[fsklax31]

My puppy is almost 13 weeks old and for some reason when she is inside she is very aggressive and wants to bite and jump on me a lot. "No" is starting to work with the jumping, but she does not want to stop biting. When she bites i redirect her to a toy, but she quickly loses interest in the toy/bully stick and comes back for more. If i get up and walk away she follows me and tries to nip/bite at my legs. This does not happen when we are outside.

With her being so young she loses interest in toys very quickly; however, sometimes she will lay down and chew on a toy for a while.

I take her for 15-20 min walks and when she is outside in a fenced in area she is great. She always is willing to train commands or just run around. But the second we come inside, she is totally different.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Maybe ideas of how i can play with her inside to avoid biting as much as possible and to make it fun?

Thanks

 

[JKlatsky]

It's not aggressive...it's excited play behavior. And it's perfectly normal.

It's not enough to just give her a toy and expect her to amuse herself...not at this age. You have to play with her with the toy. I like tugs because that allows my puppy and I to interact in a smaller space inside than say a ball would. PLus it's a ready made game to give her a correct place to bite.

I try not to let my pups loose in the house unless they are pretty worn out. It's sort of like creating a mood association. Only allowed out in the house when they're calm...consequently being out in the house makes them calm. Being on the training field excited and in drive...consequently over time getting out of the crate at the training field and automatically excited and in drive.

When I get up in the morning...one of the first things I do is feed Tag and then take him out to play in the yard for a good 30 minutes. After that he's better able to settle generally...but if not...that's why I have crates. If all I want is for him to go lay down and chill out...I will put him in an Xpen or a big crate in the family room. This gives him room to move around and he can have the chew toys I give him...but he isn't going anywhere and can't come bother me or antagonize the other dogs. If I'm not actually going to play with him or interact with him, he doesn't need to be loose.

 

[MaggieRoseLee]

My puppy is almost 13 weeks old and for some reason when she is inside she is very aggressive and wants to bite and jump on me a lot. "No" is starting to work with the jumping, but she does not want to stop biting. When she bites i redirect her to a toy, but she quickly loses interest in the toy/bully stick and comes back for more. If i get up and walk away she follows me and tries to nip/bite at my legs. This does not happen when we are outside.

Normal puppy behavior. When you are outdoors, there are other exciting things to catch your bored puppy's attention. But when you go indoors you happy puppy is wanting to do what all our bored puppy's do... PLAY. And YOU are the only playmate in sight (replacing her mom and littermates who would play with her ALL DAY with the biting and wrestling).

What I have to do is really exercise my pups, and any on leash walks do NOT not this. Instead I do this:

And we don't want to yell at our puppies every time they want to play with us. We WANT the play. We WANT the bonding from the play. We do NOT want to correct them for normal and desired play behavior.

Instead we need to TEACH them a new and better way to play WITH us. They won't want to play with themselves and a toy (boring) they want to play with US! http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/puppy-behavior/85888-teaching-bite-inhibition.html click on that.

Puppies need tons of time and attention from and with us. Real exercise outside the home (and hope you are also having tons of socialization sessions with car rides and strangers) is key for me to have a pup in some level of calm in the house.

PUPPY CLASSES!

 

[fsklax31]

Thanks! I will have to work harder to exert her energy as well as get better with playing with her in the house.

Thanks so much!

 

[GSDBESTK9]

John, JKlatsky and MaggieRoseLee gave you great advice!

 

[fsklax31]

Thanks!

 

[Relayer]

All great advice, especially what MaggieRL wrote about keeping it fun and learning appropriate play with positive means. I would only add that a tired puppy is a much better behaved puppy. I would augment the short walks with more vigorous running games, like fetch, also some strenuous tug of war... just make sure you mostly win, by taking the rope away when finished. They can also get loads of that pent up energy out by playing for an hour or more with an energetic and well socialized other doggie pal.