Puppy biting

[zimmzala]

Well I have a question for all of you out there with more experience than I. That little puppy that was found out in the field turns out to be pure lab. She is getting a little bigger and a little more bold. Here is the problem she constantly wants to bite hands, feet, pants and shorts. I have told my parents to keep a chew toy around them and give her that instead but it doesn't seem to be working. They need to find another way any suggestions? My nephew,6, is now terribly afraid of her because of the biting, which obviously is not good. Thanks

[jpollman]

Sounds like the pup is still pretty young. Doesn't sound out of the ordinary to me. Puppies bite! My next door neighbor brought home a new puppy three weeks ago. He's eleven weeks now and is doing the same thing. I've been over there quite a bit working on a job for them and taking him out now and then when they have to be away. One thing I've done with pups in the past that has helped is that when the pup tries to bite hands while petting or playing, I grab hold of the lower jaw and apply firm pressure to the lower jaw with my thumb. While doing this, I give a very firm "NO BITE" command. I don't do it hard enough to physically hurt the dog but enough pressure so that it knows I mean business. They generally don't like it and will start to squirm and whine a bit. Generally, they stop biting for a bit after I do this. If they start up again, they get the same thing over and over until they get the picture.

Hope this helps.

John

[WeimsRus]

If you found it in a field there is really no way to know the actual age of the pup or the actual amount of time the pup had with litter/dam socialization. There will be many opinions on how to fix this. This is something that is USUALLY taught by it's dam and littermates and the information you provided is limited. Just how serious of a bite is this pup making? Drawing blood, leaving marks that last for a while, or just causing pain because of those needle sharp puppy teeth? It is common for a puppy to "mouth", where it will nip at hands, grab ahold of pant legs, heck I had a litter of 9 that loved to try and pull my socks off. Rofl With litter socialization the pups teach each other that they are getting too aggressive or hurting the other by a high pitched squeel. The Dam will just not put up with this behavior and will "teach" it a lesson by a nip of their own. I don't recommend but know some people that do, who will give the pup a nip of their own when they bite on hands. I normally use a high pitched OUCH, that will cause most pups to back off when nipping at hands. It takes a while, but you will notice less and less pressure when the dog nips and the dog will grow out of this. Pulling at pant legs and socks, you need to redirect this to an approved object like a rope toy. All it wants to do is play, so grab a rope toy and play tug-o-war for a while. Soon it will be bringing that toy to you when it wants to play. Chew toys are great when they are chewing on unaproved objects, but without seeing the behavior. I think this dog just wants to play, expecially with your nephew, and redirection to the proper play toy is all that is needed. Just to add, I will grab the muzzle of an older dog that does nip at hands, apply firm pressure and tell them to "STOP". One word commands work the best. Hope this helps, and enjoy the puppy in your dog. It doesn't last forever.

[RML]

Labs can be kinda mouthy on the hands. It's just when there teeth are sharp at that stage in life it hurts and they are excited to see you. You do not want to be hard on them unless they are showing agressive behavior. You want your lab not to fear a hand. If they fear your hand good luck getting them to retreive to hand. Never hit a retreiver with your hand to disipline use a object re: news paper, 2 liter bottle, wiffle ball bat if they are really thick headed.

Mouthing and slobbering all over your hands are common with retrievers...They may just like the salty taste or the attention they get after. They may use it to identify it is you as well.. Good luck..WeimsRus is on the right track. I often would roll there upper lip against there teeth to release the training dummy with the "give" command.

Clint

[I'm with Brandy]

Please make sure that no one hits the dog when it is biting the pup is playing and has no clue that its teeth are that sharp. All play time with children should be supervised. When the pup bites you should yelp like another puppy might when it gets hurt and tell the pup no bite. Roll him over and gently hold him down and tell him settle when his muscles relax you can let him up. If the pup goes right back to biting its a good time for a time out in the crate. No one should bother the pup while he is in his crate.
One other thing to consider is that your nephew is now afraid of the pup and the pup may be seeing that it has control over your nephew. It is time to be doing some obediance and the nephew should be helping with this training. I would have the pup sit before it can eat. Sit before it can have a treat. Simple things like controlling food shows the pup that you are in charge and not him.
When I was 10 my uncle had a terrior puppy and as soon as it came into the room it would lock on me and chase me and bite at my cloths. The dog sensed that I feared him. once I stopped runing from him and turnd and yelled no at him he never did it again.

[quakattic]

Get a water bottle and spray it every time the pup bites...

[SwampSitter]

Usually around 4 mos. or so it should start to get a lot better with the nipping. Especially if you stay consistent on corrections mentioned above. I was recommended to shy away from any tug-of-war, especially if your training it for upland/waterfowlbecause it may interfere with progress later on. My retriever was a nipping machine and it had our whole family a bit frusterated. We kept at it letting it know we didn't accept that behavior and around 16 weeks it drastically improved. Retrievers often greet you with their mouth, and can be a lot more "mouthy" than other breeds but this is not surprising in just about all puppies. Best of luck with the dog-

[PITBULL]

Bite it back, It will learn.


A firm NO! and a light swat on the behind, Dont forget to award good behavier as well. Puppies bite He should grow out of it.

[tonya0817]

My GSP was horrible with biting. It was never aggressive biting, but because of his sharp teeth, he left a few marks. I tried just about everything. Then I started to notice that he only did it with me and not my boyfriend. I honestly think he thought I was one of his littermates. After about 4 months it got much better.

It's funny, he still has the urge to bite me, but playfully and very excited. So whenever I come home, he knows that I don't like biting, so he always greets me with a toy in his mouth, until he becomes unexcited and then he drops the toy. In fact he even does it when we are outside, sometimes he will search 10 minutes before he finds a toy and then he will greet me. I think that is his was of not biting me but containing his excitement. Which is fine by me, I don't mind be greeted with a toy in his mouth, its actually pretty funny he tries to bark too with it in his mouth and it just comes out all muffled.

[GSP Gal]

Originally Posted by WeimsRus

If you found it in a field there is really no way to know the actual age of the pup or the actual amount of time the pup had with litter/dam socialization. There will be many opinions on how to fix this. This is something that is USUALLY taught by it's dam and littermates and the information you provided is limited. Just how serious of a bite is this pup making? Drawing blood, leaving marks that last for a while, or just causing pain because of those needle sharp puppy teeth? It is common for a puppy to "mouth", where it will nip at hands, grab ahold of pant legs, heck I had a litter of 9 that loved to try and pull my socks off. Rofl With litter socialization the pups teach each other that they are getting too aggressive or hurting the other by a high pitched squeel. The Dam will just not put up with this behavior and will "teach" it a lesson by a nip of their own. I don't recommend but know some people that do, who will give the pup a nip of their own when they bite on hands. I normally use a high pitched OUCH, that will cause most pups to back off when nipping at hands. It takes a while, but you will notice less and less pressure when the dog nips and the dog will grow out of this. Pulling at pant legs and socks, you need to redirect this to an approved object like a rope toy. All it wants to do is play, so grab a rope toy and play tug-o-war for a while. Soon it will be bringing that toy to you when it wants to play. Chew toys are great when they are chewing on unaproved objects, but without seeing the behavior. I think this dog just wants to play, expecially with your nephew, and redirection to the proper play toy is all that is needed. Just to add, I will grab the muzzle of an older dog that does nip at hands, apply firm pressure and tell them to "STOP". One word commands work the best. Hope this helps, and enjoy the puppy in your dog. It doesn't last forever.

Also, the chessie pup I have here for training was excessive with his puppy biting, one of the owners friend was using the "pinch the lower jaw method, and as soon as he was released, he bit harder.

Pups want to play, so take away there play with an ouch, and he/she is likely to stop the behavior. Once and awhile, ouch doesn't work, so get up and walk away from the pup. Notice that you will see older dogs do this with rambuncous pups.....

[zimmzala]

Thanks for all of the responses! I/we have tried pretty much all of them with the exception of getting up and walking away. The thumb on the bottom jaw has worked best for me most of the time; however like you said Sandy sometimes she comes back a little harder! OUCH! Sorry I forgot about age she is, by best guess by the Vet at 14 weeks. Even though I thought what we were doing was about right, I thought I would ask all of you. Thanks again.

[GSP Gal]

I noticed that puppy biting tends to increase when the pups are tired. You can put them in a crate for a nap.

They get fussy like little kids.