My 7-month-old excitable puppy is aggressive. How to stop biting?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I am sorry to hear that this has happened. This behavior is certainly concerning as you don't want Boston to cause serious harm to your wife or anyone else for that matter. I would recommend taking Boston to a behaviorist for training and other recommendations. There are trainers that will take Boston for several weeks for the training or trainers that will come to your house for in home training. At 4 months of age, this is easier to correct than when he is 4 years old. Now is the time to take action as it is much easier to train a puppy. I hope this helps and for now, please take the necessary precautions and keep Boston away from anyone until he is appropriately trained.

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.

At ten weeks of age this is still very normal behavior. If Safiro is getting too excited, taking a time out and stopping all play/walking away until he's calm again can help to teach him that getting too excited results in the fun ending, and that calm behavior is rewarded with more play time. Working on some impulse control training (such as airplaning treats, taking and dropping toys, taking treats nicely, sitting politely -- YouTube has great tutorials for all of this) can also help with over excitement and biting behavior.

Yes it can be normal at this age, but you have to stop the behavior now or it will get worse as Capi gets older. Unfortunately, this is a serious problem - aggressive behavior like this (assuming it's true aggression and not rough play) is very abnormal in such a young puppy. To have the best chance of growing up to be relatively normal, puppies like this need early behavioral intervention from a professional. I would strongly recommend making an appointment with a veterinary behaviorist as soon as possible for a in-person evaluation of your puppy. He/she can give you a much better idea of whether this issue is "fixable", in the sense of having a relatively normal dog when he grows up. They will also help you put together a step-by-step training plan to work on the problem, and give you very specific management instructions to make sure everyone stays safe. You can search for a behaviorist in your area here: www.dacvb.org

That is a lot going on and it sounds like Oggy would benefit from a visit with a trainer or veterinary behaviorist in your area, especially if she is being aggressive to the point of bruising or drawing blood. Aggression usually looks very different from play/exploration biting and can include low growling, stiff bodies, showing the whites of the eyes, hair raising on the back, baring teeth, and then nipping or biting. This is unusual in a puppy of this age, so if it is happening, it is best to seek professional help in person ASAP since it is a complex issue that needs to be worked with. If the nipping is just puppy nipping, and she is also chewing on lots of things, it could just be normal puppy behavior and a puppy kindergarten/training classes is a great way to establish some ground rules and get used to interacting with each other in a positive manner. I'm also including some articles on general puppy nipping/chewing that may help as well. https://www.petcoach.co/article/puppy-biting-nipping-of-hands/ https://www.petcoach.co/article/puppy-biting-when-does-it-stop/ https://www.petcoach.co/article/chewing-in-puppies-how-to-control-it/ https://www.petcoach.co/article/6-tips-to-help-prevent-destructive-chewing/ https://www.petcoach.co/article/how-to-choose-a-dog-trainer/

It is possible your puppy is still play biting, but getting a little too excited. I would continue with training to not bite by redirecting the behavior to appropriate toys, yelping when things get too rough, and getting up/stopping play when Luna is too excited. If Luna is acting aggressive (IE, low growls, baring teeth before biting, stiff body, trying to get away from you,) then I highly recommend seeking out a trainer in person immediately as this is a serious concern at such a young age. I'm attaching some articles on general puppy biting and play that may help: https://www.petcoach.co/article/puppy-biting-nipping-of-hands/ https://www.petcoach.co/article/puppy-biting-when-does-it-stop/ https://www.petcoach.co/article/how-to-choose-a-dog-trainer/

It sounds like your puppy may not have been socialized with humans before coming to live with you. If this is the case then it will take a more than a week for him to become accustomed to interacting with people. I recommend you work with a certified dog trainer or a veterinary behaviorist in your area to socialize your pup. You could also look into puppy training classes.