3 month old lab/blue lacey mix female

Question
She is running up behind my husband and I in house or in yard and hitting with nose, biting clothing.  Our vet says this is dominance problem.  Need Helo!!  How to stop her forever from doing this

Answer
Hi Pam,

As your vet suggested, your puppy  may be testing your willingness to submit to its expressions of dominance.

You should be avoiding playing games such as tug of war, chasing, wrestling because they encourage uncontrolled behavior, and often lead to aggressive outbursts.  Any interaction that teaches your puppy any form of aggression toward people should be avoided!

Rather than rough play that teaches aggression or dominance, you need to concentrate on activities and  play that teach obedience skills. Make a game of retrieving objects ("fetch"), for example, it's a good opportunity to assert YOUR dominance and to command obedience. Give the command to "come" as the puppy returns to you, then "sit" and "stay" after your puppy returns to you. To teach it to release the object on command, gently pry the object from its mouth and say "drop it" or "let go."

You can read how to start to get your puppy under control here:

http://www.cpvh.com/Articles/35.html

http://www.perfectpaws.com/whytr.html

If you've never trained a puppy, it can be very difficult to learn how to do it just by reading about it. You need training as much as your puppy does. Your dog is the perfect age to be enrolled in a "puppy kindergarten" obedience class. Your puppy will learn to obey, and you will learn how to control your puppy. Time is of the essence. The longer your puppy's bad behavior goes on, the harder it will be to correct.

Best of luck,

Patti