my puppy bit me. now what?

Oh, good grief, it's a puppy and you took his food away.

You have some reading to do.

Are you planning on making a habit of taking food away from your dog, literally from his mouth?

Sounds like a great way to create trust....not.

Why do you have a puppy outside by itself?

If where you let him out is not an area overrun with wildlife that have rabies, for myself.I would not worry about it.

Just clean the wound with H2O2 and then soap and water.

But once more that is just my non medical opinion.

You feed the puppy steaks?

Please, please, please see a veterinarian and then look at length online about taking care of dogs.

At this point, you are the problem, in the extreme.

didn't you learn anything from this thread

http://able2know.org/topic/214947-1#post-5336798

Try reading this: http;//www.PuppyTrainingforDummies.com

Don't try to take food away from a hungry puppy again.

He's a baby. You should know better.

Have you tried giving him a good quality canned puppy food? Steak isn't a well balanced diet for a puppy--or for an adult dog either.

This post makes me very sad and frustrated. Clearly you need to be trained about how to train this puppy before it gets older. Your lack of knowledge is not your fault but learning right now is your responsibility. When I was in my teens I had no knowledge of dog psychology either.

Basic feeding instructions and how to handle discipline are critical right now. the longer you wait to learn proper behavior (you and the dog), the deeper the problem and the unhappiness will be.

I suspect your parents might want to be guiding you through this more closely. I'd recommend to you that you find a vet or classes that offer such dog training...ASAP.

If the parents are giving the puppy steaks, it's more that just the poster who needs a clue.

Geez Louise.

I was attempting being diplomatic. I (somewhat) seldom practice that lost art.

I agree. In addition, PinkLipstick needs to become more familiar with the normal stages of puppy development, so she knows what to expect from a 3--4 month old puppy in terms of his behavior and his needs.

And there is so much info available, from books and the internet. And PinkLipstick can find breed specific into for a Beagle.

http://www.beagles.net/beagle-care

http://www.beaglepro.com/Beagle_Puppy_Care.html

And there are Beagle forums.

http://www.ourbeagleworld.com/

http://www.beaglesunlimited.com/forum/

http://mybeagleworld.com/

http://unitedbeagle.freeforums.org/

Personally. I've found the breed-specific forums and books to be very helpful sources for getting and sharing information about my pure-bred dogs--there are breed characteristics, and owners of these breeds can be quite helpful to each other in dealing with aspects of care throughout the dog's life cycle.

I don't know how much prior experience PinkLipstick has had raising a puppy, but, since all puppies are also individuals, outside sources of good information are always helpful in terms of providing tips to deal with problems like nipping, excessive barking, jumping on people, refusal to eat puppy food, etc. I'm raising my 4th puppy now, so I have lots of puppy experience, but I don't always remember how I successfully dealt with the problems I had with my last puppy 15 years ago. So, I'm constantly searching out tips, hints, and advice, and I look for those that make the most sense to me, given what I do know about puppies and training them.

PinkLipstick should seek out all the info she can on puppy care, puppy developmental stages, puppy health and feeding, puppy behavior, and puppy training, and she should keep seeking it out until she feels confident about meeting all of her responsibilities as a dog owner, and confident in her ability to raise a happy, healthy, well-behaved dog, and confident that she is on the right track with her puppy, based on the positive results she is getting. No one is born knowing these things, but we owe it to our dogs to learn as much as we can about them.

He's just a puppy. Relax and take it easy.

The most important question right now is: have you had all your shots? If you don't have immunity to tetanus and rabies, getting it should be the highest priority in your life. (I sometimes exaggerate for rhetorical effect; now is not one of those times.)

Besides that, there's a second lesson that I suggest you learn from this. To dogs, food is not just about nutrition; it is also a powerful motivator. Giving your dog treats is hard to beat for a reward. Conversely, dogs will feel punished when you take food away from them. For example, back in Germany where I come from, this is a standard punishment in obedience training: Whenever a dog starts eating without permission, the owner takes the food away, makes the dog sit, places the food in front of the dog, and sees if the dog waits for permission the next time. (Repeat until it works.) It's not the only way to train a dog, but the results seem about the same as the ones they get in America, judging by the dogs I have met in both countries. Hence, unlike most other respondents, I am not aghast because of what you did.

BUT: You need to be aware that to take food away from dogs is to punish them. It's imperative that you know why you punish your dog when you do it. If you punish your dog arbitrarily, you'll end up with an unhappy, neurotic, ill-behaved dog.You don't want that. So if you have to take food away from your dog, know when to do it, and do it systematically.

Are you really suggesting she get rabies shots because her 14 week old puppy bit her? Come on. Where's the evidence the pup is rabid? How could the pup acquire rabies without her being aware of it?

Even getting tetanus from a puppy bite is a real stretch unless it was a deep puncture wound and the puppy had been gnawing on metal before he bit her. I don't think 14 week old Beagle puppies normally carry tetanus bacteria.

Like all wounds, a puppy bite should be thoroughly washed and cleansed just to prevent infection. But the chances of having any serious problems from it are slim. I just went through life with a 14 week old puppy, who sometimes broke my skin just with his normal playing and mouthing, without actually really biting me at all, and I'm still in one piece.

But, if she hasn't had a tetanus booster in the past 5 or so years, she could consider getting one, or discussing it with her doctor, just for her general protection in the future.

Her puppy hadn't eaten in 5 hours, so he was really hungry, since puppies that age need at least 3 meals a day, and he understandably didn't want his food taken from him. When she gave him another steak a little while later, and tried to take it away, he let her, and showed no aggression about it, because he wasn't starving.

She needs to teach him to "give" because, in the future, he may have something in his mouth she must take away from him, because it might harm him, or because it's something she doesn't want him to destroy.

She's got a lot of training to do with this puppy, and it all takes time and lots of patience, the puppy is still very young, and PinkLipsick doesn't seem to know much about puppies. From what she said in another thread, this puppy may not be getting a proper diet either. Why she tried to take his steak away from him, before he bit her, isn't clear, but why would she even think he'd just let her take it if he was starving? Why would she want to do that to him? I really hope she takes the time to learn more about puppies and how to care for them.

Hello, Lipstick? Hearing echo.

Yes. And tetanus shots.

So explain why you think she needs to go through a series of painful rabies injections.

Do you know of many cases where someone has acquired rabies from their own asymptomatic 14 week old puppy?

She doesn't need to go through a series of painful injections because rabies shots are not particularly painful these days. I know because got some about 10 years ago. They're basically just shots. I think PinkLipstick should go through the rabies and tetanus shots because both diseases are excruciating, and at least rabies is potentially lethal. A couple of needle pricks in the arm plus a hundred dollars or two is easily worthwile for prevention.


The 14-week-old puppy part is irrelevant. There will be future bites.

I agree with both your answers, except for the rabies shots. They're usually only suggested for animal control officers. I do understand you're not suggesting a course of treatment as if she had been bitten by a possibly rabid dog.