# 7 MONTH PUPPY - BITING AND AGGRESSION



## APERRY

We have a 7 month old puppy who almost like clock work every single day around 8:30 PM turns into a absolutely horrible creature who claws, bites, and jumps on whoever is near her. I am usually her preferred victim and am fearful that one day she will bite through my hand. Trying to calm her down hardly works, and we usually rush her outside for 10-20 min and then crate her for the rest of the night. Anyone else experiencing this? Any help on what we can do?


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## mswhipple

Greetings, APERRY, and welcome!! 

When you first come to the Hungarian Vizsla Forums home page, look about half-way down your screen on the right-hand side, and you will see a "search" box. Type into the search box "puppy biting" or "shark attacks". You will be directed to numerous discussion threads on this very subject. 

Rest assured that what you are experiencing is perfectly normal behaviour. There are some things you can do to minimize the damage, In addition, you should know that even if you do nothing at all (except survive), this behaviour subsides over time.


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## dextersmom

Yes, it's normal (although certainly undesirable!). Our guy did it up until about 9 months. She might actually be overtired. Try settling her with a bully stick or having her do a long down stay a little before the time when she would usually turn into a monster. Or maybe just crate her earlier. Our dog even now gets ridiculously cranky (altho no longer mouthy) when he's overtired and he's almost 2 years old. Our signal to him if he's really being bad is to clip a light leash to his collar (since we used to make him do long down stays when he got like that) and that tells him it's time to give it up and lay down. Or my husband will just hug/restrain him on the couch (which he actually loves) and he's asleep in seconds. He just has a hard time winding down on his own.


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## mommaofalot

oh I do not miss the shark attacks... although they will be in my near future!!!


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## miru

Hello

I totally agree with what was said before.Leo was seven month old during our Christmas holiday and he was a little monster especially during evenings:so excited and mouthy and unpredictable.We were all having bruises and the snow made him crazy!!

The good news is that he changed in a sweet creature at around nine month.He will be one year old in three days and he is nice and calm(if he has his two hours off leash run/walk a day)
So...there is hope!!!

Good luck and lots of patience

Miru


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## Zoton

It will stop, with Anwen a lot of the time as a young puppy at night the sharkies were worse the more tired she was,just like a little human you have to (Try) manage the sleep pattern.Not sure about going out to stop the sharkies as it might be re in forcing the act.Might be worth some mind exercise at 20:00hrs before they start. we used to do hide and seek.


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## chilithevizsla

I just wrote this on another thread. You're not alone and you can work through this 

Shark attacks are a common problem in this breed because of their high energy but they are not an acceptable thing that we should just ride through. It's actually a behavioral issue with over stimulation and can lead to a lot of problems in the future.
We need to teach our dogs from pups to stay under threshold and this includes stopping shark attacks before they happen.

Most people can pinpoint an exact time in the day they happen and this makes the behavior easier to stop. When you know it's about to happen you need to do a lot of stationary mental games with them. Train your sits, stays, downs, sniff the carpet for treats, anything like that which tires the pup but doesn't excite them. Even a stuffed kong will help. They'll eventually fall asleep without any biting.

Don't teach that kind of settling behavior now and you'll get a dog that finds it hard to settle as an adult and that can be a real pain in a family setting when you want to sit down in the evening or after a walk. Settling is a behavior that needs to be taught.

The best advice I can give is teach calm behaviors everywhere! Outside on a walk, sit on a bench and slowly feed your dogs treats while he sits next to you watching the world, it's tiring and teaches them to acknowledge stimuli without getting over excited about it. I can walk my dog for 3 hours and he'll come home ready for more. I walk for an hour and then do mental work with him, nothing amazing just watching things or laying down for a while and he'll come home and crash. Mental exercise is the best tool for your dog and it's great because there's no restriction on it while a puppy unlike physical exercise! It sets great ground work for counter conditioning if you ever come across a problem in the future and if you ever want to stop for a pint after work then you'll find it a lot easier with a dog that knows how to stop while being stimulated by all the other pup goers!


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## killmodell

Our Ginger is 9 months now and we see this behavior a lot -- we call it the witching hour -- and it is when she is TIRED and trying anything to stay awake. The more we experience Vizsla life the more we are amazed at how much like little kids they are...

We do have the luxury of a fenced back yard with room to zoomie when necessary... we also will pick her up and hold her until she goes limp (which is generally 3 to 5 seconds) and then release her and she seems much calmer... Then, pretty quickly, to bed she goes...


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## K.Olsen

Our Nova is almost 5 months and she does this too - especially if she did not get enough exercise that day. Our puppy class trainer told us that dusk will be her most active time because this is the time of day that dogs in the wild hunt. She certainly gets a burst of energy around 6-7:00 each night. If she is nipping toes we usually try to distract her with one of her toys. The key for us to is give her enough physical and mental stimulation throughout the day so that she's not as excitable come the evening. Good luck!


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