Goes nuts when corrected - Page 1

Hi....I have an 8 week old white german shepherd/ golden retriever mix puppy.  We got him when he was almost 6 weeks old......WAY too young but it wasn't up to me.  The woman wanted them gone as soon as they could eat dog food.  Anyway, my question is about his growling and snapping at me sometimes.  He's a very well-behaved pup and is doing very well with training....very careful around the 15 month old boy that I babysit and instinctively treats my handicapped son very differently than the other kids.  He's already housetrained!  Overall, a very kind, smart puppy.  The problem is when I correct him sometimes.....say "hey!!!" in a sharp voice or brush his nose away when he's out of control nipping...... he escalates instantly and snarls his lips, growls, and takes a few nips towards me.  It's almost like he's saying, "Don't tell me what to do lady!"  I never let him actually get me but it's alarming.  Ten seconds later, he's fine again.  My guess is that if I have to be firm with him, he responds in a bigger and badder way to that firmness.   Is that normal for gsds?  His father was a purebred and very territorial and aggressive.  He bit me when I went to get the puppy.   The puppy has never been hit or mistreated in any way by us.  He's so loving and gentle and I can't understand why this bit of attitude comes out sometimes and if it needs to be stamped out while he's still little or if it's normal and I just need to avoid those situations that would provoke it.  Please help if you can.....Renae 

the first time he turned and did that to me, I would have grabbed his ruff, shook him real smartly and growled a no. if he squeals thats ok.  this won't be a schutzhund pup, so you don't have to worry about squashing any type of drive or anything.  let him know right quick that is not acceptable behavior.  if he snapped at his momma, thats what she would do to him,. roll him and growl ect.

if he continues to behave like this or gets worse after the correction. I would find him a home.  this is not behavior I want to see in a 8 week old pup, especially one around small children.

You do not have a German Shepherd,  you have a mix and half of the mix sounds like trouble in the first place.

You should not let this puppy around small children especially someone elses.   If it can go off on you it can do the same with a small child, could be very bad.

And you got bite by the sire? 

Thats a good thing for someone trying to unload puppies to let the sire bite the people who come to look at them. 

You can try giving the pup other things to chew on, but the going off on you is a real problem from your discription of the event.

I personally would grab the little sucker up and bite him across the nose good and hard any time he growled at me snarled or tried to bite.   Be dominate in whatever way you decide.   Grab him by the scruff of his neck and hold him till he calms down, it doesn't sound like a biting problem it sounds like a temperment issue to me.  

But thats just me, and thats not a GSD puppy.   I figure your raising it for a pet,  it doesn't sound like a good candidate for a pet.

Sounds like a lot of trouble that your not ready for.

Take it back and get a better suited pet.  

I wouldn't shake a pup but I probably would pick him up by the scruff until he calmed down while I was telling him to knock it off. If that didn't work then the correction will probably escalate. The problem with telling someone to correct is that it takes experience to give an effective correction. Keep in mind you are laying the foundation of a relationship with this pup who will someday turn into a big dog. You must have both TRUST and RESPECT. If you get one without the other then problems are inevitable.

I've always taken a cue from our trainer and the dogs.  When they are scuttling for heirarchical position, the dominant dog inevitably growls and open it's mouth over the other submissive dog's muzzle - the equivalent of "I'm the boss" in dog language.  I've seen the male bite just hard enough to make the others know he's the boss.  I haven't had to do it for a long time, but when any of the dogs challenged me, I quickly grab them by the muzzle with my hand and growl loud and say "No!". 

It seems to have worked. 

My mother had a great dane puppy that acted just like this.  Made me nervous because my children go to her house and the puppy was very big and was only going to get bigger. Your pup is very dominant and your going to have to be more dominant then he is. when you correct him and he snaps at you, grab him up and put him on his back and hold him there until he calms down and you let him up, infact i would do this every day, several times. Also stop feeding him out of his bowl, feed him out of your hand only, this will show him that you are the boss. You also should kennel train him. Keep him in a kennel in the family area for him to observe. dont let him walk out doors before you.  you need to control everything he does, until he gets the point. We got these instructions from a trainer at the houston spca, and it works. it worked with my moms Great dane and several other pups that friends and my neighbors who have had this same problem. i have told them what to do and it worked. Your puppy can be fixed, dont give up on him yet. Also to prevent any accidents dont leave him unsupervised with you children for any reason. Treat him like a dog, he is not human.

I had a Mali female pup once. She was 9 weeks and the most aggressive pup I have ever seen. Correction didnt work very well on her. I traded her to a PSD trainer and he eventually rehomed her because she was too much. Hell....I should have kept her. She would destroy plastic or rubber water dishes at 9 weeks old. She would bite the shit out of me too just for the fun of it....LOL. There are pups that are just way too much for 99% of people.

Ok....he is not like this through 99.9% of the day.  It's only when I correct him firmly sometimes.  It's only with me because I am the main trainer and sometimes my husband.  He has not even gently mouthed the other little ones.  He's very gentle so I assumed this was a power play towards me and not a temperment issue.  The mother was a very gentle golden retriever and he certainly didn't get this from her!  So I was just wondering if it was normal for a purebred gsd to be so challenging as a puppy.  From your answers, I'm assuming that it's NEVER ok to challenge like that and always needs to be met with a decisive "I'm the boss!".  I didn't want to be so hard before I knew this wasn't normal behavior.  I assume that if he keeps doing it, I have not been firm enough with him to settle the issue.  Thanks for your answers.   

I have dogs that require only a firm voice to correct. I have others that take more and some take physical correction to impress. Especially when challenged, they must learn immediately that I am in charge, or I risk serious problems in the future. In other words, one must do what it takes to get the message across. Sometimes that is easy, and sometimes it takes serious correction. An 8 week old pup should not be doing this if he is of good temperament. My suggestion to you is that unless you have a lot of experience with dogs, that you find someone who is a professional to help you. For now, since you have only had the pup for two weeks, try not to put him in situations where you must correct him. But, if you must, then make sure he understands you are in charge.nbsp

You better "settle the issue" now with this dog and long before he gets bigger or you will have a problem on your hands. Don''t think he could not have gotten his temperament from the retriever, even though it certainly could also be from the GSD. One of the worst bites I have ever had was from a 5 month old GoldenRetriever who was extremely poorly socialized and fearful!

Good luck.

I am already doing everything JLB82 in red has said and thought maybe he just got so tired of being corrected that he snapped once in a while.