# 5 month old shark attacking on walks



## LittleLeoV (Dec 30, 2013)

Hi everyone

This is my first post but I have used this forum for 8 months now, from the moment I knew I was getting my Vizsla pup to now, and it has been and still is the most helpful tool in so many ways so thank you.

Leo is 5 and a half months old and an amazing puppy. Very good on recall, all his commands, door manners, waiting, leave it etc
I'm very consistent with his training and a very proud owner! 

He gets one off lead national park walk every day, he gets the run around of woods, fields, lakes, plays with passing dogs, and it's usually an hour/hour and a half, sometimes two hours if we go to a beach. With this his behaviour is great.

However...

His second walk, which is either in the morning or 6pm ish, his behaviour really upsets me.

I can't help but feel he's playing up because it's not his luxury national park walk... 

The park next to my house is a flat grass square. I take him on a lead walk to the park then let him off and attempt to play fetch with him (I say attempt as he's not a big 'fetch' lover and gets bored with it after a few throws). If I'm with my partner we train Leo by standing far apart and sending him between the two of us teaching recall and 'go'. He loves this. 

It's on this park that he 'attacks' me. This is consistent. Every time we visit this park, which is sometimes the only place I can take him for his other walk after the National Park walk, he at some point charges for me and starts biting. He goes for my legs, thighs, bum, arms, hands, tears at my coat and goes for anywhere he can bite, whilst growling and barking and seeming very mean. I've tried a lot of things: standing still and taking it (he has all his adult teeth now so this is hard), crouching down and waiting til he calms (he almost always continues when I stand up and walk again), giving him a command (sit works but then he continues after treat), putting him on lead and walking (he looks like a wild dog doing this one as he goes for the lead and my hand twisting and growling), putting him on lead and standing on the lead (again calms him til I continue), I've even picked him up and walked off the park but at 16.5kg he's getting a bit heavy for that! 
It's really upsetting and embarrassing as the park is overlooked by houses on all sides, and it's always full of families and other people walking their dogs. To other people it must look like my dog is out of control and viciously attacking me! Which in a way he is!... I understand he's a puppy and I've heard of shark attacks, but if ever he did this to someone else I'm sure they would not be as understanding. 

What am I doing wrong?

How can I help this stop?

Any advice would be really appreciated 
Thanks in advance


----------



## CatK (May 29, 2013)

It is really embarrassing, but it's also really normal and it passes quite quickly (or it did for us anyway). 

Ours used to be great all the way through the forest until the opening where I think he'd get overloaded by the excitement of all the space and attack me and my clothes. We avoided that space until he stopped with the attacks, but it was easy for us because it only happened a few times.

He may be bored in the square of grass, in which case alternating brief training sessions with really exciting play time might help. Take a rope toy and run away from him, then play tug of war and teach him to leave it then when he does start playing with him again. Take a rope with a toy on the end and drag it about, or a ball on a rope to throw and play tug of war with when he brings it back. These are just things that worked for us.

It gets better and better, keep enjoying each other.


----------



## Watson (Sep 17, 2012)

CatK is right... it's normal and it does pass. 

I remember being out at a park with Watson when he was about 5 months old, and a fireman came over from the fire hall next to the park to say hello to us. He had just lost his V a year earlier and wanted to play a bit with Wats. We were talking about V's, and he was mentioning that he had seen me in the neighbourhood quite a bit, tying Watson's leash to a tree or fence or going into our building but leaving him outside using the door as a safety barrier (still holding his leash). 

Ultimately, I was trying to teach him that those attacks would lead to him being leashed up and away from me. It would break his heart every time, but it was the only time out I could give him when we didn't have access to his crate. 

I also wouldn't worry that much about him doing it to anyone else. Watson is a very mouthy dog, sometimes will sit with my fingers resting in his mouth, but he has never put his mouth on anyone other than me or my husband.


----------



## MCD (May 4, 2013)

You are doing the right thing. Dharma used to get out of control that way too. She is now 11 months old and has better control. However that is not to say that I haven't lost two pairs of uniform pants due to being shredded by her teeth while playing or being on walks, had a nasty gash put into my hand that bled for a day and ended up with my reporting my own puppy to the authorities when I had it looked at the doctors. It got to the point where I was scared of her. It does get better and you just sort of have to find the off switch or determine at what point the puppy loses control and you take it back.


----------



## dextersmom (Oct 29, 2013)

Oh, have I been there!

http://www.vizslaforums.com/index.php/topic,14562.msg93866.html#msg93866

Shark attacks are totally normal, at least until the adult teeth come in (by about 6 months). Our continued up until around 8 months, which worried me. Dexter is almost a year and they ended a few months ago. He does still get the zoomies though, which often include some "drive by" nipping.

A spray bottle isn't the perfect solution, but it works. I suggest just squirting (on stream, not spray) them and not threatening them with it. IMO, it's more effective if they DON'T know where it comes from. Otherwise they will just act up when they see you don't have it.

Dexter used to always flip out around our mailbox area. I think a lot of his shark attacks that happened outside were due to being OVER stimulated. Most of the dogs in our complex go on walks to the mailbox and mark there and we assume that's what would trigger him. Occasionally when he was really young he'd freak out after sniffing "hello" to a new dog too. I was never sure if he was mad his visit ended or if he was just super excited from making new friends.



LittleLeoV said:


> It's really upsetting and embarrassing as the park is overlooked by houses on all sides, and it's always full of families and other people walking their dogs. To other people it must look like my dog is out of control and viciously attacking me! Which in a way he is!... I understand he's a puppy and I've heard of shark attacks, but if ever he did this to someone else I'm sure they would not be as understanding.


And yes, as someone on here said, they like an audience  Who don't (of course) understand that it's completely normal for a V puppy. My husband ran into a neighbor we don't see much the other day and he was telling him what a good job he thinks we've done with Dexter. He brought up how crazy he was as a puppy and how well behaved he is now. (I remember one day when this particular neighbor had his entire family on his porch admiring Dexter - when he flipped out and shark attacked me quite spectacularly.) I don't think he knows how much that compliment means to us now!


----------



## emilycn (Jul 30, 2013)

It sounds like your mostly frustrated because he only does it when there's an audience, and you feel like people are judging you and your dog. If that's the case, please forgive my language - there's really no other way to say this - then f*ck 'em. I promise you that people either (a) notice that your pup looks crazy, and then forget about it because they don't care that much, or (b) notice that your pup looks crazy, and try offer some suggestions (which may or may not be helpful), at which point, you can say "thank you---I can't wait for this stage to be over! Viszlas are very well-known to have trouble with self-control until they are about 6 months old" ... (or whatever floats your boat). 

My point is, if people are just giving you weird looks and moving on, then dog behavior is really not on their radar, and they'll forget about you quickly, so you really shouldn't worry about what they think of you and your pup, because *they* certainly are not worrying about you and your pup. If people do approach you for whatever reason, you can use it as an opportunity to educate about the breed, and you might even get some helpful suggestions or an offer to puppy-sit --- alternatively, if the person approaching you is a hard-headed narcissist who only wants to ream you out, they clearly have issues they need to work out on their own and you should pay them no mind.


----------



## LittleLeoV (Dec 30, 2013)

Thank you all so much for you replies! I've been sat here reading them smiling and laughing to myself! (The being reported to authorities one made me laugh a lot, I do worry sometimes!) - I think it's easy to think you're alone with this breed sometimes and you have all reassured me that I'm not  

The rope is a great idea, especially as he's not too into playing fetch, so I will be buying one - along with a water bottle so thanks for those ideas.

I do seem to get frustrated/embarrassed most when others have the 'watchful eye' on me. It gets a little repetitive having to tell every person commenting that it's a 'vizsla thing' and that he really is a good boy, honest! I think I find that hard because he is SO good for a 5 month old in so many ways that when he plays up (always in front of an audience like you all mentioned) I feel I should defend him and tell them how good he is. I just don't want people thinking he's being aggressive, but I guess if I know that he's not and it's a vizsla-puppy thing, then I should be confident in that. And, like you say emilycn, use it as an opportunity to educate about the breed.

Thanks everyone for making me see that there's light at the end of the shark attack tunnel!


----------



## LittleLeoV (Dec 30, 2013)

Update: 

Rope toy worked a treat and he even played fetch with it!

Spray bottle is the best £1 I have ever spent! Used it once when he started a shark attack in the middle of the park and it stopped him in his tracks. He then gave me the shark eyes on the lead walk back to the house and all I had to do was unzip my bag and he knew what was coming and didn't even go into a shark attack! So happy.


----------



## harrigab (Aug 21, 2011)

slightly off topic, at least regarding shark attacks, but do you think that maybe you're exercising him too much at 5 month old?


----------



## LittleLeoV (Dec 30, 2013)

Hi harrigab

His walks are always off lead, always on soft fields. He very very rarely gets any sort of on lead concrete walk, if he does it's quite literally for 5 minutes to get to the soft ground. 

If he wasn't on fields with me he'd be at home bouncing off hard wood floor (a lot worse for his joints IMO) and his training and socialisation would be so affected. I've done lots of research and asked for lots of advice and come to make the conscious decision on what I think works best for him


----------

