It's great to have such a collection of online experience. I haven't had a dog since I was a kid, and my wife's never had one.The folks on this forum have given us lots of tips for bite inhibition training with our 4 month old puppy, a Maltese/Shitzhu mix. She's responded great. Dixie still has one odd biting behavior. Only in the evening, about 8:00, and only toward my wife, she'll display very aggressive snarling and nipping . Mind you, 30 minutes earlier she was lying passively while my wife groomed around her eyes with a comb . The behavior only lasts for a few minutes, then she's back to her sweet self. It reminds us of when our kids were little and had volic at night. Is this familiar to anyone, and any suggestions? Thanks for all the other great advice.

More info please! What changed? Is the dog on the bed when this happens? Does it always happen in the same spot? Only to your wife? Only when you're around? Is this a nervous dog or a ballsy one?

Obviously, this is something that has to be stopped because it could easily escalate. What kind of person is your wife? Both of you are going to have to make sure this dog understands where she is on the home totem pole.

Have you read the groundwork for being a pack leader on this site? READ THAT. I don't have the link right now...I'll post it later if no one beats me to it. Read about dominance and ways to deal with it.

PS- Welcome to the board. You've come to the right place

Here's the link:

http://www.leerburg.com/domdogdirectory.htm

Instead of linking you to one particular article, I linked you to a directory of many that might help. Read these and see if they sound like your dog.

Just based on what you said, and the fact that you two have limited experience with dogs, I would bet your dog is asserting her dominance, putting your wife "in her place" so to speak? This is often times more common with small dogs than big ones because the little ones are allowed to practice more dominant behaviors than people would tolerate in a big dog.

This discussion board is a wonderful place to ask questions, but don't forget to spend hours reading Ed Frawley's articles, if you haven't already. Big or little, ALL dogs need to be controlled, not controlling.

Thanks for the feedback, I should have been more specific. I don't think anything has changed in the environment or our treatment of the dog, but I think you're right about this night-time behavior escalating. We've had her about a month and we've noticed the behavior more lately. It almost always happens when my wife is sitting on the couch and the dog is on the floor, and rarely when I'm around. The dog is definitely not nervous, I'd say more spunky, but doesn't display any aggrressive behavior at other times. My wife is pretty tough, too-over the years we've had quite a menagerie and she's been extremely comfortable handling aggressive snakes, lizards, chameleons, etc.

We've been reading many of the great articles written by Ed, as well as other posts. We think you're right, the dog is trying to up her rank in the pack. It seems odd that it seems to happen at night. Could the dog be tired or cranky, like a child? We're trying to use the techniques from Ed's articles about establishing ourselves as pack leaders.

Thanks so much for your help.

 Quote: John Williams

It almost always happens when my wife is sitting on the couch and the dog is on the floor, and rarely when I'm around.

What causes the aggression? Is your wife moving, trying to get up, trying to move the dog? And can I ask where you got your dog? Private breeder, shelter, pet store?

I think I see where Amber is going; if this is the beginning of dominant behaviour, your puppy could be trying to test her boundaries by trying to control your wife.
Again, the trigger could be any of the things that Amber mentioned...

It could just be that your pup is getting a burst of energy in the evening. My pup used to do that too... (still does at times).

He doesn't bite me, but sometimes he'll just get into a frenzy late at night where he grabs a toy and shakes it, throws it, chases it, attacks it, barks and growls at it etc. etc.
This pops out of nowhere; he'll be lying at my feet for several hours while I study or work on the computer, and then all of a sudden he wants to play and goes nuts.

It might just be a pent-up energy thing. My pup always gets plenty of exercise and training during the day, so in theory he should be tired out. Then again, who knows what goes on inside their brain? hehe

Ed talks about this on his dominant dog DVD and demonstrates the behaviour you described with a really cute little corgi pup.

Basically, your first response is to redirect your pup's "aggression" to a toy. Teach her what is prey (appropriate chewing items) and what isn't (you or your wife in this case).
Pick up a stuffed toy or a rolled up towel or something and wave it in her face; encourage her to bite that when she bites hands.

If she gets too wound up and aggressive, grab her by the sides of her face, hold her still, look her in the eyes and repeat NO, KNOCK IT OFF in a very very calm, firm voice.
The idea is to force her to be still for maybe 10 seconds or so while you very quietly and firmly talk to her, just to settle her down.

If she's too squirmy, get a hold of her by the shoulders, quietly pick her up off the ground and again, look her in the face and talk to her calmly and firmly under she stops struggling.

It's important that you (or your wife) stay perfectly calm when doing this. If you get upset and start shaking her or raising your voice, you'll just make her more frenzied.

No need to shake or grab her scruff.
This immobilization method is very effective. I tried it out just as Ed demonstrates on his DVD with my pup and it works very nicely. Ok, now he's 10 months old and 95 pounds so I can't really "lift" him off the ground anymore, but I'll tell him to lie down and stay.
Just putting him in a down stay for 10-20 seconds while staring at him and telling him to CALM DOWN in a quiet firm voice is usually all it takes to calm everything down

It gets a lot easier when you do this for a few months.
In your case your dog isn't going to be getting a whole lot bigger, but if you let her get away with this behaviour now, it'll get much harder to control later on and could escalate into full-blown dominance.

Young pups get crazy, it's part of their charm.

The first few times, it may be hard to calm her, but if you stay perfectly consistent and calm, and don't let her get away with it, it'll get much easier to stop as she gets older.

Sometimes on our off-leash walks at the park or forest, my pup gets overly excited and will start to harass my older female shepherd (11-year-old) by charging at her, and jumping on her and body-slamming her.
Of course I don't tolerate this at all, not for a second, but I find that giving prong corrections for this is sometimes counterproductive (makes him even more hectic and he'll start to bite me).

Luckily I've worked with him on the calming method since day one, so he knows the drill. I don't get angry or upset at him, I just say DOWN in a no-nonsense tone (which he obeys on the spot, his obedience is excellent, I'll give him that ), and I stand there quietly for a few seconds.
I talk to him in a firm calm voice while maintaining eye contact, but there's no punishment or correction involved.

After about 15 seconds, I walk up to him and very quietly praise him and release him.

That's all it takes. If he goes over to my older female again, I can just say NO and he's calmed down enough to back off on command.

Just taking the excitement out of the situation is really all it takes to put you back in control. The air of superiority that you give off to the dog by remaining completely calm and in control of him will go a long way in establishing and maintaining your status as leader, too!

Anyway, if you give us more information on your pup and on what exactly goes on (what triggers her, how you and your wife deal with it), maybe we can give you more specific advice, but the most effective thing (especially for a young pup like that) is to just get her to calm down a little by forcing her to stay still.

Once she knows a sit or down stay you can use that, but in the meantime, just pick her off the ground (not pick her up and holding her against you and hugging her!! pick her up so her back feet are dangling) and wait till she settles down before putting her back on the ground.

Good luck, and enjoy the puppyness while it lasts... they grow up too quickly

Thanks so much for all the advice. ( This is Stacey, John's wife and the unlucky recipient of the evening snarl-fest). It usually happens when I am sitting on the sofa then boom, she is a whirlwind of activity then comes next to the sofa (much higher than she) and starts to jump up like crazy and bark then snarl. The first couple times it happened I was not doing the right things as far as maintaining my dominance since it caught me off guard and I was unsure what to do. That is obviously where I went wrong. I rolled her once while it was going on and she did nip at me and gave me a tooth scratch and puncture so I realized quickly that was not the result I was hoping for. So I started over from square one on establishing myself as alpha and am going through all the steps described and we have come a long way. The last 2 nights when the "burst" occurred I have been able to calmly tell her to knock it off and give her a toy to divert her attention before things escalated. Most importantly, I have not backed away from her since that first time which I think was my deadly mistake. We have 4 children so the fear in my heart has been that out of the blue she is going to launch into this in their presence and someone will get hurt. She is a really sweet dog and has improved greatly with the mouthing and jumping since we have started to consistently follow the advice from this website.
I can't say much about the breeder since the way we came to have her is that friends bought her at 9 weeks as a Christmas gift for their kids but they soon realized they weren't puppy people. We kept her overnight, fell in love, and knew we needed to decide if we were ready for a puppy--something we have wanted several years but since we always had a little one (our youngest now 21 months) we have put off getting one. Well, long story made longer she came to live with us officially on January 5th at 11 weeks of age and has been really wonderful. The kids are gentle with her and she is never left alone with them and we are working hard to make sure everyone is getting along and that she knows where we all stand in the pack. I am sure some time was lost in the switching homes and certainly consistency has been a factor--but we are definately on the right track now. Better late that never! Her disposition really is good, she is not protective of toys or resting spots and she crates easily and has housetrained easily. She rarely barks and greets neighborhood dogs well. She sits to go outside and to eat and to have her leash removed and lets me groom her without struggle so I am now confident that we are going to make it through this. I think she sees me as alpha now. She licks me a lot, rolls over for me, has done the rather obnoxious submissive pee thing, and just seems calmer and more willing settle down when told. For a while there I was really fearful when she would snarl an bark and I betcha she picked up on that just like a child can sniff out an uncertain caretaker. Thank you all for the info--I hope this narrative (though lengthy) will fill in some of the gaps. Stacey under John's username

Congratulations Stacey! (and John )

It sounds like you have everything under control; I'm sure she'll grow up to be a very well behaved pet with you and your children (all 4 of them, you must have your hands full!!).

You're lucky in a way to have a small dog; it's always easier to pick them up off the ground and force them to calm down and submit. It's great that you're not making the mistake of many toy breed owners in letting the dog get away with everything because it's "small and cute". Good for you for being smart!

As for the young children, as long as you both stay strong pack leaders to the dog, she'll respect your children.
If, however, you ever catch her being even slightly aggressive or dominant with any of your children (especially as she matures into her adolescence stage), you must correct her very severely for that.

If she gets wound up and plays too rough with you, you can use the holding still and calming method. With displays of dominance and aggression to your children, it's a completely different matter though, you'll have to be much more forceful in your corrections.
Often, dogs with dominant tendencies will start off testing their limits by maybe curling their lip or growling a little bit at a child when it comes near their food or toys. If they see that the pack leaders (the parents) are wishy-washy with their corrections in response to the behaviour, the dog gets emboldened and will try harder to dominate the children (even if it respects the parents).
When it sees that the parents are not extremely vigilant in protecting the children, the dog feels like it has a chance to increase its rank by being aggressive to the children.

The problem of course is that even a small toy dog can do serious damage to a young child's face if it bites.

So basically, keep up everything you're doing as described on this site and remain a calm, gentle and fair leader to your pup.
That way you'll earn her trust and respect (and love of course)!
Corrections for playing too rough can be gentle on your part (focusing more on calming her down rather than actually correcting her).
The same goes for obedience training (Ed has written excellent articles on the subject, starting with a lot of motivation and then using fair but effective corrections later on in training).

The only time you really need to deliver a painful and meaningful correction is if she ever even thinks of being aggressive towards your children. Better be safe than sorry in that area, at least until the kids are bigger and able to behave as leaders themselves. Babies will always need you to enforce their rank for them

By the way, feel free to post a photo of your little puppy in the members area of the board! We all love puppy pictures, hehe.

It sounds like you're both being excellent and well informed puppy parents. Your pup is lucky to be with you two (and your little ones) and not dumped at the shelter by her previous owners!

This board and website are a great place to learn, not only regarding training, but also feeding and other health issues.

Best of luck with your new pup!

I just thought I'd add some links to articles that Ed has written on preventing dog bites in children (in case you haven't found them yet):

http://www.leerburg.com/kidbites.htm

The following has to do with raising a dominant or aggressive dog: http://www.leerburg.com/dominantdogs.htm

Obviously I don't know whether you'll actually face problems with your dog being aggressive to your kids, but these are excellent reads regardless. They teach you to be a good pack leader even to a non dominant dog.

(Plus you can read what happens when irresponsible idiots own aggressive dogs; the children are the ones who suffer the consequences, unfortunately). Gotta love Ed's answers though; he really gets right to the point and doesn't worry about offending anyone

Hi all - I am expirencing the same behaviour in my 15 week old femal GSD, she is calm and chewing on a toy and the next minute she is jumping on me or my daughter and gets nippy and vocal when she is corrected. I push her off the couch or place her feet on the floor and tell her off but this seems to frustrate her and increase the nipping and barking. I have tried the holding her cheecks and talking calmly but this really makes her mad and she will lunge at my hand as soon as I release her. I usually end up putting her in her crate and let her settle for 5 minutes. This has been helping. I am open to other suggestions as the talking calmly isn't working with her.

thanks,
Holly