biting

for his paws, if he is up sleeping next to you sit and play with his feet. teach him paw with all feet but hold it for a wee bit longer each time as he get more keen to give it you you.

start rubbing him the way you would with a towel if he doesnt react lotsa of prase, then use a small face cloth in you hand when doing the same. he needs to see it as a good thing. keep moving up to bigger towels if possible.

he needs to learn to let you touch his feet, or you may have problems with thorns in his feet, or problems with his nails.

feet and face are always the arias that are the worst and it makes life dificalt for groomers and stresses the dog out.

just work on making touching him a pleasent thing, as you will eventualy find nots on his feet that he wont like you brushing out. tri and keep a toy or something so at the end of each sesion of training(it can be as short as an add brake between your fave TV show) you can toss the toy or play a wee bit of tug with him as a reward.

alfiedoo said:

so how should i react when he does bite me if I'm trying to use a towel, put the harness on etc until I can nip this behaviour in the bud?

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Are you sure he is being aggressive and biting not just growling and mouthing/play biting. When Flo was younger she would sometimes growl and get hold of things in her mouth (lead, towel, etc) quite aggressively but it wasn't aggression, just a young dog doing doggy developmental stuff which they would do with litter mates and other dogs. The best thing to do would be to have a 1:1 assessment then additional sessions with a good trainer, who will be able to watch Alfie then advise. Make sure, if you do use someone, they use reward based methods and not punishment which could just make things worse. Maybe also read up on dog behaviour as well, the more you know about why dogs do what they do the better. Try 'The Other End of the Leash' Patricia B. McConnell - a good read with lots of examples. Dog behaviour is a complex thing and it's so easy to mis-interprete dog behaviour and label them as dominant/aggressive/submissive etc when they are not.

When Flo used to try and mouth/bite my hands when I was putting on a collar, drying her etc I would just gently hold her muzzle in my hand, mouth gently closed and say 'ahhhhh no', tell her to sit to change her behaviour to what I wanted then treat her or stroke her down the back and say good girl when she stopped. It you react loudly, roughly or suddenly you excite them more.

alfiedoo said:

thanks for the advice! You are so right dog behaviour is very complex! Sometimes I feel like i'll never get it. I have read a few books but not the one you mentioned! I will try and break the habit by rewarding him when he doesn't react and see how we go. apart from this problem we couldn't be more happy with Alfie and are so pleased we chose a cockapoo as a breed!

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I had never had a dog until Flo and when she was just a few months old she would growl, bark, mouth etc and at first I thought she was being dominant and aggressive. It took a lot of reading and research until I figured it all out and realised it was just a puppy learning, developing and trying to figure out what to do in her 'human' pack. At 14 months old she is the most gentle natured girl who follows me everywhere and tries so hard to work out what us strange humans want. 'Other End of the Leash' is fascinating and it's a great credit to dogs that they assimilate so well into their human family once you know more about their body language, signals and responses that are often opposite to what we do and how we react.

Try gentle slow rubbing with the towel along his back to start with (which they find soothing and quiet them down mostly) quick, energetic drying will get him excited and maybe he's play growling and tugging the towel just like he might do if you were playing with a tug toy, especially if you start trying to pull it off him.