Hello, My 3 month old puppy was so sweet when my son brought him home a month and a half ago. He was the runt. He tries to bite me if I have to take a bone away from him that he got by accident. He also hurts my cats. I try to scold him but, he turns on me. I love him and want to work with him. He is sweet at other times.....like sleeping.lol. Thanks, Renee

Hi Renee,

Have you considered enrolling you and your beagle in puppy kindergarten?

When your dog tries to bite you when you try to take something away, thats called resource guarding, and it's unfortunately something that often goes uncorrected. The good news is that you can work with your puppy to rid him of this behavior.

A couple things that you may consider. The first is to work with your puppy to develop "soft mouth." When puppys are young, they often bite their litter mates as a form of play. What this also does, is teach the dog the strength of its jaws. If the bite is too hard, the other puppy will yelp, and it learns not to bite as hard. As your puppy no longer has littermates, you can use yourself to teach him how strong to bite. Play with your puppy and his mouth, and if you feel the slightest teeth, make a yelp, and hide your hand, and stop playing momentarily. Keep doing this and your puppy will learn not to bite hard on your hand.

As your puppy gets older, you will eventually teach it bite-inhibition: that absolutely, under no circumstance is it okay for your dog to every bite a human.

Onto the resource guarding.

You got bitten because you tried to take a bone away from a dog. Seems  logical to me. The dog had something totally awesome, and you tried to take it away. Imagine if you were watching your fav tv show and someone came and turned off the tv right in the middle of it. You'd be upset! Now imagine if that same person then handed you the keys to a new Porsche. All would be forgiven! So this is how you will get your dog to welcome your hand, even encourage it, by conditioning your beagle that when you get closer to him, better things happen.

To help with the resource guarding, your puppy will need to learn that all good things come from you. After all, you are the one that buys the puppy food, and gives him the dog toys, all the yummy puppy treats and takes him for walks.

While your dog is playing with a toy, or a "low value" treat, come to your dog and present your dog a much better treat (i love to give my dog real bacon or cheese bits). As you continue to do this, your dog will start to welcome your hand. After all everytime it shows up, he gets something really good. For things like bones or other "high-value" treats, come close enough, just outside the bite/growl range, and drop a treat.  Continue doing this, as you move closer, but never more than the dog is comfortable with.

Once this is achieved, you will be able to reach into your dog's mouth and retrieve even the most tasty of treats without fear of being bitten.

In addition, it's a good idea to train your puppy the "leave it" and "drop it" commands. If you walking your dog, leave it will instruct him to not even bother with the item, while drop it will immediately instruct your beagle to surrender whatever he has in his mouth.

Sorry for the long post, and best of luck!

Short and sweet it sounds to me like you two are having a power struggle and that your beagle needs to view you as the "alpha dog"  (AKA leader of the pack). It is very common for adolescent dogs to test authority (gee remind you of teenagers? lol!) and I highly recommend either training in a public setting (like petsmart) or at the bare minimum alpha dog exercises you can do in your own home, done consistently with him. Hitting, kicking, or things like that are not necessary to establish yourself as alpha dog and can turn your beagle into a cowering, broken spirited dog and may give him anxiety or social problems. Praise is actually a big part of any training, but especially alpha dog training.

 

Here is one site to get you started:

 http://www.paws.org/cas/resources/fact_sheets_dogs/packleader.php

I agree with balls, it's definitely resource guarding. I've heard that the trading game that balls suggested has really helped alot of dogs. Just understand your boy isn't turning on you he just hasn't been properly trained from a pup! He's still the lovable beagle you brought home just with a few problems, work on and he'll be back to normal in no time!