[McSuzie]

Quincy is 14 weeks today and is quite the handful! He’s a handsome, smart guy who is humping My leg while nipping my butt (no laughing ) he comes at me over and over until I’m about to lose my mind. I have tried everything to stop this behavior but am unsuccessful. It’s really hurting our relationship. While he can do this at any given time he primarily does this early in the morning and last thing in the evening (both times when I am most vulnerable) he does not do this to my husband only to me.

 

[fjm]

When you say "everything" what exactly have you tried, how consistently and for how long? What happens if you walk out of the room and shut the door on him? And do so repeatedly? Or put him on a leash? Or completely ignore him (not easy, I know, when your bum is being nipped by those sharp puppy teeth - Poppy did it for a while and it hurt!). Habits that are self rewarding and long established take some considerable time to change - at 14 weeks I suspect you simply have not yet had time to persevere for long enough.

 

[cowpony]

Ooh yeah, that's annoying. Bad puppy!

This assault is happening in several steps:

• He gets into your personal space
• He jumps up on you
• He wraps his front legs around you
• He bites

By the time he's got to the biting stage you have already missed several opportunities to redirect him. I personally would implement a zero jumping up policy for now. Aside from the issue of humping, it's just bad manners for even a little dog to jump up uninvited. Most people don't appreciate muddy pawprints on their clothes.

This site and the Internet are full of advice on how to stop your dog from jumping. Me personally, I would give the dog something else to do that isn't jumping. Sitting is good. Sitting down in front of you gets him a treat, ear scritches, the offer of a toy, or something else wonderful.
In contrast, jumping up on you should make you turn instantly into a slippery unclimbable mountain. Turn sideways, poke your knee out, cock your heel, do whatever you need to make him slide to the floor. Push him away if he doesn't take the hint. Put him in the next room and shut the door for 30 seconds if he is persistent. He wants your attention, so a few moments of not getting attention will make him wonder what he did to lose it. At his age a consistent reaction from you is much more important than a severe reaction. Keep it simple. Puppy jumps; puppy gets the cold shoulder for 30 seconds.

 

[McSuzie]

That sounds reasonable, I keep trying but he is crazy persistent

 

[McSuzie]

I’ve tried distracting him by going in a sit and rewarding, adjusting my body so he slides off - which he doesn’t because he teeth are hanging in to my pants, saying off and gently pushing him off - good boy when he hits the floor on all 4. Saying nothing and pushing him off. Putting him in his crate. Those are a few

 

[Dechi]

Have you tried covering yourself with an object ? Not to hit, but just to gently keep him away ? Like a golf club. After a while, just seeing the golf club near you might deter him.

 

[For Want of Poodle]

Puppies are challenging. Some days mine felt like 50% cute fluff, 25% teeth, 20% stomach, and 5% brain.

I agree with Cowpony, but would also add to pay attention WHEN this is occurring. My puppy was terrible at regulating her energy and going for naps. If I found her becoming exceptionally bitey, it was a good sign that she was desperately in need of a nap, so I would pop her in her crate or on my bed for a bit. When she woke up, i usually had my sweet puppy back, instead of a toothy monster.

 

[cowpony]

Puppies are challenging. Some days mine felt like 50% cute fluff, 25% teeth, 20% stomach, and 5% brain.

I agree with Cowpony, but would also add to pay attention WHEN this is occurring. My puppy was terrible at regulating her energy and going for naps. If I found her becoming exceptionally bitey, it was a good sign that she was desperately in need of a nap, so I would pop her in her crate or on my bed for a bit. When she woke up, i usually had my sweet puppy back, instead of a toothy monster.

Good add on! Galen's worst behavior is in the early evening. He's like a toddler that is too tired to know he needs to go to bed.

If it's any comfort, our nickname for Galen is The Little Monster. Because, well, he's not always fun to be around. One of the owners of another puppy from the same breeder keeps leaving another-day-with-my-perfect-puppy posts on Facebook. I see them and I'm, like, "I hate you, woman," LOL.

 

[McSuzie]

That made me laugh so hard!

 

[McSuzie]

Good add on! Galen's worst behavior is in the early evening. He's like a toddler that is too tired to know he needs to go to bed.

If it's any comfort, our nickname for Galen is The Little Monster. Because, well, he's not always fun to be around. One of the owners of another puppy from the same breeder keeps leaving another-day-with-my-perfect-puppy posts on Facebook. I see them and I'm, like, "I hate you, woman," LOL.

His worst times are first thing AM and last thing PM I could buy into the fact that the PM is tired but the other time is before he even eats breakfast!

 

[Raindrops]

Misha's nickname was Tasmanian Devil at that age. It sounds like your puppy is engaging in this behavior when he is in typical overexcitement time periods. Try to think of it like this... your puppy is a tiny baby with barely any control over his emotions and excitement. He easily gets pushed over the excitement threshold and has to do something with that energy. It could be zooming or playing tug but he loves you and often directs it on you. He doesn't know how to do that in a nice way yet. So you get the attacking and humping. It's okay. It's normal. There are many ways of addressing it. But generally it will still take time because he has a puppy brain and this is a hard thing to learn. To a hammer, everything looks like a nail. A puppy sees himself as a mouth. And everything is a chew toy. The 'be a tree' game didn't work for me. My dog didn't care if I engaged. He was too riled up. I just put him away in his pen and didn't let him out until he was calm. Redirection with toys is good. Tug is especially useful for puppy energy. Have enough toys that they are always easy to reach.

Also now is a good time to start working hard on basic obedience and impulse control. Leave It is a good way to introduce this. If you can get him in a puppy class with a good trainer I highly recommend it.

Deep breaths. You don't have to love this behavior. You love the dog you know he will become.

 

[Michigan Gal]

I might spray water in his face. It has worked with my kitten using his claws on me. But, some dogs like he spray water. Another approach is to be very mean and rage (roar ferociously) at him. If raging works it should only take a couple of times.

 

[cowpony]

Hi all - in case anyone is confused, I've merged the two threads "I want to love my puppy" and "Every Day is Hump Day!" (Great title for a thread, BTW. ) Same puppy, same naughty behavior, so it makes sense to have the advice in the same thread.

 

[cowpony]

His worst times are first thing AM and last thing PM I could buy into the fact that the PM is tired but the other time is before he even eats breakfast!

For the AM attacks, some focused play time might help. If Quincy is just completely revved up, he might not be able to settle down until he's burned some energy. You don't want to let him keep acting like a little thug, but you can't expect him to just sit pretty and sing with the choir while his brain is on hiatus. In another thread I described the following clicker training exercise as a suggestion to someone whose puppy kept biting her husband:

Your husband's unhappiness with the situation is probably contributing to the problems. Being a young creature, she wants attention. If she can't get good attention, she will settle for bad. She will keep trying to push his buttons until he reacts.

Games are a really good way to channel bad behavior into good behavior. Here's an example. Earlier this week my husband asked me how to stop out puppy from biting him. The little twerp had lunged, caught my husband with a sharp little puppy tooth, and drawn blood. When I went outside I found the puppy acting like a complete maniac. He tried to hump my leg. He jumped and tried to bite my hands. It was pretty obvious how he has slipped and nipped my husband. He was just wired.

The first thing I did was to shift my leg so he bounced off my knee, hard. That ended the humping attempt. Next I put my hands in my pockets. That ended the hand biting game. Then, since he clearly wanted to play hard, I did some challenging off leash heeling with him. I walked and ran all over our yard. I jumped up on benches and rocks. I climbed stairs. I changed directions abruptly. Every time I did something that require him to think and adjust, I looked down to my left. If I saw a puppy looking back up at me I would click and give him a treat.

The first couple times my hand came out of my pocket he tried to nip. Then he soon figured out there was no reward in nipping. The reward only came when he put himself at my left heel. He started working really hard to follow along as I moved around the yard. To me, this was training. To him, this was a game of chase in which he got treats when he caught me the right way. After 15 minutes of this work my very bad puppy was acting like a very good puppy.No anger, no punishment, just play.

 

[McSuzie]

Misha's nickname was Tasmanian Devil at that age. It sounds like your puppy is engaging in this behavior when he is in typical overexcitement time periods. Try to think of it like this... your puppy is a tiny baby with barely any control over his emotions and excitement. He easily gets pushed over the excitement threshold and has to do something with that energy. It could be zooming or playing tug but he loves you and often directs it on you. He doesn't know how to do that in a nice way yet. So you get the attacking and humping. It's okay. It's normal. There are many ways of addressing it. But generally it will still take time because he has a puppy brain and this is a hard thing to learn. To a hammer, everything looks like a nail. A puppy sees himself as a mouth. And everything is a chew toy. The 'be a tree' game didn't work for me. My dog didn't care if I engaged. He was too riled up. I just put him away in his pen and didn't let him out until he was calm. Redirection with toys is good. Tug is especially useful for puppy energy. Have enough toys that they are always easy to reach.

Also now is a good time to start working hard on basic obedience and impulse control. Leave It is a good way to introduce this. If you can get him in a puppy class with a good trainer I highly recommend it.

Deep breaths. You don't have to love this behavior. You love the dog you know he will become.

Thank you, your post made me tear up, I really want to have that sweet boy. I’ve raised a lot of dogs and have never felt this challenged - of course with each dog I was older than the last and I gets patience diminishes with age. The hard part for me is to react calmly by the 15th time he’s thrown his body at me, I feel bad at how angry I get inside while this is happening and although I don’t show it I imagine he must feel that vibe. I’ve tried putting him in the crate when this happens but he’s back at within a few moments of getting back out

For the AM attacks, some focused play time might help. If Quincy is just completely revved up, he might not be able to settle down until he's burned some energy. You don't want to let him keep acting like a little thug, but you can't expect him to just sit pretty and sing with the choir while his brain is on hiatus. In another thread I described the following clicker training exercise as a suggestion to someone whose puppy kept biting her husband:

Your husband's unhappiness with the situation is probably contributing to the problems. Being a young creature, she wants attention. If she can't get good attention, she will settle for bad. She will keep trying to push his buttons until he reacts.

Games are a really good way to channel bad behavior into good behavior. Here's an example. Earlier this week my husband asked me how to stop out puppy from biting him. The little twerp had lunged, caught my husband with a sharp little puppy tooth, and drawn blood. When I went outside I found the puppy acting like a complete maniac. He tried to hump my leg. He jumped and tried to bite my hands. It was pretty obvious how he has slipped and nipped my husband. He was just wired.

The first thing I did was to shift my leg so he bounced off my knee, hard. That ended the humping attempt. Next I put my hands in my pockets. That ended the hand biting game. Then, since he clearly wanted to play hard, I did some challenging off leash heeling with him. I walked and ran all over our yard. I jumped up on benches and rocks. I climbed stairs. I changed directions abruptly. Every time I did something that require him to think and adjust, I looked down to my left. If I saw a puppy looking back up at me I would click and give him a treat.

The first couple times my hand came out of my pocket he tried to nip. Then he soon figured out there was no reward in nipping. The reward only came when he put himself at my left heel. He started working really hard to follow along as I moved around the yard. To me, this was training. To him, this was a game of chase in which he got treats when he caught me the right way. After 15 minutes of this work my very bad puppy was acting like a very good puppy.No anger, no punishment, just play.

thats so great! I wish I had the energy to do that at 6:15 AM before my coffee! Maybe I will have to just try

 

[PeggyTheParti]

Pushing puppy Peggy, kneeing puppy Peggy, screeching at puppy Peggy, engaging in any way with puppy Peggy....

It all sent her through the roof when she was like that. Physical contact especially is just roughhousing to a puppy, so be careful. You might inadvertently reinforce this particular "game."

If being absolutely boring doesn't work, remove yourself from the situation and then try to think about how to avoid the situation altogether next time.

For example, one member mentioned her puppy always went wild in the backyard when she tried to end play. The easiest solution would be to avoid the backyard for a week or two so puppy doesn't get to keep rehearsing that behaviour. It's amazing how quickly puppies can move on from behaviours that seem impossible to break.

Are you working with a trainer or are you enrolled in a puppy class? What does puppy's average day look like?

Sometimes it's easier to treat the symptoms (overexcited puppy!) by addressing some of the precipitating factors.

P.S. It took me a good while to love Peggy. I was perfectly capable of caring for her in the meantime, so I won't feel bad about that and you shouldn't either. The bond will come. Just google "puppy blues." Suuuper normal, I promise.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

I just recalled that this is your first poodle, correct? If so, it's possible you're using some training techniques that work well with other breeds, but are less successful (or worse—damaging!) with these sensitive, intelligent poodles of ours. Sometimes Peggy feels like a whole other species. If she's rewarded for something even one time, even inadvertently, you can bet she'll be doing it again....and again.......and again.

 

[Dianaleez]

Normie greets me each morning when I leave the bedroom. His impulse is to jump up to get to me, but I gently knee him, sit in a chair and bend over to pet him while calmly telling him I can only pet dogs that have four feet on the floor.

He's pretty much caught on.

When he jumps up other times, we just say 'four on the floor' and apply the knee as needed. But 'four on the floor' if successful has to be followed by petting.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

The thing with punishment is that if it works, it WORKS. Like, if a poodle were to sniff the inside of a hot oven and burn her nose, the chances of her ever sticking her nose in there again would be close to zero.

So if you're kneeing your dog in the chest and they keep jumping up, it's likely not being interpreted the way you intend. Or their motivation is so strong (e.g. desperate attempt at appeasing you or getting your attention) they will climb any mountain necessary to reach their goal.

It's like yelling at a dog for barking at the front door: Has that ever worked? More likely, it winds the dog up more (and raises your blood pressure). I give into this occasionally, and am well aware it's more a release of tension for me than anything. If it worked, it would have worked long ago.

Similarly, kneeing to an overexcited puppy can easily be misconstrued as roughhousing. "Woo hoo! Human contact! More! More! Wheeeee!" It also puts you off balance, leaning you backwards and inviting the dog to come even closer.

I don't claim to have all the answers on this. But the realization that punishment typically works swiftly (or not at all) was a real eye-opener for me.

My most recent personal example would be Peggy's old (terrible) habit of nosing me HARD in the face. After repeat injury to my increasingly tender nose, the next time she did it, my fist went up as a pure protective reflex....and she essentially punched herself in the face.

That behaviour immediately disappeared.

 

[Dianaleez]

The thing with punishment is that if it works, it WORKS. Like, if a poodle were to sniff the inside of a hot oven and burn her nose, the chances of her ever sticking her nose in there again would be close to zero.

So if you're kneeing your dog in the chest and they keep jumping up, it's likely not being interpreted the way you intend. Or their motivation is so strong (e.g. desperate attempt at appeasing you or getting your attention) they will climb any mountain necessary to reach their goal.

It's like yelling at a dog for barking at the front door: Has that ever worked? More likely, it winds the dog up more (and raises your blood pressure). I give into this occasionally, and am well aware it's more a release of tension for me than anything. If it worked, it would have worked long ago.

Similarly, kneeing to an overexcited puppy can easily be misconstrued as roughhousing. "Woo hoo! Human contact! More! More! Wheeeee!" It also puts you off balance, leaning you backwards and inviting the dog to come even closer.

I don't claim to have all the answers on this. But the realization that punishment typically works swiftly (or not at all) was a real eye-opener for me.

My most recent personal example would be Peggy's old (terrible) habit of nosing me HARD in the face. After repeat injury to my increasingly tender nose, the next time she did it, my fist went up as a pure protective reflex....and she essentially punched herself in the face.

That behaviour immediately disappeared.

Are you viewing gently moving a dog to the floor with your knee as punishment?

It's the advice our trainer gave and she was strongly opposed to punishment.