Bouts of aggression with puppy

Question
Dear Sarah,

We have an 11 week old female St. Bernard.  Most of the time she is an angel, but every few days or so, she goes into this wild, aggressive frenzy.  It usually beging with her chewing on something that she shouldn't, which we correct by redirecting her attention to a chew toy.  She is in a nipping phase, so sometimes she'll begin that, which we also correct by saying NO BITE and giving her a chew toy.  During her "episodes", however, she is impossible to redirect and beging to nip, chew and run around in a frenzy.  I try to gently restrain her by holding her down, but she gets more worked up.  I don't want to hurt her, and won't hit her, and I don't want to put her in her crate for fear she will view it as punishment and hate the crate. Any advice?

Thanks,
Nicole

Answer
Hi
Hopefully these problems are just a puppy "stage" and she will grow out of them soon enough.
My advice would be the moment she starts to display this behaviour to remove her from the situation.  Normally I would recommend putting her in her crate but since you are reluctant to do this a small room with nothing for her to chew (perhaps a bathroom?) will substitute. Leave her there for five minutes until she has calmed down and then reintegrate her into the family room.
Whatever you do dont give attention to the negative behaviour no matter what kind of attention or this will make the problem worse.  The most effective way of training a dog is to remove all attention and all company as a result of bad behaviour.
Having said that you are going to have to get firmer with her.  St Bernards are big dogs and it would be very dangerous if she reached full size and still thought she was queen of the castle.  The method I normally recommend for stopping puppy biting is to take the pup by the scruff of the neck and give her a firm shake while saying "no bite".  The theory behind this is that this is the way a mother dog would have kept her pups in line, and at 11 weeks she would still be with her mother in an ideal world, large dogs do not reach natural weaning age until almost 6 months or more in some cases.
I would also recommend enrolling in training classes as soon as she is old enough to give you the tools to control her effectively at all times and to get her used to the idea that you give the orders not her.
Hope this helps
Sarah