Sweet 4 month JRT with weird behavior Behaviour

Hi everyone, this is my first post at the forum and I'm currently seeking advice: either from other JRT owners or people who had faced this before with any other puppy. So here's the whole story:

Context: We own a JRT puppy named Nuno, who's now 4 months old. We adopted him a month ago! He's extremely obedient, smart, and willing to please us continuosly. As any other pup at his age, he's very energetic and still trying to find out where he fits in the family and what are the boundaries ! As I work from home, I give plenty of affection, cuddles, training sessions, playtime, fetch sessions, etc., He still can't go out for walks because he just took his last vaccine, so next week we'll start exploring the neighborhood!

You can check some videos of his training stuff here:

Sitting Pretty:


Play Dead:


Issue: Sometimes Nuno barks and nips and pulls my pants and growls. He often bites my arms, legs, or whatever is available at the moment, and he already made holes in a bunch of pants and some bruises and scars on my arms hands and legs. While we train him often to inhibt his bite (let him get tired of biting and start licking, then get a treat), he still presents this obnoxious behavior. He often presents this behavior when we're leaving the room he's in, or not giving him attention at the moment or when he wants to play. I understand it's difficult for puppies to be really aggressive and this is a way to interact with the world and other littermates/ humans/ etc., but this is not an acceptable way to engage & play.

Whenever that happens, we try to turn our backs at him and move away to another room or something, but he doesn't quit: he still chases us and keeps biting and barking and whenever he stops I turn back to him, tell him to do a look at me-sit-lie down-treat-praise combo, so he understands he can get my affection/attention when he's quiet and not in that crazy way. I recorded a bit of how the whole thing looks like:



Question: I'm not sure this is helping, although I feel some slight change in the lenght of the behavior and that he often stops earlier. I also tend to foresee when it's about to happen and induce him to enter the sit-lie down-look at me state so he doesn't go frantic. Anyone has any idea if this works, have you had any experience with this issue before, any other specific advice? Thanks for reading and/or writing a response!

Best,

Midio

You need to stop this immediately, I had my trousers ripped and my leg bitten by an 8 week old Parson Russell but trust me he never did it again. He knew by my tone that was a major mistake not to be repeated. There is n way on earth I would stand there and let him yank my clothes around like that. Jacks mature quickly and all you're doing is saying his behaviour is ok and it's not. Teach him leave it, never mind sitting pretty your priorities are skewed

I tried every measure already, from raising the tone of voice or hold him by the scruff (gently) or timeouts etc, but he still repeats this behavior from time to time and honestly I'm not seeing another way to get the control of the situation. He also knows how to leave and drop stuff, but he simply won't respond in situations like this.

Oh so you figured out how to teach sit pretty but you haven't sussed "Leave it" one of the basics. Far more important than any trick. He's not responding because he's having fun and you're not stopping him, he's a terrier he's smart, he's fast and his teeth can kill. Tell him to sit and stay when you leave the room, do not allow him to follow you, if he gets up tell him Ah Ah Sit and keep doing it till he gets it. At this age hes a sponge, sucking it up but so far he's sucked up that he's in control not you.

Thanks again for the reply, Trouble! We keep reinforcing the basics every day "drop it"/ "leave it"/ "stay"/ "come"/ "look at me"/ "ah ah/ no" "sit" "lie down" in many different situations, and he pays attention and do as we ask.

I have the feeling he keeps testing me whenever he tries to grab my pants like that, and trust me when I say I try to reinforce the basics whenever that happens, but he simply won't listen in this particular situation. I even thought for a second that as I work from home and he has me nearby all the time, the thought of me moving away might be something he doesn't like. Any thoughts about this hypothesis or some other training I could do?

I have 6 JRT's & unfortunately you are rewarding his "bad behavior" by giving him attention when he nips bite your trousers.

Just stop, seriously if he's practising every day then he's not doing very well at all is he? Leave it means exactly as it says, not sometimes but always. Would you still be making excuses if it was a kid he was yanking around like that. Get real he'll be fully grown at 8 months. He can do play dead but not leave it? you shouldn't even be teaching play dead and sit pretty if he can't master leave it, give, drop it, stop etc etc.

So he knows stay, extend the time he stays for, tell him to stay before you leave the room, make sure he stays there till you return. Simples.

Whatever method you choose you must be persistent, when he bites or pulls at your trousers give a sharp leave or No ,he must learn that NO means NO tell him to sit, if he does so gently praise as not to get him excited, if he continues to bite leave the room or put him in another room you could put a baby gate up if you want to keep an eye on him, leave him for a couple of minutes till he’s calm. Repeat process as necessary

@Midio "We own a JRT puppy named Nuno, who's now 4 months old - He still can't go out for walks because he just took his last vaccine"

Can't understand why he's not had his last injection earlier as at 16 weeks old he should be going out for walkies already, as puppies have their first injection around 8/9 weeks & their 2nd injection around 10/11 weeks old.

I know from first hand experience that JRT's need to taught basic commands & not tricks during their first 9 months of their lives, they are also very good at getting their own way specially if they have been 'molly coddle' during their first few weeks of you owning them.

I had my first JRT nearly 9 years ago & my 2nd JRT 8 years ago, when they went on their first walkies at 12 weeks old, I was able to let them off their leads on the park because of the "basic training" I did with them from day one I had them, Recall was the first command they learnt, the 2nd command was No/Leave, then it was wait/stay, finally it was sit/down, I did the same with their hooligans by the time they were 12 weeks old they knew when I said NO/LEAVE it meant just that & if they continued I would put them in time out (empty room or garden on their own) they soon realize I was the one that was in charge not them.

JRT's need a firm but gentle hand when it comes to training & rewarding only good behaviour not bad behaviour.

It might be human nature to dwell on the nice bits but society demands your dog be well trained in the basics before mixing in Public. At 4 months a dog that practices leave it on a daily basis should not be grabbing and tugging on trouser legs. The owner appears to ignore this behaviour while stating they have tried everything. Ignore a Jack at your own peril is all I can say, they are feisty, determined little oikes and need boundaries. I love Jacks they are fab dogs when trained properly and know their boundaries. Left to their own devices they can be the worst behaved dogs around.

SMALL DOG SYNDROME

@Midio Just be careful that your pup don't end up with small dog syndrome

What is small dog syndrome :
Small dog syndrome is when a small dog decides they are taking the lead role in a household. This might include jumping up on you or your guests, not obeying commands, marking territory inside and outside, barking constantly, chewing, and any other bad dog behaviour they can get away with. And this is where the problem of small dog syndrome originates – whatever they can get away with, which is usually a lot. Small dogs compensate for their size by acting big and tough when they feel intimidated, nervous, upset, threatened or afraid.

I don't think Midio is from the UK, so it's possible that they may have a different vaccination programme there.

Janet surely at 16 weeks the pup should be going walkies regardless where he lives.

Ideally yes. But I just wondered if by law the puppy had to have a rabies shot for example it might not be able to go out at the same age as ours in the UK.

But I don't know - I'm just making it up as I go along!

Could be I will have to ask Malka how old Tikva will be whe she has her rabbies vaccination x

Rabies vaccine can be given from 12 weeks of age, then 4 week after.

Thanks Jackie x

Rabies vaccination here cannot be given until four weeks after the final puppy vaccinations. Only one rabies shot is necessary but another shot is mandatory each year after that.