I'm having some serious concerns about my 9 week old puppy Hayden. He's very possessive over his toys & food. My mom has a 7 year old Yorkie that's 2.5 lbs and today her squeaky ball was next to Hayden and she went to get it and he went to attack her! Thankfully I put my hand between the two of them and I took the bite instead of the Yorkie (he would have really hurt her! He ended up drawing blood and biting me really good). I grabbed him by his scruff and told him "no" and put him in his crate, where he threw a total fit, but I made him stay there by himself for a good half hour. I know Huskies are prey driven, but he doesn't seem like he wants much to do with her when there isn't toys involved ...

As for the food aggression I always walk him before eating and make him sit before I give him his meal. He never eat's it all and will go lay down and as soon as he see's another animal going towards his bowl he will get up and guard it or will start to eat again and will fight if another animal get's close to it. He doesn't do this with me though, he allows me to put my hand in it and pet him etc.

Does anyone have any advise??

Resource guarding is a normal behaviour in a dog, and you have to train them not to. Also the puppy is at an age where he really needs to learn bite inhibition (how to bite without hurting!). If he bites you, then squeal like it really really hurt (you can act up a lot to make the point) and then walk away from him for a while. He will soon learn not to bite so hard. It's really important to teach this to puppies so that they don't accidentally hurt anyone once they become adult dogs.

Ian Dunbar has a good article on bite inhibition here. You might also like to try his approach to resource guarding, here. I don't think I would have the patience to try the bit where he says feed one bit of kibble at a time, but I imagine the puppy's face would be quite a picture!

He is such a cute puppy!! Will you be taking him to any training classes?

I've tried the whole yelping like a puppy loud, but he seems to take it like "oh she's making a new fun noise! let's play and bite more!!!"
if he were biting just me, I could deal with that better, but since he's really putting my mom's Yorkie in danger, it really bother's me, because she is so small and I felt first hand how hard he was going to bite her and it was pretty nasty.

Thanks- he is a little cutie pie! Too bad looks can be deceiving lol
& yes I will be enrolling him into puppy classes when he reaches age
He's very smart, already know's sit & were working on him giving his paw.
You're dog is very beautiful as well!

Look into different puppy classes. If they make sure the puppies and dogs going there have had their shots and keep their place clean, they should allow puppies as young as 8 weeks to start class. I started Elara at 8 weeks and Siku around 11 weeks old.

I didn't read all of this, but it sounds like good advice. http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/guide/biting-puppy-how-train-puppy-bites

Hayden_69 wrote:

I grabbed him by his scruff and told him "no" and put him in his crate, where he threw a total fit, but I made him stay there by himself for a good half hour.

You should avoid giving this kind of punishment as it is not only physically harmful, but could cause other issues to occur. Grabbing a dog by the scruff can cause serious neck injury and also make a dog uncomfortable with their neck or collar being touched. If it is the same one you use when you go out or at night, putting him in his crate as punishment will cause him to dislike his crate and bring emotional issues later on.


He is only 9wks, and still has a lot to learn. Teaching him bite inhibition through games and by letting him play with other puppies of similar age will definitely help reduce the chance of serious injury should he bite. Working on 'leave it', the trade game, and researching methods on resource guarding (as linked above) can help reduce the chances of him biting to begin with.

Check out this thread on Puppy Biting.

The key is when you ignore him, you need to physically separate yourself from him for a while. Turning your back won't always work. You need to shut a door behind you, or physically separate yourself from him in some way that he truly understands.

Guarding is normal, but it should be trained out of any dog. I know there's another thread on that somewhere around here, but basically, you want to sit him down with your other dog. It helps if they are both leashed. Give them each a toy or a treat (or food even) and let them have it for a few seconds. Then switch. Make sure you try and give Hayden a BETTER toy/treat everytime you switch. This is teaching him to share. You want him to know that when you/another dog take something away from him, he's going to get something better in return. Continue this for 10 mins a few times a day. You should start to see results in a few days.

Do you walk the two dogs together? Puppies shouldn't be walked for long, but if you can leash him and walk him and your Yorkie together in the yard for a few minutes a day, this will help them bond as well.

Also- Beth (CaliKisses) is right. Be careful with that type of discipline, especially with a young puppy. Responding with force can actually escalate the issue and make Hayden's problem worse. At best, I would correct with a firm "No," leash him, and put him in the bathroom or a bedroom for a "time out" for a few minutes. NEVER use the crate as punishment. You will reverse any crate training that you've done with him.

Good luck!

Thanks everyone, I'll be sure to do some more research. I'm going to try and contact some trainers tomorrow to see if they can help me out.

As far as grabbing him by his scruff, I didn't pick him up by it or anything like that, I just grabbed it to pull him off my hand and told him "no" after he bit me, then I picked him up and put him in his crate calmly.

I know he's still just a puppy and has a lot a learning ahead of him, it just worries me with the thought he could possibly hurt my moms dog with displaying the kind of aggression he was showing.

I'll make sure to check out those thread's that were mentioned and hopefully we'll make progress quickly.

So, I just had a horrifying thing happen! Hayden is now 4 month's old and was outside in the back yard with my sister. My sister had a 3 year old little girl with her and when the little girl was walking up to the house to come inside Hayden started viciously growling, jumping, and even tried biting the little girl! He didn't bite her, but did scratch her arm and scared her half to death, but she is fine. It freaked me out so bad, because he has never displayed that sort of behavior with me or anyone in my family. He doesn't do this inside the home to the little girl, only outside. I'm not allowing Hayden to be outside anymore with kid's, but I just wanted to know if anyone had any tips on what to do? Also, Hayden is still very possessive over food w/my other dogs! Last night my mom was giving Hayden a treat and her little Yorkie came over to get one too and Hayden aggressively chased her off and she ran to me where he stopped, but I'm scared he would have hurt her. I took him to puppy class, which didn't address these issues and also hired a private trainer, which was a total waste of $500. So I'm seeking out to anyone here who has any advise?? I'm looking into other private trainers too. Should I speak to a behaviorist?

could you elaborate a little bit about the situation outside? were the 2 outside? playing together?

My sister was playing with the little girl and Hayden was doing his own thing. My sister was bringing the little girl inside (Hayden followed) and the little girl went a little ahead of my sister and that's when Hayden started acting aggressive. I heard my mom screaming at him and I ran outside and grabbed him while my sister grabbed the little girl. It freaked her out so bad!

I just got off the phone with a behaviorist and we have an appointment Friday evening.

Has Hayden met and/or played with this little girl before? Or were they introduced today?

Sorry for asking so many questions, just trying to get as much detail as possible. Sometimes little things that we don't even notice can trigger interesting reactions in animals

The little girl has been around him since the day we got him, which is why I don't understand this. If it was someone knew, I could cut him some slack and perhaps understand, but this is someone he has known since 7 weeks old.

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/topdogrules.htm

Check out #5 (even though the whole read is pretty interesting. I use these training tips, and Keeonah is extremely mild mannered. I'm not sure how much of it is her temperament, or that these rules have been in cement since i got her. The one i notice the most is if we make eye contact, I wills tare at her until she looks away. Pretty crazy thing when it lasts for like 20 seconds!)

The only thing I can think of in this situation is that your Hayden believes that he has dominance over the little girl (which isn't impossible), he might have been a little peeved that she tried to use the door first when it was time to go inside.

Never underestimate how closely related these northern breeds are to wolves. If you really look for it 80% of their behavior is similar!

In any case, the behavior is unwanted, and needs to be dealt with. Positive training and NILIF work wonders for every day training and behavior shaping, but in a situation like this, a little more discipline may be necessary. If Hayden learns that picking on something smaller than him results in something bigger than him returning the favor, it may curb the behavior.