First off, I want to give you guys an update with Diesel's behavior and I am currently doing.
I am going to go into a bit of history for those who are new to this forum so they are up to date. Diesel is an American Pitbull Terrier Mix. He's mother was Red Nose and father is unknown. (This was an oops litter if you want to call it that.) I tend to think of it as an irresponsible litter.
His mother was taken away from him and his syblings when they were about 6 going to 7 weeks old. Owners have been trying to ween them without mother's milk. Because of three bites, the police put her down with a bullet. (It is how dogs are dealt with around here.) The owner managed to find homes for the puppies and decided to keep one, a black and white male puppy.
I'm not sure how it happened, (meaning I dont' know if someone told her to do this and it will just fall right off or if she was doing it because she didn't want to pay for the process by the vet.) She put a rubber band around his tail in an attempt to 'dock' his tail. (I didn't know this until I was asked to puppy sit while she goes to her boyfriend's mom's funeral.) When she told me that, she asked to puppy sit and I agreed. I spend a day puppy proofing my house and when he game over, I didn't notice his tail until he squeeled like I had hurted him when I touched his tail during play. I also noticed his tail was constantly wet and I thought when he was sleeping on me, he peed in his sleep. I decided to flip him over and that was when I saw this huge gash in his tail and his loving puppy smell was mixed in with dying meat smell. I couldn't take the black object away and we dont' have a vet clinic 24/7. (the vet comes into town every month or every other month.) Luckily he had came the week I was puppy sitting and the vet had to dock his tail because he had no feeling in the rest of it and no chance of saving his tail. He did say this puppy was luck that I caught this and that he was in town during this time. Because the puppy could have suffered far worse from getting infections and a slow death.
Before that, he was playful, but not as the normal full energy play. He did a lot of sleeping and because his mother was taken away too early, he has developed food inhailing especially in the morning. I've put him on a four meals a day with 1/4 cup each. so, that is the update so far.
After his surgery, he has a lot more energy now and when he gets really worked up during play, he gets bite aggressive. (Biting anything around him.) I'm thinking this has to do with his constant pain for maybe more than two weeks of his tail and now that the pain is minimum to none, he's taking it out on anything around him. I'm worried because if I don't correct this behavior, he may end up being an aggressive dog right? So, that is one problem.
The other problem is now that he is about 8 weeks old, I've been trying to train him with simple basic obedience. (Because he does a lot of lunging to the hand, I've decided to take the opportunity to turn that bad behavior into good one.) I simply tell him 'touch' with my palm open and infront of him. He touches his nose to it and I reward him. (that is where the other problem arrises.) After he knows or realizes I have treats, he will whine and climb on my knees and when I ignore this, he whines more and attempts to climb on my legs to get the treat and that is it for training.
So, my question is, will Diesel's wanting to bite anything aggressivally end up being an aggressive dog as he gets older and how can I change this behavor now while he is still young? If I don't tackle this now, if and when I get him handed over to me, I'm going to have a hard time placing him in a forever home.
Secondly, how can I break him of this always wanting food? Should I keep ignoring him if not, how can I correct this?
I know it will be hard without knowing his father's breed, but from what I can gather of the most dogs around here are german shepherds, black, yellow labs, golden retrievers, alaskan huskies, weener type dogs or any of these mixes together.
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