8 month old puppy

[TAlexander17]

Hi all

I have an 8 month old miniature poodle (or schnoodle - we're not sure) puppy.

I work from an office at my Mum's as we work together and he comes with me. He used to occasionally have biting phases when he was overstimulated e,g. if we were playing fetch with him, he'd play nicely for a while then all of a sudden he'd leave the ball and run towards you and start jumping up at you and biting. Not a full on bite but enough to hurt quite a bit and much more than just nipping. He'd also occasionally do this at home and combine it with humping.

This really calmed down as he got to 6-7 months, we then had him neutered two weeks ago and it seems to have come back with a vengeance and is worse than ever, this seems to be mainly aimed at my Mum who spends most of the time looking after him, he still very rarely does this to myself or my wife. He even did it when he was out for a walk in the middle of a field with no other dog's or people around.

He's a lovely dog apart from this, very loving and has never snapped at any other dog/person before.

Does anyone have any advice? Is this normal behaviour?

 

[JudyN]

Ideally, he wouldn't have been neutered till he was older. That may or may not have made a difference, and opinions vary widely, but you can't stick them back on again anyway!

This jumpy/bitey/humpy stuff is normal, and comes from overarousal/overexcitement/frustration/stress (or a combination). Being neutered and all it entails is stressful, and the stress and drugs can affect a dog for some time. Plus the drop in testosterone may be making him feel a bit less confident. Add in that he's a teenager.... There's a lot going on in that brain!

What worked for me was mostly trying to avoid situations when my dog did it. Keeping walks shorter can help as there's less time for them to build up a head of steam (maybe give an extra walk to compensate). When he does do it, don't say anything, turn away, and completely ignore him. Once he calms down, praise/treat. If he kicks off straight away, ignore again... and so on. If you are close to a fence/trees it can help as you can turn and face them and he can't come round in front of you. Also, if he's on lead you can hook the lead to something to give him a brief 'timeout'. My lad was far worse in open spaces, so I avoided them like the plague.

In the garden, I'd hang around near the door to the house so if he kicked off I could nip in and shut the door between us. I also found that carrying a plastic trug and holding it in front of me to block his approach was really effective - I didn't need to swing it at him, it just deterred him.

Once he's learnt that you'd really rather he didn't do this, he still might not have the self-control to stop himself every time. It's worth teaching impulse control to help him develop this - there's a good video here:

 

[JoanneF]

On the positive side, it's too soon since the op for the hormones to have been eliminated so while it might be related to having had the actual procedure, it's unlikely to be due to having had his boy bits removed iykwim

 

[TAlexander17]

Thanks Judy, I wish I could stick them back on!

I will try the impulse training. It's just strange that it always seems to be aimed at my Mum, he's even done it just now when he was settled and had been sleeping!

 

[JudyN]

Sometimes they pick on the 'victim' they feel most secure with, like a teenager being polite to teachers all day despite seething anger, then letting it all out on his mum when he gets home (boy have I been there....). Jasper jumped up on my husband and me, but never, ever anyone else.