Agressive Puppy Help..?

[persephone]

Totally agree with what both kavik and Pers have said.

Playing rough with a tug toy really helps the pup to be able to be excited, but be very clear about the rule - no teeth on human skin. I'd be playing with a long tug first, to help avoid 'accidental' teeth on skin contacts. The game totally stops if there should be any teeth on skin contacts, accidental or otherwise. Wait a little while, ignoring the pup, and either dropping or removing the tug toy - walk away in disgust (acting!). Then after a short break for the pup to reflect on what just happened, you can start again - but again, make it easy for the pup to avoid teeth on skin contact.

There's a fair amount of technical skill in this, I have to say- and you might still be reinforcing the lesson long passt puppyhood - I still have to go through it sometimes with my feral almost 11 year old agility BC girl, who if I'm not careful with the length of the tug and how I present it, will sometimes forget to be careful :laugh: .

:) Good points! ..and a :) at the picture in my head !

[espinay2]

Hey guys i was just thinking... Everyone has said dont play fight with puppies, no one however has said why? So why should you not play fight with puppies?

In very simple terms.....Because you are removing bite inhibition by teaching the pup that it is ok to bite you (and anyone else).

Edited February 11, 2013 by espinay2

[Jumabaar]

My dogs are taught soft contact with me rather than straight out bite inhibition, but at that age when they become over stimulated they can quite often bite far to hard which in my books is a 'failure' on my part because I almost always want my dogs to win! This means that when I want to teach things I carefully set them up so that there is an obvious choice for them which earns them a treat rather than set them up to make a mistake.

I do rough up my Kelpie when I reward her at dog sports such as Agility and Flyball, but this was introduced after she understood not to bite me as is part of her reward so has rules about how we play and I want her in that heightened excited state. If you want your dog near stock I woudn't really suggest trying to rev them up because you want them calm around sheep.

[fainty_girl]

Hey guys i was just thinking... Everyone has said dont play fight with puppies, no one however has said why? So why should you not play fight with puppies?

You want to keep your puppy calm and you don't want to encourage them to mouth or nip you, etc. You also want to train your puppy to play in a way that will encourage them to listen to you (eg. teach your puppy to retrieve a toy and drop it for you instead of roughing them up).

Eg. If you play fight with your dog and encourage that kind of behaviour, what happens when you go out for a walk and a stranger or a young child wants to pat your dog? You don't want to train your dog to interact with people in a rough way, it isn't a safe thing to do.

At my place we have a purebred kelpie (my brother's dog) and I have a kelpie X and a stumpy tail cattle dog...kelpies are an active and intelligent breed. Another reason to not play fight with your pup, is that kelpies are active enough. You want to teach your pup to relax (and have an "off switch"), or you're going to create problems for yourself in the future. My dogs aren't perfect, but I have never encouraged them to play roughly.