I should preface by saying I’ve had really bad luck with dogs who have had severe behavioral issues (aggression towards other animals, severe anxiety/fearful towards strangers) in the past, though they’ve all been rescues.
We just got a puppy. She’s almost 10 weeks old. Got her from a farm (accidental litter), met the mom (sweet, calm, social) didn’t meet the dad but was told he was goofy/nice. She’s a Rottweiler/old English sheepdog mix.
She is smart, learning tricks, good with my other pets, etc. We are starting puppy classes in a few weeks when she’s 12 weeks old (post 2nd round vaccinations).
She hasn’t really met any other animals besides my dog and cat. She has met some friends/family, we have taken her on car rides, and today we decided to take her to the farmers market (held her the whole time) to see if her mom was there because that’s where we originally met her. She was pretty nervous and shaking at first so I removed her from the crowded area and got some treats out. I introduced her to two people we know and she was shaking, so again, got some treats and they backed away for a second. She warmed up, stopped shaking, and was eating treats from them. One of the people was holding her paw gently and puppy barked a pretty good “warning” and scared the woman. Almost looked like she wanted to bite the woman but didn’t. I felt bad but figured puppy was overstimulated and was like “okay, time to go”. On our way out, we met another family who had a puppy from the same litter, and they said their pup is super sweet and good, no behavior concerns.
Our girl also had some issues with growling when we/friends picked her up the first week or so we had her. We haven’t really let friends pick her up since, but we do occasionally need to grab her to help with the stairs (she doesn’t like to go down), or to help her on/off the couch or bed. She doesn’t growl much at us any more unless she’s overstimulated and we are interrupting her doing something she wants to be doing, but it still scares me when she does.
Besides the growling/barking, she does have a crazy side (biting/being a general spaz) that comes out at the end of the day that I’ve attributed is most likely her being overtired. We have a hard time getting her to take naps because she hasn’t loved the crate but are working on it. She sleeps good over night in the crate at least.
Overall I’m just looking for some validation that we aren’t royally fucking her up, she’s going to be ok, and that these are somewhat normal/typical puppy behaviors? I feel really worried about having a large breed dog that’s in any way aggressive or a bite risk. My other dog is extremely fearful and we can’t have a lot of guests over and can’t do a lot of “normal” dog things with him, but at least I can pick him up and am not worried about him hurting me. I can’t imagine having another reactive/aggressive dog to worry about. Also have never had a puppy this young to know what’s normal or not normal.
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