As the title suggests I'm not sure if I'm expecting too much so soon but she's 12 weeks we have had her for four weeks, she's nipping really badly still despite my vet telling me to tap her nose, she's started barking at us and jumping up at us if we sit on the sofa and during our meal times? These are my main worries, iv no idea the best most affective way if dealing with either so any help hugely appreciated

Shaz

Hi Shaz and welcome to the forum

Stop 'tapping' your puppy on the nose for what is completely normal and vital puppy behaviour.

Get into a structured routine of training and socialisation with your new baby. Here is a month long program of daily training and socialisation plans for puppies including links to the puppy owner's bible Dunbar's Before and After you Get Your Puppy (download for free): SYP Month | Pet Central's Pawsitive Dawgs Blog!

Get your puppy booked into a well run puppy socialisation class ASAP.

Best of luck

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Welcome

Like Tripod said tapping your puppy on the nose is not teaching it anything except possibly to be scared of hands.

What you have described is very normal behaviour for a 12 week old puppy. Nipping, barking and jumping up can all be controlled by ignoring the puppy when he does these things.

Start some basic training with him such as sitting for food and comming when his name is called, and get him into puppy classes - they'll be really valuable for helping with puppy behaviour.

Remember he's just a baby and doesn't yet know what is right and wrong. Don't be too hard on him and don't expect too much at this age

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Next time you see your vet, tap him on the nose and see what he does
Honestly that isnt going to do anything, it could have even made her worse.

Pups nip and jump on each other in the litter it is a way of playing, its also a way of attention seeking and getting what she wants as far as humans go.

At 12 weeks they are usually receptive to training, so I would take her to puppy clases to socialise with other dogs and begin training. Also I would start doing it at home you can achieve a lot in 2 or 3 10/15 minute sessions a day even, teaching the basics of sit, down wait etc, mix it with some structured play like, asking her to sit once you have taught it, throwing the toy and encouraging her to pick it up return and drop it to be thrown again.

Pups tend to get over excited too, and when they do this become more and more hyper, to the point they will nip and jump up and not listen just purely from that.

Make her a wind down quiet area, this can be a indoor puppy kennel/crate
or her own bed in another room, make it plesant with toys, chews. kongs are good stuffed with wet puppy food. This way everytime she gets too hyper and over excited she has somewhere to wind down.

The more you give in and give attention for the nipping and jumping the more she will do it, she jumps and nips and barks for attention, you give it,its rewardarded next time she wants attention she does it again, its called learned behaviour, but behaviour you dont want.

For jumping up and nipping you can try.
1) soon as teeth touch skin whether it hurts or not, give a high pitched yelp.
This doesnt always work though, its depends on how much and how well she learnt bite inhibition with mum and litter mates, if she learned it then she should cease, if she hasnt, then she wont, some it can hype up more. So if this doesnt work after a couple of attempts forget this one.
2) Fold your arms, turn your back and as you are turning give the command Off. Either keep you back to her and totally ignore her, or just walk away and ignore her. If she ceases and becomes calm, carry on ignoring for a further minute or two, and if she stays calm, then praise and give attention maybe even a food treat as well.
3) If in spite of trying 1 and 2, she is still barking, jumping up or nipping, then remove her to her quiet area, and leave her for 5/10 minutes, let her out when she is calm, ignore her for a further minute or two, then if she is calm praise and attention and again even give a food treat to re-inforce that its the behaviour you want.

Basically you are teaching biting,nipping and barking gets nothing, behaviour you require ie calm behaviour gets attention, and rewards. make sure everytime she is laying with a chew, or toy, or not barking, jumping up etc. you praise her too.

You can use the ignoring, and if that doesnt work, the time out in the quiet area when you are eating too. Be consistent, some dogs get the concept fairly quickly, others you need many repetitions before they "get it" you need to do it each and everytime. by doing this plus beginning training too, with basic commands, it should begin to give her boundaries and you should be able to start getting and maintaining control.

Hope this might give you some ideas.

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thank you so much for your replies, I will stop the tapping as from now, I must say I was surprised he told me to do it as i also thought at the time surely it would make her nervous

I think some puppy training will be good for her, she does get so excited its like she doesnt quite know what to do with herself so I will do some reading up and working working on this

When our Shih Tzu was a puppy, I'd sit with him and get him to mouth me and push his luck with his teeth. When he bit too hard, I'd go "Oww!" really high pitched and turn my back on him. It really baffled him, so when we continued the game, he'd be looking at me and only mouthing gently to see how much was acceptable and when it was too much. He's never gone OTT though, he's always been a pretty laid back character.

Your girlie might benefit from crate training or something similar, so she has a spot to go to, to calm down and get out of that wound up state quickly. Good luck!

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