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Cane Corso pup

RY86

Member
Hello everyone! I'm new to the forum, I was hoping I could ask some questions to other Cane Corso owners. I have a 10 week old puppy. My wife and I love this little guy! Lately he does acouple things that make me question what to do. Right now we don't allow him on any furniture for example the couch, sofa etc we have acouple nice dog beds around the house for him. However if he does work his way up on the couch an I try to get him off he growls and gets aggressive, he'll try and bite me. I have been grabbing a dried liver treat and slowing redirecting him off couch then praising him when he has been redirected to his dog bed. I understand he could be sore because after all he is a growing boy an it is very possible that growling is his only way of communicating that to me. Mainly we don't want him on the furniture because we don't want him jumping off an doing damage to his joints as a puppy. He also has been mouthing allot. I would chalk this up to teething, but there are times when he bites down really hard. We have tried letting out a loud "ouch" an we have tried leaving the room for a minute. But it continues. We have been freezing some Carrots and other vegetables and giving him these... which he loves, I bet the cold chewing feel good on his gums. Is the bitting/nipping just a phase for a Corso? We have a 5 year old boxer cross in our house as well. When she was a pup she did go through a teething phase, but nothing like this.... I understand yes they are two different breeds. But we have been working on bite inhibition for a long time. But the results haven't changed.

Any input would be greatly appreciated
 

Jarena

Well-Known Member
My female Corso, Lettie, is almost 7 months. I had a lot of the same questions and others on this forum were so helpful! They all reassured me that her puppy biting WILL stop eventually! My girl still gets grabby when she’s really hyper but it’s sooooooo much better than it was at 10 weeks. I remember how awful it was with those little needle teeth and it felt so aggressive!

I learned that its not aggressive, she was just so hyper. The “yelp” thing didn’t work for us, she just attacked harder when we yelped. We always stopped giving her attention as soon as she bit us, then if she kept coming at us we would redirect her attention. Sometimes with a toy but the only thing that worked 100% of the time was to make her work on her commands. We had treats stashed in every room in our house and we would go through her commands sit, stay, leave it, down, shake, touch, etc. Good luck! It will get better :)
 

DennasMom

Well-Known Member
You said he's only 10 WEEKS old, and that you've been working on bite inhibition for "a long time"?? If he was 10 MONTHS old, I'd say it's about time he stopped using his teeth... at 10 WEEKS, he's still a baby... EVERYTHING will be going into his mouth for a long time to come.

Be Consistent - "Ouch" or "Yipe" and redirect to a toy. If he doesn't stop on the "Ouch", get up and move away... if he still doesn't stop... remove him to his crate to unwind and relax. He may be over-excited and need to de-stress a bit (and you might need a break, too at that point).

Denna was 'mouthy' until she was about 8 months old.... somewhere around 3 months it started getting better, but it was still a process to get her to give up using her mouth completely. I seem to remember thinking she was more mouthy than our previous pups, but my memory may be a bit selective, too... :)
 

Bailey's Mom

Super Moderator
Super Moderator
Okay...puppy teeth, if you haven't found any on the ground sticking in your feet yet, you have something to look forward to! Yes, your dog is teething and it goes on until they are around six to eight months. You'll find the little gems sticking out of your socks (we kept ours in a memory box..little fangs that used to hurt us...so cute.) Your dog will grow out of it.

Now, I wouldn't use a treat (too much stimulation which could lead to prompting a negative behaviour), but, I would redirect with something more interesting. Over stimulation in this area is to be avoided. We used the big "ouch" and "yelp" to deter bad behaviour. But here is the thing I've noticed about CC's, after the puppy phase they really don't like biting things...well, large things. Smaller, more mouth friendly things become favourites for chewing . Oh, and they do need to chew, so you have to provide chewing items that won't hurt their gums, but will give them a work out.

My four-and-a-half year old likes her chew sticks/toys to be dainty...such a princess...big stuff she leaves alone. Big dog treats have to be broken up, so, everything except a denta stick has to be halved to be acceptable. The only exception seems to be real sticks....tree branches, which she loves to chew on and always tries to sneak in the house.

Now if your dog is really rammy and won't settle down, you have to wear the dog out. Chewing, tugging (After all the teeth are in) is good for them. And if they get enough stimulation like this, they mellow out.
 

Porcheesy

Well-Known Member
Bitter apple!! There is no reason for a puppies teeth to be on human skin... nil that in the butt early... get bitter apple and correct right after the nip happens "no bite" then spray directly in mouth!
 

Bailey's Mom

Super Moderator
Super Moderator
Porcheesy, I would not advocate the use of green apple. My feeling is that being consistent with yelping and redirecting is a positive way to teach a desired outcome, but the negative approach with green apple might create a dog that doesn't ever trust you and can't understand why you are doing something mean to them. Dogs flower with love and consistency, they don't have the calculated power of a human brain...they are forever children in their ability to understand what is going on. Depending on which dog specialist you refer to, the dog's intellect and mental growth is stuck around a four or five-year old human's ability. If you sprayed green apple into the mouth of a four-year-old human child, that child would fear you but not love you.

I would never want my dog to be afraid of me, I want them to respect my choices, not pull their tail under because a punishment is coming.
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
Porcheesy, I would not advocate the use of green apple. My feeling is that being consistent with yelping and redirecting is a positive way to teach a desired outcome, but the negative approach with green apple might create a dog that doesn't ever trust you and can't understand why you are doing something mean to them. Dogs flower with love and consistency, they don't have the calculated power of a human brain...they are forever children in their ability to understand what is going on. Depending on which dog specialist you refer to, the dog's intellect and mental growth is stuck around a four or five-year old human's ability. If you sprayed green apple into the mouth of a four-year-old human child, that child would fear you but not love you.

I would never want my dog to be afraid of me, I want them to respect my choices, not pull their tail under because a punishment is coming.

I use bitter apple but not on my own skin just on every pair of shoes I own. They don't really associate it with me when used that way. Instead they just learn that my shoes taste really really gross. I love it for those purposes. :) But ya I see it being harder to use for bite inhibition. Unless you just continually walked around with bitter apple on your hands but I wonder if that would have adverse effects if you tried rubbing your eyes or something.
 

Courtney H

Well-Known Member
Yes, 10 weeks and still biting is normal. We did the same thing; saying “owwww!” and then make a sad face. If that didn’t work, we redirected the biting to a chew toy and they praise them when they chewed I‎t by petting and saying “good boy/girl”. Never spray anything directly in your dog’s mouth, it will make them scared of you and confuse them.
 
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Nik

Well-Known Member
Ry86 - One quick question that just occurred to me. What age was the puppy when you brought it home?

10 weeks old and still being mouthy is normal. And the positive method like yipping or fake crying or ow work great... *If* you got your puppy when they were already fully socialized (absolutely no earlier than 8 weeks for sure).

I only mention this because I have been in the situation that is the exception. I have had dogs that I got when they were fully socialized and ready to leave their moms and I have one dog that I got way too early (this was Diesel). The family was not going to keep any of those puppies no matter what (it was an oops litter and they really didn't care where the pups went as long as they didn't have to deal with them any more). My Diesel was only 4 weeks old when we brought him home. Because of this he hadn't gotten the important socialization from mom and siblings to start the bite inhibition process. Since he didn't get that important early socialization teaching bite inhibition was difficult and lengthy. We did the yips, we did the ows, we did the redirects and for what felt like an eternity nothing worked. What did finally make it click in his head was meeting a puppy that was even mouthier then he was in puppy preschool. This other puppy just would not leave him alone and continually followed him around nipping at his feet, his neck etc. For Diesel being harrassed that way made it click in his head that being bit was NOT fun. He did not like it and he was able to relate that to his own behavior and how we react when he bit us. It was night and day. One day with that nippy puppy and he instantly stopped biting us. He is still a bit mouthy at times (he likes to grab my hand with his mouth to get my attention). But the continued mouthyness was very very gentle after that day. Now he has an incredibly soft mouth. And even the hand grabbing has lessened a lot in age.

So yes I wouldn't worry about mouthyness at age 10 weeks, yes I would work on positive methods of bite inhibition. But, if you aquired your puppy too early it may be a more challenging road for you and you may want to consider enrolling in a puppy preschool class once you are all vaccinated. That socialization with other pups does help. It helps a lot.
 

Porcheesy

Well-Known Member
It' not as a punishment actually.... it is a correction immediately followed by saying "no bite"... by doing the action then the word the dog then can understand that it is not a desired behavior. The words NEED to have meaning... if you just say no to a puppy who is three months old it won't know what the neck that means, unless you use an undesired correction WITH the word... the praise after... we also use redirecting....
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
It' not as a punishment actually.... it is a correction immediately followed by saying "no bite"... by doing the action then the word the dog then can understand that it is not a desired behavior. The words NEED to have meaning... if you just say no to a puppy who is three months old it won't know what the neck that means, unless you use an undesired correction WITH the word... the praise after... we also use redirecting....

To correct means to show the the right or acceptable way to do something. What you are describing is a punishment. Call it a correction if you like, but the definition of punishment is "the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution for an offense." So yes, spraying bitter apple in the mouth is a punishment. Perhaps it's not a very harmful punishment, but it could be hugely detrimental to a very soft tempered dog. FWIW, I don't tend to use the word no very often with a puppy, and if I do it's simply because it's a habit and not because I expect the dog to know what it means.