Does anyone own a Briard?

This past few days he's really finding his feet. A firm NO, and you can see he's heard, but he's not listening. He's outsmarting or overiding the diversion tactic, the only thing that seems to get his attention is if I jolt his collar and give a real low gutteral kinda NO. He freezes for a second, then does something else. Otherwise hell just keep biting, not gentle nips and nuzzling- actually skin piercing bites.
I didn't want to go this route at all though. I was all for positive reinforcement only approach.

Not sure which direction to take, it feels like I'm constantly telling him no. Despite treats, Yes, Good Boy etc everyone he does something we like.
We are physically working him, he has a good 10 minutes every hour or so outside.
Mentally, we're doing sit, lie down, amongst trying to engage with chew toys, balls, etc so I don't feel like it's boredom.

Any tips/advice hugely appreciated :)
 
You may be doing too much at a time. 10 mins is a lot at this stage. He may get too hyped and then struggles to settle. 5 mins then try calm him down for sleep. The first few weeks are awful. We found worse than when the kids were babies.

Lots and lots of sleep. That certainly was the thing that helped us turn the corner. That and time...
 
Tonight he did a sizeable poo outside around 16:30. Around 17:30 he was in his pen whilst we ate dinner, I left for work and the Mrs nipped upstairs to grab a wash load to do some laundry. He had done a poo in his pen and she caught him just finishing eating it.
WTF!
Google suggests it's kinda normal.
Really?!

In other news, the nipping has gotten better. Lots of distraction and more training, keep his mind active.
I also keep him on a lead at all times now too, seems to have curbed his over-excitement massively.
 
eating poo is very normal I'm afraid. horrid but normal. my 10m old pup still someone eats other poo she finds, but doesn't eat her own anymore (or at least gets it down her without leaving smears or us noticing)
 
So we took Lionel to have his 2nd injection last night and the vet was really pleased with him, said he has a really good coat (we give him 1/4 tsp coconut oil in his lunchtime food), really good teeth (I try to brush these every night before he nods off) and is really looking healthy, she was also really impressed that a 10.5 week old puppy has mastered the sit command (he's taking a little longer to pick up stay but I put that down to youthful exuberance) and fetch as well.

All in all we feel we are doing a good job and it's also refreshing to have that feedback from the vet, nearly got the entire front and back enclosed (just got 2 sets of gates to put up) and then he can run around to his hearts content but so far I've blocked the gap in the front garden and take him out while chatting to next door he's quite happy sniffing around and will also do both a wee and a poo on the lawn which we're really pleased with.

Good to hear you've managed to get on top of his nipping OP, it really can be frustrating when all the want to do is nip (their teeth are like hypodermic needles as well aren't they?) rather than play with their toys and like you I don't want to go down the harsh punishment route.

Nearly 3 weeks we've had him and I really cannot imagine not having a dog now, wish work circumstances would've allowed for one sooner but it was never fair to have one while we were both out of the house for over 9 hours.
 
We took Woody to his new vets for the first time yesterday. He had already had the lepto 2 at 8 weeks but we've upgraded to the lepto 4, so in 1 week he will have full L2 coverage but needs a 2nd L4. He was very well behaved and happy before and after, we asked the vet her opinion on weight and she said he seemed very healthy although we think he should weigh more than 6.8kg at 10 weeks. We'll monitor that.
Nice trick with the coconut oil, he might benefit from that given his long hair, we'll keep it simple for now.

I know what you mean with the feedback though, we're constantly 2nd guessing ourselves. Difficult to try to be consistent in everything we both do when we're struggling to know for sure we're even on the right tracks! He seems to be developing well though, we have 'sit' and 'lie down' mastered, along with 'go to bed'. He knows 'down' too, but often chooses to ignore that one. Stay is proving rather difficult, so food driven, hard to get him to pause. 'Fetch' isn't going so well!

First week or so we let him run loose in the garden, he is always eating grass, leaves, pebbles or pulling tree bark off though so I take him out on the lead now, means I can stop him from pooing and eating it too!
Positive that he's behaving on the lead too. Has he met other dogs to sniff around yet? Woody has been up close to next doors boxer, looking forward to letting them play!
 
NoNameNoNumber said:
First week or so we let him run loose in the garden, he is always eating grass, leaves, pebbles or pulling tree bark off though so I take him out on the lead now, means I can stop him from pooing and eating it too!
Positive that he's behaving on the lead too. Has he met other dogs to sniff around yet? Woody has been up close to next doors boxer, looking forward to letting them play!
Click to expand...

He's seen next doors frenchie and had a little sniff but as he's only just 1 year old he's quite excitable himself so we don't want to force anything yet, we'll be gradually introducing him so he feels less threatened.

I know what you mean about grass and pebbles, he eats so much grass he could be a bloody sheep!! I know it's not bad for them but I always thought they only ate grass when feeling unwell (next doors frenchie eats loads of grass as well still) so I don't know, he does love carrot pieces though and I read somewhere that they are good for teeth as well so that's a bonus as at the moment brushing his teeth consists of me putting toothpaste on my finger and rubbing it around while he's trying to lick it off, I have a little puppy finger brush but he hates that with a passion, I'm slowly trying to introduce it but I guess that everything with puppies patience is a virtue.
 
I've accidently created a bit of a situation that manifested in me getting bitten pretty bloody hard...
Background info
Ever since 8 weeks, we've made him lay down, and wait until we say OK before he gets his food. He goes wild for it though so we've thought it quite important to calm him down. We've also taken his bowl off him mid flow and praised him etc before letting him eat again. He's never reacted adversely once. Never shown any sign of resource guarding.

When playing with his toy, a good game of tug will be mixed by getting him to leave the toy and sit. I'll chuck the toy across the room and say wait and he'll sit patiently until I say OK when he'll charge over and resume the game of tug... so rather reassuringly again, no signs of resource guarding.

Beginning of the week I nipped to the butchers, thought I'd treat him to his first bone.
1st time, he chomped away and loved it, after 10 mins or so, I picked the bone up and walked away. He wanted the bone back, but no issues.

2nd time,(day or two later) I gave him the bone again, this time, after I picked the bone up, he barked, was obviously not over the moon by this and took a good 20 minutes or so to settle.

Today, I gave him the bone, he laid on the grass gnawing way. I went to grab the bone and he was seriously pished. Fiercely barking and clamped onto my arm properly. I was then a ) shocked but b ) had to get the bone off him as a matter of principle.

Knowing I had to be wary I tried several times, he wasn't willing to part with the bone. I resorted to creeping up on him, as he turned to look at me I yanked his lead as I saw the bone wasn't in his mouth. Brains over brawn :D
But yeah... pretty serious situation that needs quashing rather quickly.

Advice?!

Cheers guys :)

http://imgur.com/gallery/QQF4oUj
 
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