All the things I wish I knew before I got my first ever puppy!
For anyone who hasn’t had a puppy before, I’ll let you in on a secret…they’re not all sweetness and light. The chances are, they’re going to bite you to bits when you first get them.
Cooper was no exception, he never bit hard, but puppy teeth are like needles, and although the pain is tolerable on your hands and arms, on your ankles and feet it’s a whole other ball game. Puppy biting, or mouthing as it is also known, is not an aggressive behaviour, it’s just how puppies have been brought up to play with their litter mates, and by default, think it’s how to play with you.
If you haven’t experienced this kind of puppy behaviour before, it would be easy to think that it’s aggression, when realistically it’s totally normal. There is however a fine line, because although puppy aggression is rare, it does exist, and if your pup is showing signs of aggressive behaviour it is absolutely vital that you get a professional in straight away to help with the problem.
At Cooper’s first ever in person training session, my mum said to the trainer, ‘what can I do to stop him getting vicious and biting me?’ The trainer just replied, ‘biting you? Can I see the stitches?’ His point was basically if a puppy bit you in an aggressive way, you’d definitely know about it. Obviously the stitches comment isn’t a hard and fast rule to tell if your pup is aggressive, it was more to prove a point, but it did get me wondering about what exactly was the line between play and aggressive biting.
Dogs rely a lot on expressing their emotions through body language- something that other dogs will pick up fine, but us as humans aren’t so great at reading it. For example, playing tug of war with Cooper, he’d growl pretty loudly. The noise he was giving off definitely did not sound friendly, but his body language was saying something completely different. He was just playing. Unfortunately the things we as humans tend to notice are the things that could be both normal puppy behaviour, or could also be aggressive, so it makes it difficult for us to differentiate. In some ways you have to look at puppies like children, if a 4 year old pushed their sibling over in the playground, it would be ‘naughty’ but it wouldn’t really be a cause for concern. If however the 4 year old pushed his sibling over and intentionally tried to hurt them even though they were already crying- that would be more of a cause for concern!
NORMAL PUPPY BEHAVIOUR
Chasing, pouncing, barking, growling and biting.
Their mouth will be open and relaxed.
Tail wagging
Bites aren’t hard and generally do not break the skin.
Loose free body language- not tense.
POTENTIAL CAUSE FOR CONCERN
Deep tone growling
Fixed staring gaze.
Stiff Posture.
Lip curling.
Ears pinned back
Baring teeth.
Pinning down other dogs while they’re crying.
Resource guarding
Puppies lunging, snarling or snapping at other dogs, people or objects on walks.
Is consistently biting and breaking skin.
If you are in ANY doubt if your puppy is showing signs of aggression, seek advice straight away. It’s better to find out that it’s nothing then let a potentially dangerous problem develop any further. Worst case scenario, if your puppy did hurt someone or hurt another dog, you could be looking at a prison sentence. The trainer who has been helping us also works with dangerous, aggressive dogs and he said he’s only ever dealt with 6 dogs that have been ‘lost causes’- and none of them were puppies, so don’t panic and think that your puppy is going to turn out to be a man eating monster, the chances are that with training and professional help you will be able to solve the issue.
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Also remember that you don't have to just 'put up' with normal puppy behaviour, i.e. mouthing and biting. It is something that you need to train out of your puppy at as earlier age as possible. Check out the article below for some great tips on 'nipping' biting in the bud!
