New Cavalier Owner

[First Time Cavalier]

I am a first time owner of a Tri Colour Cavalier named Murfy and he is 10 weeks old. Cute as a button but gets very frisky, jumping and biting. I yell ouch when he bites but he does not seem to be bothered by my yell. He also starts to growl when pulling on my clothes, which kind of scares me as I am afraid he will be nasty when he gets bigger, is this just a puppy thing.

I previously had a chocolate lab., which we had to put down recently, he was 12 1/2 years, so the tiny puppy is such a life change for us. Duke, came to us all trained and well behaved at 3 yrs., old so I have never done the puppy thing.

Any tips on how to curb the biting and the growling when he is tugging my pant legs.

[cavie3]

I am a first time owner of a Tri Colour Cavalier named Murfy and he is 10 weeks old. Cute as a button but gets very frisky, jumping and biting. I yell ouch when he bites but he does not seem to be bothered by my yell. He also starts to growl when pulling on my clothes, which kind of scares me as I am afraid he will be nasty when he gets bigger, is this just a puppy thing.

I previously had a chocolate lab., which we had to put down recently, he was 12 1/2 years, so the tiny puppy is such a life change for us. Duke, came to us all trained and well behaved at 3 yrs., old so I have never done the puppy thing.

Any tips on how to curb the biting and the growling when he is tugging my pant legs.

Hi and welcome, Murphy sounds great and at 10 weeks it is all very normal to jump and be quite mouthy even growling when tugging on clothes. It is best to discourage the play biting with a yell and offer another distraction. Kookie also did this as a young pup and they do grow out of it but it is important to make clear boundaries, puppies take a lot of effort to keep them amused and they get bored very quickly. I used to distract Kookie with toys, teething rings are really useful for the chewing/biting, puppies love to learn and best to start some basic obedience training either through puppy classes or in the home as this will pay off later.

[First Time Cavalier]

Thank you for your response and I do exactly what you said to do but I was not sure if this was normal behaviour or the signs of an aggresive puppy. We do the "ouch" yell but that does not seem to matter to him and I have lots of little toys to redirect his bitting. I would like to start some obedience training in the home first and we will then get him in puppy class, which one do you suggest first? sit, stay...???

[cpell009]

Congrats on your new puppy!!! Lady was just like Murfy when she was younger. The biggest thing is to be consistent and not to let him bite or chew on things now because it wont be so cute in a few months . But it doesnt sound like aggression is just sounds like a playful puppy that doesn't know how they should be playing.

Replace your hand or anything else you don't want chewed on with a toy. Lady is very playful and when she was a puppy she wanted to "mouth" and instead of encouraging this I give her a toy to wrestle or play with and call the item by its name - like ball or toy. Make it really fun so that if he tries to tug-of-war with your clothes, give him the toy instead and he will know that when he wants to play he needs to use the toy.

Puppies are a handful though I know how you feel - Lady just turned 1 year old and I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel . Just be consistent and don't give up on training!

[lindylou]

that sounds just like my louie when he was a puppy and now at 4yrs 10 months he is an angle very quiet never barks and very loving

[cavie3]

Thank you for your response and I do exactly what you said to do but I was not sure if this was normal behaviour or the signs of an aggresive puppy. We do the "ouch" yell but that does not seem to matter to him and I have lots of little toys to redirect his bitting. I would like to start some obedience training in the home first and we will then get him in puppy class, which one do you suggest first? sit, stay...???

Yes I think basic commands like sit, stay, down, come etc, sessions should be short and fun for you and Murfy. I used reward training with Kookie, initially with treats. I am sure there are some good links on this site for puppy training that you may find useful.

[MomObvious]

Oh wow I almost forget Fletcher did the chewing on my pant legs thing too. AHhhhh puppies...... Funny how you miss those times so quickly when they out-grow/out train those things. Fletcher did all those things at about 12-13 weeks too and now he's the sweetest thing so don't worry but you do need to come up with something. When Fletcher was that age my youngest son, Mr. Monster was 4 so the LAST thing we needed was aggression between them. I had tried Kong but so far Fletcher was not interested so I discovered antlers and bully sticks, they would keep him busy for awhile when we needed him to clam down. We also figured out distracting him with a squeaky toy worked just as well as the whole "ouch" thing. Oh but if he did make human contact we did use "ouch" and walk away together, it made more of an impact. Like play time is over if you hurt me. Mr. Monster was great with the "play with puppy" new rules and we made it thur. Mr. Monster and Fletcher are practically litter mates now. As for the pant leg thing I would just stop walking (walking was making a game of it) and distract him with a squeaky toy.

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[First Time Cavalier]

We will continue to distract him when the bitting and the crazy Murfy is around. It is funny as he will all of a sudden stop and then just want to cuddle and sleep. His sleeping at night is great, he goes to bed around 9:30ish and sleeps until 6:30ish. The first night he cried but nothing since then and we will have had him for almost 2 wks. I will read up on the training and take him to school when he is a bit bigger. Thanks for all the great advice.