Puppy Forum and Dog Forums banner

Behavioral Problems in Puppy Taken Too Soon?

3K views 26 replies 13 participants last post by  Shell 
#1 · (Edited)
My neighbor was grateful I had spent my summer babysitting her kids, so when her (mix) dog had puppies, I was allowed first pick. I'm a first time dog owner, and I knew absolutely nothing about dogs other than you buy food, treats, toys, and a bed for them (and that they pooped). So when the pups were four weeks (weened), she let me pick one, and then she gave me puppy food, the dog, and sent me on my way.
I chose the only male and didn't do any behavioral research because I didn't see the reason until he started having problems about one to two weeks later.
Excessive barking, really hard biting (he's broken skin on me so many times), growling, humping his toys, growling especially when I'm near a treat I've given him, freaking out on a leash, and separation anxiety. If I leave him alone in my room for more than five minutes he eats the drywall.
He's nine weeks now and I currently don't have a vehicle so I can't drive him to puppy behavioral classes or socialization classes. I'm at my wit's end! I love him dearly but he bites so hard I can't play with him.
Does anyone have any advice to help me curb this behavior in my mix puppy?
 
#2 ·
countless amounts of puppies are hand raised without moms from much younger ages in rescues and foster homes and grow up just fine. People think they get a pup and the pup needs to play play play get them all riled up and excited which teaches them wrong interaction skills with their humans. Add the type(s) of breed your dealing with you can really activate natural high prey drives in them before you have any other form of interaction skills with them.. Stop the rough housing play.. be more constructive with your interaction. simple OB with NO corrections.. only working towards them learning to give you eye contact, to sit while you put their food down, potty training, puppies this age need lots of nap times for growing, follow me skills around the house, getting their leash on, finding a good chewy toy to keep them occupied by themselves... Puppies of any age will cry when left alone.. weather they had a dam or not.. and some breeds more then others will be more people needy as a breed trait. what type of mix do you have
 
#3 ·
I would work on crate training along with anything. Puppies, especially that young, should not be left unsupervised. He will likely cry a lot at first and it is hard to ignore. Eventually he'll learn crying doesn't attention, and then you need to reward him for being quiet in the crate. The crate should be like a home for him and should not be used as punishment. A lot of people recommend that when the pup nips/bites, you should respond like a puppy being bit. Yelp, jump and turn away. That worked a little for my guy, but he eventually went back to it. I do believe in negative punishment. So, when he bit, I'd give him an appropriate whack on the butt. It took 3 days and he stopped.

I also believe in a philosophy that makes the puppy work for whatever I give..whether it's going outside (he has to sit patiently at the door, wait me to open the door and then release him from stay), giving meals (we go through all of the obedience commands at meal time before I give him the okay), even fetch (he has to drop it at my feet). This works for me because my dog is extremely food motivated. And since I feed him on a schedule, I know when he's hungry, which is a great motivator for training. Sometimes, you just need to ignore him when he's doing behavior that is acceptable. One the flip side, you absolutely have to reward good behavior. Even if it's laying in bed chewing on the appropriate toy, give him a belly rub.

My pup had a broken leg when we got him, so he was crate confided from 7 weeks (we got him at 9 weeks) until 11 weeks. We had crate training, down and stay learned before he was 11 weeks. We did that by making sure every time he naturally did the command, he got a reward (either praise or a treat) along with the command word.

9 weeks is too young for an electronic collar, but I do like those, especially if you have instances where the dog is out of the crate and left alone (my dog is outside by himself frequently, I use to keep him out of the garden and from eating the fence).
 
#4 ·
Please don't use a shock collar on a dog. You can absolutely ruin a dog that way, and it's totally unnecessary. Check out kikopup or zak george on youtube for training that works and nobody gets hurt.

Pups taken too young usually have two problems: bite inhibition and dog aggression. That's because between 4 and 8 weeks is when puppies learn how to be dogs around other dogs from their littermates and mother. So if your dog ends up being DA, don't be too terribly surprised. DA has nothing to do with aggression towards people, so don't worry about it.
 
#5 ·
First they make electronic collars that only beep. Second, any training method used incorrectly can "ruin" a dog. You need to find what works for you and the dog. If a shock collar is your method, so be it. If used correctly you can cut training down significantly without any harm to the dog.
 
#7 ·
Have a trainer come to your house or meet you near your home in a park etc. Most trainers will do that for a small additional fee. Be prepared to take multiple lessons (10 or so) of about an hour in length each time.

But do your research FIRST, this time around. Make sure you select a trainer who is knowledgeable in operant conditioning and one who teaches you how to deal with these issues by using primarily positive reinforcement methods. The more EXCLUSIVELY positive they are, the better. Avoid all trainers who use physical punishment, correction collars such as e collars prongs and chokes, like the plague. It would be best if you can find one who is well versed in training dogs who have missed critical early socialization periods. As you likely know now, you shouldn't have taken your pup from the breeders until at least 8 to 10 weeks of age. Don't fret too much though, most of what you speak of are normal problems common to all puppies. Just make sure you get some kind of proper, professional assistance ASAP.
 
#9 ·
Every tdog I have met that was clicker trained is spoiled rotten and does what it wants when it wants. I'm assuming the training was done incorrectly. But it isn't my preference.

Dog bites me I whack him. If you have a shock collar, which should never be set high enough to hurt the dog only high enough to get his attention. I have used a collar on myself which i think everyone who is considering one should do, it should be mildly uncomfortable, but never be painful. If it hurts you're doing it wrong. If you're doing it right the dog should never associate being zapped with you or the the collar.

Again, everyone has a preference. Each training method has it's pros and
cons. Training methods seem to come in phases. Alpha leader segued into positive only for example. Find what works for you. I do think that excessive force should not be used that will ruin any dog no matter what.
 
#11 ·
Every tdog I have met that was clicker trained is spoiled rotten and does what it wants when it wants. I'm assuming the training was done incorrectly. But it isn't my preference.
It isn't your preference to do training incorrectly, or to do clicker training? It doesn't sound like you know much about it, so I'd presume that would make it difficult to assess if it was right for you or not.

Plenty of people on here have dogs that were trained with clickers, positive reinforcement, etc that are well behaved and certainly don't do whatever they want. For example, I have taught my dog not to chase my cats using only +R.
 
#13 · (Edited)
I did my research years ago before I got my first dog as an adult. I didn't like clicker training. I liked it even less after I met some dogs trained that way. As I saidpreviously im assuming they were trained incorrectly.

Yes I believe in negative consequences. You learn as a kid if you punch someone in the face you will likely get punched back. Were you damaged from that lesdson? I do my training through positive reinforcement and appropriate consequences. If you dont like shock collars or beeping collars, dont use them.
 
#15 ·
I did my research years ago before I got my first dog as an adult. I didn't like clicker training. I liked it even less after I met some dogs trained that way. As I saidpreviously im assuming they were trained incorrectly.

Yes I believe in negative consequences. You learn as a kid if you punch someone in the face you will likely get punched back. I do my training through positive reinforcement and appropriate consequences. If you dont like shock collars or beeping collars, dont use them.
never needed to consider using one, as simple structure and consistency always worked. Never recommend adverse training on a 9wk old pup... or any puppy who just needs the human to do the work in teaching and guidance..
 
#16 ·
I always get amused when people say they've met bratty dogs who are clicker trained and they only do what they want.

I mean I'm not above aversives, but I've got news: Agility dogs? Almost exclusively trained with basically a reward marker (or actual clicker) and purely positive. I know dogs with high level OB titles that are clicker trained.

Let's not confuse the two issues here.

And definitely don't start that aversive crap on a puppy. There's no trainer in the world, who is worth their salt, including the good ones who really, really like their shock collars and prongs who are okay with that. Bad plan. A case can be made that sometimes aversives are useful or necessary but for a puppy? A YOUNG puppy at that? LOL, n o. If you can't get reliable behavior from positive reinforcement with a puppy young enough to still want nothing more than to please you, the problem is the trainer being absolute crap. Not the training method and most certainly not the puppy.
 
#19 ·
As an aside, the dog in the middle of my signature was found at four weeks old. She turned out okay. Good, even. The one on her right in my sig was found at 6 weeks and he was a demon until he was 2. He's also pretty freaking great now, and given that he's a GSD X that he had a longish stage of biting and prey-drive out the wazoo isn't surprising. At 2.5 he's gold.

Just take your time, keep your goals long term so you don't get frustrated and work toward what you want the 2-3 year old dog to look like and don't worry about the puppy being a demon in the short term. Stay positive, stay gentle, stay consistent, and you'll get there.
 
#20 ·
I dont know but I DO know that my rescue dog (who was dumped at the same age your pup was taken from his mom) does have some behavioral problems, she has NO bite inhibition, not with other dogs or even with me and she doesnt respond to "yelping", it only amps her up. I recently bought a puppy from a breeder, and he stayed with his mother and litter until 13 weeks and I DO see a difference in him, he has GREAT bite inhibition and he heeds when you "yelp" or say "ow!" and he is instantly sorry.

I am not saying that your pup will have issues, I am saying to be prepared in case you do. If you can get him around (vaccinated) older dogs that are good with puppies I would do that. Again make SURE they are vaccinated for distemper, parvo, and kennel cough before you let your pup interact with them.
 
#25 ·
I dont know but I DO know that my rescue dog (who was dumped at the same age your pup was taken from his mom) does have some behavioral problems, she has NO bite inhibition, not with other dogs or even with me and she doesnt respond to "yelping", it only amps her up. I recently bought a puppy from a breeder, and he stayed with his mother and litter until 13 weeks and I DO see a difference in him, he has GREAT bite inhibition and he heeds when you "yelp" or say "ow!" and he is instantly sorry.
Meh, my dog was from a great breeder and stayed with his littermates until 9.5 weeks and he had terrible bite inhibition as a puppy. Yelps amped him way up and it took a long long time to get him to stop biting. I think that's more personality/breed than anything. A soft dog will respond to yelping, but a harder dog might take it as an invitation to play harder. Some breeds are naturally very mouthy and some aren't.

I agree with the others - just socialize and work with your pup like you would any other dog and you'll be fine. Go to puppy classes and find some calm older dogs to help teach dog social skills.
 
#21 ·
This is probably moot but I feel the need to put my psych degree to work: spanking is positive punishment, not negative. Negative punishment would be the removal of a privilege, like a toy or something. Think of them as addition and subtraction.

It's the same with reinforcements - positive is addition of a something, like a treat, to continue a behavior, while negative is removing like a ban on something (I can't really think of a dog example).

/my parents would be so proud
 
#22 ·
Since negative reinforcement is the removal of an averse stimulus, an example would be using an e-collar and turning off the stim when the dog complies. Vs negative punishment which is the removal of a pleasant stimulus, like the removal of a toy or withholding of treats.
 
#24 ·
Trust me as maddening as it is when they go in the wrong place, it will be worse for you in the long run if you punish them for going, I just intrupt mine and then hurry him to the potty area where he can finish, then clean up the mess with an enzymatic cleaner like natures miracle. If your dog has an accident the one you should be punishing is yourself for not watching them closely enough.
 
#27 ·
I once met, in the same week, two groups of puppies who were the same age and around the same size but had so very different levels of mouthiness that it made a good illustration for me. One group was a litter of decently bred Lab pups who were going to be service dogs in training and were being socialized from the beginning and had been kept together. They were little land sharks! Being retrievers, they wanted to mouth everything with their little needle teeth.
The other pups were APBTs that had been confiscated from a dog fighting bust. They were so gentle with their mouths, almost no tendancy to nip and were more likely to lick than to put teeth to skin. They had been handled by people and kept together but i doubt very much that any actual training had been done thus far.

They were individuals of course, but it was clear that there are breed tendancies at play also.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top