Puppy biting and lunging

hi there i have a labby/husky 7month old male fixed puppy we rescued from a rescue center,hes excellent for his toliet training and sleeping,sit,etc but he sometimes ignores me when i ask him to come,chews socks and runs away when your trying to get them off him hes also biting me badily and growling and lunging,he gets regular excercise and is much loved,here,please can someone give me some pointers to try,as ive tried what i can..getting a muzzle,for the biting,he hates it and when i try to put it on him he growls ans shows his teeth,quite frightening,although when he bites i say NO NO biting,and sometimes hit his nose...sometimes im ignored,im now trying a diff method of controlin him by joining the leash to myself around my middle to show him im the top dog and hes fightin that too ..help please i dont want to have an anti social dog...ive brought up puppies before and never ever had this problem..

Could well be unstimulated over excited adolescent whom needs ar controlled exercising and obedience training. have you tried classes
and what sort of and how much exercise does he get? the hard mouthing probably isn't aggression but the snarling at the muzzle probably is as you sound, like you are trying to force him and he probably doesn't like the nose tapping. Have you spoken to the rescue? It's not about being topp dog by the way

Huskies are known for having bad recall that's why many owners don't let t hem off and Run them on a long line instead

To be fair, I'd bite if I thought you might hit me on the nose. And I'm not sure how tying a leash around you will convince him you're top dog

What sort of situations is he biting you, growling and lunging in? What's going on at the time? As for the muzzle, it has to be introduced slowly, carefully and made into a good thing. If you just put it on the dog then chances are the dog is going to hate it. Nor will it change the fact that he feels the need to act that way.

My Lab is terrible for picking up things he shouldn't have and running off with them to try to initiate a game of chase. However he's getting much, much better with it. He'll still grab things he shouldn't have but he brings them to me when asked in exchange for a treat now.

Please buy or borrow a decent dog training book and follow it.
Jean Donaldson`s The Culture Clash is good.
So is Dog Training for Dummies.
btw the way you are not a dog, top or otherwise. And your dog certainly doesn`t need to be cowed into `obeying` you.
You train a dog by avoiding or ignoring the behaviour you don`t want and rewarding the behaviour you do.
Your methods seem a mix of TV dog trainers who should know better - please read one book by a trainer with qualifactions rather than audience ratings?

Watch This for help with the muzzle.

Also you're better off doing what the others recommended and purchase a reputable dog training book or a dvd. Whatever your preference.

Just do some research and you'll do fine.

Also don't hit your dog unless he or yourself are in danger of getting hurt because of his actions.

Agreed with smokey bear. Jean donaldsons book the culture clash is very good! Read it page to page, and you will understand more about reward based dog training, and why your dog is doing what he is doing.

Hallo

It sounds as if a lot of your relationship with your dog is kind of confrontational - I think there are a couple of reasons for this, one being that you are not sure what to do when, say, he bites; another is that you don't perhaps understand dogs as a species

I would agree with the book recommendations. You could also try John Bradshaw's book (in the UK it's called In Defence of Dogs, in the US it has another title). Dr Ian Dunbar's are also excellent and full of common sense. Also check out the wonderful Dog Star Daily on the web, there are lots of useful blogs on it.

Another quick resource off the top of my head: http://www.apdt.co.uk/dog_training_tips.asp this is the UK apdt.

My neighbour had a collie x husky. He unfortunately listened to people in the park who also had huskies, who said you had to be the pack leader and to be alpha. He ended up being confrontational, and his pup also snapped, growled, etc. There was a sad ending - his dog started to bite him (because of the way he was dealing with her - she didn't understand what he wanted and started to fight back, which is what often happens) and in the end she became dangerous and he had her put to sleep. He was crying as he was so upset, but she was getting unpredictable. All of this could have been prevented if he'd listened to my advice instead of that of his fellow dog walkers - it was so sad and really upset me too, as my dog and his dog were friends through the fence

So please take it easy with your dog. A great bit of advice is to see what your dog does as "behaviour" not as something personal against you!

It will take time to build up trust again. So take that time and make it worthwhile to get the relationship I am sure you really want with your dog, based on trust and fairness and understanding

Well done for asking for help - it takes a lot to do so and I am sure matters will improve. I'd say you don't really need a muzzle if you stop the confrontations and by now he probably really hates it and sees it as a precursor to something unpleasant.

You could also try getting in a good trainer or behaviourist but be very wary - some will make things worse. You could try with the APDT but in the US they do allow trainers to be members who use harsh methods. So grill your trainer carefully. Only go for someone who uses kind methods, nothing like rattle bottles or alpha advice.

Wys
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Just to add - never try to grab socks and things back off your dog, as it can end in a chase (which the dog may find either fun or scary depending on the dog) and often a kind of stand off between dog and owner where the owner gets kind of "no dog's gonna beat me by keeping that sock"

I have a BSD which are not renowned for resource guarding, and I once made a mistake and tried to take a sock off my pup when I was in a hurry. She did not growl or anything, but literally refused to let go It was so funny but did start a long association with socks and how important they are - and if they are important to us humans, they must be well worth trying to hold and take Taught me a lesson!

I solved it with various methods including letting her take socks if she happened to want them, and giving her socks, teaching her to help me empty the washing machine, teaching retrieve, drop, give, swop low value stuff for high value stuff etc and playing games with rolled up socks.

If your pup is doing this for attention,you may be able to stop it by totally ignoring it - unless the pup is in danger of swallowing the sock this should be ok - you can always distract by ringing the doorbell and then hopefully the dog will run to see, and yo can close the door between dog and dropped sock. One thing you do want to avoid is that some dogs will start to swallow the sock and this happens more if there is confrontation and th dog really wants to keep it. So move right away from that sort of situation and set up, as otherwise you may end up with a hefty vet bill at some stage!

Wys
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