Trials and Tribulations. version 1.0 (There Will Be More)

When we signed up for this adventure, we knew that there were trade-offs between a puppy and a mature dog. One trade-off is the puppy would require more work and be with me longer while the mature dog would require somewhat less work, but probably not be with me as long.

In fact, getting a six or seven month old puppy seemed like a decent compromise. So, we found Cody.

Today is just the first day of week 2 of Cody's career and he has made huge advances. 

At this point, the sharpest thorn of the day is mouth behavior. Nibbling, chewing, and biting.

Right off, Cody has not bitten anyone with a bite. Cody does like to play and the phase he is in finds him sometimes doing the dominance play that puppies and dogs do in a routine day. I have never seen him act at all aggressive toward any human, but he has acted aggressive to passing dogs and I am specifically working on that in his socialization.

Back to the current habit. Cody likes to nibble at shoes and it doesn't seem to matter if they are occupied. He likes to joust with people when they have their hands, well, handy. He has sharp teeth and sometimes they break my skin, but seldom.

Now as a man in my (very) late 60s, in fact as late as I can be, my skin does the thing that many older folks experience. When a dark shadow crosses my arm, I may get a bruise. I sometimes even think that loud sounds will raise bruises. Cody's nibbles and bites certainly raise bruises. I have a picture of my right forearm below, and you will see that it looks almost like one enormous, continuous bruise. My left arm is pretty much the same.

Keep in mind, that there are tooth marks and they are all 'horizontal' bites not penetrating bites. The bruises are from tooth encounters as well as tugging of the leash or bumps against objects.

I don't want folks to think poor me, or oh, what a horrible dog. This is just a fact of life for raising a pup and is unavoidable to some extent.

So, I tried battling the issue for several days. Since this is day 8, it probably started day 3 or 4.

My first attempt was to do like we often do with tiny puppies and say a hearty "OUCH!" when he would nibble, and tiny guys almost always immediately stop and lick your hand. They soon learn that the urge to bite needs to channel to the desire to lick your hand.

This was not very successful with Cody, at all. The first step I took to address the issue was to wear a leather glove when doing the things I knew were most likely to end up with biting. This helped a great deal, but it is summer and I felt like a bum handling this loving guy with gloves. On to step 2.

The second thing I did was get a little squirt bottle. With just normal water in it, the squirt bottle makes a reliable stream when it is aimed right at the point of juncture. I began with the chewing on my shoes. This seemed to shut down the behavior in about 10 seconds. Then I had to do things like his service vest, collar, and leash. These actions usually get the teeth heavily involved. But when the squirt bottle helped, there was another 10 second training period and then I put on his service dog vest, collar, and leash with no teeth action whatsoever.

Cody does not like the squirt bottle, but now even the visual of it tends to calm him down.

By the way, my hand is actually getting better very nicely. Even pre-Cody I always had bruises, so they only need to partly clear up to be back to normal.

Other things we are working on include crate training, travel, sidewalk safety, and night time.

Just a tease ... Cody has never had a night time accident. Also, except for one bad night we don't understand, Cody has never made a peep at night, he is in his crate quietly until I get up and sometimes I actually have to wake him up!