Hi all, we recently added a mal pup to our family. Hes an adorable, funny & loving little furball most of the time but has shown some STRONG aggressiveness many times in the few weeks we've had him. Hes fine until you pick him up when he's "busy" doing something like running, chewing on a leaf in the yard etc. If you go to wipe his paws off from debris or generally tick him off. Hes just at 8 weeks old and hes drawn blood several times. To the point of I would use the word ferocious when describing him. Hes not food aggressive with our other two german shepherds. But does show some territory possessiveness if they approach his kennel. He is submissive to our oldest shepherd and seems to see himself equal with our 1 yr old shepherd...both females. He has drawn blood from us several times and hes not subdued by the techniques we've often used with our shepherds to show them pack hiarchy when they step out of bounds. We are not new to large breeds by any means but this is our first Mal. Im lost for how to handle this aggressiveness and internet searches havent yeilded much info except for the advice, over and over, to not let him be alpha. We are trying but nothing works. Ive never seen aggressiveness like this in such a young pup. Any help, guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Hi & welcome!I have a 1yr old female Mal & when I first bought her she was a bully to our family (I have 4 kids...ages 8yrs & under). I didn't have Mila as a wee pup so training her was tough at first. She thought she was gonna be ruler of the roost...NOPE! malamutes r bull headed & temperamental. Since u have urs at a very young age u have the advantage to work with him. Get him used to being touched & handled. The girl I bought Mila from did not work with her at all. Mila hated being brushed, hates her paws being touched...really kinda unruly. So with alot of time & PATIENCE shes come around quite alot. She gets disciplined for bad things & I don't put up with her unruly behavior. She grumbles of course but thats just her tho! I call her my mouthy malamute! lol. Its just gonna take alot of training, discipline & lots of patience to tame the beast in ur lil guy! hopefully someone can give u some more advice too!
Thanks for the encouraging words. He is bullheaded for sure and quite mouthy, lol. But those teeth tho. He goes for blood. Any training or reprimand techniques that work with this breed are greatly appreciated. In the past we've had success with using techniques that emulate what mama dog would do to reprimand unruly behavior but it only seems to make him more aggressive and unmanageable. I cannot imagine how this would turn out if it continues into his adulthood. We are willing to work with him as without it I see lots of ER trips in our future and thats not an acceptable outcome.
Oh yes definitely not a good outcome if u dont NIP it in the butt now. Lol. Mila can be mouthy with my husband but we put an end to that. No teeth on our skin. She tries to get him to play rough but he just balls his hands up & tells her no & has her settle down. But those puppy teeth r like little needles tho! I had a Siberian husky when he was a wee pup & those teeth were sharp!
Why do you want any dog let alone an 8 week old pup to be subdued ? What do you count as 'out of bound' behaviour.? What methods are you using to train ? Oh and the 'Alpha' theory has been debunked !
I only mean subdued as in correcting the behavior and showing him the hostility is not the correct behavior. When I say hes aggressive I mean to the point of sounding and acting ouyt as though hes in the middle of a fight to the death match. And corrective behavior as in stern and abrupt No, or a quick pin as a mama dog would do as a corrective measure. If you have suggedtions, please share & the alpha theory may have been "debunked" but its all Im seeing when searching so please provide any advice you can. Edited to add...out of bound behavior is the extreme aggressiveness. If you are picturing a fluffly little pup just nipping youre not picturing correctly. Im 43 years old and have been around all kinds of pups and never have I seen this level of aggression in such a young pup. Hes not always like that, Id say 10% of the time.
There are countless high regarded trainers out there who promote positive training methods, all reward based and non confrontational. Thing is with bolshy puppies 'dominating' them or correcting them tends to have the opposite effect and you just end up with a puppy that resents you and exasperates the behaviour. My go to advice for mouthy, bolshy, pain in the arse puppies lol is time-outs, distraction, trading, and play. There really should be no need to have to use corrections. If pup is getting to wound up or you just need a break pop him in a time-out. A room separate from you for just a few short minutes. Not only does this teach him that his behaviour results in no attention/fun it also teaches him the valuable lessons of alone time. A place he will come to learn is where he has to have his down time. Distraction works for 9 out of 10 problems. Pup getting into something it shouldn't, nipping, general behaviour you don't want to encourage - distract before the pup gets the opportunity to practice naughty behaviours. Trading works for any resource guarding behaviours that pop up. Pup has something he shouldn't/ Offer him something better. Play can also deter pup from naughty behaviours and release that on a toy and good game with you. Great bonding too. In regards to his kennel and the guardy behaviour that area really should be his & his alone with no access or disturbance from your other adult dogs. When pup is in his crate pop your other dogs in their 'chill out' area or keep them away from the pup at the very least. All the above are things I've found very helpful in training/managing my own puppies but they're certainly not instant successes you really need to be consistent. I still give my youngster of 4 years time-outs!
Biting is not puppy aggression, Its normal puppy behaviour and yes, some pups bite more/harder than others and it hurts and can be very trying It doesn't happen over night but persistence and patience do pay off, it can take months depending on the puppy but it ‘does get better, using ‘dominant’ training is not the answer. The goal is not so much to stop them from biting, but to teach them bite inhibition/ bite control. What works for one pup wont for another so it’s a case of trial and error. Whatever method you choose, the more consistent you are the faster they will learn, http://www.crickethollowfarm.com/biteinhib.htm http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/archives/bite.txt The Alpha Theory http://www.diamondsintheruff.com/why-not-dominance https://www.dogstardaily.com/training/misconceptions-mythical-alpha-dog
time outs were the way forward for us...more effective if you could leave the room rather than have to remove them.usually 2-3 minutes was fine. We found that consistant and absolute "rules" were quite effective....teeth hit skin at all and it was time out The "puppy yelp" thing was a complete non starter, sent Everest off her head and made things worse. Is your pup sleeping enough? when we really upped the sleep schedule for Everest the behaviour change was incredible. at 8 weeks i would think she was pushing 18-20 hours a day sleeping with short "training/play" sessions of 20-30 minds frequently throughout the day. She went through a few bolshy stages, probably about every 4 months, just needs a reminder of her place and our boundaries. but i have to say she is a remarkably calm and well behaved dog now. Still has the odd grumble at my 3 year old....still learning its not acceptable, but on the other hand she wont even snatch at a bubble or even bounce her front paws if my daughter is anywhere close by. so in summary, consistancy, solid boundaries, double the amount of slepp you reckon they need, and patience = happy malamute.
I was going to mention the sleep issue, Allan beat me to it It’s quite hard to enforce so much sleep because pups are so inquisitive, they need so much sleep for many reasons, on top of lack, lack of sleep can make them really grizzly and a short attention span for training and learning manners
I was absolutely stunned about the sleep thing, not just the volume, but the behaviour change also, made her much calmer. It was tough at first, we felt like we were almost neglectful putting her in her cage for sleep so frequently but when we noticed that within 2 minutes she was KO'd for a few hours deep flat on the back sleep we knew it was the right thing. To this day with 2 good long walks and a good bit of play she is still much sleepier than my old westie was......that is till she gets moving in the hills, then its just poetry in motion.
