Ouch, biting!

[ChicKstA]

Hello! My name is Marie, me and my boyfriend just got an 8 week old puppy (I will post more about me and the dog soon in the introducing forum). She is a black lab and bernese mountain dog mix. We got her on saturday and starting to train her. She is doing well for a puppy, already sitting down, giving the paw, and whining at the door to go potty. We also started crate training. Everything is going pretty smoothly except the biting! We try to teach her to chew on toys instead of our hands and feet but it doesnt seem to work very well. When she grabs a hold of your shirt of pant, she will pull and not let go untill you force her strong jaws open. (She is very strong for a pup and has razor sharp teeth!)



Does anyone have any suggestions?? Help would be greatly apreciated!! Thanks!!!

[dollface]

Welcome and congrats on your new addition

She will be mouthy due to her breed, labs are known for being mouthy...

1) What I would do is tell her No Bite and stop all play all together, just ignore her for a bit. No fun playing on your own.

2) Have a special toy that comes out at play time and when she goes to mouth say No Bite and give her the toy and praise her.

3) You can also put bitter apple on your hands, the taste alone should deter her, and also say No bite as well.

4) When those have failed I have also put my hand around their muzzle and said No Bite, I have put my thumb on the tongue and pressed Not hard just a lil pressure and said No Bite...



Remember to always praise/treat when she does good. Do not play rough with her, that will only encourage her to be more mouthy... I hope you have alot of chew toys for teething, dogs love to chew...

Good luck

[calgal]

I'm going thru similar things with my 5 month old Yorkie. She loves to bite the hands when she is in a playful mood and your trying to just pet her. She doesn't bite the clothes though. All puppies do this and it gets worse till they get in all their adult teeth. They would continue biting even after this if they are not corrected when they start doing it. When Zada wants to bite I say no, then totally walk away from her for awhile. She has started to realize biting isn't fun. Her training is paying off.

[dollface]

I forgot to add that you can make a yip noise real loud when she goes to bite, sometimes that works as well

[Carrie]

In my experience, removing ALL attention works best. Speaking, yelping, touching, looking at them....is ALL attention. They sometimes don't know that you're correcting them. They can misconstrue yelping or holding their muzzles with your playing with them.... after all, you're interacting with them, aren't you? (I know that the yelping does work for some) but, I think that if you just get up, walk away....end all playtime, all attention is the quickest way to show them that there will be no fun, no interaction with you what so ever, when they engage in a behavior you don't like. That's the ultimate removal of a payoff. Then...give them a suitable chew toy and praise them big time for chewing on that. Anytime you interact with your dog and he isn't biting, be absolutely sure to remember to praise him calmly. Give affection, attention, play a game. Give a treat. But be calm. Exciteability can make them get too rambunctious again and bite. If he bites again, repeat the above at once. If you have to, seperate yourself from your dog for a little bit. Show him that you won't play by his rules.

[ChicKstA]

Chloe is still bitting. Im trying my best to make her stop but everytime we play, she gets a hold of my hand or my clothes and pulls on it. She is getting strong fast and im starting to get impatient. When will it end!?

[Lil'Paws]

Originally Posted by ChicKstA

Chloe is still bitting. Im trying my best to make her stop but everytime we play, she gets a hold of my hand or my clothes and pulls on it. She is getting strong fast and im starting to get impatient. When will it end!?

It will take time. Be cosistent with the method you choose. Don't go back and forth between methods or it may confuse the pup.
I had a Golden once and it took some time to get him not to bite.
(nip at my heel) OUCH those baby teeth hurt. But, hang in there.

[dollface]

Your pup is still a baby, it will take some time maybe a couple of months. Stick to one training method and go from there. They taste everything and chew on everything. Do you have chew bones for your puppy?

[ChicKstA]

Yeah I have lots of things for her to chew on. Later today I started something new. I would walk fast buy her, step over her, touch her and her toys while she was playing\chewing, and when she would nip at my hands or legs i'dd tell her "eee-nough!" in a growling, firm tone. It seemed to work after doing it continuesly for 30 mins. I think im getting somewhere! Thanks!

[Kathy74]

We're kind of going through this with Marlee, but have almost gotten the problem licked, I think. When she tries to grab for attention, or if she's just being "crazy puppy", I yip, fold my arms and turn away. After a moment, I turn around, and she's sitting, waiting for play to continue. I offer my hand and say "nice", if she grabs, we do it again, if she licks my hand, she gets praised like CRAZY and play can continue. Good luck and congrats on your beautiful new pup!

[rescuechihuahuaowner]

I suggest what we did with my dog Abby anyway, was it sounds kinda cruel, but it didnt hurt her at all, was we put lemon juice in a spray bottle and sprayed a little but in her mouth. She HATED the taste. After that she never bit anyone again. Sadly she recently died of cancer. RIP Abby!

[apprehensive5]

I'm a 9 week old puppy owner, and going though a similar situation, my question is, after he bites, how long do you not give him any attention? Like a few minutes? or longer?

[Pippinislove]

When my dog would teeth me as a pup I would say "Stop!" and then ignore him for a good two or three minutes and allow him to calm down, then start over. If he ever got TOO riled up (which never did happen) I would have left the room completely and ignored him for longer. He came to associate that putting his teeth to flesh meant a verbal correction and the end of the game.

[FurSuccess]

Want to end the nipping NOW?
I know that it probably is a little too "old school" for all of you, but hear me out.
YOU MUST BITE HER.
Not hard. Don't rip her open or anything like that. Just pick her up when she nips, and bite her behind the ear on the neck just hard enough to make her yelp. And be careful because it usually doesn't take very much....its not the pain or force, its the actual action of biting the pup that makes it understand that its simply not an acceptable way to play.
Don't ignore the pup when it bites...trust me. I can tell you hours of stories about this "ignore the bad stuff" has resulted in multiple serious issues in dogs.

PLEASE email or PM me for anything else you might have concerns about...

My husband trains and breeds Shepherds and Dobes for Drug Detection and Police Work, and is a obedience genius... we have a waiting list for people who want their dogs trained the RIGHT way. He makes training easy for the dog to understand, and fun for the owner too!
AGAIN, PLEASE TRUST ME ON THIS ONE...THIS IS BASED ON MANY YEARS HEARTBREAK AND EXPERIENCE

[logo]

the "three nips rule" is a good one to follow. on the first nip, say no nip! or something so the pup understands you are unhappy. ignore her for 30 secs - 1 min, then try again. if the pup starts behaving, praise her. if she nips again, repeat. on the third nip, you need to take more action.

when puppies get out of control (excessive nipping), i usually pick then up from under the shoulders and hold them in the air until they settle. the sensation of hanging and the lack of control the puppy has usually makes it settle down rather quickly. so when the pup nips, pick her up, look at her, tell her to "settle," wait for her to calm down, then put her in her crate for 5-10 mins, completely ignoring her, and try again. praise her for being a good pup when she comes out.

and always be sure to praise when she is playing like you want her to play. praise is just as important as correction, esp for little puppies.

puppies are a LOT of work, dont kid yourself. its going to take a lot of time and consistency on your part to get her to stop. but i promise, she will improve.

i dont personally like the idea of biting a puppy... it is not how i plan to discipline her later, so i think its inconsistent to do that.