14 week old puppy is getting agressive and loud

[deka]

She has been hit and miss the last few days, not sure if its weather related as I noticed in past she is more calm on rainy days.

Today I was working from home and on phone which she normally goes crazy especially in afternoon, whilst not perfect she at one point was dozing in my arms whilst I was on the phone, she also decided to have a short nap after teatime but then had zoomies in evening that just finished now and her last hour ones were strange at one point she was actually doing very high jumps to the door to the stairway and that was after I just took her outside as she was standing by the door but she didn't do anything outside.

She did have 2 accidents today but technically my fault one was a wee right after she had dinner but I was on phone at work and was just about to go on a break and take her out, 2nd was about a hour after her tea, I notice she often goes around a hour after eating and was just finishing something again and was about to go out when I saw her jump on sofa and poop, I still took her outside and she did another poop.

My hand/arm is in much better shape, she still scratches/bites hard but a tiny bit less force and most of the time I can distract her with treats to either give me a cuddle (where she lies down and often relaxes on me) or just calm enough to play with a toy.

Shes still at that crazy chew furniture stage though, I have to spray vinegar on things I don't want her to chew like armchair desk and edge of rug.

What I tend to notice with her zoomies or her barking is its more of a attention span thing, which links with me giving her treats and a cuddle, once something is out of her system as such she is calm, and/or if she focuses on a task long enough such as chewing a toy she will keep doing it rather than give up after a few seconds or a minute.

Only outright negative is I am not sure if shes weed under my bed, she has hidden under it a few times when I have gone in there, she did wee on her bed she never sleeps on and in 2 corners of bedroom but I used enzyme cleaner to soak the areas and also used pet friendly carpet shampoo in a Vax machine and the actual area smells fresh but still theres a stale wee smell from somewhere.

 

[JudyN]

Are you giving her plenty of mental stimulation? Brain games, interactive toys (google Nina Ottosson for the type of toys), sniffing games? She's doubtless a smart dog and will need to use her brain.

 

[deka]

What I do is a few short or 1 long walk a day, sometimes (but doing it more often again) in morning using her breakfast to train her basics like sit/down, leave it and just started doing it without shoes on as she bites bare feet or feet in slippers.

Lunchtime I give her dinner in a dog tornado, tea time if I find it or remember I put her food in a kong with yogurt and freeze it.

She has been very clingy recently around same time she is teething, went to relatives overnight and she was playing up ignoring commands but relative, a experienced collie owner was disciplining her, not in severe ways as he even said its about distraction but he was severe in the sense if she was biting he held her neck for a few seconds to get rid of her energy, not forcefully just enough that she stopped. Other relative stayed at mine overnight also and she took every chance to bite realtives feet, barked sometimes and when on walks barked unless I took her on walk.

Shes going longer with toilet breaks but still has accidents but no pads anymore and does it in same places each time,m ast bedroom door or on corner sofa.

 

[JudyN]

See if you can block access to the places she toilets - remain very vigilant so you can spot when she needs to go, and keep up rewards when she toilets outdoors. Praise her particularly if she asks to go out.

She might benefit from more challenging brain games. Have a read of this thread and try a few things: Mental enrichment for dogs

 

[deka]

Thanks for that, trainer did say before to teach impulse control which I was doing by waiting a few sceonds before giving her food/treats when giving them to her.

Shes doing ok, trying to teach her to not bite feet, had some success already, been feeding her when I am barefoot and standing, dropping her food and saying "wait" and taking a few steps.

She didn't bite my feet when I got into bed yesterday despite being barefoot, she did notice them as I got into bed and did put her mouth around them for a second but not hard and instantly gave up.

Today I was getting ready for shower so took shoes off and she didn't attempt to bite them until I was about to get into shower and even then I easily distracted her even without a treat and she ignored them.

She did have multiple accidents today, but I tend to notice she has more when I work from home, she outright didn't do anything today (maybe a quick wee) I was worried as I thought she was constipated but around lunchtime I was in my bedroom and she did it, then about a hour later on sofa, and about twice more on sofa during day despite walks.

I wonder if I have made her worried to do it in front of me as a few times I have been a bit off when she does it, I don't scream at her or anything but I have said in a tone of voice "I hope you don't do it on the sofa" and looked at her when I notice she goes for her spot.

I cannot block the sofa as I have a small living room, I could possibly put things on top of it though to stop her jumping on it, other thought was get some old carpet scraps/tiles and put them on sofa so if she does go its just a case of cleaning them and not the sofa or blanket (or both) since wee soaks through the blanket and I can have spares, a neighbour is throwing out old carpet that looks clean (and I have a cleaning machine I can use to soak any dirt from it) and make multiple scraps from it and store rest in my shed.

 

[JudyN]

Thanks for that, trainer did say before to teach impulse control which I was doing by waiting a few sceonds before giving her food/treats when giving them to her.

If you're just delaying giving the treat, this isn't impulse control - and if it's a reward when she's obeyed a command, it's best for the reward to follow immediately. Have a watch of this video:

 

[deka]

An update, she calmed down a few days into the New Year, she still has her zoomies but less common like I said before.

She was doing great with not biting feet but kinda backtracked since Monday though that may be related to teething, as on Wednesday one of her baby teeth came out when she was pulling my jumper and she has gone back to chewing furniture despite not doing so for almost a month and almost always in evenings.

Her feet biting is less common, I can walk around barefoot and she doesn't chew my shoes anymore except in evenings and around bed time, and sometimes in morning for past few days. I have made progress with her senisitivity when I make phone calls after one day a family member rang one who has visited before and taken her on walk and puppy was barking until I put speakerphone on and put phone to her ear and let family member talk to her which made puppy wag her tail.

I have made a few calls since and like calls when I wear a headset if shes in my arm she doesn't care at all even naps if she is on the ground or a sofa she often is ok for a few minutes then can get a bit agitated or just attention seeking but if I lure her up with a scrap of a treat she will jump on me and relax.

I have taught the word "settle" accidently wrong, when I used it in past I meant it for her to re;lax on mat so gave her treats when she was on it and said the word, if I use it now if outside and she is playing biting lead or something she will instantly walk beside me and sit, if she is having a zoomie it takes a few attempts then she stops and sits.

Her accidents are strange now, I bought a tray with faked grass mat, blocked sofa and she goes to that at which point I call her andf take her outside which worked great for a few days until she had her teething issues as well as stormy weather so now I can catch her mid squat take her outside and either its like 10-15 minutes of her wanting to play before she does it or not at alll and she goes on mat.

She still wants out around 2am and 6am but often just does a tiny wee, today at 8am I decided to wait and she chewed a toy for 10 minutes and then she did a small wee beside door I am talking like a drizzle.

When friend looked after her over Christmas she didnt want to go at all during night he even had her off leads on walks and she recalled each time.

 

[deka]

Shes doing ok, still having accidents both in daytime and night but less often, is getting very vocal though.

I changed her food a little as ran out of the expensive dry food and got a even more expensive one but bulk it a little with about 1/3 to half of cheap stuff that way it will last another 2 months or so when I can put her on wet food.

Took her to vets as had multiple people say shes very small for her age and vet said shes fine except a baby tooth hasn't come out yet when it should of (and thats likely why she still chews sometimes)

Had a few arguments with neighbours as I have a open plan front garden that is meant to be shared though divided into 2 squares and neighbour has decided one is theirs and one is mine and on my side is getting muddy and has a few holes (not from puppy, it's local foxes and also other local dogs sometimes come in) but neighbour is blaming me, and says dogs shouldn't be allowed in a garden!

 

[HOMER KOCH]

Have a border collie I got from a farmer all legit, proper details taken, vaccination records and I still send pictures to them with updates.

Puppy has always been full of energy and excited but thats to be expected but seems to be getting quite snappy these days and whines.

At first she loved getting picked up for example and took a lot of naps on floor, and loved jumping into my arms, toilet training is back and forth with her starting to get good unless I missed one of her random episodes.

I took away pads about 2 weeks ago fully except in bedroom.

She only has access to living room and kitchen when I go in there.

She knows basic commands now and reacts to them well except when shes overexcited or overtired which is where the problems seem to be.

Mornings are mostly ok she just wants to sleep in my arms, after her lunch she starts getting very restless even if I take her for a walk. and in past week or so she has started to lunge at me and bite my arm wanting attention, if I pull back in pain she just barks and uses even more force, I can't go in my bedroom as she bites my ankles and feet so I can't even make my bed, I have as of yesterday tried treats to get her attention to not bite me but that only works for a few seconds.

In past 2 days my arm has about 2 large scratches on, 2 have blood on them.

I can't even pick her up anymore without her somehow snapping though this isn't every time, its often if I do it when shes does something like want to play or is already playing, she also starts to bite me if I go on a phone call.

She wags her tail most of the time too.

The rest of the time and most of the day shes gentle and if I take her outside and she sees someone she wags her tail and if they want to pet her she rolls on her belly and lets them, no agression towards other people.

The last few days she even now starts to bite my leg if I go into the bathroom, she doesn't show obvious signs of anxiety, and shes worse in evening so I assume thats tiredness and of course gentle to the point of even if she wants to mouth my hand I can't even feel it.

Changes in past 2 weeks that may of contributed.

Have left her alone twice a week for 1-2 hours a time to get shopping.

Change in what food I get her (still dried food)

Maybe fireworks day? That was when the problems seemed to get much worse even though she barely reacted to the fireworks

Maybe not related but since yesterday she has made a few horrible farts, but then I started giving her treats again as of 2 days ago to help train her (so maybe the treats are causing the huge increase in last 2 days but wouldn't explain the previous week)
I worked 3 days at home last week (I work from home normally but had a week off the previous week)

Taking her into garden less as originally I was taking her out as much as 6 times a hour just in case and she took that as a excuse to play in garden, so now spread it out (would explain how shes having more accidents now)

Not sure if its teething also as shes suddenly started jumping onto my living room desk and licking my ice cold bottle there, maybe I should start giving her frozen carrots again (did it once last week)

 

[HOMER KOCH]

Some people may not agree, but when I get a puppy that wants to play bite and bites too hard I let him know that I am the alpha and that is not acceptable. i will start out hitting him on the head gently and saying no. if it persist i hit a little harder, and at one point it will figure out if i bite i get corrected and will quite. I produce up to 70 puppies a year and I will educate people that they have to show the puppy they are the alpha or that puppy will be the alpha. Most people wil not agree with me, but it works, and it does nothing to stop the puppy from approaching me and wanting attention, but without the biting. Unconditional love is something they understand.

 

[JoanneF]

I am the alpha

The alpha, dominance theory has been thoroughly disproven but it is the flat earth theory of dog training - some people still promote it, despite it having been debunked.

Puppies explore and play using their mouths. There is no need for physical punishment to change this sort of very natural behaviour. It would be like hitting a child that is asking you to play.

 

[JudyN]

It is also straightforward to discourage excessive biting by teaching that when the dog bites, the fun stops. No need for remonstrations or punishment, simply stop the play and walk away. It is both kinder and more effective.

 

[deka]

Since the thread is a little active again I will post a bit of an update, last 2/3 weeks have been strange I did change her food as old stuff I bulk bought ran out and using treats more to control her behaviour i.e to get her to stay sitting down, the only constant is that she spaces out her poop more i.e when she wakes up, around lunchtime then after that its not constant, she goes sometime late afternoon, and not even after eating her dinner and goes at least once in evening, the constant though is that if I take her to one of two places on a walk both which are about 8 minutes walk away she poops each time, she also now wees regularly on walks so thats not a problem anymore, she has regressed in garden though she either just eats stones there, or jumps at lead.

She often now goes about once a night rather than 3/4 times a night.

The big issue right now is that whilst her accidents aren't regular they are huge, mostly in evening and maybe a coincidence but she goes MORE after I use carpet shampoo in machine on the area she has the accident later, last night she pooped when she woke, pooped about 12.15pm on a walk, then took her on a walk about 2.45-3.30pm and nothing not even a wee, then she weed after dinner but didn't poop until about 8.15 on a later walk, took her out at 10.30 before bed and nothing, came indoors and to be fair she fell asleep quickly but a neighbour dog barked and it woke her after 15 minutes, took her into living room for 15 minutes to calm her, then back to bed and same thing happened, then when I went back to bed this time she jumped out of bed and did a huge poop over the carpet that stank. She did want out around 2am for a wee and stirred around 6am as usual and from about 8am - 9am (which is a sleep in for me with her) she starts pacing, walks to my face then lies back down and I took her out and she did a wee and poop, then at 9.30am after her breakfast she did a wee outside.

I am not sure if its down to in daytime she NEVER naps, also the only other things that have changed in the house is I changed my sofa the one she normally naps on in evening and she now doesn't want to nap in evening or on sofa she lies in dark corner of room, and also is more vocal during the day and very vocal in evening, no real zoomies though she only gets a hint of them if shes excited i.e I play/tease her or I do something like put my socks on/off and even then things like feet biting are so rare now again just when shes over excited.

Went to vet who said she seems fine, I forgot to get them to check her weight though.

She still doesn't settle though, as stated before when I say the word she interprets it as "calm" and not "calm and go to your spot/lie down"

Mornings are still the best, right now she is lying on floor staring at me, she does this in evening but in evening barks as well.