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Thanks everyone for your input - I sent all of the links and additional information to my parents. I will keep everyone posted on Wilson's progress :-)
Awww..Love His name Looking forward to it...and also pictures??
You might get more answers in the dog forum but here goes.
He's a baby and punishment is not really appropriate at this age. He's also a lab and they are mouthy (think of the job they do). A book could be written but to keep this short I'm going to give you a few links that might help them. Please tell them to stop doing the Alpha roll. The Alpha dog never rolls another dog/puppy over. Doing so is just being a bully and could potentially harm their relationship with the pup. With an adult dog it could even be potentially dangerous. There are better ways including the use of marker training and nilif (nothing in life is free)
Briefly the puppy is not being aggressive but is naturally treating your parents as pack/litter members. This is all it knows. The best thing at this young age is to redirect it to an appropriate chew toy (have one with you). The pup should be spending much of it's time in a crate or ex-pen right now for it's safety as well as your parents' sanity. Everything should be managed and scheduled. I think the above ebooks as well as other ebooks at the Leerburg site (Leerburg Dog Training | 16,000 pages of dog training information, 500 free dog training streaming videos, free eBooks, podcasts, by Ed Frawley and Michael Ellis) will be a great help to them.
I use & refer to leerburg as well.
Looooove the site.
Really great great GREAT info for training those hard to train dogs or those hard to break habit!
Hello all - My parents have a 8 week old male black lab/shepard mix who is in the biting stage. He is currently biting aggressivly, going after feet when they walk, biting the back of their legs through clothes. They've had puppies before and never had something this serious, any suggestions on how to stop the biting?
They've punished him everytime he's bitten, and it seems to not work, they've held his muzzle closed and said "No bite!" in a firm voice - they've pushed him away and ignored him. He also barks at them in a semi aggressive manner - they've pushed him down to the floor between the shoulders to show him that they were the dominant one.
They're not sure what else to do, and neither do I - has anyone else gone through this?
Our dingo has done the same since about the day we adopted him, sometimes, he gets carried away, even when we play with him. What we have found that works quite well, is give a yell or holler of "OUCH!" and he goes back to being nice. I think our dingo knows the limit on his agressiveness though, in your situation, repeating a command over and over might sink in.
Another practice that works for me, and me alone is pointing my finger at him and just saying "HEY" and he goes back to loveable puppy mode.
Oh, I forgot to mention, that sometimes when ours wants to go outside to do his business, he'll nip at my spouses feet, and she'll ask him, wanna go outside? and, he does.
My Great Pyr nips at my feet too when he wants to play or to "herd" me (to tell me to go) back home.
Still a puppy though... puppy tends to nip.
P.S. Any show of aggression... I still totally whisk & carry him off the ground (like a big 50lb weak ol' puppy he is)... sometimes even showing him I am using only one arm. I will roll him over to expose his belly when necessary & then after getting him to submit... proceed to play tickle belly with him.
Hello all - My parents have a 8 week old male black lab/shepard mix who is in the biting stage. He is currently biting aggressivly, going after feet when they walk, biting the back of their legs through clothes. They've had puppies before and never had something this serious, any suggestions on how to stop the biting?
They've punished him everytime he's bitten, and it seems to not work, they've held his muzzle closed and said "No bite!" in a firm voice - they've pushed him away and ignored him. He also barks at them in a semi aggressive manner - they've pushed him down to the floor between the shoulders to show him that they were the dominant one.
They're not sure what else to do, and neither do I - has anyone else gone through this?
The very last thing they or anyone else should be doing is holding his muzzle closed or push him to the floor!
Showing they are the dominant one in that way, and you wonder why the puppy is reacting in a "semi aggressive" manner? Guess what, keep doing that and he will be fully aggressive when he grows up!
One trick is redirection. Get down on the floor with the puppy, when he goes to bite, say in a firm, (but NOT yelling!) voice, "No bite!" and redirect his attention with a favorite toy.
Another trick is to put some vinegar on your hand. When that pup gets a taste of that vinegar, he isn't going to want to bite anymore.
At no time should a puppy ever be "disciplined" (other than a firm, "No!"), until the humans know 100%, without a doubt, no questions asked whatsoever, that the puppy/dog completely and totally knows exactly what they are asking of him. EVER!
I use & refer to leerburg as well.
Looooove the site.
Really great great GREAT info for training those hard to train dogs or those hard to break habit!
Leerburg is the BEST! The people that get all upset with him, I've noticed, are the people who can't handle it when someone is very direct with them. Too bad, he knows what he's talking about.
I've had my Lab puppy over a month. I had a problem with her biting. The dog trainer told me to shout Ouch! loudly. Once I say ouch she starts to lick.
A puppy that is teething is going to bite, how much depends a lot on breed and personality. This is not the time for punishments, a yelp or other noise and immediate redirection to a proper chew toy is what you need to do.
If it gets bad and is just too painful, a little Tabasco on the finger will teach them that people don't taste very good with no lasting harm.
My Great Pyr nips at my feet too when he wants to play or to "herd" me (to tell me to go) back home.
Still a puppy though... puppy tends to nip.
P.S. Any show of aggression... I still totally whisk & carry him off the ground (like a big 50lb weak ol' puppy he is)... sometimes even showing him I am using only one arm. I will roll him over to expose his belly when necessary & then after getting him to submit... proceed to play tickle belly with him.
Well, he's not pure dingo, he's mixed but his markings and personality traits are very much dingo, a bit wild.
I've heard of people owning or having dogs mixed with wolf, in fact I had a friend in Alaska that had one of those, and that dog was very wild acting and difficult to make friends with. The master was the alpha though, the dog knew who the boss was.
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Looking forward to it...and also pictures
