Do i persevere with my papillon or accept that she's a biter?

hill_pack said:

There are many reasons why dogs develop aggression issues.

Have you taken her to the vet recently? Some illnesses or other medical problems could be the cause. If a dog is in pain it could cause aggression. In my experience, one of my Pit Bulls was the sweetest dog ever but sometimes, he would randomly turn. Most of the time it happened when he was in his kennel but there were several times he went through it outside of it. With the help of our vet, we were able to narrow it down to two things. Either a chemical imbalance in his brain that was causing him confusion amongst other things or a brain tumor that was pressing on a nerve and making him act out. I used to volunteer at my local animal shelter and they once had a family surrender their Boxer because he would randomly turn on them. He had attacked one of the kids and his family gave up on him. The shelter's vet had determined after some tests that he had a brain tumor that was pressing on one or more of his nerves in his brain and it was causing him to act aggressively.

Some other possible reasons for aggression are frustration, fear, possessiveness, or a show of dominance. From the information you have provided, it doesn't sound like she's fearful or possessive of anything. I clearly don't know about your personal life and living arrangements but some common causes of frustration in dogs are; spending too much time in a cage or tied up. They can also become frustrated if they're picked up or touched constantly which by you saying your kids respect animals and are gentle with them, I'll say that's not the case either. The show of dominance I don't have experience in so I can't really say anything about that but a quick google search should provide some insight!

Click to expand...

parus said:

A 4 month old dog that WASN'T mouthy or hyper would be a rarity. Puppies are insane land sharks. It's why shelters are full of adolescent dogs. If she's nipping while looking excited, it's not aggression, it's playfulness. She just needs to learn that we don't play with humans using our teeth. You can redirect her on to an appropriate thing to chew, like a toy, or into an acceptable game like fetch. If she's really wound up and frenzied, she needs a quiet time out to settle. (Think of a toddler up past bedtime.)

Also, do you really need to be picking her up often? Most dogs of any size dislike it, especially if they're just being scooped up like a football. In general it's better to use a lead or teach them to go to places on command. For when it is necessary to pick them up (say to load into a car), here's a video on training the dog to accept it nicely. If you don't do clickers (I don't) just using treats should work fine.

Similarly, dogs tend to be naturally adverse to having their collar grabbed. Even if they're not shy, they come to associate it with unfun things. Here's a good video on fixing that:

Even with good training you are going to have some flaky dumb puppy/adolescent behavior until her brain finishes developing. Unless she's a genetic mess or badly mishandled, she'll naturally chill out as she gets older. As a little dog you can expect a reasonable degree of mental maturity sometime between 12 and 18 months. If that sounds like a long slog, consider that if she were a large dog like a lab, you would be dealing with immature behavior for up to 3 years, and that at least she's small enough to limit the damage she can do in the meantime.

Click to expand...