Bulldogs World

Are you taking him out of the situation or stopping him from playing when he bites too much?  My dog doesn't listen to the word "no",  but if we put him in 'time out' he gets the picture and the behavior corrected itself with time.

A good trainer will help. Also he is still a puppy and I believe he will have to grow out of some of it.

Starting from the time they are born, they learn plenty from their littermates and their Mom. They learn given-n-take, compromise, play levels and when they have gone too far or are too rough. That's why it is so important for pups to stay with their litters until at least 8-10 weeks old.

Puppy classes are a good start for the new owners to continue developing social skills but only if the class is structured and monitored properly. Classes shouldn't be a free for all. All dogs are not created equal, some are very confident, some are bullies, some are timid and a good instructor will make sure that class is a good experience for all the pups. In the classes that I have done, I would separate pups depending on their needs. I might put a pup that tends to bully others with a very confident pup because the confident pup would have no problem telling off the bully. I have also had classes where none of the pups had good social skills and that's when I would bring in the big guy. Brody belonged to my assistant, he was a very large, very confident male Golden Retriever. He was very good with the pups but had no problem setting limits with them and he had a way of making them understand that. Amazing how calm the pups acted when he was present. Never aggressive, just very clear.

Personally, I don't like daycare. Most are supervised/monitored by people that have little to no understanding of dogs. I don't think they match the dogs well, they don't give enough down time, allow the dogs to get way over stimulated and basically if there isn't an all out brawl believe that everyone is getting along just fine. I've seen way too much low level aggression going on, bullying, intimidation and the dogs are all learning from those experiences, good and bad. It's the owners responsibility to ensure that their dog develops appropriate social skills, I wouldn't leave that much responsibility up to total strangers without me being present because what they learn will last a life time.

Same thing with dog parks, if there isn't a fight going on, the owners think that all is well.  

Getting your dog into a class and teaching him self control skills will help tremendously but in the meantime, keep your dogs interations with other dogs to a minimum. The more he is allowed to behave inappropriately, the more of a learned behavior it becomes and the harder it will be to modify it. When he is around other dogs, keep him on a leash, when he starts to jump/bite at the other dogs, a calm "too bad" and remove him. Walk him around a little bit, have him sit/down/stay, let him calm down and release him. If he does it again, take him home. Maybe instead of playtime, take him for a walk with another dog so he learns that other dogs can be in close proximity without having to interact with them.

If you have a class lined up for him, call the instructor and ask if you can do a privated session, explain what is going on, he/she should be able to get you started in the right direction before the class session starts.

Good luck

We were having this issue with jax this summer (he was about 10 months).  It was like he didn't understand no--the other dog would let him know that they didn't want to play like that and Jax would not stop--we would take him out of the situation (ie at the dog beach--we would be put back on his leash and be stuck hanging with mom and dad away from the other dogs).  Since the summer is over we have not been in a multiple dog situation with Jax.

Lyn