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8week old puppy problems

1K views 8 replies 5 participants last post by  Elf 
#1 ·
Well they may not be puppy problems just things I'm wondering about. For a little back info. I got her at 7 weeks and 3 days old and now she is 8 weeks and 4 days old. I have a lab mix and two cats also.


1. The land shark...This started the next day after we got her. Always biting me. I have tried to yelp and really quickly learned that makes her more excited. So now when she bites me I put a toy in her mouth and play with her. She will play with the toy and me for a second then drops the toy and goes back after my arm. This really goes on for hours until I give up and sit on the couch were she can't reach me. I will put her in her kennel for a few minutes to calm down and it works but then she is back to her normal self in about 10 minutes. Is there anything I can do.


2. Food aggression. She had 11 other brothers and sisters so I'm sure it was always a fight for food. But she eats so fast and when I come near her eating she eats even faster. For the last 2 days I have been feeding her out of my hand she does fine (she ended up learning sit while doing this) but still eats really fast. Is there anything else I can do to help with along.


3. She acts like she is dying of thirst. When I leave the water bowl down she drinks most of the 32ounces within 2 or 3 hours. When I say most of it that's because a lot of it ends up on the floor haha. Then she has to pee every 30 minutes. The other day I would the water bowl down for a few minutes every hour and she would just stand there and drink for the few minutes it's down. What should I do. Should I monitor her water intake or just let her keep drinking that much and take her out ever 30 minutes. (the vet said she is 100% healthy)


4. Any thing I can do to help socialize her right now? I take my lab everywhere I go so I would like to do that with her too. She comes to work with me on Friday's and sees different people. ( I work at a college)


Thank you for your help
 
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#2 ·
1. the biting will get better, I have a 5 month old and she left me with marks that made me look like a junkie. It took about 2 months of NO's and leaving the room but it got better. A great method I learned was she loves belly rubs, when I rub her belly and she bites me I stopped rubbing her belly and give a firm no, she got the point that biting means no belly rubs. She still mouths me but very gently, bite inhibition.

2. mine eats fast as well, but I go up to her while eating and take the food away, I wanted to see if she would bark or growl and she never did so I guess she doesnt have food aggression. But she does it very fast. I also fed her by hand for the first month or so of having her, this was great at teaching her to behave. I rationed out half her daily food portions and just chilled with her, when she did something I liked like sit by my feet I fed her. When she walked nicely on a leash I fed her.

3. Its summer, she isnt used to the heat, it takes time for them to get used to the hot weather. I always crated my pup after feeding and drinking. Running around after a meal can lead to BLOAT. SO after a meal in the crate she goes for atleast an hour, I take her out and immedietely take her outside to pee, she pees and poops we play a little tug and back home she goes.

4. This has been a hot topic. I would not take her to dog parks, 8 weeks old and I doubt she has all her shots. So dont bring her around other dogs yet. A friend of mine taught his dog to only be nice to women and children, its up to you. I took my pup to busy avenues and let people come up to her and pet her. She is still very young at 5 months and I might try protection training if her nerves are sound. They are smart, what you're doing is good enough, bringing her to a college and letting people pet her is good. One major tip though: Make her sit before letting people pet her. my girl has a problem with jumping up on people. It was cute at 10 weeks but now shes about 40-45 lbs and im trying to ween her off jumping up.

good luck hope Ive helped since I've been raising a pup for the last 3 months and been through all of these things.
 
#3 ·
I have never gone through a land shark phase with mine and I believe that is because the puppies learned from the older dogs. Does your lab and the pup interact with each other? I took full advantage of having older dogs in the house to help me out.

All of mine acted like they were dying of thirst. A couple learned how to ring the bell so they could go out and eat snow because I took the water up.
 
#5 ·
I have never gone through a land shark phase with mine and I believe that is because the puppies learned from the older dogs. Does your lab and the pup interact with each other? I took full advantage of having older dogs in the house to help me out.

All of mine acted like they were dying of thirst. A couple learned how to ring the bell so they could go out and eat snow because I took the water up.


YOU ARE SO LUCKY!! I didn't think the land shark phase would be this bad. My lab tries to play with the puppy but is kind of rough with her so I normally stop them from playing or make him lay down to play with her. I have a question about using a bell! My puppy of course isn't potty trained yet is it to early to teach her to use a bell? Things I read said to wait until they were potty trained to start using one.
 
#4 ·
Thank you for all the help! The biting is the worst but at least I know it will get better. I just get annoyed because she only bites me that much. My boyfriend doesn't play with her much and doesn't do much with her or for her so she bites him sometimes when they are playing but not near as much as me. Also I think I will keep hand feeding her for awhile then just to be safe. I don't let her run around and play about 30minutes before eating and about an hour after eating. Same when she drinks a lot of water. She doesn't have all her shots yet she gets another round of shots on the 30th. My friend has a good dog who I know is healthy and has had all her shots (she is a vet student haha) so I might have her bring her over. Also good tip on having her sit before people pet her! Sadly tho she normally doesn't care if people are around yet...maybe that will change. I bring her to work and she stays in her ex pen by my desk and people come in and out and she doesn't even lift her head.
Thanks again for your tips and help.
 
#6 ·
I'll address #2 & 3. lol!

Continue to hand feed. As you already noticed, it is a great way to work on training. One of my pups also gobbled his food. Hand feeding worked better than anything else I tried, for my puppy.

I have had several pups who would drink the entire bowl of water - mostly, just because it was there. I limited water by only putting several ounces at a time in the bowl. My pup always had water, but seemed much less interested in the water bowl, when it wasn't filled to the top. She would not drink all the water, when there were only a few ounces in it. I also allowed one small drink before bed and no water over night.
 
#8 ·
I'll address #2 & 3. lol!



I have had several pups who would drink the entire bowl of water - mostly, just because it was there. I limited water by only putting several ounces at a time in the bowl. My pup always had water, but seemed much less interested in the water bowl, when it wasn't filled to the top. She would not drink all the water, when there were only a few ounces in it. I also allowed one small drink before bed and no water over night.
It almost sounds like a toddler:grin2:
 
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#9 · (Edited)
1. The land shark...This started the next day after we got her. Always biting me. I have tried to yelp and really quickly learned that makes her more excited. So now when she bites me I put a toy in her mouth and play with her. She will play with the toy and me for a second then drops the toy and goes back after my arm. This really goes on for hours until I give up and sit on the couch were she can't reach me. I will put her in her kennel for a few minutes to calm down and it works but then she is back to her normal self in about 10 minutes. Is there anything I can do.

> I have raised many puppies, and it's safe to say they're all like this, some are more intense than others, like one of my pups wasn't much of a biter... Despite him exploring with his mouth all the time, while my other puppy would literally go straight for your hands, and feet... Literally go for anything, you couldn't get up to walk away because he'd grip onto your foot. I dealt with other pups much worse than that though. Try not to give her any reaction, doing so will promote her to do it more like a squeaky toy. What I recommend is tying a kong or something on yarn or a string... Make it nice and long, and start pulling it so she can chase after it, it'll tire her out, and it will drastic her from biting you. I also recommend keeping her leashed, doesn't matter if you're supervising her, control her environment, you're in control by doing this, she's forced to settle down. Another way to stop the biting in general is by tethering her (while she's on her leash), play with her only when she's tethered, and the moment she starts biting hard (try to teach her bite inhibition), you say; "EH!" loudly enough to startle her, and walks away and go into another room for 10 - 30 seconds, resume play. Keep doing this, she's forced to watch you walk away and then she knows that play time is instantly over. Another thing you can do is purchase an X-Pen... Always keep her in it, and play with her only in it, if she bites, do "EH!" again and step out, walk away, then come back after 10 - 30 seconds to resume play. Make sure you're constant with this, also making her sit in her bed as time out works wonders, you must be constantly doing these, before or right when the unlike behavior is starts and it it'll stop.

Note: Yelping never really works at this age it excited them, for the first few hours or days of bringing your puppy home it'll mostly work, but it doesn't. The only time this method works is when you're puppy is 12 - 15+ weeks old, that's what I noticed, for some pups it instantly works, but majority of the time it never does. Change your sounds as well rather than a yelp.


Also, I recommend buying a pack of ban-aids. The first 8 - 11 weeks is messy, they still bite and nip, they just wanna play, play, play, once they're in play mode they aren't gonna get out of play mode, that's why they bite. No matter how bad the biting issue is, they will stop, especially if you're constant with it.


2. Food aggression. She had 11 other brothers and sisters so I'm sure it was always a fight for food. But she eats so fast and when I come near her eating she eats even faster. For the last 2 days I have been feeding her out of my hand she does fine (she ended up learning sit while doing this) but still eats really fast. Is there anything else I can do to help with along.

I recommend this to fix the food 'aggression' issue: Food Guarding | ASPCA - If there is no improvements than I recommend finding a behaviorist who will help you. Currently I recommend you constantly hand feeding her all of her meals for a while so she learns to be gentle with her mouth and you, yet learns it's okay nobody is taking her food away. Also get her checked out for worms.

3. She acts like she is dying of thirst. When I leave the water bowl down she drinks most of the 32ounces within 2 or 3 hours. When I say most of it that's because a lot of it ends up on the floor haha. Then she has to pee every 30 minutes. The other day I would the water bowl down for a few minutes every hour and she would just stand there and drink for the few minutes it's down. What should I do. Should I monitor her water intake or just let her keep drinking that much and take her out ever 30 minutes. (the vet said she is 100% healthy)

> Always have water down, I noticed with most German Shepherds, puppies included that they LOVE to put their paw in the bowl and spill the water everywhere. It's okay for her to drink lots of water, 8 week old puppies can't hold their bladders, of course they have to pee every 30 minutes :p


4. Any thing I can do to help socialize her right now? I take my lab everywhere I go so I would like to do that with her too. She comes to work with me on Friday's and sees different people. ( I work at a college)


> People will fight me on this but I have the belief that socialization is better than waiting on vaccinations, what I recommend is taking a sit down near a park, or, store.. Literally anywhere, and let her watch people coming in and out. If your puppy shows any fear, do not let anyone pet her. Also if there is parvo in areas you want to take her, do NOT take her. Lastly, she can be introduced to dogs IF they're fully vaccinated, and if she shows no signs of being afraid, but for now you're Labrador is good enough, at 9 - 10 weeks you can try socializing her with other dogs, just make sure their vaccinated. No dog parks. Ever. Don't let any dog bully your puppy, and or let any guest, or person who if they do pet your puppy... Be rough with your puppy. Puppy's can pickup things that can change their personality for the rest of their lives, so be careful and smart.

Also I highly recommend you take your puppy to obedience school. The obedience schools around me all offer training your puppy bite inhibition as a package deal, while stopping the mouthing and how to socialize with other pups! So be sure to look into that.

Good luck with your land shark, the first few weeks are always the worse :p
 
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