[X-post from /r/dogs] Is this normal for a 3.5-month old puppy? (Fear, Biting, etc)

[thespacebetween2]

Okay, so I'm starting to get concerned. We adopted a rescue about a month ago, and have been working hard to socialize him. I'm starting to get scared that we may have overplayed our hand.

• He is suddenly scared of a lot of things that did not use to be scary. Air conditioners on the street can overwhelm him, doors to new places are scary, and even turning the corner into our hallway consistently terrifies him (until he's passed the turn). A lot of these things did not use to be problematic. Isn't 3.5 months too early to go into a fear period? What's happening here?
• He runs after strangers hoping they'll greet him. He thinks they all want to pet him, and he just goes at them the moment they make eye contact. We may have inadvertedly done this. We used to let him be pet by strangers, but have not been allowing this as of lately. How do we calm him down? Do we just wait it out or is there something we can do?
• After a stranger has pet him, or he has greeted a neighborhood dog, he zooms around nipping at our clothes and calves. I'd have thought that by this time this wouldn't be a problem. We're considering a spray bottle to discourage nipping.
• I tried to focus him on me the other day as another dog approached. He bit me and drew quite a bit of blood. He did not growl or bare teeth, but he held on to the back of my hand as I pulled out (hence the bleeding).
• We are working on leash pulling. He either drags us back or forth. He has some beagle in his mix, so I'm pretty sure he's ovewhelmed by the smells, but he will not walk next to us for more than 15 seconds.

Are these behaviors normal? I'm particularly concerned about the fear issue given his age. He was extremely nippy a few weeks back, and that worried us, but now we're starting to get worried that some of these behaviors may be permanent or that we may have truly fucked up.

 

[beginagain]

@thespacebetween2 Yep. This is entirely normal and is known as the Fear Imprinting stage. This varies between dogs and breeds but anywhere between about 10 and 20 wks is on course. Your puppy is going through a time when he is naturally much more easy to scare and is learning what's right an wrong to be scared of. The trick is to teach him that all these things are wrong to be scared of.

When he gets scared of things remember he is looking to you to see how you react to them. Don't fuss him or reassure him (he will view this as confirmation his fear is right). Just be obvious that you are not scared - laughing out loud and saying things like 'scared of the corner pup? it's just a silly old corner' can help. You'll feel like a fool but it also does force your body language and demeanour to reflect that you are not scared. Don't let him avoid things he is scared of. Pick him up and carry him by them if you need to (rather than drag him).

Still allow strangers to pet him - it's good for him. Just don't allow them to chase him and if he nips or behaves badly then stop the petting and remove him.

Nipping is fixed by teaching him that nipping never gets him any attention. When you are out and about he should be on a leash so work as a tag team and have someone lead him away from whoever he is nipping. In the house, say "oh!" or "ouch!" in a loud, bright voice and then push a chew into his mouth and ignore him. Turn your back and no eye contact for about a minute. If he persists with the nipping despite this (I expect him will at first) then walk off.
No attention for nipping, lots of attention when he doesn't

When a dog approaches him, use treats to divert his attention and keep him focussed on you.

Keep up the leash work and don't expect him to get it for a while yet. At 3 months he is still very young and I wouldn't expect him to behave on a lead for at least another 3 months or so yet. Some pups do 'get it' earlier than that but most take 6-12 months or so.

Remember that you've not fucked up. You cannot socialise too much - it's great for the dog and the right thing to do. It's just that puppy training isn't a smooth upward curve where the dog gets a little better every day. While he's learning he's also maturing and going through all the internal stuff that goes with that which makes training more like '2 steps forward, 1 step back'. Just like with children who are little angels as babies, a pita as toddlers, angels again as young children, frustrating as hell as teenagers and finally understandable as adults.

Keep calm, focus on rewarding all the good stuff and making sure your pup doesn't get any reward for the bad stuff and he will come good.