Re: [PyrNet-L] Chat: Need Advice!

["Tracy Bassett" <espinay@dynamite.com.au>]

<<The problem, or I guess concern at this point, is Neria snapped at my 14
year old daughter last night when Jorli told her "No" for biting (puppy
biting) her.  The puppy actually growled and lunged.  I was shocked and
grabbed her muzzle and yelled "No" in a very loud voice and that was the end
of it.  My 9 year old had told me earlier that she didn't like Neria because
she snapped at her when she told her "no>>Judi Swingen

Hi Judi, All dogs, no matter what breed, have the ability to display
dominance behaviour.  To help your pup understand NOW that your daughters
are higher ranking than them, it may be of some help to transfer a lot of
the feeding and training etc of the pup to them for a while if you can.
(Try and make it as fun as possible for your daughters though as any anxiety
or resentment to the pup will probably not help too much with this :-/)

Taking her to some form of puppy kindy classes as soon as you are able as
Cindy suggested is a good idea.  It is a good idea to make sure your
daughters get involved in this too.  Who is feeding her at the moment?  I
would suggest that this duty be handed over to your daughters as much as
possible to help reinforce their 'status' with the pup.  Teach her to do
something like 'sit' and get your daughters to ask the pup to do this every
time before they feed her so she is not getting her meals 'for free'.  Get
her to sit, praise her when she sits and give her her meal.  If your
daughters do this, this will help to reinforce their position.

Don't do ANY roughouse playing with the pup and I probably wouldn't play
games like tug of war either.  If you do, make sure you/your daughters
ALWAYS end up with the toy and the pup doesn't 'win' it and get to keep it.
End any game by removing the toy and putting it away.

You (your daughters) could try teaching a few behaviours that are
incompatible with the 'biting' too. Try teaching her 'yours and mine' - hold
a really tasty treat - something that the pup REALLY likes like cheese,
salami, chicken etc (small pieces) - in your hand.  Hold the treat in a
closed fist (palm down) out to the pup.  She will probably try to get at the
treat.  Say nothing and don't give it to her.  If she sits back and stops
biting for a second or so, praise her and open your hand to give her the
treat.  What you are teaching (hopefully) is that rewards come by NOT
biting.

How about getting your daughters to teach her a trick?  Shake hands is a
good one for Pyrs.  Or perhaps play the 'come when called' game where you
sit facing each other (2,3,or more can play this, if 3 people, sit in a
triangle), each person having a little store of tasty treats, and you call
the pup backwards and forwards between you, praising and rewarding the pup
with a treat when she comes to you when you call (don't sit too far apart at
first).  All these sorts of things may help in a fun way (for the pup and
your daughters) to establish your daughters as 'higher ranking' than your
pup.

A book I would really recommend is 'The Perfect Puppy' by Gwen Bailey  this
will give you a lot of good ideas for raising and training your pup.

Hope this helps

Tracy Bassett
Canberra, Australia
espinay@dynamite.com.au
visit my webpage at http://members.dynamite.com.au/espinay/index.htm