Expert: Jill Connor, Ph.D. - 4/22/2008

Question
Pet: CHLOE   i just got a new puppy who is female and she is now 7
weeks old    i have had her a week         she weights in at a whopping
3.5#  so she is tiny.  her dad was a full Chihuahua and her mom was a
Chihuahua basset hound mix.  both ver small dogs and when i went to get her
 it seemed to be a loving home she was in.  ok so now my question...
when chloe is in the yard running around or she is doing something she
shouldn't be doing, i walk over to her and i try to remove her from the
situation by picking her up or by just redirecting her by means of
turning her around  but when i try to do this she gets real stiff and
starts to growl and then starts nipping.  she also does this when she is
chewing on a bone and i try to touch her near her mouth and she does this
as well when she is eating.   now like i said she is only 7 woks old,
not fixed and she lives with me and my 10 yr old daughter and a male
declawed 5 yr old cat and a clawed 9 month old female cat, both of whom
seem to be scared of the puppy.  all of my pets are strictly inside
animals.   also my neighbor who shares the same yard as me has an old beagle
who they seem to get along fine and another 2 yr old shitzu who
completely ignores the puppy, there are occasions when they are in the yard
together.    now my question is how to stop her from this growling and
nipping behavior,  i have tried to pick her up anyway when she does it
and i gently lay her on her back in my arms and tell her no firmly  or i
will look in her eyes and yelp loudly.  she seems to stop but she does
it again .  do i have an aggressive puppy?  is she going to be a
concern for me   to have to worry about her biting other people.  my
daughter said chloe has done this to her as well and she just walked away and
put her in her bed.  now we have not played with her with our hands or
fingers only toys as i have heard it will make a puppy into a dog that
bites.  also sometimes just picking her up she does this.
please help i really waited so long for a puppy  and i love this one so
much and want her to be a great addition to our family.
thank you sooooo much for your time.


Answer
Your pup's behavior at only 7 weeks suggests she was not socialized to humans.  She was not handled as a neonate (this must begin when the pup is 3 weeks of age.)  She obviously came from a "home" where no one knew a damn thing and cared less.

You need the intervention of a dog behavior expert.  This puppy needs to be evaluated in person and you need to learn skills to socialize her to restraint (being picked up, held, petted) and skills to avoid further development of resource guarding (growling over food, toys, bones, etc.)  As your puppy is now entering the fear phase which appears at around 8 to 10 weeks of age, how you interact with her is extremely important.  Any dominance you display (such as gently turning her on her back) must be accompanied with praise and small food reward when she stops struggling.  You need to learn body signals, such as lip licking, to read what's on your puppy's mind so you don't reward the wrong thing. You also need to make her earn everything RIGHT NOW.  Teach a simple "sit" by holding a tiny treat over her nose until her butt hits the floor.  As her butt hits the floor, say your word for "sit" (make one up, don't use the actual word) and pop the tiny treat into her mouth at the same time.  Within a very short time (5 to 6 repetitions) she will learn that putting her butt on the floor earns a treat.  She will learn your word for "sit" within 10 to 13 repetitions.  Once she is reliably sitting (you must reward each one), make her EARN everything: being petted, going in/out, being fed, etc.  This will give her the clear signal that she is safe in your "pack", very low ranking (which should assist in the resource guarding), it will develop trust between you, and it will help you to manage the other problems that exist because of her poor (or totally absent) socialization to humans.