I picked up the puppy I mentioned in a previous post on Friday. She's a little spitfire... the spawn of satan... AKA hellchild <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Her prey drive is better than I expected, her food drive is awesome. She has the best grip I've ever seen in a pup her age. I'm tickled pink and she's learning fast!

I had planned to pick her up at 6 wks old, but due to some personal things, she stayed with the breeder until 10 wks. The breeder took her and her litermate away from the bitchy mother at 6 wks and put them in with a different litter of older puppies.

In minutes of brining her home, my 2-1/2 yr old dominant female was shaking in fear of the puppy. <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> I was expecting dog-v-dog aggression in a year or 2 - not immediately! <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Anyway, I have been carefully introducing the two and scruff shake for the puppy aggression. It doesn't phase her at all, she shows her pearly whites right through it.

We've been walking the two dogs together, the puppy at a heel and the older dog out in front, doing everything in order, and are definitely seeing improvements - puppy submissivly licking the older dogs muzzle for example, the older dog is relaxing around the puppy. I'm not too worried about the situation.

How about a poll! I want to make it prefectly clear that growling, snarling, snapping is never, and will never be OK. What do you think is the best way to do this?

 Quote:

I want to make it prefectly clear that growling, snarling, snapping is never, and will never be OK. What do you think is the best way to do this?

Why?

Anne,
What are your plans for the pup? Working in Ring/SCH or something like that? Or is this a pet and not a working dog? Tyhe answer to your question is going to be dependant on what your plans are for this pup. Example: Planniong on working my dog in Sch, so from the time he was a pup he was not corrected for nipping and biting.. Yes my wifer and I bleed a lot but he has such a stong and good temperment that once he got a bit older we were able to teach him easy and now he does not bite so hard that we bleed... LOL
So what are your plans for this pup? That will direct your responses.

Is this a 10 week old puppy?

This is the APBT, right, the one who you don't want to be dog aggressive? And, if I recall correctly, she will be trained in agility and/or service work, but not protection work?

Sorry I didn't resond quickly.

Betty, puppy is about 12 weeks now.

Mike, that is how I am with my dogs. I'm not sure if it is the BEST approach, but it has solved a lot of agression problems in pet dogs.

Connie, yes this the APBT. I was hoping to leave options open for bitework, but right now she doesn't appear to be what I would want to train beyond tug/grip stuff. Hopes for training are agility, flyball, disc, high jump, etc. We start agility class tomorrow.

Jay, I hope I was not to confusing! Pup was crazy aggressive with my other dog, but not at all mouthy, dominant or aggressive with people. She is quite submissive with people and I am working on confidence building in those situations.

Puppy aggression seems to be solved. She's not at all mouthy with people, she just terrified my adult dog. She was very aggressive over food and toys, but structured group feeding has solved that and we're back to crate feeding like usual. I expect this aggression to reappear in a year or so, but for now, it's gone.