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Hi Stuart. Have you reviewed the leash ninja video? This will teach you how to hold and use the leash. If you are using the leash correctly the dog shouldn’t have that much loose slack to be able to bite. Also have you started leash manners yet? It is ok to use the starmark and start doing these exercises even if you are still doing phase 1 training. Remember to always stay calm with your puppy and never yell at her as you do not want to hurt your relationship withat her. As far as playing it is absolutely a good thing to play games with her that do satisfy her prey drive. They need a good outlet for their restless spirt. Make sure you review the leadership exercises on the site also. Make sure your puppy has an outlet. Replace unwanted behavior right now with wanted behavior. If the puppy keeps biting things she shouldn’t like your hands just redirect her and give her something she is allowed to chew on. Bully sticks are one great option. When you review the leadership you want the dog to fall in the “provided” for category. Make sure you are proving enough play and giving her an outlet to satisfy her drive balance. Withholding games that do not satisfy her drive will actually be counter productive. Appropriate play will not make her aggressive. They will help satisfy her needs. As far as biting during greetings, our dogs will get excited to see us, they only have their mouths so they use it a lot to communicate, mouthing is not uncommon for a puppy to do when excited just simply redirect her at this point onto something appropriate that she is allowed to chew on. Later on if you have exceeded all of your options we can work on correcting the behavior but right now at 3 months i would suggest you want to try to redirect her and show her alternate behavior you want from her as much as possible. Releasing objects…sometimes dogs will hold onto things they dont think they will get back, you can start doing premack principal exercises when playing pairing it with a little “out” command. Obviously she will not know what this means yet, but she will eventually learn with repitition. Using two toys is something you can try. When she has one…tell her “out” and entice her with the second….as soon as she let’s go…tell her good girl and praise her then give her the second….this is a good way to play with a ball too. Having two will usually help the dog drop the one it has, then when the dog has built up trust and starts to understand the game you can start just using the 1. You can do this with any toy. Just make sure you are playing with leadership rules….the dog should not have toys all over….you take out the toy/tug/ball when you want to play…then when the game is over give her something yummy and put the toy away.
So recap…
1-review and follow leadership
2-review leash ninja video
3-review leash manars-if you need help we will help you
4-read about premack principal
5-always have patience, puppies are hard work..but your hard work will pay off
