laurenlentini
New Member
First time owner of now 13 week old female. I am extremely worried I may have a problem. The usual routine is crate rest, snack or meal, potty, supervised indoor play, potty, crate rest. I brought her home at 8 weeks and began applying all the "training" tips I could find on the internet; not to pull away with puppy bites, yelping to teach bite inhibition, swapping toys for biting, let her come to you for petting, dragging the leash to promote acceptance, short training exercises daily (sit, down, come). She rang the doorbell for potty within the first week and responded to basic commands with treats. I recently took her to a trainer who instructed me to click train for the biting and was shown to click and toss treat when she bites to distract the behavior and click for good responses to basic commands while tossing a treat. The ONLY time she does not bite is when I open the crate to let her out, and it lasts for less than a minute. I take her out to potty, and when I bring her inside, I can distract her with a toy or treats, usually for about 20 minutes - that is the indoor play/free time. She is confined to the house's main space (living, dining, and kitchen) and supervised. The biting escalates, and she comes at us with more intensity. That is when she happily (most of the time) returns to the crate for another rest. The bite pressure does not seem to be improving; she is landing some serious bites. Our vet tech advised a holding technique (body, head, and neck compression) and releasing when she relaxes - this seems to make her more aggressive, so I stopped doing it. My breeders response was "you wanted a Corso". Board and train is not an option. Do I have a problem? Or is THIS normal?