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How to stop puppy biting


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Hello, we are new to the border collie breed and thought we were prepared however, we are out of ideas. Roscoe is almost 14 weeks old and when we are not laughing at his incredibly outgoing personality, he has us bleeding and scared and second guessing everything we are doing. He is super smart and he can be really sweet and then turn on a dime and viciously bite.

 

There are some clues as to why he does this at times however, they are not acceptable behaviors regardless of the reason. He only tends to do this at home when he is in a familiar setting, not with strangers or away from home (or a familiar environment). Some history on him is he came from a breeder who is well known in the area and has bred many champion herding dogs in the past but he no longer uses his dogs for herding he is now just breeding. After having Roscoe for 8 weeks I have realized some of the things I wish the breeder would do differently such as keep the pups for longer than 6 weeks so they had more time to learn correction from their siblings and mom. That said we have had him since he was 6 weeks old and here we are today.

 

 

We have realized he often bites when he needs to go to the bathroom, however he also bites when we put his leash on. Either way, we are being bit every time he needs to go to the bathroom and this makes it extremely difficult to make it a positive experience. We give him a ton of positive praise for everything he does do well but when he bites we have tried doing everything we know or we have researched. We have tried distracting him when he bites, making growling noises at him, saying no loudly and softly, time outs in his crate, a soft muzzle for less than five minutes, walking away in the other direction to igrnore him, walking towards him to show him dominance. I don't know what else to do, he is drawing blood daily and his biting is now getting so hard it is bruising as well. It has been a challenge to endure this on a daily basis but he is so smart and so sweet most of the time. He obeys commands when he is "on". He can sit, lay down, he will fetch a ball and throw it, he comes when he wants to, walks on the leash, he loves to play and he loves to work in the yard. From his first vet visit the vet could tell he would be a handful.

 

While in the house he is chewing on everything he can, walls, furniture, our clothing (while it is on us), shoes, despite our efforts to give him a very wide assortment of toys, he has a toy box that he can pick his own toys from including chew toys, balls, squeak toys, plush toys, ropes. I have tried all kinds of frozen Kongs (filled with varied treats such as sweet potato, home made apple sauce, small amounts of peanut butter etc.) ice cubes knee caps,marrow bones, antlers etc. we have tried the all natural repellents like bitter Apple spray but he likes them.

 

Outside he tries to eat everything including rocks, sticks, and every plant. We had a scare the other day when he ate rhubarb stalks and we caught him eating a leaf which can be toxic and cause kidney damage. Thankfully, we realized it immediately.

 

He has our attention ALL of the time and gets long walks every day, has contact with people and other dogs and does well with others. We have friends who have 4 border collies and when they are available he gets to do a long 3-5km walk off leash with their dogs and that is a great experience for him as he gets the pack peer experience and exercise. Their dogs range in age from a couple months older than him to 3 years old (one of which is a half sibling of his).

 

We are hoping for any advice about the biting, we can't have a dog that is biting like this. It is not the puppy nipping, we are cleare about the difference between the two. We can deal with his chewing on things and understand that is the puppy phase and we will continue to look for alternatives for him to chew on but his growling and biting can not continue. We are desperate at this point and we are really hoping there are some solutions.

 

We are going to put him in a training class that starts in a couple of weeks but that is mostly a socialization class which will be good for him but we are in a fairly small isolated area and I don't know of any real good dog trainers that could help him. His breeder was a trainer for sheep dogs which may be an option but he doesn't do training or shows anymore he is mostly just breeding.

 

One last minute thought my boyfriend just reminded me of, we have noticed he is often more like this when the weather is bad has anyone else noticed a connection like that? I get migraines during low pressure systems or weather changes and we have had rain storms weekly and that seems to be at the same time as his behavior has been worse... Just trying to find reason to his behavior. Or grasping at straws.

 

I've attached a picture of our beautiful Roscoe and some of the damage he has done to my right hand. My left is the same as well as my leg. If anyone can help I would really appreciate it. Sorry for the long rambling post.

 

Thank you!

Lisa

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He has our attention ALL of the time

This really stands out to me. This is part of the problem.

 

If he is chewing your house apart and injuring you...then he has the run of the place too much. At just one month in, it sounds like the relationship is really off between you and the pup. Consistent rules and boundaries need to be set with a young pup, especially important with a border collie.

 

Your friends with the 4 border collies, how do they behave with their owners and in their home? Do they behave in a way that you want your dog to? If they do, then I would ask your friends to come over and observe you and your pup in your normal day to day routines. They should hopefully be able to show you how to form a positive relationship with your pup where you can ask him to do things, and have him respect your space (your body and home). It's like letting a toddler run the show. They need direction from us and to be set up to succeed.

 

The crate is your friend. If you can't watch him in the house for even a minute, don't just let him just chew things he shouldn't. Prevent it by crating him or tethering him to you with a leash.

 

Ask him for what you want instead of allowing him to chew your arm while you leash him. Ask for a sit and don't touch or leash him until he is sitting and calm. That may mean holding the leash clip in your hand and slowly going through the motions of leashing him, removing your hand when he tries to bite (be calm and quiet, don't say no over and over). He goes for your hand, you remove your hand and wait. When he is sitting, try again, and again. He will quickly learn that what he is offering is not working like it used to and should start thinking and offering a new behavior.

 

He gets leashed and gets to go outside when he is calm and not biting. Otherwise he is being rewarded for bratty behavior - I bite my owner, they say things to me/pay attention to me/I go outside to play/walk.

 

Allowing this behavior is what eventually lands him in another home/shelter/bounced all over. When he is 40lbs and biting and bruising people, eventually people reach their breaking point. Even if now you say that is not you, it happens every day in shelters where people relinquish their 1-2 year old dogs or put them up for sale on facebook/craiglist. Investing in his training now could eventually save a lot of heart ache for you and the dog. Talk to anyone you know who has dogs who behave how you want your dog. Keep in mind that this is as much about you as it is him. Don't look for reasons or excuses for his behavior, it really starts with you. He does not sound like he has a genetic propensity for aggression, he sounds like an out of control puppy with no direction from his people. I say this kindly, as it is hard for new dog owners to realize that it is about them and not just the dog.

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Welcome to the boards, and I am sorry you are having problems.

I hope that I can be helpful.

 

first, I agree with waffles.

If he has your attention ALL the time, as you say, then that is very likely to be a huge contributing factor to your problems with him

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Puppies, like children, need to learn that they do not rule the household, and that there are times when they must be alone and quiet. You need to use the crate to give your puppy "time out", both as a correction and also as training for being left alone when you need to leave him.

 

If he is chewing on all the things you mention, that means that you are not controlling his environment sufficiently. Please don't take any of this as criticism. that is not the intent at all. But things will not change if you do not change what you are doing. You need to puppy-proof one room of your house and make it impossible for him to go into any of the other rooms.

If puppy proofing one room is impossible for some reason then you need to use an X-pen. Any time that he is not directly under constant....and I truly mean constant.....supervision, he is in the X-pen with toys. Just like a two year old child, you don't allow free reign of the household where there are dangerous things.

 

If he chews your clothes while they are on you, pick him up and put him in the crate for a time out for three to five minutes. If he bites, or tires to bite, same thing. What I would do is as waffles said, ask for a sit. Reach to out the leash on. If he even starts to turn his head to bite, I would say "AH-ah!" and remove my hand. Ask for sit again, if he has stood up. Praise and treat the sit. Reach to put leash on again. Etc. If he tries to bite three or four times in a row, he doesn't get the leash at all, instead he gets the crate for five minutes.

 

You need to get into the puppy's mind as best you can and think about what he is getting out of his actions. If he is not getting what he wants when he does something, he will eventually stop doing it. It will take time, because he has been biting for long enough now that he thinks it is getting him something, and you need to extinguish that behavior.

 

Let us know how it is going. We want to help.

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I'd add if he's got your attention all the time, he's possibly overstimulated. Like a 3 yr old human who gets fussy and whiny when they need a nap. The crate or an xpen is the place for him to be in those situations. He will probably fuss, then fall asleep.

 

Good luck ~ you've gotten great advice from the previous posters. Please let us know how you get on.

 

Ruth and Gibbs

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Thank you for the warm welcome and the feedback. I absolutely know I am part of the problem and I am willing to do whatever it takes to help Roscoe be happy and healthy. As an adult I have always adopted older dogs and trained them so this has been a challenge.

 

I have tried the things you have both mentioned but as you have said, CONSISTENCY is definitely the problem because I get completely warn out by evening and I can see by reading what you have written I am not using his crate nearly enough. Looking at how things have been, I have been using it more when I have been too exhausted to repeat myself rather than when he needs correction in the moment. I have been very inconsistent with it when he is doing things and it's not helping him learn to change his behavior it's just teaching him I can be as unpredictable as he is. (Revelation!) I have the ability to do this, he has three very large crates so that they are available in all areas of the house for immediate use. I just need to utilize them.

 

Also, I have not used treats as much when putting on the leash because I have not found anything as of yet that he is excited by. He is not very food motivated except for banana and I read that they should not get that too often because of the sugar content. My friends with the 4 BC said the person who did their agility class used chicken weiners but I wasn't sure that was a good idea either, he does like them, he had two tiny pieces and they did work. I swear he would be a vegetarian dog if he could. I would love suggestions for that as well. I have bought at least a dozen different vet recommended treats and he could care less about them. He does love verbal praise and affection but it's not always enough to get him to continue his positive behaviors because he is always getting attention. I will try what ever treats suggested.

 

I will leave it at that for now, I will keep the leash on him if needed and absolutely do the very slow treat motivated leash training and consistent crate use and see how things go with that. Thank you very much for the feedback it is very welcomed. The more the better, I feel like I am failing him. I have a background in psychology and I don't know if you can apply that to dogs, every time I think I have it figured out he throws me for a loop but what I THINK I am realizing is he has not had an opportunity to be independent (in a safe way) and has come to rely on me (us) for everything including his entertainment and he gets that by the biting and chewing since he has never been left alone to occupy himself. I may be wrong, again I'm grasping.

 

(Last paragraph added 3 hours after starting the first part)

I will say just since reading your suggestions from earlier this afternoon we have had four successful leash experiences and he has changed his mind about biting my foot three times with just being walked to his crate. I am feeling slightly more optimistic already and looking forward to tomorrow instead of worrying quite as much.

 

Thanks!

Lisa

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Shirley Chong has been recommended previously on these boards, but not for a little while. You might want to look up her website, shirleychong.com, and download her (free) ebooks. I recommend doggie zen and a whole lot of her other exercises to install both calmness and self-control in little heathen pupsters.

Shirley is a professional dog trainer whom I've never met but her stuff has worked on my dogs. But teaching self-control first makes teaching anything else later just so much, much easier.

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Great replies above do I won't repeat them.

 

As to your question about treats: easy enough to use kibble for treats. For me, training treats are about the size of a pencil eraser. To not overfeed your pup, measure out how much kibble you give daily, and use the kibble throughout the day for training treats. Feed the rest at meals. [i have known a few people who use up the daily kibble allotment as treats.] If he needs higher value treats, I commonly use string cheese, Zuke's, hot dogs are fine [use the ones with the least amount of additives], or look online for dog treat recipes. Some people will let their dog have a lick or two from a meat baby food jar. The possibilitiez are endless.

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A piece of advice I was once given - experiment to find high value treats for your dog. Pick lots of different things - bacon, hot dog, chicken, cheese, bologna, dried fish or if he likes sweet things, apple, red capsicum, carrot etc. Place two things a little way apart a few feet in front of him, release him and see which he goes to first. Then try it with two different things, and note which he goes to first. Once you have a list of more preferred treats, try two of those treats together, and see which he prefers. In the end you will find what is most attractive to him, i.e. what has the highest value, and what else he likes, but not quite as much.

Use the high value treats when you want to really reward him, lower quality treats the rest of the time. Mix them so he does not know what he will get. Treats should be very small, and may be a substitute for a meal, depending on what it is. If there is lots of sodium in his favourite treat, use it sparingly.

This experiment will keep him interested and be valuable information for the future.

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Sounds as though you are already making progress......good for you! And absolutely you are right that consistency is the key. I also second what others have said about treats. Just find what he likes best. If you think he might like vegetables, use that! I once had a foster dog who would work her butt off for lettuce, of all things, and my terrier will work for carrots or kale stems.

 

If you have a background in psychology, then brush up on your knowledge of Operant Conditioning. That is what we are using when we are training a dog, especially if we use positive reinforcement training.

 

I always try to approach training a dog, especially a puppy, with an attitude of purely Action=Consequences. In other words, it isn't about anger or punishment, rather just a 100% consistent result that the dog gets from this or that behavior on his part. Some behaviors result 100% of the time in a consequence that the dog likes, some result 100% of the time in a consequence the dog doesn't like. Any sentient creature will learn from those parameters, and border collies will learn faster than most.

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Glad to hear that progress is being made. One of my previous dogs actually crawled on his belly when I got out dried cherries, he loved them so. Gibbs is a sucker for apple slices. I did try tiny bits of apple for training treats, and he loved them, they're just a bit messy.

 

Keep up the excellent work!

 

Ruth & Gibbs

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Just wanted to add one thing to the good stuff you've already got, and that's this:

Buy an x-pen. Get the 36 tall size. They are a godsend. Think of it as a playpen for puppies. I am presently raising TWO puppies, both just turning 4 months old, and I could not have done it without x-pens. Every time they went into Tazmanian devil mode, I could just pop each in their x-pen with a couple chew toys and voila, peace and quiet. :) I like those better than a crate for time outs because you can give them toys, treats and chewies in there and it gives them enough room to actually play a little. You can find x-pens on Amazon.

Also, buy some of those expandable baby gates. Get the tallest ones you can find. Walmart is one place to find them. Use those to gate off rooms you don't want your puppy in and to keep them in the areas you do want them in. No puppy should ever have the run of a house.

Once he learns that you're not his play toy, not available 24/7 and that you control his freedom, he should eventually learn to settle down. Yes, he may scream and yell the first few times you put him in the x-pen, but that's what the chew toys and treats are for.

The most valuable thing a border collie can learn is an OFF switch. It's a misconception that they need constant interaction and attention. A working border collie also needs to know how to just chill out and wait, and your pet BC needs to learn the same.

X-pens and baby gates. You'll wonder how you ever got along without them. :)

Best of luck.

~ Gloria

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Just FYI.....don't know if it will be so where you live, but where I live Craig's List is a great resource for things like X-pens, baby gates and crates, at much cheaper prices than you will pay at stores. Mine all came from yard sales and Craig's List.

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Craigslist, also NextDoor, which is a sort of neighborhood bulletin board. My local humane society has a 'boneyard' of crates, ramps, xpens, etc that are donated by the community. Anyone can pick one out and take it home for free or a small donation. Maybe there's something like that local for you.

 

Ruth & Gibbs

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Thank you all again. We managed to find two X-large X-pens on a yard sale site and we have been utilizing them throughout the day. Things are going much better now and both the puppy and I are much more relaxed.

 

Using more treats to help with the leash and other training areas by decreasing his negative behaviors and changing my behaviors to better suit the situation.

 

There have only been a couple of minor incidents as opposed to daily biting issues and constant chaos and the chewing has also decreased.

 

I even managed to get out of the house for dinner Friday night without feeling guilty.

 

We still have a ways to go but it is looking much more manageable now!

 

Thank you all again! I am sure there will be many more questions as we go!

 

Lisa and Roscoe

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Excellent.

Good for you, and good puppy!

 

So glad that you were able to put to good use the advice you got.

Hope you stick around, 'cause we are always glad to help if we can.

 

Even though I am a slightly experienced border collie person and have trained a lot of dogs, I know that when I get my next puppy I, too, will be here asking for people's advice, and probably regularly.

Sometimes it just helps to have a different perspective.

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Even though I am a slightly experienced border collie person and have trained a lot of dogs, I know that when I get my next puppy I, too, will be here asking for people's advice, and probably regularly.

Sometimes it just helps to have a different perspective.

 

And sometimes in the heat of the moment we need to be reminded of what we already know! :lol:

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  • 1 month later...

I put an overall update on Roscoe but in case people who added advice are following this thread, thank you! It is working, he is no longer constantly biting and is doing really well! He is a great dog and we have learned so much from your advice!

 

He is much more confident and has learned to bark once at the door if he needs out or sit in front of us and bark once if he wants something instead of biting. It is only rarely he nips if we aren't getting the message.

 

We are utilizing all of the suggestions in various situations. Especially the crate and positive reinforement. He is still not food or treat motivated unless he thinks we are eating it but he is doing well with learning commands.

 

I would say the areas we still need to work on are his anxiety around traffic and pulling on the leash when he gets excited.

 

We are in obedience classes now so I'm hoping that will help but most of our commands and negative behaviours seem to get worked out during play.

 

He gets to hang out with our friend's 4 border collies at least once or twice a week which has been super fun and the most helpful.

 

Thank you again for all of your help. I am always looking for suggestions.

 

Thank you all again,

Lisa

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  • 2 years later...

I have an 11 year old BC girl who is the love of my life and my first dog. Now I also have a shy BB puppy seven months old who exhibits strong BC tendencies. Yesterday she tried to nip/bite a man's ankles and legs, and just now she did it again with a neighbor. Scary! She goes out on a leash and off leash for a 1/2 hour walk several times a day, and several ling frisbee sessions. That's about all I have health, time and energy for. We live in a tiny Town so there's no place where crowds gather, but we walk the whole town and go to the AG supply shop every week, too. It's hard getting her to mind me with a NO or HERE unless I have a frisbee or stick or toy of interest. She's got a good site going but stay is lacking. This bite thing is scaring me. My other dog never did that. Do I yell at her? Do I smack her? I sure don't praise. I'm a fairly good horse trainer but I'm losing my mind here.

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