# 10 Week pup... aggressive or just hyper?



## Drewr729 (Dec 30, 2012)

Hello everyone. I am dealing with a 10 week pup that gets mouthy and sometimes bites when she gets hyper. We have two young boys (1 and 5 yrs old) and she seems to go after them or my wife. Is this going to turn into her getting more aggressive? It seems to happen when she hasn't exercised, but the problem is it is cold where I am located, and she refuses to take long walks in the frigid temperatures. Any advice? Is she going to chill out one day?


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## AcadianTornado (Jul 30, 2012)

Welcome to the wonderful world of vizsla puppyhood! It's going to take a few weeks for her to slow down on the biting and mouthing. Calm patience and positive re-inforcement to ease her through is the way to go! The hyperness is there to stay for a long time! I've noticed my pup starting to "slow" down a bit around 6 months ie: will follow our commands alot more. Imagine you're dealing with a baby for the next 6 months, that's basically where you're at! Patience and setting a nice routine will enable you to harvest a great pup! There's no sign of aggressiveness here, it's normality for the breed! As for the cold, depends on how cold it is right now... You might want to stimulate her mind with learning basic commands to tire her out...


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## Rummy (Dec 22, 2012)

I'll get straight to the point. 
1. It's perfectly normal.
2. It is absolutely not an indicator of an aggressive temperament.

Have a look on the forum and you'll find lots of new V owners asking exactly the same question. You should only have another couple of weeks of it.

Our V tended to use it as a way of getting attention or if she was over excited. Encouraging her to calm down and sleep on a lap sometimes worked. Puppy 'no bite' spray on clothes helped a bit too. But essentially you just have to wait for them to grow out of it. Our V seemed to stop overnight so don't worry that it's not settling down yet.

Our V is almost 6 months now and is growing into the softest dog I know. 

Good luck.


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## nika01 (Nov 27, 2012)

Our 4 month old V is the same way, and I agree with most everything that was said with the exception of the "couple more weeks" comment. Serious teething is just starting for us, which introduces stress to the pup. In the last two weeks, he has started to calm a bit, and when he does get nippy, making him sit will sometimes break the chain of bad behavior. If that doesnt work, he goes on a leash, if that doesnt work, he goes in his crate. Then we let him out after a bit, and he generally gets the messge. We have the same issues with cold weather, and the only solution is constant vigilance. It is a good thing for him that he is a sweet, good natured dog.


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## lilyloo (Jun 20, 2012)

Completely agree. It's normal and definitely shouldn't be labeled as aggressive behavior. 

We tried everything with Ruby when she was going through her shark weeks. Time outs, yelping, turning our backs and ignoring, etc. We even coated our hands and pants with bitter spray. Nothing worked until one daywhen I tried squirting her with a spray bottle. This coupled with "no biting!" Worked almost instantly. 

Also, make sure your pup has plenty of things she's allowed to chew on. They are teething and need to chew.


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## born36 (Jun 28, 2011)

Your whole family needs to have a chat.

This is completely normal and the worse thing you could do to the pup is to punish them for this. Your pup is not aggressive but being to hard on the pup now could result in just that happening. 

The chat needs to consist of a common way of dealing with the pup when it is being mouthy. What worked best for us was I would put them in hall and shut the door for a minute per month in age. This let's them know that if they are going to act up then they get no attention. 
Come up with a common approach but most of all u need to train the 5 year old how to be calm around the puppy. I know that won't be easy but you really are going to need to train kids and dog at the same time. 

You have a long road ahead. We did lots of research before we got our pup and we still were over taken by the amount of time and patience required. I wish you luck and please show patience and don't assume you have a bad or aggressive pup. You have a high powered high energy dog.


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## dmak (Jul 25, 2012)

The hyperness will never leave. My guy @ 2 1/2 is still pretty manic at times, though he knows when to chill. V's are known to be pretty mouthy for up to a year; its the bird dog in them. Your pup needs ALOT of exercise and mental stimulation on a regular basis. I would suggest a coat for the pup if she's having troubles with the cold. Also, if you can't get outside, you should start mentally stimulating games and trick training. Give her something to do, a job so to speak. These are all day working dogs and as such need all day jobs and chores. Teach her tricks, play hide and seek, hide alot of treats around the house and have her sniff them out, tug of war and wrestling. I use a pair of welding gloves when I wrestle with my pup, as his teeth are sharp and bite can be strong. When the pup gets mouthy, grab a stuffed toy and direct the mouthiness towards that. It will get better but it takes time, energy, patience and love. Your pup doesn't sound agressive at all; she sounds and is acting like a normal, happy V puppy. Good luck to you


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## Drewr729 (Dec 30, 2012)

Wow, all I can say is thank you to everyone! I appreciate your feedback! So, we do have a huge selection of toys that we put in her mouth when she gets mouthy (she's kinda spoiled ). As far as mental stimulation... We have training sessions at least 3 times a day. Instead of just dropping her food in a bowl, we make her work for the food through learning commands, etc. 

I am going to meet with the fam and devise a plan for when she snaps into crazy mode . I tried getting her a jacket for her walks, and she hated it, so if anyone has any advice on getting them used to jackets... I'm all ears.

Thanks again for all the help!!!


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## luv2laugh (Oct 6, 2011)

Drew - it sounds like you are doing a lot of great things already! Other ways to tire out a pup at that age may involve swimming in the bathtub, playing monkey in the middle with one of her toys, playing simple nose work games and trying to find a pup her age to come over and play (great for socialization too!). 

A lot of pups don't get to go out for walks even until 16 weeks. Where we live there are a lot of dogs and a lot of germs. I remember having to be quite creative getting his exercise out. Our local Petco hosted a "puppy playtime" for puppies who had at least 2 sets of their shots. There is a trainer who supervises it and there was normally 4-8 other puppies. We went three times a week and it was a good experience for him. We actually started at 10 weeks.


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## maplevizsla (Oct 26, 2012)

Totally normal.

Try letting out a high pitch "Ouch" that usually snaps their attention from being mouthy. Or simply get up and walk away from her into another room. She will soon learn that mouthing/biting does not get her anything favourable.

16 weeks? Eeek - that leaves room for a very unsocialized dog! I've had all my dogs out and about around other dogs and downtown and around the block right from 8 weeks - the chances of catching anything are pretty slim.


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## datacan (May 15, 2011)

Stay calm and relax. 
Redirect and don't give in... at this point is about getting used to you and your touch. Touch the puppy often, handle the puppy as much as you like. 

It must get used to being handled. If you cannot take the little sharp teeth, put on cheap, soft pigskin work gloves from Home Depot. 
Don't let the dog chew on the gloves, instead, treat them like your skin and yelp like it's litter-mates - this will teach him bite inhibition and as an added bonus the dog may learn not to chew on natural leather (we have leather car seats, leather sofa, dog does not chew on at all). 
\ 
Give the dog some room and observe it's tendencies, see how comical she is? Observing it's tendencies will allow you to formulate a clearer action plan. 
Dogs are creatures of habit but some things come hard wired... you should be familiar with how your dog acts naturally... then you can train taking it's natural instincts into account.
DO NOT allow her to play with more than one toy at a time... All toys belong to you and must be put away at the end of the play session.. practice taking stuff away from her early on. Do not let her posses anything.

Rather than react to everything it does, look at the bigger picture around you... Take the dog outside and notice color of the sky, the grass (or snow) and then focus on the puppy and smile.

The Learning curve is quite steep but if you survive the first six months... you'll smile at new owners... Stick around and share your experiences 

/


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## Mizsla (Nov 24, 2012)

Hello All,

New to the forums and peeking in on this conversation because I too have been asking myself this question...aggressive or hyper?

In all honesty, I know the poor pooch, not being able to get outside just yet due to his vaccination schedule (3 more days to go woohoo!) just has a lot of energy to expend, and that's tough to do indoors all the time.

Just to share a bit of perspective, I completely empathise with your wife and kids. I am finding our little guy is far more "aggressive" with me than my fiancee. He nips at us both, but somehow with me he goes a bit harder, and seems to use his jaws more in his bites - I've got quite a growing collection of bite marks to show for it - they're small, but he's dug into my flesh pretty well - not fun.

I'm a bit stumped as to why this is. Maybe because my fiancee is more consistent with yelping when bitten. Or maybe because, admittedly, being smaller that my fiancee I do find a dog jumping at me teeth-first (even though he's just a 10 week old munchkin) a bit more intimidating - I do find myself flinching when he comes at me during his sharky moments - maybe he senses my fear and goes harder at me because of this?

I really can't figure it out - glad for any thoughts from all you Vizsla veterans.

In any case, what I find seems to work when he does do this for whatever reason is to stop any playing and stop paying attention to him, tell him sternly no biting, and if he's really persistent, I get up and leave the room...and force my fiancee to come with me! He quickly realizes its no fun being alone, and snaps back into good behaviour when we return to the room - this doesn't always happen on the first try though, sometimes we go in and out of the room over and over until he gets that jumping + biting = humans exiting room/no more playtime.

Glad to read the other tips and suggestions from this thread, and happy for any more.

Also, really glad to read that this is normal Vizsla stuff!! Reassuring for a Vizsla newbie like myself. Thanks all!


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## Ozkar (Jul 4, 2011)

*Re: Re: 10 Week pup... aggressive or just hyper?*



Mizsla said:


> Hello All,
> 
> New to the forums and peeking in on this conversation because I too have been asking myself this question...aggressive or hyper?
> 
> ...


You have answered your own question. . But if you missed it, it the different way you and your partner are dealing with it. He shows no fear, you do. At the moment pup thinks it goes your partner, pup then you.......... It needs to be you, partner then pup.

Try taking control of all things pup. Feeding, walking, training, toilet, play, treats. Pup will catch on. 

Never let them see the fear in your eyes. Remember you are a 45kg+ , 5' tall hooman. Pup is a 10kg munchkin.


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## lyra (Nov 2, 2012)

I hope he isn't 10kg at 10 weeks Ozkar or there would be quite a lot of fear in my eyes too!


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## Big Rick (Apr 14, 2009)

A two word phrase that was used REPEATEDLY when ours were puppies was "No Bites!!!". They eventually either listened or grew out of it. Perfectly normal behavior for a Type A pup!


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