# Aggressive Cockapoo Puppy



## Bentleyboy (Jul 4, 2010)

My family has recently brought home a nine week old cockapoo puppy named Bentley, and though we have only had him for less than a week, we are getting a bit concerned because he is showing signs of aggression. It seems to be random aggression, but maybe I am doing something wrong?? It usually occurs when we are trying to turn Bentley's attention away from something, such as chewing on the hose or a table leg. It starts with growling when you try to push him away from something, or even when you tug on the leash to get him to turn away. If you don't stop after the growling starts, he barks and attacks. I don't want to give into his aggression and let him have his way, chewing on the hose and rolling through the mud, but I have tried standing my ground and pulling him away from the situation, and he completely attacked and broke skin on my thumb! I'm not sure what type of aggression this is or how to act in the situation, and we are getting concerned because we frequently have children and families visiting our home. Though he is only a nine week puppy and he has only been with our family for 5 days now, we don't want this to escalate to aggression later in life. PLEASE HELP!


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## zimandtakandgrrandmimi (May 8, 2008)

he is a puppy. A very very young baby. This is not aggression. Its untrained puppy behavior. Teaching him to trade you the object in question for a treat or a toy is a relatively easy way to train him to allow you to take things from him.


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## RedyreRottweilers (Dec 17, 2006)

Do a searches and read up on:

Resource guarding
Bite inhibition

Go to YouTube and watch Kikopup's training vids.

POST PICTURES!


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## Cracker (May 25, 2009)

It's hard to say without seeing the puppy in action, but this does sound like resource guarding behaviour to me. Forcing him to give up anything is a bad idea (as you have discovered). Working on resource guarding is an important part of socializing and training your pup. The training involves teaching the dog that good things occur when he drops something or leaves something willingly. Half the battle is management in the beginning though, figuring out what he finds most guard worthy and preventing him from getting it in the first place, while you train him to give, drop, leave less "important" things.

Now, as much as puppies bite, chew and basically can seem very obnoxious in the beginning, most of this is very normal behaviour. If you are truly concerned you should have the puppy assessed by a certified trainer. Avoid any alpha theory based trainers as that type of training could INCREASE your issues, not decrease them. I personally would be concerned about temperament in a puppy that shows serious RG at his age. But since I cannot see it, I cannot be sure. Are you able to post video or photos so we can see the context and body language he shows when this occurs?

In the meantime, do some research on positive training methods and start thinking "If I don't want him to do X, what DO I want him to do instead?" and then train THAT.


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## JiveDadson (Feb 22, 2010)

What they said. Wrap up the table legs and stow away the hose.

I trained two resource-guarders using the "trade game." It was easy. But you cannot really trade a table leg. For that you probably need "leave it." 

Luckily both of my dogs showed up with soft mouths, so I don't know what to do about the hard nipping. But I will echo the advice not to use any method that employs force or intimidation. Even a "no-no" is a no-no.


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## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

JiveDadson said:


> What they said. Wrap up the table legs and stow away the hose.
> 
> I trained two resource-guarders using the "trade game." It was easy. But you cannot really trade a table leg. For that you probably need "leave it."
> 
> Luckily both of my dogs showed up with soft mouths, so I don't know what to do about the hard nipping. But I will echo the advice not to use any method that employs force or intimidation. Even *a "no-no" is a no-no*.


Just curious, but why do you say that a no is a no no?



Cracker said:


> It's hard to say without seeing the puppy in action, but this does sound like resource guarding behaviour to me. Forcing him to give up anything is a bad idea (as you have discovered). Working on resource guarding is an important part of socializing and training your pup. The training involves teaching the dog that good things occur when he drops something or leaves something willingly. Half the battle is management in the beginning though, figuring out what he finds most guard worthy and preventing him from getting it in the first place, while you train him to give, drop, leave less "important" things.
> 
> Now, as much as puppies bite, chew and basically can seem very obnoxious in the beginning, most of this is very normal behaviour. If you are truly concerned you should have the puppy assessed by a certified trainer. Avoid any alpha theory based trainers as that type of training could INCREASE your issues, not decrease them. I personally would be concerned about temperament in a puppy that shows serious RG at his age. But since I cannot see it, I cannot be sure. Are you able to post video or photos so we can see the context and body language he shows when this occurs?
> 
> In the meantime, do some research on positive training methods and start thinking "If I don't want him to do X, what DO I want him to do instead?" and then train THAT.


I second your thoughts. Tag was 9 weeks old when I brought him home (same age as the OP's pup) and had he growled and bit me enough to draw blood at that tender age, I would have re considered what I had just done. Nine week old puppies shouldn't IMO be resource guarding bad enough to growl because someone tugs on the leash to get him away from something, or takes something away from him. 
I hope you can find a good, sane behaviorist to help yourself and Bentley. I too would be interested if you could post some videos of his episodes.


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## Bentleyboy (Jul 4, 2010)

Thanks so much for the tips! We are trying to work with training the good things, diverting his attention and trading for one of his own toys, and removing him from the situation when he gets worked up. Hopefully all goes well! (and i must clarify, it was not full on bleeding when he bit me, it was more a scratch... and we have figured out when he gets aggressive and we are working our hardest to avoid those situations and reward him when he is behaving!)


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## JiveDadson (Feb 22, 2010)

LazyGRanch713 said:


> Just curious, but why do you say that a no is a no no?


Well of course it doesn't have to be. Dogs do not speak English, so you could use "no" to mean "roll over." More realistically, it could be used for "leave it" or as a positive interrupter. But usually people use the word "no" to scold the dog and intimidate it from doing something that it wants to do. It is far better to condition the dog to want to do something else other than the undesired behavior. You being the party-pooper does not endear you to the dog nor change its desire to do the bad thing. That is stressful to the pooch. I rescued a dog that I think almost certainly had been told "no" (or worse) when he deficated. (The gray dog pictured below.) The result was that he would not go in my presence, inside or out. He was afraid to. And if I caught him in the act, he would become very fearful and timid. However, he would take the oportunity to go when I was not around, which was always when he was in the house. Changing that was a challenge, but we got it done.


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## JeanieStecher (May 26, 2010)

Hi there, I think zimandtakandgrrandmimi is right. Since bently is too young, maybe he is just playing around or not quite expose to people. If you are training him, try to take time playing and teaching him discipline. It just needs a little training for it to be disciplined. =)


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## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

JiveDadson said:


> Well of course it doesn't have to be. Dogs do not speak English, so you could use "no" to mean "roll over." More realistically, it could be used for "leave it" or as a positive interrupter. But usually people use the word "no" to scold the dog and intimidate it from doing something that it wants to do. It is far better to condition the dog to want to do something else other than the undesired behavior. You being the party-pooper does not endear you to the dog nor change its desire to do the bad thing. That is stressful to the pooch. I rescued a dog that I think almost certainly had been told "no" (or worse) when he deficated. (The gray dog pictured below.) The result was that he would not go in my presence, inside or out. He was afraid to. And if I caught him in the act, he would become very fearful and timid. However, he would take the oportunity to go when I was not around, which was always when he was in the house. Changing that was a challenge, but we got it done.


Thanks for clarifying! I agree with you, and also think it's important to teach dogs (and children) what "no" or "stop that" means. I do see a lot of people overuse it. (One of my pet peeves is parents in stores, who yell "NO", "STOP IT", "I'M GOING TO COUNT TO THREE..." etc at their kids. Over and over again. (If Inga is reading, she probably remembers the pet peeve thread! <G>)


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## JiveDadson (Feb 22, 2010)

LazyGRanch713 said:


> Thanks for clarifying! I agree with you, and also think it's important to teach dogs (and children) what "no" or "stop that" means. I do see a lot of people overuse it. (One of my pet peeves is parents in stores, who yell "NO", "STOP IT", "I'M GOING TO COUNT TO THREE..." etc at their kids. Over and over again. (If Inga is reading, she probably remembers the pet peeve thread! <G>)


The traditional cue is "Leave it." It's hard to say "No" unemotionally. The key point is that the cue word is something you add after you have already established the behavior of leaving and ignoring whatever the dog was interested in. It is not the verbal equivalent of a smack on the snout.

Teaching "Leave it" Without Intimidation


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## zimandtakandgrrandmimi (May 8, 2008)

the reason why resource guarding is so hard to fix is because its a natural and HEALTHY instinct....it just doesnt mesh well with living with humans. its actually encouraged in some breeds...

in a pup that young...resource guarding shouldnt be freaked over unless its absolute manic behavior. just teach the pup some manners.


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## JeanieStecher (May 26, 2010)

JiveDadson said:


> Well of course it doesn't have to be. Dogs do not speak English, so you could use "no" to mean "roll over." More realistically, it could be used for "leave it" or as a positive interrupter. But usually people use the word "no" to scold the dog and intimidate it from doing something that it wants to do. It is far better to condition the dog to want to do something else other than the undesired behavior. You being the party-pooper does not endear you to the dog nor change its desire to do the bad thing. That is stressful to the pooch. I rescued a dog that I think almost certainly had been told "no" (or worse) when he deficated. (The gray dog pictured below.) The result was that he would not go in my presence, inside or out. He was afraid to. And if I caught him in the act, he would become very fearful and timid. However, he would take the oportunity to go when I was not around, which was always when he was in the house. Changing that was a challenge, but we got it done.




Yeah you are right there. I guess discipline is the key to every healthy interaction with dogs. But now, does your dog still defecates when you tell him no? Or did he change though?


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## LazyGRanch713 (Jul 22, 2009)

JiveDadson said:


> The traditional cue is "Leave it." It's hard to say "No" unemotionally. The key point is that the cue word is something you add after you have already established the behavior of leaving and ignoring whatever the dog was interested in. It is not the verbal equivalent of a smack on the snout.
> 
> Teaching "Leave it" Without Intimidation


I only use "no" in very rare circumstances, and my dogs freeze and stop what they're doing. I use "out" instead of "leave it" ("out" just falls out of my mouth better than "leave it", I tend to say "leave it" like a question. "Leeeaave It..?")


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## JiveDadson (Feb 22, 2010)

JeanieStecher said:


> Yeah you are right there. I guess discipline is the key to every healthy interaction with dogs. But now, does your dog still defecates when you tell him no? Or did he change though?


If you mean the trainer must have discipline, I agree.

I do not ever tell him no. For one thing, that word was probably poisoned by a previous owner. I tell him what I want him to do, not what I do not want to him do. The "tell him" has to be a cue that he has learned to respond to. He does not go in the house anymore, but I did not "tell him no" even when he did. Someone undoubtedly did just that, and it created a problem for me. We solved it using positive reinforcement.


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## JeanieStecher (May 26, 2010)

JiveDadson said:


> If you mean the trainer must have discipline, I agree.
> 
> I do not ever tell him no. For one thing, that word was probably poisoned by a previous owner. I tell him what I want him to do, not what I do not want to him do. The "tell him" has to be a cue that he has learned to respond to. He does not go in the house anymore, but I did not "tell him no" even when he did. Someone undoubtedly did just that, and it created a problem for me. We solved it using positive reinforcement.



LOL  important was that you and your dog understand each other. Nice dog ;-)


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