My pug Chuy goes into hyper mode

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Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 7:20 pm Post subject: My pug Chuy goes into hyper mode

Normally, Chuy just wanders around the house stopping to play with this and that but every now and then when we are playing with him, he goes into what we call Cerberus mode. Cerberus being a reference to the three-headed dog from hell. During Cerberus mode, he just goes nuts and bites our hands, fingers, arms, whatever he can get ahold of. If you lay on the floor he charges your face and tries to bite your nose. Then, after he tires out, he becomes the gentle licking lapdog he normally is. We tried the "yelping" technique where we make a loud yelp whenver he bites too hard. That works sometimes but doesn't seem to have long-term effectiveness. Sometimes, when you let out the yelp, he starts growling and bites harder. That's when I get my hand away, tell him "no biting" and get up and walk away and ignore him for awhile. When we start playing again, he does the same thing. Even when he's up in my lap watching tv, he'll be gnawing on my fingers, albeit most of the time lightly. When he starts doing that I get him a rawhide stick that I hold for him while he chews it but I'd like to get him where he just doesn't bite us at all without having to stop, get up and go get his sticks. I know he is a smart pooch because he was house-trained within 48 hours of us getting him home 3 weeks ago. He also knows the commands sit, stay, up, and come and almost always comes when you call him. He is two months old yesterday.

Here is a picture of him.

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Here is video of the behavior I am describing:

That looks like typical puppy to me. Both of my girls did that when they were younger and are still know to nip sometimes when they are playing. With a puppy that small, I think it'd be best to say "no!" then set him back down off of you, and repeat or even move away from him while still telling him no. He looks like he's just trying to play, and he's still little enough he doesn't really know how to play so he's nipping and biting cause he's excited.

Pug Joined: Sep 08, 2006 Posts: 13 Status: **Offline**

My Dudley does that too, and the older he gets (about 10 months now), the harder he bites! But.... he does it more to my husband than he does to me because my husband plays rougher with him, and "allows" it. When he starts trying to do it to me, I hold my hand flat, above his face and tell him NO. I also say "calm down" in a very stern voice. Seems to be working with him, as he hasn't tried biting me in a while. Good luck to you! Chuy is a cutie!

thts just the typical biting phase. they all are nippy for a while. you are using the right techniques but i think you need to focus on using just one. i tried the yelping, the walk away and redirecting and i think for you the redirect is going to work best. when he bites you say no bite in a stern tone. doesnt need to be yelling, just a low tone. give him the rawhide and when he chews it say good chew! in a happy lite tone. but im more concerned about the fact you say he just turned 2 months old yesterday and you've had him for 3 weeks already. that would mean you got him at 5 weeks which is waaay too young to be away from mom

most good breeders wait till at least 8 weeks and seasoned pug breeders usually wait till 12 weeks. this is because the longer they stay with mom, the more they lean from her, like potty training and was is and isnt acceptable behavior (like biting Smile

) unfortunately this is something that'll get worse before it gets better. my mimi was a terrible pant leg biter and foot chewer but with the no bite/redirect training she now just licks. something that works for other behaviors is 'the can of doom'. basically, its an empty soda can with some pennies in it. when they are doing something they shouldnt, shake the can. the sudden noise will often snap them out of whatever behavior nd you can redirect them. mimi wasnt phased by the squirt bottle technique

Let me add on a bit to the age issue, because I think actually you are seeing a side effect of it - the lack of usefulness of yelping.

Puppies learn from each other in the litter, and it's not until they reach the age where they have needle teeth and enough play in them that they start to chew on each other. THAT is when the "yelp" training occurs in the litter: when they yelp at each other (or Mom does at them) when something hurts. They each learn that a yelp from the other is pain and bad and no one wants to play any more. It sounds like Chuy left the litter before that training really took effect.

In the Content section on the left hand menu, there's an article about how puppies learn under the training section. There's a lot there that you may find helpful.

Keep asking questions - it's why we're all here Smile