Puppy biting!

[Halcyon]

8. YELP

This method involves making a sudden, high pitched yelp when pup bites. The yelp imitates the cry that a littermate would make when the play gets too rough and the bite gets too hard. When done effectively, this stops play and the pup that cries will leave and take a break.

[Halcyon]

9. GAG/APPLY PRESSURE

Both these methods are similar so I grouped them together. Gagging involves pushing a fist down pup’s throat with a stern, “no bite.” Applying pressure involves pressing a finger down onto pup’s tongue with a stern, “no bite.”

Note: these methods are not intended to harm but to make pup feel uncomfortable.

Do not overdo it.

[Halcyon]

10. ASK FOR HELP

Enrol you and your pup in puppy preschool. Most of the time, training is for you! If you find a good class and trainer, the trainer will teach you how to teach your puppy. If you got your pup from a reputable breeder, ask your breeder for help!

Remember, they are dog owners too and have raised many pups over the years. They have experience and knowledge to guide you through this phase. With us, our breeder gave us lots of moral support and much needed encouragement and reassurance that we were doing things right and just needed to stick to it.

Your vet may be able to help as well.

[Halcyon]

11. GET OFF THE FLOOR

It’s tempting to get down onto the floor to play and interact with your pup. However, you might find that this often riles them up. The solution? Get off the floor! Try crouching or sitting on a chair so you can easily stand up if pup gets too rowdy.

[Halcyon]

12. CHANGE YOUR MINDSET

I know, I know. It is so hard to stop voicing or thinking, “I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!” whenever you see or feel as if you are forced to interact with your horrible pup. You have to realise that pup is still just a baby and does not know what you want from him or her.

You may have to repeat it a hundred times or even ten thousand before you finally see that pup is just beginning to grasp the idea that biting is not okay. Consistency is the key! Don’t make the same mistake as I did and cycle through each method for day and get frustrated with him not knowing that I do not appreciate the biting.

Afterwards, it might take another thousand until pup knows that biting people is not okay!

Pick a method or two and stick to it! I cannot stress this enough. Over time, you will see improvement. Bobby was a dreadful, tear inducing biter for MONTHS. He was at his worst at 12-16 weeks. Absolutely horrible.

If you feel stressed out and frustrated, put pup in crate and take a short break. Dogs are very in tune to our body language and you are doing no favours by expressing your frustration. Go and enjoy a slice of cake, an ice-cream, a coffee and listen to some calming music. Give pup a frozen Kong to occupy himself with. This should give you an hour of peace. When you feel ready, go back out and face the music!

THINGS WILL GET BETTER! This too shall pass.

No matter how it feels today, nothing lasts forever.

Puppyhood can be a challenge but enjoy it as much as you can. They grow up so fast and you will find that time will race by and before you know it, you will be lounging with your greying Lab and wondering where the time has gone. When the time comes, you will give an arm and a leg to do this all over again.

Remember, patience, consistency, love and time is the key to surviving puppyhood. You get back the amount of effort you put in. Come vent to us. We know.

And with that, I will leave you with a quote from Marley and Me by John Grogan:

“A dog has no use for fancy cars or big homes or designer clothes. Status symbols mean nothing to him. A waterlogged stick will do just fine. A dog judges others not by their colour or creed or class but by who they are inside. A dog doesn’t care if you are rich or poor, educated or illiterate, clever or dull. Give him your heart and he will give you his.”

[kimbersmom]

Great advice above! I first came to this board because of Kimber's biting. I wanted to take her to the vet because I was sure this couldn't be normal. One other reason her biting may have been so intense is that we got her at 7 weeks, rather than the recommended 8 weeks. Puppies can learn a lot about bite inhibition from their litter mates in that extra week. Without that experience, *we* were the litter mates and I have the scars to prove it.

[DodgyLookingBird]

I'll play too We had a fairly easy time with bite inhibition training. Our girl only ever put her teeth on me, which was great because my little guys were 4 and not yet 2 when we brought her home. SHe never went for my husband either. Lucky me?

I used the lip curl method, redirection and lots and lots of nap time to get us through. I primarily used the lip curl, simply because with my little guys I needed her to learn quickly. Once she seemed to really get that teeth and skin do not go together, handing her a toy saying "chew this" seemed to do the trick. I stay home, so it got to be pretty easy to tell when it time for a nap. She'd get jumpy and snappy and start trying to play rough (charging, chasing, and snapping at t-shirts) with the boys- her general nature is calm and laid back so seeing these behaviors let me know it was time for a snooze. Pop her in crate and lights out.

We only played on the floor under certain conditions- she had to be in calm mode, if the boys were on the floor so were we and the boys had to be standing at all times. No rough play with hands ever (even still and she is just about 7 months), no tug of war (and never the boys).

We were big on treating for doing nothing! If our pup was laying calmly on the floor, playing quietly with a toy, watching the cats calmly, etc she would get treats from above. SOmetimes just a kibble or two, sometimes a kibble jackpot. I still do this- can't go wrong reinforcing quiet, calm behavior.

Even with a calm easy puppy, be prepared for marks, holes and pain. I rarely got nipped at, but those teeth and nails are like RAZORS and it seemed like our girl's mouth was ALWAYS open. Those little scrapes and scratches hurt so bad- man! Even just her grabbing a treat too enthusiastically was cause for unpleasant pain ( we worked on that alot too). We always wore our scrubby hobo house/playclothes. Gaping excited puppy mouth = holes & rips.

Our pup is almost 7 months and has decided to try and communicate a little more with her mouth again, so we are back to working on some basics.

I will say even though we have what I consider to be a very easy puppy, it has not been without challenges, frustrations and a little bit of pain.

[Labradorks]

Great advice and I think Halcyon covered all the bases well!

[MightyThor]

Now that Thor is nearing the end of this stage, his biting is much more infrequent than it used to be. It's also gentler. What I find works best with him now, at 5 months old, is to distract him with a short round of tricks. His sit, down, shake, and rollovers are super solid, so when he starts getting nippy and jumpy I'll give him a strong 'SIT' command and suddenly he'll switch over to the happy aim-to-please mode and start cycling through his tricks.

I think that in general, one training trick we started early on (learned in puppy kindergarten) was to get him really wound up to the point of the zoomies, then suddenly stop all play and go into his solid commands like SIT. The idea was that we learn how to snap him out of a crazy frenzy with a simple command. We've done it with tug games, chase games, retrieve games, etc. Suddenly all play will stop and we go into super serious training mode for a few seconds before releasing him to play again. Repeat over and over again. He can switch gears immediately. This has been a HUGE help when he gets all bitey and jumpy.

[CraftHer]

I think that in general, one training trick we started early on (learned in puppy kindergarten) was to get him really wound up to the point of the zoomies, then suddenly stop all play and go into his solid commands like SIT. The idea was that we learn how to snap him out of a crazy frenzy with a simple command.

I haven't heard this one before, this is great.

Mocha will cycle through his tricks when he thinks it'll get him a treat

I'll also put Mocha is a sit/stay and say "Zen", then I take a deep breath and close my eyes for a second. I'm not sure if it calms him, but it sure helps me