So our sweet, darling puppy has officially entered his monster puppy stage, and our ankles and hands have become his new favorite play things. I'm not too concerned about it since I know it's normal, but at times he gets incredibly wound up (I think it's referred to as the zoomies) and will go racing around the room "attacking" anything he can.
Unfortunately this is often our legs, and we aren't talking about gentle play biting, its basically a puppy attack that I can't seem to redirect him from easily to a proper toy or chew stick. The problem is, the bites/scratches are pretty hard, sometimes drawing a little blood and they hurt a lot. The only way I can seem to get him to stop and then redirect in this situation is to push him off my legs with a little force, sometimes grabbing him a bit by the rough of his neck to do it (not too hard, I'm a small person) to where he does the puppy flop on his side, looks at me kind of confused, and then will go after the toy I offer.
The thing is, I'm really dedicated to using positive methods to train him, and I really don't want to do something that can encourage aggression or bad behavior down the line. I'm not afraid of him, of course, he's a 20 pound puppy, but my natural reaction is to get him off me when he's biting. Eventually when he gets this way, I have to put him in his puppy pen with a bully stick to have him calm down a bit before he can come play more, and I really don't want to relegate him to the pen because he's too difficult. Plus that pen won't have much effect in 20 more pounds.
Anyhow, this is getting long, and we do have a trainer coming over to start working with him next week who used to train military dogs and has a lot of experience with gsds, so that should help. I think a big problem is he's still stuck inside for another 3 weeks until he's done with his vaccinations, and it's hard to properly wear him out in here.
Basically I'd like some advice - is pushing him off me with a little force or grabbing his scruff going to cause problems down the road, and if so, can someone please recommend a better method to deal with the leg attacks. Is the time out in a pen a bad idea, and again any better ideas would be appreciated. Finally, any advice on how to get out that excess energy while stuck inside would be great - so far we've tried the flirt pole, tug, some basic training (sit and down, which he's done well with), and chew bones.
Unfortunately this is often our legs, and we aren't talking about gentle play biting, its basically a puppy attack that I can't seem to redirect him from easily to a proper toy or chew stick. The problem is, the bites/scratches are pretty hard, sometimes drawing a little blood and they hurt a lot. The only way I can seem to get him to stop and then redirect in this situation is to push him off my legs with a little force, sometimes grabbing him a bit by the rough of his neck to do it (not too hard, I'm a small person) to where he does the puppy flop on his side, looks at me kind of confused, and then will go after the toy I offer.
The thing is, I'm really dedicated to using positive methods to train him, and I really don't want to do something that can encourage aggression or bad behavior down the line. I'm not afraid of him, of course, he's a 20 pound puppy, but my natural reaction is to get him off me when he's biting. Eventually when he gets this way, I have to put him in his puppy pen with a bully stick to have him calm down a bit before he can come play more, and I really don't want to relegate him to the pen because he's too difficult. Plus that pen won't have much effect in 20 more pounds.
Anyhow, this is getting long, and we do have a trainer coming over to start working with him next week who used to train military dogs and has a lot of experience with gsds, so that should help. I think a big problem is he's still stuck inside for another 3 weeks until he's done with his vaccinations, and it's hard to properly wear him out in here.
Basically I'd like some advice - is pushing him off me with a little force or grabbing his scruff going to cause problems down the road, and if so, can someone please recommend a better method to deal with the leg attacks. Is the time out in a pen a bad idea, and again any better ideas would be appreciated. Finally, any advice on how to get out that excess energy while stuck inside would be great - so far we've tried the flirt pole, tug, some basic training (sit and down, which he's done well with), and chew bones.