# Help With Unsocialized Aggressive 6 week old puppy



## lovetamarav (Jun 25, 2012)

Thank you those with feedback. We only wound up fostering for a few days before she went to a rescue.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

You have to protect the adult from the puppy. Adults do not always correct unruly puppies, so that's your job. When the puppy gets too excited, put her in a time out until she calms down, saying "calm down" at the same time. You aren't training her to calm down, you are giving her a phrase to associate with stopping play. She may learn to calm on her own in a few weeks, when she hears the phrase and before you remove her.


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## 3doglady (Jul 31, 2011)

Agreed. I have a dog who will correct pups and one who will not. I typically intervene when an adult dog is not correcting properly. When I intervene, it may be anything from a verbal response with re-direction and guidance to a time out in my lap or crate. It does take time (weeks), as well as consistency and patience.
It might also help to set up some time for her to be around other healthy, vaccinated, well-adjusted dogs. Dogs can communicate some things more clearly than we can.


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## MaDeuce (Sep 5, 2013)

Is this for real? Because words completely fail me right now...

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## MaDeuce (Sep 5, 2013)

Okay, I got to ask. Couldn't get it out of my head.

You work at a Clinic and you don't know the development stages of a puppy?
Furthermore, instead of talking to your Colleagues, or asking for the information of a reliable Behaviourist, Trainer etc. You come here?

You know what this puppy went through, the puppy probably doesn't have its second set of shots and you let another dog play with it? Probably overwhelming the little bugger and then you come on here talking about a 6 week old AGGRESSIVE puppy?

:what::what::what::what::what::what:

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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

That sounds like a 100% normal puppy to me. Not undersocialized or aggressive in any way. 

Most dogs will give a puppy a lot of leeway when they are that small. Sounds like your older dog is doing just fine and when she's had enough, she'll let the puppy know. If you think she's overwhelmed, remove the puppy to an xpen or a tie down so the older dog can get away for a bit.


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## petpeeve (Jun 10, 2010)

lovetamarav said:


> Puppy has no bite inhibition and despite her chomping on my dog quite hard my dog hasn't been bothered enough to correct her yet.


Young puppies such as yours typically learn bite inhibition from OTHER PUPPIES. Since you don't have other puppies on hand, the duty then shifts to YOU. I wouldn't rely on an adult dog to assume this responsibility, at least not entirely. And I would carefully manage and supervise the interaction of the two so that it doesn't get anywhere even close to the "yet" stage.

There used to be a forum sticky for The Bite Stops Here. 
You could look around the forum for relevant threads, or perhaps do a www search instead.

Also, I think you'll find the general consensus amongst posters here is that few if any pups are capable of true "aggression" at 6 weeks of age. Usually, it's just a state of high arousal + social inexperience on the puppy's part. Nothing really to fret about.


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## petpeeve (Jun 10, 2010)

MaDeuce said:


> You know what this puppy went through, the puppy probably doesn't have its second set of shots and you let another dog play with it?


The pup is not being exposed to an 'unknown' dog, it's her own dog. 

The op works in a clinic. I suspect her adult is healthy, not showing outward signs of sickness, and is utd on vax. 
With that being true (?) seems like minimal risk to me. And I think it's crucial, given the void in early life, that the pup receive some form of socialization with other dogs asap. What better way is there ?


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## sassafras (Jun 22, 2010)

petpeeve said:


> I wouldn't rely on an adult dog to assume this responsibility, at least not entirely.


I wouldn't, either. Adults do tend to be pretty tolerant of puppies, but some adults are just doormats and never correct puppies. So at times you may need to intervene. I like a "three strikes" approach that Cracker taught me: Pick a verbal cue, when the puppy is getting too crazy give your verbal cue and remove for just a minute or two. On the third cue (the third strike), end the play session. The puppy can go into an ex-pen or crate with something to do (stuffed kong etc) or off with you to do something else but physically separate from the adult dog. They don't know what the cue means at first, obviously, but they catch on with consistent repetition.

And agreed with the others. This puppy is really too young to be "aggressive," she just hasn't learned to inhibit her biting and moderate her play. She'll need some extra help from you and (hopefully) your adult dog to get there, but again don't rely completely on your adult dog being good at doing so. Maisy was a terrible "puppy raiser" because she pretty much never corrected Squash for anything, ever and when he was an adolescent especially I had to intervene quite a bit.


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## MaDeuce (Sep 5, 2013)

Instead of jumping on the "Ooooh my gosh, she needs to socialize and play as much as possible."

How about letting this puppy come to a rest and let her settle in, feel secure first.

Limit her exposure to the dog. Up the time with yourself. Expose her to simple things and keep it low key. You can play with her, you can use little rags and teach her bite inhibition and observe her behavior. 

Ever thought that the whole transition from near death to overstimulation with a young adult could be a bit much for a 6 week old? 



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## sassafras (Jun 22, 2010)

MaDeuce said:


> Instead of jumping on the "Ooooh my gosh, she needs to socialize and play as much as possible."


Who said that? People are just giving advice on how to keep her from running roughshod over the resident dog.


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## 3doglady (Jul 31, 2011)

sassafras said:


> Who said that? People are just giving advice on how to keep her from running roughshod over the resident dog.


Sounds like he was responding to my post about being around other healthy, well-adjusted dogs can be helpful. Of course I didn't mean run out and do it today, rather, once she's settled.


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