Help, My Puppy Is Attacking Me!
The woman on the other end of the telephone line was nearly in tears as she explained the terrible time she was having with her dog. He was “attacking” her, she said, and wouldn’t let her put him outside. She couldn’t get him out of the back seat of the car if she took him for a ride, her clothes were ripped and she had bite marks and bruises on her hands and arms. He was also “attacking” her three –year- old daughter, and she was worried for her child’s safety. Imagine my surprise when she then told me we were discussing a 14- week- old Wheaten Terrier!
How could things come to such a state with such a young puppy? What on earth could be going wrong? How could a young family get a dog for their child to grow up with, and have it turn into frightening, “attacking” wild animal that no one can control?
Unfortunately, this situation is very common – as a professional trainer I get similar calls every week. New owners are eager to start out on the right foot with their new puppy, and when something goes wrong they end up listening to anyone and everyone who gives them advice. This includes their veterinarian, the groomer, the clerk at the pet store and the neighbor down the street. Or they may remember things from their own childhood dog. And they try different bits of that advice, one idea after the other, changing the “rules” for the new puppy with each new idea and never sticking with one long enough to give it a chance. The scary part is how quickly a situation can escalate when a rambunctious puppy is treated inconsistently or confrontationally, until eventually we have a youthful dog who has learned that it’s so much fun to confront with his owners, and we have distraught owners who will most likely be giving this dog up to the shelter before it reaches the age of one year.
What kinds of advice do these new owners usually follow that can cause so much trouble? First, let’s look at the issues they are usually trying to solve:
a) puppy mouthing – as we know, it’s normal for a young puppy to use their mouth, and those sharp puppy teeth can really hurt! Often new owners are told to “pin” the puppy on its back – but unfortunately this usually results in the puppy struggling and being even more aggressive once they get up and away from the owner – and the owners usually either don’t hold the puppy firmly enough to keep them quiet, or they hold the puppy down with excessive force, scaring them nearly to death. (It is preferable to teach a quiet restraint on the side rather than the back, rewarding for calm behavior, and to teach the puppy that when they are completely relaxed they can then get up; when this is done correctly the puppy understands *how* to calm himself and accepts restraint by the owner). However, what usually happens is that we have a playful puppy who inadvertently hurts his owner with his sharp puppy teeth, or who gets too wild in play, and we have an owner who is trying hard to follow all of the advice they’ve been given, and who therefore pins the puppy to prove their “dominance” over it. And we now have a puppy who is being held forcibly down on his back in a vulnerable and uncomfortable position, and who doesn’t understand why this is happening, or how to get out of it successfully. The owner has suddenly become unpredictable and scary. The puppy, depending on his temperament, may become fearful, defensive or even aggressive in attempts to “defend” himself from the owner, and to escape being pinned down on the ground. He may even begin to growl when the owner approaches and tries to touch him, you can see how this sort of thing can escalate. New owners are also often told to hold the puppy’s mouth shut and to squeeze the lips against the teeth while they are doing this. Again, unfortunately most puppies learn that as soon as the owner lets go, they can “re-attack” with an increased level of aggression.
b) jumping - owners are often told to step on the dog’s hind feet; to squirt them with lemon juice; to grab the front paws and squeeze them; again, very confrontational, punishing techniques that, with a rambunctious dog, often inspires an actual edge of aggression into the interaction.
c) housetraining – many owners remember their parents rubbing the dog’s face in the mess; chasing the dog down to punish it, yelling at and smacking the puppy (who, because of the bad timing, has no idea what is going on); these techniques lead to mistrust on the part of the puppy because they can’t predict when or why the owner will suddenly act this way. The missing factor is actually helping the puppy to build an appropriate habit, to remember that we need to “teach” the puppy how to get where they need to go, and that it’s a fun and good thing to do.
d) destructiveness – many owners try and show the puppy what they’ve done wrong long after the fact; yell at the puppy and hit it in the presence of a chewed item – rather than keeping the puppy in a safe area while the owner is gone, and supervising the puppy while they are home. Using a light house line for control can solve so many of the above problems, just by having control of where the puppy can go, and what he can do. Often owners will point their finger at the puppy, look it straight in the eye and yell “No!” – this direct confrontation usually stimulates the puppy to look right back and bark in the owner’s face, perhaps even lunging towards them as they do so.
Perhaps for the best, in the case of the above woman, she decided to rehome her young Wheaten, and she immediately found a good home with an experienced owner where the pup fit in and was suddenly “normal” – no more “attacking” or wild behavior. The reason that it was a positive decision in this case to find a new home for the puppy was because the relationship between the owners and the puppy had deteriorated to the point where it would have been very difficult for them to repair it and to build trust and respect with the dog. Also, the owner was actually afraid of the puppy, and really needed to educate herself on canine behavior, what to expect and how to create a healthy relationship with a dog before she tries again to bring a new puppy into her home. Her interactions with the puppy were riddled with too much emotion, indecisiveness and fear. When the puppy went into a home with experienced owners who were calm and acted in a consistent manner, he was able to respond “normally”, as his previous “attacking” was based on inconsistent handling, ineffective and inappropriate attempts at forceful correction, and lack of clear communication.
This could have turned into a very sad situation, as it was an example of a well-meaning new owner who was trying very hard to follow *all* of the advice that she was being given, and was thereby actually teaching her dog, every single day, how to fight back; how to confront; how to be a very inappropriate little pet dog. This can happen too easily when an inexperienced owner engages in a “fight” with their dog and doesn’t understand puppy body language or normal puppy behavior. For example, a puppy chews on a shoe he found in a closet; the owner finds the puppy with the shoe and yells “Come!” and lunges at the puppy; the puppy drops the shoe but runs away from the owner; the owner yells even louder at the puppy “Bad dog, come!” and chases after him, wanting to punish the puppy for what he has done wrong; the puppy now runs away from the owner and hides under a table; the owner points his finger at the puppy and yells louder; the puppy confronts back, barking in the owner’s face! Look at how many things have gone wrong here:
a) the owner has not been supervising the puppy properly to prevent him from chewing a shoe in the first place, thereby losing an opportunity to teach him that a shoe is inappropriate to touch with his teeth, and to redirect him to an appropriate chew toy.
b) the owner uses the word “Come” when he has no way to enforce it, thereby teaching the puppy how *not* to come when called, he is also using Come when he wants to punish the puppy, when Come should always be a wonderful thing to do, and not associated with any sort of punishment.
c) the owner now chases the puppy, teaching him that he *can* run away from the owner, that the owner has no control over him.
d) the puppy learns that he can bark in the owner’s face, “fighting back”. If and when he decides to add a little lunge forward towards the owner, and the owner becomes afraid, you will have what happened in this case, and the owner finds that he “can not” get the puppy out from under the table.
You can see how quickly and easily the wrong interactions can escalate into a poor relationship. (Let me add here that it is always important to make sure that irritability or aggression does not have a medical cause.)
So what can a new owner do? There are so many books available now by great authors, and there are trainers available on the websites of many good dog training organizations – easily accessible on the Internet. Go to Dogwise for all sorts of good books on training and behavior. It’s also a better idea to pick one professional that you can trust rather than telling your story to every person you see and then trying to follow all of their advice; too many cooks can definitely spoil the dinner – and in this case too many conflicting bits of training advice will definitely destroy attempts to build a healthy relationship!
