Emma

Hi Adrienne, Thank you for your prompt response. The puppy usually doesn't growl or bare his teeth. He may have done this once or twice. We've had him for six weeks now. We got him from an Amish breeder. They seemed like very nice, calm people. I'm not sure if they ever trained him although he seemed docile when we first got him because everything was so new to him and he was getting used to his new environment. The first few weeks that we had the puppy he was aggressively biting us and we would scream at him to stop and try to run away. This made him more excited and I was at my wits end. I texted the breeder and asked her if this was normal. She said it was absolutely not normal for a dog to aggressively bite and we should roll up a newspaper and tap him on the rump whenever he would bite us. We did this and the very next day the aggressive biting stopped. He was now only nipping at us. We still have the rolled up newspaper but we have not ever had to use it again. I've read all of your advice and I believe you've given me some valuable insight into why he's biting. He does seem to bite my husband when he comes home from work and when there is a lot of excitement. I feel like I have to train my husband too because he tends to get the puppy riled up; although he's not doing it intentionally. My son wears shorts around the house so the puppy sees a lot of flesh and tends to nip at it. Also, the puppy doesn't see either of them often so when he does see them it's very exciting to him. I'm starting to watch for triggers. I didn't realize it but he's calm around me because I'm not providing many triggers. He sees me all the time and I'm calm and quiet with him. He's not trying to be bad and he's not trying to hurt us; he just excited. I understand that this puppy responds much better to kindness and attention than being tapped on the rump. I'm glad because I don't ever want to be cruel to him. I want to earn his trust and love. I also understand that I was too hasty in trying to brush him. Your tips are working wonders. It never occurred to me to give him a treat while brushing him. That worked like a charm and now he equates the brush with a treat. We're all so happy with the dramatic improvements. I've noticed that he loves being trained. He looks forward to it and is super eager to learn new commands. He just loves the positive attention he gets when we're training. If I didn't find this course online I really believe that I would have gotten rid of this dog. I was overwhelmed and had no idea what I was doing. Thank you.

I'm having the same problem with my new 4 month old English Shepherd puppy. He bites my husband and adult son and draws blood and leaves bruises. I have been working on the same basic commands that you mentioned but the biting continues. He doesn't bite me that often however he will occasionally nip at me if I try to touch him on the head or brush him. I take him for walks in the driveway and he still tries to nip at me even though I freeze and turn my back to him when he does this. The biting is so upsetting that I've been seriously considering surrendering him. We're afraid that he is going to seriously hurt one of us, especially when he gets bigger and has adult teeth. It's frustrating because I don't want to be dominated by a puppy and I also don't want to resort to hitting him to make him stop hurting us. I just don't know what to do.