Seven months AND STILL NIPPING!!

[Zookeepermom247]

Sophie brings a whole new meaning to being a pest if not exercised enough... she will deliberately get my attention by reaching out and nipping me on my legs to get me to play. I try to ignore but you all know IT HURTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We keep her busy.. yesterday.. boating and swimming in the bay which she loved... she craves so much attention and we give it to her.. we redirect the biting to doing her commands , she is in puppy school, and then we take her out in increments for 15 minutes of hard play throughout the day.. in Florida.. the weather is over 90 degrees and stifling.. even she calls it quits after several minutes of playing... and going for a walk as been restricted to early morning. She gets VERY HOT... and looks exhausted if I try to walk her further... we have a baby pool but thinking of getting a bigger above ground pool... she loves to get wet!! Sophie's mom.. who is black and blue

[Snowshoe]

I wonder if your timing is off? REdirecting might seem like a reward to her. She nips, you do some training which is attention to her. Thus you've essentially rewarded the nipping. That's what I'm getting from the way you wrote it, did I get it wrong?

Redirect is a word I'm not fond of when it comes to dogs. I prefer to direct. Try to pre-empt the nipping by directing to an action first, before the nip happens.

[POPTOP]

While not nipping, Archie likes to mouth me. I use the no bite command. Maybe you could work that in. As Snowshoe said, it has to be timed perfectly.

[charliebbarkin]

Maybe you could try to just startle her? She is used to you ignoring her...I tell you what, we did that method with Charlie and it took forever to train him not to bite. The most effective was probably the lip curl over the canine. But I wonder since she is nipping at your legs maybe you can just abruptly shout really loud. Don't say her name or anything, just sternly yell "hey!". Try it once and see...but it might just backfire and get her more riled up. I know this worked with Charlie though when we were in obedience class and he was having a meltdown, biting at the leash and whining, throwing himself on the floor. The trainer came up and just popped his collar and yelled 'hey!' and he was so startled he just quit acting like a brat.

Good luck. Sounds like she probably just needs more mental exhaustion, and you are doing really great in the physical exercise department.

[barry581]

I use a very loud and sharp "HEY" when Bruce and Sophie get a bit to rough playing bitey face. It pretty much stop the behavior immediately. I never really trained them for it, I think it just startles them and redirects their brain. It maybe worth trying