog, while others tell you to do so. One book says to correct for growling while another says not to do so, but to avoid what makes the dog growl.
I have found some wonderful things on the internet, especially a page I found about how to socialize a puppy-- what to introduce to the puppy during each week.
Today, when she bit me, I flicked her gently in the nose. That seemed to be a good deterrent, but I don’t want her to fear me.
I wouldn’t have said fear would be a problem with this dog until today. I took her to the vet for her second visit. I took along a lot of her favorite treats, hoping to distract her from the unpleasant aspects. She surprised me by shrinking away from the vet, running to stuff her head in the crook of my arm. She’s never even met the man-- the vet that saw her last time is on vacation. She did the same with the nurse. She has never shrank away from any person. (I think it must be the smell, because she didn’t shy away from the little girl who wanted to hold her in the lobby.)
The shot wasn’t bad. I don’t even think she noticed it, so intent was she on her treat.
The vet was very impressed that she knew how to sit on command, her being so young. I tried to get her to lay down, but she wouldn’t. We worked on both once we got home, and she’s really catching on to it.
Polaris was in her playpen, looking over the edge. The big dog saw this, and started doing the play bow and pounce. Stupidly, I got the puppy out, and put her on the carpet. Big Dog playfully swatted her on the head with a paw, but she doesn’t know her own strength. The puppy shrieked in pain and ran, making the big dog chase after her, barking.
The puppy is now terrified of the big dog. When I took them outside to pee, the big dog barked at a squirrel. The puppy ran like hell.
I’ve ruined it. The poor little squirt is going to be afraid of other dogs for the rest of her damn life. I feel horrible. I should have known better.
You need to control your older dog until you can trust it with the puppy. You need to teach your dog the rules - no exceptions.
As for the conflicting advice, yeah there is a ton out there - you need to decide what you feel the best about, go with your gut. The ‘old school’ method isn’t used by most trainers these days.
Think about what makes sense to YOU and what would help YOU learn - would you be motivated by doing things just to avoid pain, or would you be motivated by food, or would you be motivated by praise?
You’ll be fine but you do need to relax - the puppy will learn its place, but for your OWN peace of mind, I truly believe you need to train and restrain your older dog in order to ensure your pup is safe.
Oh boy I think I am evil becuase I laughed out loud when I read that. Polaris is one cute dog (He looks like a bear though! Its his paws they are huge on his body) I am sure the puppy will be fine you are putting a lot of effort into it and it will turn out ok. I am sure puppies go through much tougher treatment out in the wild and they survive.
And it looks like one of the other toys is blowing that one. It’s a little disturbing.
As for Polaris being afraid of the other dog, she’ll be all right. Give her time. Puppies are more resilient than you think. Give her a cookie when the big dog is around or barking. She’ll learn to make good associations. You might try playing very vigorously with the older dog while Polaris is in her play pen. That should burn off some of her energy and make her much gentler when you get the puppy out. That’s what we had to do with Dolly when we puppy-sat. If you still don’t completely trust the older dog not to get excessively rough, keep her on-leash when they play.
And yeah, it looks like she’s trying to establish dominance over you. (I don’t know if her not doing this with your husband means that she accepts him as dominant or if it means she considers him no challenge to her dominance. Based on Dolly’s reaction to Dr.J, I’d guess the latter.) What I usually do with nippy or growling puppies (or Dolly when she’s being very naughty) is hold the muzzle gently but firmly, push the head slightly down, and tell them no. It seems to trip some sort of instinctual trigger regarding dominance and submission. Of course, the more dominant a dog is, the more they’re going to fight against stuff like that.
She seems to be grasping the concept that biting flesh is bad, but can’t seem to distinguish my clothing from her toys. It feels like I’m saying “No!” every five seconds and stuffing a toy into her mouth.
Something curious happened today. Polaris got her head stuck in a plastic bottle and began giving distress calls-- a technical way of saying she was yiping her head off. I was trying to disengage her when the older dog trotted into the kitchen, apparently called from her nap upstairs by the commotion.
Why did she come when the puppy was crying? Instinct? To gloat?
The puppy is also trying to approach her when they’re outside in the yard. I keep calling her back, but Polaris bounces over to where the older dog is. The older dog scoots away quickly, and Polaris loses interest. I think this may be a hopeful sign: the fact that she wants to approach the older dog may mean that she wasn’t permanantly traumatized.
All of the websites say this is a time when we need to be cautious: it’s a fear imprint stage, meaning that anything that happens can become a life-long phobia.