Chug Dog

Last week we posted on our 10 week old chug puppy’s nipping habit and decided that we would give the spray bottle method a test. After 4 days of using this method, we are pleased with the results. Our chug has begun licking our hands instead of biting them. At first, we felt bad about spraying him since he looked frightened but he is now behaving appropriatley. When you think about it, it is less cruel to give your chug puppy a quick spray of water than it is to hit him or lock him in his crate. We have also learned that locking your chug puppy in his crate is not a good idea, since it is where he spends a lot of time and you do not want him to associate part of his home with fear, angst or pain.

Update 12/9/09

After about a month, our chug puppy has started biting with less force. He now playfully nips only. However, we are still not satisfied with our chug puppy’s behavior because he is often possessive of his toys and refuses to drop them when asked. We think it is mostly due in part to the fact that we let him play a lot of tug of war games with his friend who is an older minature pinscher.

Possessiveness aside, we still have to stop our chug puppy from biting completely, even if it is not a strong bite.  We searched a lot of articles online and liked this one the best. It has many useful tips such in addition to the ones we found earlier (see above) such as:

• Try and teach your chug puppy to stop biting before it is 4.5 months old.
• First try to control the the force of the chug puppys bite, then try and control the frequency.
• When chug puppies start bite you, even if playful, stop interacting with them completely. If they do it again, place them in a room that does not have anyone to play with.
• Do not make whining sounds when your chug puppy bites you, or he may think it is part of the game.

Last night we tried the putting our chug puppy in the spare bedroom when he bit us. He began to understand why we were doing it after a few times.

Remember since chug puppies are part pug, they will have some stubborness so be consistent and patient.

Updates to come…