My puppy is aggressive. How can I make him calm and well-behaved?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. I find that flipping puppies that misbehave on their back in your arms or on the ground and holding them in place for a minute or two helps. I've had some fairly aggressive puppies that this trick worked well with. Also, saying in a stern voice "off!" or "stop!" when the unwanted behavior happens can help correct this as well. I would also consider incorporating a spray bottle filled with water and using this every time the puppy becomes aggressive. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

That is certainly possible! Try playing a game with him this morning like fetch or tug-of-war that can be played in the house. It’s very likely that if you can burn off some of this energy, the play aggression that you are seeing will stop, at least for a while. Puppies require daily activity or they can be naughty. If you’re still seeing aggression issues, please post again. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to ask any additional questions.

Hi there. From your description, it sounds like he's getting over-aroused during play and becoming too rough - this is a common problem in puppies, and is not a sign of "dominance" or any other issues :) He just gets too excited and doesn't know how to calm down. If you can, try and pay attention to the signs he gives that he's starting to get too worked up, so that you can end playtime before this happens. Give him a peanut butter stuffed Kong, a rawhide chew, or something else to keep him busy and help him calm down. If needed, you can put him in his crate or an x-pen for a few minutes to settle before letting him back out. If the problem continues, I would recommend getting in touch with a good reward-based trainer who can evaluate him in person and help you put together a more detailed plan to work on this behavior. You can search for one in your area here: www.ccpdt.org

Aggression is complicated because it can be playful aggression, dominance, possessive or anxiety. Unless you are very familiar with canine behavior, training and body language, this is a situation that requires a dog trainer. The trainer will watch Trevor’s behavior and then will teach you how to modify your behavior to change his. You should also get a few books about dog behavior and training so that you can learn how to recognize the body language as this will help. Neutering Trevor can also help to decrease unwanted behavior. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to post any additional questions.

This can be very common behavior for young puppies. It is important that you initiate training with your dog now so that his aggressive tendencies do not continue into adulthood. Somethings you can do to discourage his nipping and aggressive behavior are to try and redirect his aggression by giving him a toy to play with and bite on instead of using your hands and fingers. Also, when he missed behaves firmly tell him no, put him down and walk away and ignore him for 2 to 3 minutes. After that time you can start playing with him again and if his bad behavior returns ignore him again. If you continue to do this he will quickly learn that when he misbehaves you will not pay attention to him so he should stop the bad behavior. It would also be beneficial to start training him with basic commands like sit, stay, and come. This will help establish your role as the dominant one in the relationship. Also be sure he is getting plenty of exercise by taking him on 20 to 30 minute fast-paced walks at least 2 to 3 times a day. This will help drain some of his energy and make him be able to focus on training with you better. I hope this helps. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. That’s the one.

I recommend getting him into a puppy kindergarten obedience class. The trainer can help you guide his energy into less aggressive, destructive paths. Also, make sure he is getting lots and lots of exercise, going for long walks, take him for a jog, throw the ball for him, get a tug toy and let him play tug of war with you or another dog, get him out for play dates with other dogs (best left after his vaccination series is finished, at about four months of age). A tired dog is a happy dog, and one less likely to get himself into trouble with boredom. When you play with your puppy, let him mouth on your hands. Continue play until he bites especially hard. When he does, immediately give a high-pitched yelp, as if you’re hurt, and let your hand go limp. This should startle your puppy and cause him to stop mouthing you. (If yelping seems to have no effect, you can say “Too bad!” or “You blew it!” in a stern voice instead.) Praise your puppy for stopping. Resume whatever you were doing before. If your puppy bites you hard again, yelp again. Repeat these steps no more than three times within a 15-minute period. If you find that yelping alone doesn’t work, you can switch to a time-out procedure. When your puppy delivers a hard bite, yelp loudly. Then, when he startles and turns to look at you or looks around, remove your hand. Either ignore him for 10 to 20 seconds or, if he starts mouthing on you again, get up and move away for 10 to 20 seconds. After the short time-out, return to your puppy and encourage him to play with you again. It’s important to teach him that gentle play continues, but painful play stops. Play with your puppy until he bites hard again. When he does, repeat the sequence above. When your puppy isn’t delivering really hard bites anymore, you can tighten up your rules a little. Require your puppy to be even gentler. Yelp and stop play in response to moderately hard bites. Persist with this process of yelping and then ignoring your puppy or giving him a time-out for his hardest bites. As those disappear, do the same for his next-hardest bites, and so on, until your puppy can play with your hands very gently, controlling the force of his mouthing so that you feel little or no pressure at all.

I would strongly recommend against any sort of punishment as they are notoriously ineffective for training long term goals. Hitting him with the newspaper or locking him away in a room is only going to confuse him and make him sad. Positive reinforcement training (rewarding behaviors / actions that are preferable) has time and time again been show to be the most effective method of training puppies and the majority of adult dogs. Golden Retrievers are very smart and usually eager to please their masters. You just must understand that Austin is very, very young and is behaving in a way that is totally normal for a dog of this age and breed. I would encourage you to begin crate training Austin if you haven't already. Once he views the crate as a positive place (sort of like his own personal den), you can ask him to go to it and stay in it without it actually appearing like a punishment / time out. Crate training videos can be seen all over the internet on YouTube. That would be my advise to get things moving in the right direction. I would also encourage you to exercise him as much as possible (assuming he is vaccinated) so that he is less inclined to be destructive or annoying when he is around you mother or you. Hope this makes sense!