So a new member comes on and asks for advice. Several of us give opinions as what do. And then you, mattie, tell us everything is completely wrong? Hell, that's the last time I reply to a post then! Oh and just for the record I smack my children if they've done something really bad, I don't my dogs. And who on earth mentioned anything about shock collars!? Anyone who knows me knows I am the least domineering person going.

It's perfectly normal puppy behaviour & the growling you describe is not the same as an adult dog using growling as a warning to leave them alone.

If you watch puppies playing together in the itter, they will bite & growl at each other & this is the way they learn. If you watch an older puppy playing with a younger one it's the older puppy that will have bite inhibition & will "mouth wrestle"rather than bite the younger puppy.

You have to teach your puppy what is & isn't acceptable behaviour & you cannot do this by shouting & squealing when they nip you.

For many years I have gone down the route of not reacting at all when my puppies mouth me, it makes it very unrewarding for the puppy & the behaviour very quickly stops. If you want to speed up the learning, you should get up & walk away into another room when the nipping starts, this reinforces the lack of reward for the puppy.

My Tommee was very mouthy when I got hm as he had been with his brothers & sisters longer than I would normally expect(he is a rescue puppy), but totally ignoring his mouthing the first day he was here worked & he no longer mouths-the mouthing has been replaced by licking-much the lesser of the two evils.

Dogs are aware that we are not dogs & therefore we cannot replace their parents. They need to know we are the providers of all things good & that what we consider to be acceptable behaviour is very rewarding & unacceptable behaviour is not

If you don't want a puppy to chew something make sure that they cannot access it at all.

I haven't read the whole thread but to try to answer this you need to understand about positive reinforcement. Puppies get rewarded by being looked at, touched, spoken too...plus food obviously. If you tell a puppy off you are usually looking at it, talking to it and touching it...so you are rewarding it in three ways.....so doing the exact opposite of what you meant to do. The only thing that works with a puppy this age is to yelp and ignore them....everybody ignore them. No touching, looking or speaking to them. Just for a few seconds until the pup has calmed and then go back and play gently and you should find that the puppy uses if teeth more gently. Yes it will use its teeth again because that is exactly what it should do! Puppies have to be allowed to chew on fingers in order to learn exactly how gently, and then not at all, that they must be when their teeth touch human skin. This is teeth them an invaluable lesson of bite inhibition. So when your puppy is an adult and it has had lots of experience of using its teeth on people, and someone accidentally snags its fur or treads on it..it may well whip round and open its mouth but its teeth will either not touch the skin at all or very gently make contact. A dog who has not been able to learn to inhibit its bite through experimenting in this way is far more likely to break the skin and therefore be a dangerous dog to have around.

Mattie is just expressing her opinions, just like we all are. Sometimes she is wrong, just like we all are. And I got a few smacks when I was a child and still grew up to be normal. Well...as normal as anybody who comes on here and gets involved in heated debates???

Telling someone who has asked for advice to not let their 11 week old pup dominate them is wrong, at that age he is a baby just trying to work out what he can or cannot do and not trying to take them over, it is same with children, we should encourage them to learn not force them.

We all can learn a lot from these threads but sometimes we get one that is way off, which can cause problems later so we do have to correct it. Everyone's experience is different but all within positive training, using 'dominance' is not positive training.

I don't know you and can only go by your posts.

Each time I see someone being advised to squeal at their puppy I wonder if it rarely did work or did the pup grow out of it, I always found walking away soon taught the pup it wasn’t acceptable but you don't often see it recommended.

Totally agree Muddy
Love that about Dogsey,we don't always agree but how boring would it be if we did. Everybody to their own I say, at the end of the day OP will decide and tackle the issue mentioned best way suits. Not every dog owners approach is exactly the same,doesn't necessarily mean one is absolutely right nor the other totally wrong,just different

All l asked for was a bit of advice about my puppy growling at me and no one has given me any helpful answers,he did it this morning l took him in garden to pee and then he started to lick my feet no problem,then went to give him a cuddle and he started to growl at me l walked away from him and he was ok,

I thought I had about the nipping!

Puppies do have temper tantrums as well as children. He does need to learn that a temper tantrum doesn't get him what he wants ..along with a balance of respecting approaches he likes. Try encouraging him to you while you sit on the floor instead. If you pick him up and he starts to growl etc, hold him calmly, turn your face away and do nothing until he calms....then praise him very calmly and pop him back on the floor. Dont tell him off or gril him tightly, just very calmly ignore it until hes calm again. Because he is growling it doesn't mean he will grow up into an aggressive dog, just that he's experimenting and learning. Although we should respect growling means that they don't like it, puppies do need to learn that sometimes things need to be done to them that they aren't so keen on and they can't have everything their own way all the time. Doing it this way he will gradually learn a little self control.

It is completely normal. My Staffie used to have the noisiest vicious sounding tantrums....and you'd be hard pressed to come across a calmer adult.

I'm not sure if this is your first puppy,but try to put yourself in his position.Everything is new to him,he's learning all the time,building up confidence with new situations,noises etc.He won't like everything because he's unsure sometimes.Its not a personal thing,he doesn't dislike you and as Catrin said its very normal.Puppies are hard work,but the more he learns,the more he'll feel comfortable and grow in confidence.It would be impossible to cover every situation that could cause a puppy to growl but in most cases its about reassurance,letting him know its ok by staying calm and rewarding him with lots of praise.
Sometimes,they may also just growl....because they can,a puppy being a puppy.I know mine did and as an adult I think I've maybe heard her growl twice( at the vet )

There is plenty of good advice given to you on here.