I need help, my 7 week old puppy is snarling

[yacob841]

Hey, I got my puppy pretty young at 6 weeks old, his name is Steel. The first week everything was fine, he was happy, playful, sometimes he would bite pretty hard but he is teething so that seems normal. The only time he ever growled was when I would be putting food that he dropped on the ground back in the bowl but after some food aggression suggestions he stopped doing that. There are other dogs in the house but I have kept him in my room majority of the time except for in a controlled setting to make sure the other dogs aren't overly aggressive with him. I have now had him for a week and on Saturday I went to my parents house for Easter and there was a total of 7 dogs there, however all but 1 were too afraid of him to play so he only played with one dog whose name is Bo. Bo is a 3 year old labradoodle and he was playing pretty calmly with Steel, instead of biting to pin him down he would just use his chin to pin him and then let him back up. He would even stand still to allow Steel to get an advantage on his back before he would start playing, however after playing with him my sisters boyfriend picked him up and played with him semi aggressively. I didn't see this part but other people did and it was kind of like pushing him from side to side, something I have seen many people do with their dogs however Steel went from a growl which could have been a playful growl to a full on snarl. Eyebrows raised, lips raised, tone of growl got a lot higher (almost like the sound a cat makes hissing), started turning his head a lot more suddenly, etc. After setting him down he seemed to be completely normal, however ever since then he snarls pretty often, I'd say probably 3-4 times during the rest of Saturday and 5-6 times on Sunday. Generally if I pick him up, take him away from the scene (outside) and just hold him he will calm down. I thought it might just be because it's a new place, there are a bunch of dogs, he normally sleeps a lot but since there was so much going on he had barely slept etc. I let him sleep a lot during Sunday and whenever he played with the dogs it's fine but once he get's picked up after playing with the dogs he did it again. I went back to my house Sunday night, played with him normally, no issues, went to bed, no issues, played with him for 4 hours this morning with no issues, took him downstairs where he played with Bo again, after awhile I took him back upstairs, played with him for a bit, then picked him up and he snarled at me and bit me really hard (first time he snarled at me, generally it's at someone else then once I take him he might snarl but once I face him towards me he stops). I told him no and he cooled down after 1-2 seconds and then as I started moving to set him back down he snarled again, repeated the no, he calmed down, then I set him down and he went back to playing with me. From what I can tell it's a combination of playing with the dog and then being picked up. However like today I had already picked him up, taken him upstairs and then he didn't snarl until a few minutes later when I picked him up again. Any ideas? Is this something just more socializing with dogs will solve because he won't be so on edge?

 

To answer some of the standard questions,

How do I discipline?: I general do a "No", "Bad", "ah ah" or "Chh" to get him to stop and then once he stops I normally pet him and tell him "Good boy"

Does anyone take away his toys?: No, no one takes away his toys, I do play tug of war with him, most of the time he doesn't growl, sometimes he will do a playful growl but that is it, there has yet to be an instance of tug of war to start the snarling.

Is he ever outside alone: No, he is never alone anywhere, I always have someone watching him.

 

Something else I was possibly thinking is that I might be making him too independent. I wanted a couch dog but first wanted to crate train him. But a combination of me not knowing the difference between a howl to get out and a howl to go to the bathroom and him falling in love with his crate super quickly that I normally just leave his crate open, then during the night if he can't sleep he'll play with his toys, if he needs to go to the bathroom, he goes on the mat (I'm afraid to train him outside until he has had all of his parvo shots), if he needs water he has it, etc. The only time he will wake me up is when he wants to get on the bed to sleep, which he has done at least once every night so far except last night. Last night he didn't wake me up to sleep on my bed. We also normally take a nap mid morning but when I put him on his spot in my bed he just got up, got off the bed, walked to his crate, and laid down in there. This is good in regard to crate training but I feel like I might be turning him into a lone wolf kind of scenario. There is also a possibility with being independent with his food. I’ve heard from some people I should be feeding him straight from my hand but I generally just touch his food as I'm preparing (to get my scent on it), set it down, have him wait, and as soon as he calms down I let him eat, but again there seems to be no food aggression...

[Rachael_Astro]

Hi 6 weeks is pretty young for a pup to be taken away from their mum. They should be with their mum and litter until at least 8 weeks otherwise you get issues such as this. His mum probably would have given him a good telling off if he started snarling! They are still learning from their mum up to 8 weeks.

Anyway it seems like from what you've said that he's snarling when you pick him up? He probably isn't used to being picked up so much. Are you just picking him up to take him up and down stairs? I would refrain from doing it unless necessary

The 'ah ah' works for me and clicking fingers at the same time, but make sure you keep praising the good behaviour like you're doing


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[yacob841]

Thanks for your advice! I've been picking him up fine for the past week with no issues, I think it's being picked up during his play. So either he's playing with the dog and then he get's picked up or he's playing with a person and then get's picked up. Right now he is too small to go up the stairs so I have to pick him up to bring him up but he doesn't have any issues with that, just after he get's riled up from playing (from what I can tell)

[BingBlaze n Skyla]

He's probably worked out your picking him up is stopping him from doing what he wants to do , get a long training line instead so u can lead him away (it's usually a long lead without a handle so it doesn't get caught on anything) my boy who's now 8 hates being 'grabbed' specially if it's from behind it almost feels like a sneak attack to them as they're not expecting it so react as if they're being attacked

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