this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2025
24 points (96.2% liked)
Dogs
6170 readers
57 users here now
A community about dogs.
Breeds, tips and tricks about training and behaviour, news affecting dog owners, canine photography, dog-related art and any questions related to dog ownership.
Rules
- Posts must be related to dogs or dog ownership and must not be void of content.
- This is a neutral space. No bigotry or personal attacks. Criticism should be polite and constructive.
- No automated content. This includes AI generated imagery, post body, articles, comments or automated accounts.
- No advertising or self-promotion.
- Illegal or unethical practices are frowned upon, and any comments or posts suggesting them will be removed. This includes, but is not limited to, backyard breeding, ear and tail cropping, fake service animals, negative reinforcement, alpha/pack/dominance theory, and eugenics.
- No judging or attacking community members who care for dogs with cropped ears, docked tails, or those from puppy mills or questionable sources. While we discourage these practices (per Rule 5), all dogs deserve loving homes and compassionate care regardless of their background or physical alterations.
- No breed discrimination, all breeds welcome. Our stance matches the ASPCA's official stance and is not up for debate.
- Citing your sources when making a claim is encouraged. Misinformation will be removed.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This is pretty standard puppy behaviour. The issue is usually consistency. You clearly do the same reaction to their behaviours each time so the dog has learned what you expect.
Your family probably doesn't do the same thing each time or they react in fun ways, like squealing and running away when the dog jumps up. The easy way to resolve this is to train your family, we used a technique called " boring human". So when the dog does something you don't want, rough play, jumping up etc you do "boring human" where you just stand up and don't talk or engage with the dog until it does a behaviour you want to reward usually something like sit. Then you can continue the activity. The important thing is to not engage at all, don't shout or flail as those can be fun and interesting, until the dog does the right behaviour.
Great advice.
We try that, it's just that he hurts family (scratches, bites) while they wait for him to notice that this isn't fun. So that becomes a bit problematic and sits at the core of our problem.
We also try to burn off energy in other ways, thinking that maybe he needs that. He definitely gets enough attention.
Something to try if they hurt you is to make a really high pitched yip then do boring human as that's what their litter mates would do if one hurt another.
It communicates they cause pain then by not rewarding them until they are doing a good behaviour you train that one rather than rewarding the bad behaviour.
Children especially are very exciting if they squeal and run away if a puppy nips them in play.
Edit: exercise is also super important, someone suggested a fly line which are great for puppies. 5-10 minutes and they will be knackered. Longer walks and more brain engagement play like sniffing can also help with energy levels.
so which is it, do high pitched noises or don't?
guess what, the dog does know you are not its littermate. so stop doing crazy sounds and instead just calmly tell the dog no and send it to its place to take timeout, or redirect his attention to some behaviour you want from him.
Good advice. Haven't tried that yet. Will definitely give that a go.