Fergus is a cute, typical fun loving puppy, curious about the world around him and he loves to play, but recently there was a change in his demeanour.
When playing in the garden apparently quite happy, he would suddenly stop, look at me, then come at me snarling and growling, and lunge at me sinking his teeth into my legs or arms. He may be small, but he is solid and determined and it was so hard to push him away without me getting shredded.
There are examples of the cuts I was receiving on a daily basis below and I began to wonder what I had done. It seemed like I had brought the dog from hell into my house and as it continued and was getting worse, I was becoming a bit depressed at Fergus was sapping away all my energy and enthusiasm.
Below there is a video of me taking refuge on top of the picnic table after Fergus changed into the demon dog. It may seem crazy or even ridiculous since he seems so small, but he was relentless in his efforts to bite me it was scary.
At first I would try to grab him and carry him indoors to put him in his crate, where he would bark, growl and snarl at me, but at least I was safe. It wasn’t always possible to get him inside as his teeth were too difficult to avoid. I was also aware that in trying to save myself I may inadvertently hurt him.
I was at my wits end until I joined a Vizsla forum where I discovered it was apparently normal behaviour for Vizsla puppies. There were a number of threads from other users in despair at their puppies biting behaviour. I had read about Vizslas before I got Fergus, but there was no mention of this important detail.
Experienced Vizsla owners offered a variety of ideas to help combat the behaviour. The idea of distraction using toys dotted around the house or garden didn’t work for me as Fergus was more interested in my limbs. However the suggestion that did work for me was water pistols. I bought four, two small hand pistols and two larger two handed pistols. I had them filled and placed around the garden and when the change occurred, and you could see it, like a switch being flicked on, I would grab a gun and skoosh him. He would stop in his tracks and retreat. Fergus liked water, but not like this, and soon he got the message.
It took some time for this behaviour to stop, usually sometime after he lost his baby teeth, which were like needles and as he began to get older conforming to boundaries. Some people on the forum gave up and gave their puppies back as they found it really hard, but if you can get through it, there’s a really beautiful dog at the other end.
