Pup's Turning Into Barking And Biting Monster!

[DoodleBliss]

3 days ago, just out of the blue... my 4mth+ pup became easily agitated by certain sights (mainly ppl he sees along the pathways from our aprt's balcony) and sounds which will result in him barking persistently and even towards me :D

He recognises the words "Ugh-ugh" and "No" as something we don't like so I've tried different methods 'conveying' these words to him but to no avail...

I've tried saying them w a calm and soft tone which I get ignored. I've tried saying it w a stern tone and a fierce look which in turn got myself being barked at. I've tried to give him a quick tap on his body to try to snap him out of it but he gets 'aggressive' in the sense that he'll try to bite my hand. I've tried to lead him away from the place/things he saw but he'll run back there shortly and continue barking. I've tried even to hold his muzzle and pin him down gently to try to calm him which seems to help a tad but soon after I've let go, he'll sprung back and try to bite my hands

And since then he's been putting his mouth over my wrist/fore arm every now n then n wat it seems like he's trying to give it a good bite :D This is extremely scary and disheartening for me becoz hubby and i have been consistently training him on bite inhibition since we got him at 12wks.

I'm wondering if this is the 'fear period' for him. He used to like sitting by the balcony door or on the balcony quietly, enjoying the breeze and people watching. But he now seems so wary of passer-bys and barks at them. He doesn't bark at our guests in the house tho, neither at strangers in the park while we are walking. Which is why I'm so puzzled.

The only consolation is that these behaviour only seems to happen at home... so far and the biting bits towards me only. But still, it's unacceptable and I certainly do not want it to escalate any further.

So please, any thoughts as to why this is happening and what I can do/try to rectify the situation?

[poodlefan]

DB, your pup is growing up. He'll get more stimuated by passers by and will need distraction or aversion to stop him barking. Dogs are territorial and people passing will trigger many a dog to bark.

Is he still being trained regularly? Did you end up enrolling in obedience?

You've got a mix with a healthy proportion of Labrador in it and many young gundogs are notoriously mouthy. You'll need to persist with discouraging him mouthing you for some time yet. As you're finding out, his jaw is getting stronger.

What things do you give him to exercise his jaw on? Have you tried distracting him from the window by calling him away or offering a game? I cant see what he's doing but I honestly doubt he's responding aggressively to you when you call him.. sounds more like play. Try offering a toy.

You may have yourself a barker.. some dogs are more prone to this than others. Blocking his view of passers by may help.

If you continue to have concerns about this behaviour, asking a trainer to your home would be a good idea.

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

If you bark at your dog when your dog is barking at something he wants to "scare off", he thinks you're joining in, you approve, and you inadvertantly reward and reinforce the barking - ie make it worse. Try giving him something else to do. You have to show that whatever it is he can see from the balcony is no big deal and not worth barking at. I'm guessing that swatting him may make him assocate nasty people in the street that need scaring off with a very real threat of a swat, ie from imaging danger, he experiences it. Which may also make the problem worse.

Try instead giving him a string of obedience commands, sit, drop, heel (to back inside) reward with yummy treat. Or "come" and treat. If this isn't working then perhaps a distracting noise - squeaky toy and if you get his attention instead of the strangers, then treat, command "leave it" or "enough". Also try teaching him to speak. Get his attention when he's barking and "speak" and treat - if he barks. This makes my dog concentrate so much she shuts up. And then she barks or growls only just loud enough to get the treat, which is a lot less than she does for the doorbell. After you teach "speak" you can then teach "quiet". A lab should be very food motivated, so this should be easy.

If you're still not getting his attention, try body blocking - walk between him and the view "leave it" and herd him back into the apartment and treat when he pays attention to you and not the view. I sometimes add a rattle (eg short chain inside a tin can) or a water pistol for distraction but usually body blocking with treats is enough.

For bite inhibition - very important. Detach dog, gently push his own lip over his teeth and let his own bite pressure apply the force, until he lets go, and then ignore (no eye contact, no talking, turn your back) for 3 seconds or longer. You can add an "uhuh" in neutral tone if you want. An ouch or high pitched yip (the noise he makes if you step on his tail) might help but made no difference with my dog. If he's really persistant or you need to make dinner and don't want him helping and haven't got time to ignore for three seconds... put him in a crate (google crate training) or the laundry until you have time to do the appropriate response (whatever works). Again the harder you play with (or swat) your dog, the harder he will play with you. So you either have to be very gentle with your handling or completely over the top growly yelling (like a grumpy mother dog). And you have to make sure he knows it's "game over" (No more attention or locked in the laundry) any time he puts his mouth on you. No matter how gentle.

http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/puppy...ing-12-18-weeks

http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/teach...bite-inhibition

[Simply Grand]

My 10 month old puppy has displayed all sorts of weird and wonderful (and annoying and frustrating) behaviours as he's grown up. They do just start out of the blue and something he never even noticed before suddenly becomes totally exciting/scary/fun. So don't worry, you're not alone! And this probably won't be the last sudden behaviour change and testing of boundaries.

As the others have said, rather than disciplining, try distracting. Get his attention with an excited, happy voice and give him a good reward (treat, lots of praise, a game) when he directs his attention to you instead of outside. I found this worked quickly with Saxon when he decided he would try and chase cars. Totally out of the blue, on the same road he's always walked on, he suddenly started barking and trying to run after cars. He was on lead but it was still worrying. After some excellent DOL advice I made sure I had treats in hand and whenever he started to turn his head towards the road I'd talk to him excitedly and when he looked at me give him a treat. He pretty quickly figured out that he needed to keep is attention on me, not the cars, in case he missed getting offered a treat!

It won't work exactly like that in this situation and as Mrs Rusty Bucket said probably a fun toy and/or some training to focus him would work better. Eventually he'll stop finding outside things so very interesting.

With the biting, I totally sympathise, Saxon was/is a terror with his mouth. I got through the puppy nipping stage using a sharp, high pitched yelp, stand up and turn my back on him. It took a lot of patience and consistency but it worked... kinda. He's still very mouthy but is much gentler now. And it helps that he has adult teeth now not sharp puppy ones.

Good luck with the gorgeous Ozzie

Edited April 23, 2010 by Saxonpup

[dandybrush]

all i have to say is do you do time outs? do you have a crate or a room he normally goes in? In you're situation soon as the dog put his mouth on me i would say "to bad" or any word of you're choosing and give him a time out, only has to be a coouple of minutes long. then if he reaffends when he comes out he goes in for longer, same with the barking straight into a time out. Saves you having to yell over him, or discipline any other way, its a calm punishment and the pup will soon learn he doesnt want to be doing that. i would also teach him leave it and try saying leave it initially then if he doesnt respond comes the "to bad" and his time out, he'll soon learn the pattern

[DoodleBliss]

Hi all. Thanks for the replies and suggestions.

The barking is still going on every now and then but I'm dealing with it with less stress now. I've been consistently telling him 'No' in a calm assertive tone and distract him with his toy. This seems to be working and sometimes just by standing next to him helps too... maybe by that it gave him reassurance that he's safe with me by his side. The biting is better as well. He respond well to 'No' and I'll just walk away, not giving him any contact until he calms down.

I really do hope that the barking will be under control as we live in an apartment and I certainly do not want to cause any disturbance to our neighbours. We train him consistently everyday so he's been able to follow a series of commands and we'll be starting obedience in a week or two so I hope that will give him more focus as well.