Goes crazy

What do you do/how do you control the situation when your 11 week old goes troppo? By troppo I mean running around which we can handle easily however the biting is very aggressive and she is out of control.

It usually lasts about 10 to 15 mins.

We try and give her toys, cardboard what ever is in our reach.

We can settle her for a bit by going over the sit, drop, roll over routine with treats but as soon as that stops the rampage starts up again.

She bit the wife that hard and fast tonight the cat even jumped off the lounge and started to scratch the dogs head to make her let go...Anyway any suggestions for me?

Hi, I'm by no means an expert but I had the same problem with my Bella. We started to shout a loud 'Ouch', which gradually began to work. We also put a toy in place of the hand, finger etc. With perseverance she has now stopped doing this.
Staffys have mega sharp teeth!!
Hope this helps

sometimes, over excitement can be caused by an intolerance to certain things in food/treats. the biting isn't aggressive, it's just that she 'loses control' and doesn't realise that she's hurting you.

Laura's advice is good, or you can also ignore her totally until she calms down, and then give her praise.

I've had a similar topic on the forum about Luna and the replies really helped me. Here is what i did after following the advice i received:

- first using treats i tried to teach her what "no" means - showed her treats and said "no" when she tried to grab them.... "good girl" when it's ok for her to grab them
- kept using "no" whenever she did something that i did not agree with so she started learning that "no" means stop
- biting means playing for the puppy but it can be painful - whenever she bit me too hard i would say "no" and "good girl" if she stops
- whenever she tried biting i gave her a toy instead
- if after saying no and giving her a toy she would insist on biting it is very important to stop playing with her, i would simply look the other way, cross my arms, even walk out of the room for a minute (this is the best advice i got from here and worked like a charm)

For the excitement and running around:

- even if they are so small they seem to have a lot of energy which needs to be consumed somehow
- fetch seems to be a very good method as it's fun and energy consuming
- filled kong toys seem to keep them busy and having fun - i use the kong toy when she has too much energy and i don't have the time to play with her

After following all these steps it took Luna probably a week to learn ... she is not biting so much or if she is she is doing it a lot more softly. When she seems to have too much energy i play fetch with her and do some training.

At night she goes crazy - does laps in the house and starts digging in her crate - this usually means she is getting ready to go to sleep (i guess she is just burning the remaining energy)...does this for 2-3 minutes then she goes to sleep.

Takes a lot of patience but it does get a lot better.

Staffie 'zoomies' are much talked about on here. I think it's a way of burning that remaining energy.

I'd be inclined to let your dog have his mad few minutes but if there is at nipping do as is suggested above.

I find Betty calms down more quickly from her zoomie attack if I don't intervene.

I think quietmind has summarised it nicely! The only things I'd change/add, are to use a word other than 'no' that means 'stop playing'. We use 'no' a lot and having various meanings to one word can be confusing for a dog. I use 'enough'.

I would also say that you should practise 'enough' at times other than when Rosie gets carried away. High excitement is not a good time for learning, so teach 'enough' when she's only playing a little - you can then even reward her stopping by allowing her to play again - and build up to being able to stop a game whatever the state of excitement.

And don't worry, you'll get there! I think just about every staffy puppy owner has been though this, and we've all come out the other end.

You have got to love the zoomies!
Bonnie still has them but no longer bites - she literally runs laps around the room and dives on and off the sofa.
When she was smaller and was biting, I would ignore her or leave the room whilst she got it out of her system.
I promise you, it does get better. I never thought the biting and nipping would stop but it does eventually.

Just remember, puppies explore the world with their mouths, they don't have hands like us so they use their mouths. Although it may seem like aggression it's just a puppy being a puppy!

As others have said, this crazy running around is nicknamed 'zoomies' and occurs in loads of dogs, it's honestly so fun to watch (well it will be when your puppy stops mouthing!)

When your pup starts mouthing/biting re direct her with a toy, what quietmind said is great advice.

Puppies need to be tired out both mentally and physically so gave your pup things to do such as getting food out of a kong, hide some treats around the room and let your puppy sniff them out, teach tricks and obedience etc.

Hope this helps!