Normal Puppy Behavior??

[Tarte]

Is my Puppy Normal or does she have the Devil in her?

Peanut our Puggle was a complete sweetie for about a week when we got her and crate trained her (9 weeks old then). Now all she wants too do is chew my furniture (I know that's normal and sour apple spray, doesn't work on her.) and bite us and growl.
She's a total angel when she meets other people but a royal terror when she's alone with us. The only time we can give her any lovings without being nipped at (Not just play bitting, this hurts, not to mention slightly unnerving when she lunges for your face) is when she's sleepy.
I spent months before getting a puppy researching and trying to prepare, but wasn't quiet ready for this. She has a complete array of toys and things to chew on, kong, bones, ropes, etc... We take her for plenty of walks I think. At least 2-3 15 minutes and a 30 minute usually before bed along with potty walks along with trying to play with her, fetch or with her springy snake.
When she gets real worked up with biting we were just trying to put a chew toy in her mouth and praise her, but that isn't working. When she growled and nipped at us we tried rolling her over and holding her down until she calmed down, that just seemed to upset her more. We tried removing her from the situation and putting her on Time out in the bathroom for a few minutes. Which would works for 5 minutes, but I don't think it's a good way to teach her to behave. She finally lost all rights to most of the house, except a corner of the kitchen and hallway, where she can't chew or be destructive (YET!)
Is there something I'm doing wrong, we're trying to train her, but it's hard to look past the naughty behavior right now. Any wisdom would help. Thanks
~Frustrated in Cali

[Carrie]

This sounds like normal puppy behavior to me. I don't recommend holding her down on her back. That is frightening to a dog and puts them on the defensive, which is something you never want to do with a dog. Anything that is very aversive has a lot of potentially dangerous side effects. Prevent her from chewing on things by constant supervision, suitable chew toys and distracting her before she's about to do something you don't like. Even though you're walking her, I'd increase romping type exercise outside several more times a day so she gets more tired.

Start teaching her some basic obedience like sit, down, come. "Leave it" is a very good thing to teach as well as rewarding her for eye contact, which you can later put on cue. These skills that she learns will be things you can use when you need to give her an alternative behavior rather than the things she is doing which you hate. It will begin to develop in her some self control as well as very, very important mental stimulation.

Another thing that helps with self control is the concept of "doggie zen." (link below) Basically, she learns that she doesn't get the things she wants; food, going outside, your attention, playtime with you, toys by direct access. Only by not trying to get those things, does she get those things. There are exercises to develop this in her. It helps with behavior in general. Positive reinforcement methods also develop a dog that learns that compliance, once something is learned brings on good things and she then tries harder to comply. In other words, good behavior becomes in itself a conditioned reinforcer. She wants to do the things that will raise the odds of getting the primary reinforcer. Don't let her have toys all over the floor whenever she wants. You control those. She sits, she gets a toy and/or playtime with you. She bites, game over, the fun ends immediately. You walk away and ignore her. Let her find that her behavior is what determines that she gets what she wants at any given time or context.

Now some biting is a good thing, believe it or not. If she mouths gently, let her. The second it is the slightest bit painful, game over. She learns then to inhibit her bite...to regulate it. So if she ever does bite in a serious way, it can mean the difference between a pinch and ripping someone's face off.

Working her brain and body is extremely important to her development and to replace these obnoxious puppy behaviors. Use positive reinforcement methods, as a lot of punishment and scary, painful things can put a puppy on the defense and cause them to associate you and their environment with fear and avoidance. Make it a habit to really watch and catch her behaving in ways you do like, even if it's for just a couple of seconds. Reward her with something she absolutely loves. Keep low key with such an energetic pup. Instead of feeling like you have to punish the unwanted behaviors, try to set her up so you can prevent most of those from coming into full bloom and catch her at being "good" and reward.

Does she have a Kong toy? Those are great for rambunctious puppies. You can stuff them with things like yogurt and freeze or put in some kibble in the yogurt. Or line thinly with peanut butter. Look online for some more interactive toys, most of which require supervision, but they're very cool and give the dog something interesting to keep them busy. When you can't supervise your pup, use a crate. This keeps her from being reinforced for chewing on furniture. Once she's already sunken her teeth into the wood, she's been reinforced because it feels good and it's fun. Prevent it in the first place. Give her something else to do. Sometimes completely changing the subject helps...like going outside for a game of fetch.

Most of all, remember, puppies, like human children grow up, but it doesn't happen over night. It's a development which spans time. You can't turn a puppy and all those obnoxious behaviors into an adult or adult-like behavior in just a very short time. Give her time. Let her be a puppy and meanwhile, handle her gently but smartly. Read up more on effective training techniques. Here are a few links to get started.

Bite Inhibition Article

ClickerSolutions Training Articles Contents

26. Zen

[Ritz459]

I don't have much to add to what Carrie said, but I just wanted to tell you that it does get better. My pup Chloe was TERROR the first six months or so of her life. Now that she has matured and I kept up with the training, she's gotten a HECK of a lot better than she was.

What helped Chloe learn her bounderies were a couple of things:
1. When she would really start getting nippy (it was all playful, but she would growl, lunge, and run at you when she got VERY excited and if you didn't "play" she would bark and lunge some more) I would turn my back on her and ignore her completely. No acknowledgement whatsoever that she was even in existance. When she would stop, I'd come alive again and ingage her in play with a toy. What really helped was learning WHEN she was about ready to go into one of her "crazy spurts" and redirect her to a toy at that moment. It is so ingrained in her now that whenever she starts getting hyper she'll run and grab a toy. Much better than barking and chewing on me.

2. Basic obedience training. Much easier to communicate with someone when they know what you are saying and what you want them to do. Then you know you aren't the grownups off of Charlie Brown (waaa-wah-wah-waaaa), but you can communicate efficiently. Sit, down, stay, off, leave it, and come are lifesavers. The mental stimulation required to learn these (and other) commands also helps to calm/tire a dog out, much like how doing homework wears you out.

3. Space. At times I just couldn't deal with it and I knew it wasn't fair for Chloe having me being frustrated with her all of the time. At times like that I would put her in our back hallway gated off, give her something to knaw on (a bone or stuffed kong) and just get away for a while. (Taking the dog for a 30 minute - 1 mile - walk before hand also helps a great deal as it tuckers them out.) It gave her and me both time to just relax. Now whenever I kennel her she immeadiatly calms down and just chills, toy or no.
I'm not saying isolate your dog or stick it out in the backyard hoping all of your problems will go away, but when you find yourself fed up and you just can't deal with it anymore, just crate/kennel the dog for an hour and let yourself calm down.

But just hang in there. With training and patience it does get better. Both Beagles and Pugs are fairly high energy dogs to begin with, so she has that "against" her as well.

[calgal]

She's trying to take over as Alpha and your letting her. First when you say after she bits you, you give her a toy a praise her. By doing that you have rewarded her for her bad behavior. Your right not to let her have any rights to the house right now. When she jumps or bites, turn around and walk away. While she has just a small space right now this method will work faster. Get into her space, start to play with her with a toy and the second she bites you turn your back on her and go to another room out of her sight. Do this over and over several times a day.

[Carrie]

Good ideas from Ritz. The proof is in the pudding...or rather in Chloe.

I disagree that she's trying to be "alpha"... or if that means the leader...then leader. Leaders don't act or have behavior like puppies. Leaders in any species are never the youngsters. They're the parents. Puppies know they're not in a position to organize or run the family. That is the furthest thing from a puppy's mind. Your puppy is acting the only way she knows how and that is to be a puppy dog. Her behavior is absolutely normal for an unschooled, pup with loads of energy with no learned alternatives. She's not scheming and plotting to work her way up some social ladder in order to control or take over anything. All puppies act rambunctious to some degree or another. Everything is a chew toy to them, including human skin. They are clueless as to what humans consider acceptable behavior, absolutely clueless. They're animals!

She needs to grow up and along the way be taught alternative ways to behave which work for humans and...(this is important) which work for her. Give your pup good reasons to behave the way you like. Make it pay off. Look through those links and you'll learn how to show her in a way she can relate to.

By giving her a nyla bone to bite instead of your hand, you are not rewarding her for biting. You're taking away your hand and attention...taking away that reinforcer (negative reinforcment) and showing her an alternative.... what she CAN chew on, which should be satisfying and reinforcing. (you can always toss her a treat too for chewing on an allowable chew toy) Reinforcement will raise the odds significantly of your dog repeating a behavior. You never punish out a behavior without offering an alternative. This is not positive punishement but negative reinforcement, where you're removing the good thing. Still.....always, if you remove something she likes, give her a replacement which CAN be rewarded. It will help her learn faster. Another example...if she's chewing on some valuable that you don't want her to have, trade her for something better. It will help prevent resource guarding. If you're constantly taking something away, it can make a dog feel lousy and defensive and he may start biting. Just think if someone took away a $20.00 bill out of your hand, you'd get defensive and might attack them. But if they took away the $20.00 but handed you a $100.00 bill, you'd be glad to give up the $20.00. It's the same with dogs. Take away one thing. Give something better.

Try not to wait for an unwanted behavior to be in full swing. When you're interacting with your pup or supervising her, be aware of what she is about to do. If it's something you don't want, step in and re-direct her to something you do want her to do, whether it's to chew on something else or to ask for a sit or some other skill she's learning. In other words, behaviors that are not rewarded (even inadvertantly) will eventually extinguish. Behaviors which are rewarded will be repeated. You want to fill up her repertoire with lots of things that you do like by way of effective, gentle training. This will, in a general way improve her over all behavior and help her mature into a well mannered, happy companion.

The more you interact with your pup in various places throughout the house, the better she'll learn to generalize her behavior that she's learning. If she is only allowed in one room, those new skills she learns may only apply in that room because dogs don't generalize very well. They get better at it with practice down the road. But if possible, practice things in various locations and contexts. Of course, if you can't watch puppy...you're busy or the phone rings, she should be put in her crate or safe place. Puppies take tons of time and involvement. They can't be left alone for long periods of time. They need lots and lots of romping and playtime. Lessons in how to behave should be very short, fairly frequent and FUN. Obedience training should be made to be like a game. Rewarding, fun and increasing the bond you two have. I highly recommend you read through those links.

[trainingrixie]

Carrie's suggestions are excellent. But the hardest thing is actually controlling your own behavior. its hard not to freak out when a puppy pounces on your foot and gnaws away. But as suggested, the best thing is to calmly ignore the unwanted behavior. Freaking out will either scare or excite your pup. most likely it will scare it. and fear is the last thing you want your dog to associate with you. For me, the self control was the hardest thing when trixie was a pup. There were a few times she did some very 'puppy' things and i just wanted to yell at her, but took a deep breath and remembered that as long as i keep my cool and keep training her with positive reinforcement, she will be a wonderful big girl dog, and no longer a puppy (and you will miss a lot of things from the puppy phase when they are all growed up). If you apply the ignore the bad/reward the good philosophy to your pups behavior in general, it won't be long until your little one figures out your expectations and is happy to meet them. Just always keep in mind that agression and fear are the two worst things you can introduce your puppy to

[Carrie]

I agree Trainingrixie. It is hard to control our behavior sometimes because we're apt to get awfully exciteable.....like chimpanzees. LOL. It just revs dogs up all the more. But, you can give a yelp, like, "ouch!" and then walk away, giving the dog a better thing to bite or chew.

I must add that a lot of people hear the advice: "ignore the bad behavior" and "reward the good." And then they run with it like with the Olympic torch. It's like that adage, "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing." I'll tell you why I bring this up. I hear people saying things like, "I ignored the dog chewing on the coffee table and that behavior didn't go away. She kept chewing it." Or...."I ignored the dog getting into the garbage, but she still got into the garbage." Of course! So, let's get one thing straight right here: LOL! Ignoring attention seeking behaviors, such as biting on your hands to play with you or jumping up on people, all kinds of play soliciting type behaviors that you don't like, barking at you to get you to play, incessent whining to get something the dog wants....stuff like that if absolutely consistently ignored will work. The motivator is your attention. You prevent the dog from getting that. And conversely, when the dog is displaying better behavior (doesn't have to be perfect while learning) you should reward with your attention. (if attention is what your dog is seeking. Maybe the dog wants to go outside. Then good behavior can be rewarded by getting to go outside.) Remember, not all wanted behaviors have to get perfect all at once. You can shape behavior by rewarding baby steps toward the goal and then as they get better, stop rewarding for the previous level and only reward the best examples of the behavior.

Ignoring a dog that is getting into the garbage or is otherwise being reinforced by the environment will not work because the dog couldn't care less if you're paying attention to him. Garbage is yummy. Chewing on furniture is fun. So, you must determine what the dog's motivation is and make sure there is no way the dog is getting reinforced for behavior you don't want. It's much, much easier to prevent these obnoxious behaviors and re-direct....learn other acceptable behaviors to replace, than to wait around, watching for the obnoxious behaviors to become reinforced over and over and firmly installed and then to have to undo them.

[Ritz459]

Yep yep! Ignoring the dog as it counter surfs isn't going to cure counter surfing...because counter surfing isn't an attention getting behavior. Ignoring your dog when it jumps on you will decrease that behavior because jumping is an attention getting behavior.

Sort of like ignoring a kid isn't going to stop him from coloring on the walls with markers. But ignoring a kid when it stands and screams because it just wants attention will eventually have the screaming become non-existant. (And this is when people say, "the kid shouldn't feel ignored anyways, so you are doing something wrong in that department", but the same philosphoy can apply to dogs as well. You want to set your dog up to succeed, not fail.)

And if your pup is anything like Chloe was, "freaking out" will just make the behavior worse. I had Chloe inside loose with a living room full of pre-teen girls all squeeling and giggling (sister's birthday party). Just one high pitched laugh from one of them set Chloe into a full out puppy zoomie frenzy. The girls then squeeled and made all kinds of "encouraging" noises and movements (jerking away) so Chloe did it with even more enthusiasm and proceeded to trample the girls sitting on the floor. (I found it halarious and was busting up laughing, but the girls didn't think it was too amusing.) I was able to get Chloe's attention and had her down/stay, but the point is that "freaking out" will cause the dog to "freak out"....in the exact way you DON'T want it to.

[Tarte]

Thank you all for your responses. With the completion of our #2 Puppy Vacc, We now get to go to the market if we behave and then I get to enjoy a whole 2 hour nap. As of this week most furniture seems to be safe, when ever I see her sneaking over to the tv stand I call her to come and give her lots of praise... but we're still working on people are not chew toys and off. As Carrie suggested we started working on puppy zen, which she really picked up on early on. Some times when she's biting at our hands we can make a fist and she'll actually stop and wait for a treat to drop. Her time out corner seems to help, now she just needs to be shown the gate and she'll start to simmer down. So thank you all very much for your tips and comments.

[Carrie]

Hey! That's great! It sounds like you are already setting her up for a good education. Kudos to you for your success so far. As she progresses with these kinds of methods, she'll learn HOW to learn much better and subsequent training will get easier and easier. She'll try new behaviors to see if they will make you click. (if you're using a clicker, but even if you use a marker word, like for instance, "yesssssss!" right before you reward. And the more things she tries, the higher the odds of her hitting on the right thing. Have fun and keep reading. Keep us updated on her progress, will you?

[Tarte]

Since her completion of Vaccinations, We've found an off-leash dog park.... sings with admiration for good ole exercise Today was the first day she couldn't go to daycare or go to the dog park cause we were late from work and man are we suffering. LOL When in doubt exercise!!! Its crazy how much there energy gets them in trouble... LOL

[MissFitz]

I am really glad that lil Peanut has settled down and gotten some of the "nuttiness" out of her....good for you both for sticking to it!