New ds owner.. behavioral problems or normal

[Shellerenee]

My husband and I are new ds owners. We have a beautiful 11 week old puppy named Dixie. I have to admit I think we are in over our heads with her. My husband decided he wanted to get her and I gave in. My husband had german shepherds growing up and I’ve had everything from beagles to rotties. I had a shepherd and heeler that past a few years ago, I thought The temperament and energy would be about the same. Well I was wrong

We are having some difficulty with her and I’m hoping that it’s normal ds puppy behavior. She is mostly a loving energetic puppy. However, she won’t stop biting. I lovingly refer to her as jaws. She comes running into the room jaws snapping. I swear she leads with her teeth. She snaps at the back of our legs when we are walking, bites our arms, hands and anything else she can reach so hard that she breaks the skin and draws blood. She jumped up and bit my poor husbands ear so hard the other day that he has a slit in his ear lobe. Last night she barely missed his eye by about 1/8 inch, he has a scratch from his eye to his chin. We try telling her no & try swapping our flesh out with a toy. I’m hoping after time with consistency this eases up.

If we try taking something off of her that she’s not allowed to have she growls at us and very aggressively bites. I’m trying to teach her “ drop it” swapping what she has out with a treat. She was sitting on my lap the other day and as I was petting her she growled at me and jumped up and bit my face. My poor mother was visiting and as she was trying to tie her shoe laces Dixie of course wanted to play with them. When my mother told her no she started growling at her and jumped up and viciously attacked her arm.

We have contacted the breeder who says that it’s completely normal for this breed and that she will grow out of it. He has offered to give us our money back or “ swap her out for another puppy”. I feel like she’s a dog not a piece of clothing that you return to the store. Is this as he says normal behavior? My husband contacted a trainer who also said that sometimes this is normal for the breed. I was fully expected a high energy puppy that would require a lot of time and training. I’m just not sure that growling at people and aggressively biting them is normal behavior. I am beginning to worry that this might escalate into her really hurting someone. I would greatly appreciate any advice anyone had to offer.

[Dutchringgirl]

Yes this is normal but with out proper training, and not by pet co or just some regular dog trainer, this will grow into a much much larger and more dangerous problem than it already is. This is a protection dog not really a family dog and is bread for hard consistent tough work. Growling is how they talk but with out shaping and training she does not know what she is supposed to be doing and will really hurt someone.

When I mean normal, you have to understand what this breed is about. This is a breed for police work, drug detection, hard hitting bite work, keeping bad people away from you.

[Kaliag]

I'm so glad to see this post. Not glad this is happening to you, by no means. But we have similar issues with Brodie. It was so bad the Monday after we got him (we got him on Friday), I called the guy we got him from because I wanted to return him. The day after we got him my 5 year old grandson spent the night, which he does quite often. Brodie was aggressive towards him. When my grandson's dad went to pet him, Brodie snapped at him. By all means, I am all about a protective dog, but not an aggressive dog towards the grand kids. When I spoke with the breeder we got him from he said DS's are "biters". They want to bite everything, and not necessarily in an aggressive manner. If I love on him, he bites at me, if I walk passed him he grabs my shorts (he actually pulled them down outside when I had a hand full of groceries) He said to grab his snout and hold it together very firmly and tell him NO BITING! He said to watch him around the small kids because what he's trying to do is show his dominance, show them HE is the alpha. We are to show him he IS NOT the alpha. He said he will grow out of this stage when he is about 6 months. But what do I do until then? Easter Sunday all the grandkids were over and I had to put him in his kennel. When they all left, and there were only adults, I brought him out and he was fine.
The breeder also told me to bring him in public and around people a lot. Here Lowes and Home Depot allow pets in the stores,and Petco and PetSmart of course. He is doing better but we still have issues. We are trying to be consistent and are looking for a trainer that specializes with the breed. We live in a small town south of Houston so trying to find someone close is a challenge. I love this little guy to pieces and I pray we can get past these bad habits. I am up for any suggestions also.

[TimL_168]

Find an appropriate trainer. Appropriate. Meaning familiar with this type of dog. There are folks here that will help guide you on that quest. In the mean time, research desensitization training, muzzle training, engagement training, redirection. There's a ton of good info all over the web. Just read multiple articles on the same topic to help you gain insight about the actual flow and purpose of different methods.

[Wes Thomas]

My husband and I are new ds owners. We have a beautiful 11 week old puppy named Dixie. I have to admit I think we are in over our heads with her.

Like Dutchringgirl said.. this is normal for the breed. No matter how much people warn you it's just hard to appreciate how intense these dogs are. I didn't get my girl Karma until she was right at 6 months and even at that point the first two weeks my wife and I were thinking what did we get ourselves into. I though from having border Collies and pitbulls my entire life I could handle the energy and aggressiveness.. lol boy was I in for a surprise. Karma would litterally try to attack viciously anyone who approached me. Kids included unfortunately.. after finding and working with 3 separate K9 trainers, not regular dog trainers but actually working dog trainers and handlers I finally found one that fit Karma and I. Not to mention that she bit the two of the trainers within the first two minutes of working with her. Luckily they all had been bitten and expected nothing less from the breed.

She would even test me until I established that I was the alpha in our pack. These dogs have to be put under tight reigns until there pack position vs understood and even then they have to be moderated. Now I know there are different drives in different dogs but sounds like Dixie maybe pretty high drive. Which also can be tuff but high drive dogs if trained properly like Karma can be phenomenal dogs. You will never have a more intelligent dog in my opinion if she's worked with and trained properly. These dogs will do anything you ask of them with no fear.

All this being said I think you have a "normal" dutchie puppy. I think it's just up to you and your husband to spend the time researching training and most importantly getting the right trainer. At two years old now Karma is still a handful but she is controlled choas lol.. they are so much fun. Sooo athletic but need attention and something to work them EVERY day. Best of luck to you guys and please keep us posted on what direction you guys take and how Dixie progresses.

[Shellerenee]

Thank you all for your insight. I am happy to see that this is typical puppy behavior for her breed. I was starting to get worried. I do know that they where breed to be working dogs. I did do some research on the breed and asked the breeder a lot of questions because I was a bit hesitant with getting her. He told us that they could make great family pets with time & training. He himself has the parents in his home as just that, family pets. We went to his home several times and took time to spend with both parents. So I don’t feel that we went into it completely blind. He felt that she would be a good fit for us. I will mention that he did refuse to sell puppies to several people and now I completely understand why.

We don’t have any children yet. So thankfully I don’t have to worry about that being an issue. I would not have gotten her if we had children, simply because of our inexperience with ds. To kaliag, I sincerely wish you the best of luck with your training or whatever decision you come to. We have an older dog and 2 cats in the home. She tries to play with them but is luckily not aggressive with them in any way. We are looking into trainers. A family member suggested puppy classes for her lol she would chew them up and spit them out! We have found 2 trainers in our area that we are looking into. 1. Specializes in behavioral problems, they say they have experience with this breed. The other specializes in Malinois, German and Dutch shepherds. We are leaning towards the 2nd option.

[Dutchringgirl]

Yes, try the trainer who specializes in working dogs.

[Joxgirl]

I’m still learning how to work with my DS puppy, so I can only share what I’m learning and practicing. These dogs require a lot of attention. As my puppy is reaching her first Birthday, I see how she needs more mind working games. She’s very active and needs lots of time during the day to run and use her energy. They require a lot of time, energy, patience, love, training, opportunities to work, and education for us to be able to understand and work with them. We chose them so we need to be good strong pack leaders. There is no off day and rarely off time. My DS is loving and loves to cuddle but that lasts about 10 minutes befor she has to sink her teeth someplace.
Before I brought Rogue home, I did research and joined this forum. Just reading is not enough. I had to decide if I really wanted a high energetic dog to be a part of my next 15 years. She can’t just be left with anyone to take trips and such.
My weakness is being a stronger leader. I’m working on that.
Good luck with “Jaws” Get a good trainer if you plan to keep your DS.

[Shellerenee]

Hello, spartan
That’s a lot of questions thank you for your interest.

She was almost 10 weeks when we got her. Tomorrow will be 2 weeks that we have had her. She was not brought up in a social environment, I’m thinking that was part of the problem. They where in a basement in a very large area. She did not get alot of 1 on 1 attention and was never put in a crate ever until we got her. We are working on socializing her with people and animals under a controlled environment. As well as noises, as noises tend to scare her. She was weened on blue buffalo puppy food. They gave us some of the blue buffalo food to mix with her new food. We feed her Solid Gold puppy food. It is corn, wheat and soy free, the first ingredient is bison. So I’m assuming that it is a good puppy food? We picked it simply because our other 3 animals are on it. I have not tried cod liver oil but I will definitely do some research on it. She does love playtime with her ball, so that might be a great suggestion. She is already excellent at fetch. There where 12 puppies in the litter. I have not asked to speak to the other buyers. I was going to until the other responses said that this was somewhat typical of the breed. There where a few puppies left when he offered to swap her out. However my husband wanted the brindle and the other females where fawn colored. I only considered females because our pug is a male and was worried that 2 males could be a problem. All of the litter has now been sold. She hasn’t bit anyone in 5 days now ( other than the puppy snapping and biting). We can feed her by hand with no problems. We got her a few round edible teething rings. We hold onto it while she chews to let her get used to our hands by her mouth. I am hoping that her previous bahavior was just her getting used to us and her environment. She is having some problems with potty training, I am taking her to the vet as I think she may have a urinary tract infection. She is hard to handle but I think she’s making improvement.

[Dutchringgirl]

CLO is good, but I dont think it will help with anxiety, it does not do anything for my Sadie who is a ball of stress.

So she is only 12 weeks?

For potty, training, take her out every 15 to 10 minutes, she is still young.

Check out Leerburg for some great videos.

Socializing is tricky, do you mean just out in the world or other dogs. This is a protection breed so do not expect her to be friendly with other dogs, if she does, great, but that is not their job. My Sadie does not like other dogs, and I respect that.

Take her for car rides to get her used to sounds and seeing the world.

For introductions, first, make sure her down stay is good, then make sure the human does not move or look at her. let the human stand still and let her check out the human first.

[Steve Gossmeyer]

Where are you located?

[Joxgirl]

For introductions, first, make sure her down stay is good, then make sure the human does not move or look at her. let the human stand still and let her check out the human first.

Hacking in here. Our down stay was good but now no!!! I need to start a thread on this. Lol.

[Dutchringgirl]

For introductions, first, make sure her down stay is good, then make sure the human does not move or look at her. let the human stand still and let her check out the human first.

Hacking in here. Our down stay was good but now no!!! I need to start a thread on this. Lol.

what do you mean, now its not?

[Joxgirl]

Rogue was good at getting a long down stay. Now she sits up after a few seconds of lying down and or comes to me.

[Dutchringgirl]

Rogue was good at getting a long down stay. Now she sits up after a few seconds of lying down and or comes to me.

dont let her, put her back in place.

[TimL_168]

Keep in practIce! Sometimes I've gotta go back to step one for a refresher. For both of us!

[Joxgirl]

From what I read in this forum, going back to basics is kinda routine. Is that right?

[Dutchringgirl]

From what I read in this forum, going back to basics is kinda routine. Is that right?

for the most part, you are always training. even if they do something right, it does not stop.

[Joxgirl]

Perfect, I have an excuse why my house will never be perfect again. No time to clean. Have to go train.
And a good reason to

[Dutchringgirl]

Perfect, I have an excuse why my house will never be perfect again. No time to clean. Have to go train.
And a good reason to

there is always a good reason to