Hello Tracie,
My son bought a 9 week old Chesapeake Bay retriever puppy – she is now 12 weeks old. She is kenneled while he is at class or at work, which could be anywhere from 4 – 6 hours a day, with breaks in between. He has done an exceptional amount of research concerning the training of this breed of dogs and is very serious about her obedience. She has started to growl and bite people (except him) when she is told to do something she does not want to do. For example: making her leave the water before she is ready or telling her to stop a behavior. He is very consistent about not allowing bad behavior from her when is with her – but when she is with other people and he is not there (such as his girlfriend and her companions) they don’t follow through with stopping the bad behaviors even though he has asked and explained the importance of it. They think that it is ok because she is a puppy. I told him that if the people including his girlfriend don’t have the willpower to restrain her – he may have to stop leaving her with them – but I don’t really see that taking care of the problem. Won’t that just postpone the behavior? He knows how important it is for this breed to be socialized, so he can’t just stop letting her be with other people. He is highly concerned about the liability this could bring if he doesn’t get control of this problem. Could you please give some suggestions?
Thanks,
Denise, Pearland, TX
Denise,
You are right to be concerned about what is going on with your son’s pup but there area few things in this story that don’t make sense to me – and I think it may be partly that you and/or your son are not entirely clear on what “bad behavior” is in a puppy or the ways to effectively take charge of a situation. There is no good reason to interrupt a dog while she is drinking water – although certainly a well-adjusted dog will let you take away anything she has and wants. However, if you son comes on too strong or harsh, with a heavy handed style, that can elicit a fearful/defensive response from the dog and create a cycle of defensive aggressiveness.
I think it would be really helpful if you got a copy of the THE DOG BIBLE and had a good look through the sections explaining dog behavior and communication – as well as the most effective ways to get a puppy started out correctly. It is quite worrisome to have such a young dog growling at a human for any reason – and that must be stopped immediately. But when you say “bite,” do you mean “mouthing” playfully with sharp puppy teeth (which can be painful but is not intended to be harmful) or is the dog biting as in snapping and bearing down on human flesh? (very serious – needs a professional trainer ASAP to evaluate and stop for once and for all). What also concerns me is your mistaken belief that this breed needs some extraordinary training or poses behavior problems – did the breeder tell you that? Where, in fact, did your son get the dog in the first place? I hope you or he will have a chance to call in to DOG TALK® so we can discuss this at length and in detail. Until then I recommend you find an accredited trainer (who belongs to one of the nationally recognized organizations) who can help sort this out. It’s great that you reached out for help – because I do think they need it!
Tracie
The puppy could have seperation anxiety, and in that case she need so extra attention, also try a mussle when she starts to growl. She could just be really attatched to your son, and is having issues accepting anyone else.
Let’s be clear that you NEVER use a muzzle on a puppy – muzzling is a last-ditch piece of equipment for dogs who are dangerously aggressive towards other dogs. Growling by puppies at people, or growling from any age dog, must be stopped with thoughtful, humane training. This is NOT a separation anxiety issue, from what it sounds like – and even if it were, that is no explanation nor excuse for aggressive behavior towards people. “Attachment” is a misunderstood word – “possessiveness” is probably more what you be talking about but it’s not something you’ll see in a 3 month old puppy and would not explain nor excuse anti-social behavior. Unless the “grandma” writesback and gives us more information, we’re stumbling in the dark here in any case – it sounds like her son, the puppy’s owner, is pushing obedience pretty hard and confinement following it and may be stressing this youngster – but we’ll never know without more facts.