We got a new puppy, and got him when he was 6 1/2 weeks old. He is a border collie/lab cross. We live near his mother and siblings and sees them on a frequent basis. The first week was great, he was very curious and loving. But after the first week, we started finding him nipping us. We chalked it up to him teething, and when he would bite us we would tell him a firm NO and then give him a chew toy and praise him for chewing that. But it is becoming quite an issue. When Cosmo gets playful, he nips us, and when we tell him NO, or stop him, he gets VERY angry with us and basically attacks us! We have tried it all... time outs, hold the scruff of the neck, yelp as if he has hurt us, tap his nose, growl at him, pin him on his back in a submissive possition, holding him away from our bodies etc... nothing works. If anything, it just aggrivates him more, and he bites us harder! We do not want to use crate or outside as a punishment. Now the older dog (Kaskae, a husky cross)in the house is very docile, and puts up with the puppy mauling him. He will growl and growl to no avail, and when he gets really annoyed, he will mouth the puppy very lightly, but won't bite or nip him. I think that since there are no reprocussions, the puppy thinks that acting like this is playing and is ok. How do we stop this?!?!?
The other concern is that my sister has brought her dog, a german sheppard named Wolf into the house. We have him just for the weekend to see how him and the puppy get along. (Kaskae and Wolf get along great, and though I have never seen a scuffle between them, Kaskae appears to be the dominant dog) When he and the puppy met, Wolf was slightly nervous of the puppy. Cosmo was jumping on him and licking his muzzle. Wolf would growl to let him know that he didn't like it, when the puppy continued to do it, Wolf gave him a little nip, and the puppy submitted, rolled on his tummy. Wolf then proceeded to sniff at the puppy, but got annoyed as the puppy was excited and was kicking his nose. He gave off the impression that he was playing with the puppy, was lying down, nosing him, but then proceeded to bite the puppy on the scruff of the neck. It was a bite, not a super hard bite, but was much more than a nip. I was standing with them monitoring and grabbed Wolf by the scruff of the neck right away and yelled NO. He released the puppy, who continued screaming and ran to my roomate to be cuddled. I don't think the puppy was so much injured as scared and ego hurt, but we kept them seperate for a bit, an then decided to introduce them again, but with my roomate holding the puppy, and allowing Wolf to sniff only Cosmo's paw. This started ok, Wolf gingerly sniffed Cosmo's paw, but then proceeded to sneak a nip on his paw in! I told Wolf NO, and made him lie down, and have kept them seperate since. But once Wolf was allowed to get up, he walked into the living room and in the middle of the room, lifted his leg, and peed on the floor!!! We were shocked as Wolf NEVER goes in the house! What is going on? What do we do? We would like these two to get along as my sister want's Wolf to move in with us, and I think it good that the puppy is learning to respect another dog when it growls at him and listen to them when they tell him to back off, but I also don't want Wolf to hurt the puppy.

You have a lot going on in a long message (except for paragraphs, which would probably have produced a lot more responses..... just a suggestion for next time ).

You saw an adult outsider dog bite your puppy and you still let them interact? Am I following that? I'd keep him away.

Here's a beginning suggestion for your first point, about your puppy's nipping/biting; maybe others will take on some of the remaining points.

http://leerburg.com/pdf/Training%20Puppies%20Not%20to%20Bite.pdf
is a starting point.

I would start right now, today, with reading Ed Frawley's articles and listening to his podcasts (on Leerburg.com), and I would order video #302. And I would not allow any other dogs to bite my puppy.

As far as Wolf goes, you are not training him, I guess, right? He belongs to your sister? Or are you asking about his training too?

All JMO. Hard post to break down and answer.

P.S.

QUOTE: We do not want to use crate or outside as a punishment. END

Absolutely correct!

Firstly, I would seperate your puppy from adult dogs for quite a while. Let the pup bond to you not the adult dogs.**

Puppies biting is normal, but follow the link that Connie posted..

As for dogs outside of the family... "guest dogs", they have no need to interact with your dogs, this whole "my dog needs to play with other peoples dogs" stuff is thinking that will get peoples dogs in trouble or hurt. 1 bad experience for a puppy will make them dog aggressive for life.

Puppies are annoying, they will bug an adult dog till no end, just seperate them. My "pup" is 15 months old now n still bugs the crap outta my 3 year old GSD, its just the way dogs are, at a certain point once they establish pack rank they will tollerate eachother... or maybe never at all. But that doesn't happen with a young pup.

Also, not sure what others peoples views are but I would stop letting the pup socialize with his littermates and mother. Pups need to seperate from the litter and bond with the owner first, otherwise you run the risk of trainability and human interaction problems when the pup is too dependant on the other dogs he grew up with the first 6 weeks of his life.

Let the puppy only be with you and his new human family. Follow Ed Frawleys advice on teaching a puppy not to bite and don't worry about the adult dogs for now, especially dogs from outside of the family.

As for the puppy getting angry with the other dogs, have you ever watched a litter of puppies playing and establishing rank over eachother? At least a litter of strong willed dogs, they will roll eachother and pin eachother down, n growl at eachother and get all kindsa pissed off n nasty. Your pup is now away from his litter and simply needs to learn the correct way of interacting with his human family. When the pup is older that stuff all goes away, right now they are at, what I call, "the mindless puppy stage". They don't think about what they do they just do it. There's no malice, just genetic instinct.

**Edit: By quite a while, I mean 6-8 months if not more if neccesary. With occasional limited supervised together time to let them get used to eachother without crate bars between them. The older dog needs to learn and accept that the pup is there to stay.

 Quote: mike j schoonbrood

...As for the puppy getting angry with the other dogs, have you ever watched a litter of puppies playing and establishing rank over eachother? At least a litter of strong willed dogs, they will roll eachother and pin eachother down, n growl at eachother and get all kindsa pissed off n nasty. Your pup is now away from his litter and simply needs to learn the correct way of interacting with his human family. When the pup is older that stuff all goes away, right now they are at, what I call, "the mindless puppy stage". They don't think about what they do they just do it. There's no malice, just genetic instinct....

Ditto to what Mike said, especially the above. You absolutely need to NOT think your 9 week old puppy is being aggressive with you or the adult dogs because it will affect the way you deal with him and think about him. He is simply playing, no matter what it looks like to you. In his, as Mike puts it, "mindless puppy stage" (PERFECT explanation), he really isn't thinking, it's all reaction, puppy reaction. And you're getting a glimpse of who he is. A wonderful thing really, if you choose to look at it that way.

Thanks for your replies everyone...
Connie, I guess I didn't explain quite fully, Wolf was lives with us part time, he is with us about 2 weeks a month, and was in the house prior to the puppy coming, so no, he isn't an "outside dog". We are looking to keep Wolf in the house full time though, so we need these 2 dogs to get along. No, I am not training Wolf, he is actually a very well trained (also agility trained) dog who we usually have absolutely no issues with. What I am wondering about him is "what is going on?" This is not usual behaviour from him.

Mike, how can I keep the puppy away from other dogs when they live in the same house? I agree that the puppy shouldn't be seeing his siblings and mother for right now, and have voiced that to my roomate (his owner), but we cannot keep him seperate from the other dogs for a long period of time as we all live together! Since the first meetings, we have been keeping Wolf outside, or in the puppies cage, and he is going back home today, but will be back all next week...

I saw you didn't want to use a crate for punishment. You can still use a crate for separation but it must not be used for punishment. Crates are a great tool to help keep the older dog from being annoyed and keeps pup outta trouble.

 Quote: monika gokstorp

No, I am not training Wolf, he is actually a very well trained (also agility trained) dog who we usually have absolutely no issues with. What I am wondering about him is "what is going on?" This is not usual behaviour from him.

Umm.. I believe experts do understand this behavior very clear. Ok, I am going to explain you in a simple way. Wolf had to pee inside to ensure that he is a leader. It means he owns the house and makes the rule. Since NO ONE seems to step up on their place to make rules for the puppy, I guess you guys have been treating it like a baby. The urnine that he left there, is for the puppy to smell and tell who is the leader. He does this to mark his terrority and he is telling the puppy that he owns the house. Maybe you thought it was a great idea, actually no.

You probably yelled at him for peed inside, but dogs do not respect people are shouting, yelling, and being so tense. They only respect a calm, firm, and strong leader.

Oh boy, you don't want that because it means Wolf does not have to respect the puppy. If he wants to kill the puppy, he will. No one will stop him because Wolf knows there is no leadership in your house. He will respect a person who has a firm authority, not a weak person who likes to give too much love.

 Quote: monika gokstorp

Mike, how can I keep the puppy away from other dogs when they live in the same house? ...

I would like to see what Mike has to say, but I will share my opinion. You probably have to do the "groundwork" with both. You should crate Wolf and let the puppy out on the leash with you as long as it takes. Whenever it is time for the puppy to go back to crate, you let Wolf out. You keep Wolf on the leash too. This will teach both dogs to respect you and recognize you as leader.