9 weeks Rottweiler puppy bites and nip hard

[NicoleChan]

Hi Adrienne, 

We have just got a Rottweiler puppy about a week ago and he is 9 weeks ++. He likes to bite us a lot and saying ouch or yelp will provoke him to bite us harder. Recently he even growls at us while biting our hand. 
sometimes we can redirect him not to bite us with toys but sometime it doest work.  When we take him out, sometimes he would bite our shoes or ankle and would not let go. He is really quick like piranha in biting, he can bite our face, hand, leg and everywhere. 

However, if he know we have treats on our hand, he will be like the ‘angel’ dog, obedient and will do whatever you asked him to do. Also, we realised that he can’t be trained long as it will make him to be restless and result in biting us. 
 

what should we do? we need to be very focus while patting him as if we are not concentrating he will bite us. He also don’t like us staring at him and he will bark at us.

[Adrienne]

Hi there!

Welcome to the forums! And welcome to the puppy nipping stage! With offering toys, things get challenging because toys are static and quite boring compared to our mobile hands, legs and ankles.  Of course, there are toys and toys. If you redirect to super duper fun and interactive toys, chances are your puppy will stick with them and not look back. 

Yelping may work for some milder cases with the most mellow pups, in some others it seems to increase arousal and make the puppy more riled up. 

Here are some exercises that can help divert his attention from biting to alternate activities: 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/bite-inhibition-games/

You can also work on refining your pup's biting with these exercises which you can incorporate in your daily training:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/train-dog-take-treats-gently/

The growling when biting can be playful, although we need to make sure we're not dealing with something else such as resource guarding or a puppy acting defensive when touched. Does it happen when he has a toy nearby, food or some bone? Does it happen when you are trying to pick him up or touch his paws or check his ears?

You can find several more tips in the many threads on puppy nipping in this forum.  Don't be afraid to read through the most challenging cases as they can give you several options to keep in mind as you navigate through the puppy nipping phase and encounter any hurdles: 

 

I hope this helps! Please follow up with more details or questions if I haven't covered the issue in detail or simply would like to do more troubleshooting. I am here for support.

Best,

Adrienne

[NicoleChan]

Hi Adrienne, 

Thanks for replying. I have tried the bite inhibition game link that you posted. it works well when we are playing the bite inhibition game and when we have treats on our hand. He will not bite us so much in indoor (our house) as I can see some improvement here. 

But the big problem occurred is when we took him outdoor for potty or during play time. Our 10 weeks old Rottweiler puppy will often target my feet and my shoes. I tried to lure him with treats and he will sit and take the treat. However, he would refuse to walk and just sit to wait for the treats given to him. If we refused to give him treat he will nip at us again. What should I do? I have bruised all over my leg and there are two wounds that has slightly bleed due to his teeth is really sharp. (Attached photo for you reference- all this wound happens when we took him outdoor) 

I am wondering whether Rottweiler puppy is really aggressive as I don’t recall my boxer and beagle breed caused so much nipping issue. However, this Rottweiler puppy is a fast learner and the only problem I had with this puppy is the it’s biting issue. Just wondering whether the biting issue will stop as I am really worried he is being aggressive when he grows up and everyone is telling us about how dangerous the breed is. Before I was really confident and told those people that a lot of people have big misunderstanding about Rottweiler breed. But now since this puppy kinda bite hard, people’s thought of Rottweiler breed is really dangerous kinda affecting me. 

Also, can you guide me how to train the dog to take it and drop it. I am having difficulty to train the puppy although I read your training guide about take it and leave it command. 

Thank you for your help. 

 

 

[Adrienne]

Your legs look like mine when I was a child and my parents got me a black Labrador puppy. This Lab pup was very sweet, but like your Rottie puppy was biting me and scratching me non-stop when I was spending time with him in the yard. To make the story short, my parents ended up giving this Lab puppy away because they were worried,  but looking back, I wished they had not, as I missed out growing up with a dog and all its perks. 

If the biting happens mostly outdoors and not around resources, it sounds mostly like rough play coming from a very energetic puppy who hasn't learned to engage in other forms of interaction and has a strong need to get rid of pent up energy and play (all puppies play by biting in any case). The good news is that your puppy is very young and you have a good amount of time to reduce this form of biting, although it won't happen overnight. The goal here is to find alternate activities for your puppy to engage in so that your puppy will engage in these more and more rather than focusing so much on your legs. 

I think you are on the right path, but just need to make little adjustments to gain momentum. For instance you state: "I tried to lure him with treats and he will sit and take the treat. However, he would refuse to walk and just sit to wait for the treats given to him. If we refused to give him treat he will nip at us again. What should I do?" 

From your description it sounds like when you are outside your puppy nips at you non-stop. So we want to break this cycle before nipping at you all the time becomes established and your puppy's favorite past time, to the point of becoming his default behavior outdoors. So right now, we need to do anything that distracts him and prevents this pattern from establishing. So if your puppy is sitting, reinforce that, don't refuse to give him the treat and give him the opportunity to resume the biting behavior. We don't want to get stingy with treats here (use your pup's kibble if you are concerned about calories, just think that your dog's breakfast ration gives you like 50-60 opportunities for reinforcing desirable behavior, let's not let it go to waste).

So it would go like this: you go outside with puppy, you ask for sit, puppy sits, "good boy!" toss the kibble/treat. Puppy comes back after eating the treat, "sit" toss the kibble treat. Rinse and repeat to give your puppy a work out and put his puppy mind to work. Keep the momentum going. You can mix in here some hand targets as well, which are easy-peasy to train. https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/targeting/

For severe cases where the puppy is too over stimulated to focus on performing exercises, you can even not ask for any particular behavior for now, just do the kibble toss game. We can always add obedience later when the pup has a little more impulse control. Puppy approaches, toss kibble. Puppy comes back, toss kibble. Rinse and repeat. You can even do this exercise when sitting in front of the yard. Now, at some point you will have to end the game. In that case, it may be helpful giving him a stuffed Kong or Kong Wobbler (you have kept in your pocket or on an outdoor table) or something valuable to chew on until it's time to go back inside.

Now,  I had a puppy not too long ago who used to get back to nipping when it was time to back inside. I used a flirt pole and we made it a routine that when it was time to go inside, I offered the flirt pole and the puppy attached to it and was dragged gently inside as he was tugging at it. Good, bingo, the nipping stopped as this way way more fun. Puppies like routines, so if we can find them games to keep them busy in other ways than nipping, they often come to desire playing these games and even anticipating them. 

You can mix and match several games between kibble toss, hand targeting for treats, sitting for treats, playing with the flirt pole, tossing several balls (keep them handy). We can also keep outside some toys the puppy gets only when outside (makes sure they are interactive and provide engagement, not static toys that just lie on the ground) and provide them after the puppy has gone potty (best to do games and offer toys after going potty otherwise we risk puppies forgetting all about going potty and the having accidents back inside the house). Keep these toys handy on a table or something at easy reach so you can provide them quickly. 

We can also provide access to a plastic baby pool with a little water to play in and cool down, a digging pit filled with sand and buried toys, a muffin game handy https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/elementary/the-muffin-game/ and a ball pit game https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/elementary/the-ball-pit-game/. Basically, anything safe and productive to provide forms of entertainment that decrease the nipping episodes. 

You can also ask your vet when it can be safe for your puppy to attend puppy socialization classes where play with other puppies is allowed. This can provide an outlet for your pup's strong desire to engage in rough and tumble play with other pups. This also helps refine bite inhibition and pups maintain this way their social skills. 

To reduce the nips and scratches on the legs, it may help to wear extra layers or clothing (I know some pup owners who also wear tall boots or chaps for horse back riding, I know, not very practical with the summer approaching). This doesn't mean though we can just wear them and let the puppy bite to his heart's content, we still need to find engaging games and activities so these extra layers of padding are just for those random bites that may still occur during the process. 

Important to emphasize is to redirect your puppy before he has a chance to latch on and nip. This cannot be emphasized enough. If you try to redirect him by the time he's attached to your leg, he will be much more difficult to redirect because he will be too focused on tugging. So as soon as you see him coming your way to bite your legs, stop walking and be ready to redirect at a moment's notice. Once again, there are several options to redirect you can try. All of these require that you carry with you a bag of treats and interactive toys as you go with your life. This is not something you will have to do forever. Just to get your through the more critical time and prevent your puppy from rehearsing the problematic behavior ( as mentioned the more dogs engage in problematic behaviors, the more they put roots).

Also, important is to avoid harsh methods such as physically correcting the puppy for biting as this is the fastest way to cause a playful or hyper/ovestimulated puppy to go from play/overstimulation to actual defensive biting and potential aggression along the road. 

Please try to not get discouraged. If you do a search on this forum for puppy biting, you will find all breeds and sizes of pups engaging in rough nipping behaviors. It gets better with time as puppies learn alternate ways of interacting with us that supersede the instinctive desire to nip. 

About training leave it and take, can you please provide more details about exactly what you are doing and what is happening? Is your puppy not leaving the objects you are practicing with? Extra details are much appreciated so we can do some troubleshooting. 

Talk soon,

Best,

Adrienne

 

 

[NicoleChan]

Hi Adrienne, 

Thanks for your help, his nipping towards me when we are outdoor has reduced. Although sometime when he is excited he tend to forget and nipped me again but it is easier to redirect him. I have no new painful bruises these two days. Hopefully his nipping inhibition will stay like today 🙂 and continuously making improvements.

Regarding the take it exercise, I can’t seem to get him to take an object or toy except treat. He will patiently wait me to give him treats and he is not interested to even bite at the toy even I hide it on my back and present to him. 
 

Same situation for leave it cue, when he knows I have treats on my hand, he seems disinterested to go get the toy but wait patiently beside me for treats. 
 

Another thing that is bothering me which is  my puppy doesn’t like his kibble as a treat and he will refuse to eat it when I offered his kibble to him so I can’t use that as low value treat. For his normal meal, I have to add some boiled pork approx 20g of meat with 65g of his kibble, 3 times per day. Before adding boiled pork to his kibble, he will only eat his kibble when he is really hungry like 100g per day (he supposed to eat 230g per day according to kibble feeding table). I have reduced his kibble amount due to the boiled pork I added into his meal. He really loves the homemade meat treat that I baked for him so I have been using this for his training all this while. Can the meat treat  still considered as high value treat or do you have any suggestions? Also, any suggestions on low value treat? 

Thank you. 

 

 

[Adrienne]

"Thanks for your help, his nipping towards me when we are outdoor has reduced. Although sometime when he is excited he tend to forget and nipped me again but it is easier to redirect him. I have no new painful bruises these two days. Hopefully his nipping inhibition will stay like today 🙂 and continuously making improvements."

This is great news! Keep it up and with time he should start finding other activities more fun to engage in if we make them more valuable and rewarding. Make sure though to also dedicate some time to teaching him to inhibit his bite on human skin. We want to teach pups that our skin is extra delicate and that they should not bite down hard even when excited. We can do this through exercises such as "gentleness pays" as we provide feedback.

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/train-dog-take-treats-gently/

"Regarding the take it exercise, I can’t seem to get him to take an object or toy except treat. He will patiently wait me to give him treats and he is not interested to even bite at the toy even I hide it on my back and present to him. "

This can happen when the dog finds treats more valuable than toys. In this case, the treats are a  too strong distraction. We can try different approaches here or a combo of several listed below.

-We can try to practice "take" and keep treats used for rewarding out of view and use non-smelly treats if these distract the dog. Some smart dogs smell the treats and don't want anything to do with the toy because they want the treats.
- We can try toys with different textures and qualities, perhaps your dog has a preference for picking up toys that are fluffy or bouncy. A service dog foster dog I had in training once was reluctant to pick up any type of stuffed toys, but her mind changed totally when I used a tug toy covered in real bunny fur which gained her interest.
-We can use shaping, by clicking and rewarding for sniffing an object, then clicking and rewarding for mouthing it a bit, and then clicking and giving a jackpot of treats for picking it up
-We can try using a brand new toy or a toy the dog hasn't seen for a while.
-We can try tossing the toy and saying "take" the moment we see the dog pick it up
-We can get the toy, tie it to a string, and move it about with your pup chasing it. Then, put the toy in reach and readily pointing to it saying "take it!" in an exciting tone of voice.
- We can try using long toys. These may help encourage the pup to grab one end and and then the behavior can be put on cue.
-Observe your puppy during the day and see whether you pup has a preference for picking up a particular toy. Practice with that toy.
-Never get frustrated. It is easy at times to get frustrated when things don't work out as we would like. Dogs can feel our frustration and if we say "take" in a tone of voice that denotes frustration, they the dog may perceive it more as "leave it.

"Same situation for leave it cue, when he knows I have treats on my hand, he seems disinterested to go get the toy but wait patiently beside me for treats. "

Another thing that is bothering me which is  my puppy doesn’t like his kibble as a treat and he will refuse to eat it when I offered his kibble to him so I can’t use that as low value treat. For his normal meal, I have to add some boiled pork approx 20g of meat with 65g of his kibble, 3 times per day. Before adding boiled pork to his kibble, he will only eat his kibble when he is really hungry like 100g per day (he supposed to eat 230g per day according to kibble feeding table). I have reduced his kibble amount due to the boiled porkI added into his meal. He really loves the homemade meat treat that I baked for him so I have been using this for his training all this while. Can the meat treat  still considered as high value treat or do you have any suggestions? Also, any suggestions on low value treat? "

 If he seems disinterested in toys, you can try to practice 'leave its' with lower value foods (like a piece of bread) and use something higher value to reward such as a small strip of roasted chicken or a sliver or sodium-free hot dog (or the boiled pork if he likes it a lot). Studies have shown that most dogs tend to find meat more valuable. Once he gets the concept, you can then use your leave its when out in the yard  if you happen to notice he spontaneously  wants to grab a stick, rock or bird poop,  or in the home if you see him approaching something like  the remote control, your slippers etc. Of course, never place items/foods that can pose a danger to your pup purposely on the floor to practice with. 

 I like to carry my treat pouch around during the day so to be always ready to practice leave its and drops and reward these with treats. You never know what life throws at you. Pups being mouthy often spontaneously show an intent to approach things they shouldn't have around the home, yard or on walks- when they finish their vaccines and the vet says the can go on walks (like candy wrappers, cigarette butts etc.) 

I hear you about the kibble. Brings me back memories of my female Rottweiler (Petra). When she was a pup she suffered an episode of GI upset and she wouldn't eat her kibble because I guess she associated it with nausea. So I added some canned food to her kibble to get her to eat her daily ratio. It worked like a charm, but then she got smart and started licking the canned food off the kibble and leave the kibble. It took some 'tough love" to get her to eat just kibble again and I remember I had to gradually reduce the canned food a little each day until it was just kibble. I think she skipped a meal or two when it was just kibble, but she got the idea that if she didn't eat it within 10 minutes I removed the bowl only to offer it again only in evening for another 10 minutes. 

Of course,  I did this only once her GI upset problems were tackled and the vet told me that she wasn't eating now because she just got a little spoiled and was going on strike because she was expecting the canned food! These pups are so smart.

I hope this helps,
Happy training!
Best,
Adrienne