5 week old puppy NEED ADVICE!!!

m1chel1na · 12-06-2012, 03:54 PM

Hey all! New on this forum and in desperate need of advice. I found a puppy on the side of the road about a week ago.. abandoned, filthy, starving. Rushed him to the vet and they gave him fluids and i had to bottle feed him for about a week. they estimated him to be only about 3 and a half weeks old. they think he is definitely a pitbull. (pic below, what do you think?) I have obviously fallen in love with him, but i've had a lot of confusion on how to properly discipline him. i do not want him to be scared of me, i just want him to respect me. obviously in a perfect world he would still be with his mom and littermates for at least another 3 weeks. unfortunately thats impossible, so i've been doing a TON of research and have been socializing him as much as possible with people and vaccinated dogs. lately i've noticed that sometimes with bigger dogs during play if they stand over him he all of a sudden freaks out (snarling, growling, biting) this is NOT play. it is aggression. my response to that thus far is to calmly try and pick him up (he DOES try to bite me when he's in one of these fits) and place him in a small quiet room for a few minutes as a "time out." I've had some people tell me i need to grab him by the scruff and very loudly say NO. I feel like doing that would just escalate the behavior.. its obviously fear based and i want to teach him how to play properly with other dogs not be even more scared. I just really need advice on how to discipline him when he's biting people during play, how to properly deal with situations like i've described above, and really ANY and ALL advice on how to properly raise him to be a well-adjusted pitbull canine good citizen

they think he's going to be a very BIG boy, and i'm a very SMALL woman. haha.

Cain's Mom · 12-06-2012, 04:17 PM

Welcome to the forum and happy you found the poor baby!

There's really no way to tell what breed your pup is without his papers(since he was found obviously no papers) and many dogs share the same features. He is more than likely a mix, which there is nothing wrong with. Use the search bar and look up NILIF. And search for biting etc. there are TONS of threads on here and lots of people who will give wonderful advice. He is still young and would be learning that his behavior is unacceptable from the mother. But since moms not there you have to correct the behavior. My dogs-and most others- respond to tone of voice. Your happy voice for when they do good etc and the harsh NO or AT sound(works great for me even though my husband hates it

) Cain used to do what you described with the snarling and "omg I'm a little 10 lb monster so I'm gonna be tough" act. I corrected him with a firm no and holding his scruff to calm him down-since he was in bite everything mode. He's still really young and will need to be taught appropriate behavior. And I personally wouldn't take him around other dogs until he's fully vaccinated.

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**SteelRidgeKennels** · 12-06-2012, 04:23 PM

As far as biting when playing, say EHH (If you say no, it needs to be NO BITE, because just no will be confused if you say it for everything). If he/she continues, stop play. The pup will learn that doing that causes the fun to end!

So6pack · 12-16-2012, 10:02 PM

Good job on rescuing that beautiful baby!!! I have my first Bully girl who is 10 weeks today, and have been following the advice of Cainsmom and PerformanceKennels. You've definitely come to the right place for help.

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**Kingsgurl** · 12-18-2012, 08:00 AM

Thanks for rescuing him! Poor little guy has missed out on a lot of social interactions at very formative stages. Having him play with appropriate females, who seem best able to mimic what he would get from Mom, and other puppies his age (be aware of disease always!) is the best way to set him up for future dog success. Your corrections on him won't have the same effect as appropriate boundary setting by other dogs. You CAN let him know what is unexceptable as far as mouth pressure with you and with people, though again, the road is a bit steeper with a pup who has not learned bite inhibition at all.
For me, all play ends when the pup makes contact. No punishment, it's just a mistake after all, not something the puppy 'knows' better than to do. Pups pick up pretty quickly that the game is over and NO interaction is forthcoming. Oftentimes, people will actually amp puppies up further trying to 'correct' them, by either holding them down or otherwise interacting with them. I simply get up, say oops, and walk off to somewhere the puppy can not access (another room behind a door) or puppy is placed in his crate. Game over. Puppies at this stage are SUPER social, they do NOT want to be left alone, and shouldn't be for long periods. In a couple minutes, you can return. If you stick with it, pups pretty quikly figure out what ends the fun.