# Territorial Biting at 15wks..help?!



## kmcguiggan (Jul 26, 2017)

Hi Everyone,

I love this forum and have learned so much by reading everyone else's thread. I have a 15 week old male vizsla who has been doing great. The first week was difficult because we were crate training and getting no sleep but day by day he has been getting better. Two days ago he was chewing on a bully stick and it was getting to be really small so I went to take it away from him because I was worried he would choke on it and when I went to grab it from him he was very angry and growling loud and it was actually pretty scary because I have never seen him act this way. He eventually dropped it and we were fine. It wasn't until this morning that he found a chunk of tape on the ground and was trying to eat it. My boyfriend went over to him to grab it out of his mouth and he did the angry growl and ended up biting my boyfriend in the hand extremely hard and broke through the palm of his hand. I know he is still a puppy and still learning but it makes me nervous that he is already so territorial of this things. Has anyone else dealt with this and how do you usually handle it? I don't know what I should do to "punish" him because I understand he is still a puppy and still learning but I want to prevent this from happening in the future and potentially biting a stranger.

Thanks everyone!!


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

First its possessive, not territorial.
Territorial is when they guard a whole place. Such as a living room, or yard. 
Possessive it when its a object, or can even be a person.

My response below only pertains to dogs/puppies that do not have temperament problems.

Dogs by nature are opportunistic. So when a opportunity arises to keep something, or not move off the couch. They will try and give a growl, or snap to see it it goes their way. If it works they will surly do it again. If they never get the response they were looking for, they will normally stop the behavior. Some of this is just because it worked with their littermates, and other times its unknowingly brought on by us. 
New puppies get into plenty of things. If we are always grabbing things from their mouths, and never returning them. It can make them want to protect what they find. The new owner is yelling No, and hurrying up to the puppy. The puppy starts to get a little defensive, even before the object if taken. In most cases what a puppy finds does not put them in immediate danger. You can pat, and praise a puppy that has the TV remote in his mouth. Slowly remove it, and give him something better. Sometimes after I pat and praise I return the object, obviously not the TV remote. You can practice this with his toys, and lower value objects. You build trust, and a working relationship, and then move to higher valued things.


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