Bitting.

[Sherri Mazursky]

How do I break this painful habit?  My hands look terrible, My kids have both been bitten pretty good.

They don't like being around her now and are afraid of her. I know that she is just playing, but enough is enough. I try the yelping at her, but she just comes in for more. she is very snappy.

help.

[Melissa Bissell]

One other strategy that worked with my 12 year old.  I had him hold treats in his fist and put his hand right up to Hugo's nose and say kisses, kisses over and over and as soon as Hugo kissed he would give him a treat, we click train also, so click and treat.  If he was biting the hand would go away and then we would try again.  This worked very well and now he kisses my son all over all the time.  He will lie on the ground with Hugo and Hugo kisses him all over his face and ears - it is adorable!  I advise you to do it yourself before having any children do it so the puppy is accustomed to understanding what the game is.  But it really helped with bonding with my son and our puppy.  Good luck!

[Michele Kiss]

Does she have a lot of socialisation with other puppies? From the first weekend we brought Fenway home we took him to "puppy socials" - basically they run around like little nuts for an hour, jump on each other, and bite and play. Our trainer told us that it teaches them bite inhibition because when they bite unfairly, the other puppy will stop playing with them, so they learn what NOT to do. If she doesn't have a lot of opportunities like that, it might be a good way to have other puppies teach her appropriate behaviour? 

Apart from that, never playing with her with bare hands (only a toy, so she grabs at that) can help avoid "hand aggression." We also find Fenway is more mouthy and bitey when he is hungry... so definitely make sure she's not hungry because it will probably take two steps backwards... 

[Cheryl and Finnegan]

Michele, Finnegan's name was almost Fenway.  My son lived in Boston at the time near Fenway Park and we loved going there.  Love the name :)

[Michele Kiss]

Hehe thank you! Fenway's daddy is (his words!) a "born and raised Masshole" and a mad Sox fan! (Season ticket holder, and all.) We moved from Boston to the Bay Area in January, so he was guaranteed to be either "Fenway" or "Boston" :-)   He has a Red Sox collar, leash, t-shirt and all!