Inquiring minds wanna know...How are you dealing with the biting/nipping?

[Kerri B. & Zoey]

So Zoey has been home for a week now and has definitely discovered how her mouth works - the biting of the hands, toes, nipping at my pant legs & ankles as I walk has certainly begun (today she has been particularly relentless).  I know this is typical puppy behavior and we have to work though it, but just curious for others here who are dealing with little ones, what are you doing to combat this issue?  Do you feel like it's working?  I have been using a firm "NO BITE" but this only seems to wind her up more and she does not even bat a cute eyelash when I yelp "OUCH".  I can usually distract her with a bully stick, but I swear, she's gonna have to have a bully stick in her mouth every waking second.  I have heard people hear say to ignore them, but not sure how to ignore it and turn my back when she is ripping my pants & drawing blood from my fingers & toes.  Just curious how others are dealing?

[Traci -Bexter & Maggie]

Kerri - I am sorry, but I had to laugh reading this post.  I felt exactly like this the first couple of weeks we had Bexter.  It was crazy!  He would grab onto our pants & not let go.  He would bite our ankles, feet, hands, & butts as we walked.  I was really worried!  I did exactly what you say you're doing - NO BITE ( I would even clamp down on his mouth while saying it) and yelping OUCH (which did no good either - he didn't seem to notice).  My kids would run from him screaming, which of course, made him worse!  I tried the ignoring too.  Honestly, I would either hand him a toy OR just put him in his crate for a while to calm down.  I didn't really feel like anything worked...BUT after a couple of weeks, things just got better on their own.  I believe they will for you as well.  Please hang in there.  It gets better, I PROMISE.

[Cindy M, Zachary & the Frenchies]

I have the exact same issue - Zachary has been home exactly one week agois becoming extremely mouthy. Everytime I stand up I try to grab something to stick into his mouth because chances are better than not that he will go for my pants or shoes. Sometimes i try to get one of the other dogs to distract him, but they are not always willing to be the sacrificial lambs! He is really good with sit - but leave it - not a clue! If I yelp he thinks its a game - if one of the dogs yelps - he backs off. Additionally if he yelps when playing with the other dogs, they back off - maybe my yelp isn't doggy enough :-). Good luck - I will follow this thread with you to find out what others have done.

[kelly ambrose]

We just got our puppy a week ago also and what a week it has been!  When our puppy, Hunter nips we use a water bottle and squirt him.  He really doesn't like it and stops.  We tried the give him something else to chew on to distract him and It didn't work.  He still gets this glimmer in his eye when he is thinking about taking a taste of my foot but as soon as he sees that water bottle he thinks again.

[Kerri B. & Zoey]

Kelly, I forgot about the water bottle trick.  I just might have to try that.  I remembered something about putting pennies in a soda can & shaking it, but I really don't want to start making her fearful or startled by loud noises.  Hmmm...maybe I will run upstairs & grab the water bottle before she wakes up & "attacks" again.  LOL.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Congratulations, you have entered the "land shark" phase!

 

Try withdrawing attention after saying "ouch".  Stand up, fold your arms and stand still.  If this doesn't work - lock yourself in another room for 10-20 seconds.  When you come back, only give her attention if she is being nice.  If she is nice, resume playing!

[shelly]

Hi ladies... you will soon (okay, maybe not that soon - lol) forget this stage.... the water bottle is a great idea and there is also a can of air that does just that... blows air, called Pet convincer.  It's enough to distract them.  Here is a link on amazon.  You can log on under doodlekisses and a percentage of the sale goes to doodlekisses... good luck!

http://www.amazon.com/Pet-Convincer-Training-Tool-Dogs/dp/B004B6HV6A

[Mimi Linna, Lilly and Lolly]

raising my puppy bit arm and hand and fingers...Lilly,the sweet little dog has turned into the bloodsucking plant ..well except the blood sucking part. I have dog toys next to me that I am forever putting in her mouth, she can spit those babies out faster than my kids did with green beans.  I am giving her one more week of getting familar with us and her new home before i start the "no bite". If I stood up each time she bit I would look like I was doing that russian dance..

[Sharee & "Hope" Peterson]

Oh my goodness-i do not feel alone nor like a bad puppy Mommy now. But I got so frustrated I ended up taking Hope to Northfleet Obedience School but thanks to a friend this was an option. I npow have no sweats without bite holes & an arm that looks like Shrapnel wounds-also, the no bite or ounch wound her up too!

[Kathy, Harley & Roxie]

I too chuckled a bit while reading this.  Harley is 6 months now and we were ever so happy to see adult teeth come in because they hurt less!  He is doing better, hubby says he has progressed from biting to "tasting"..a firm no bite and placed in his crate if he is not listening seems to be slowly working.  The screaming "ouch" technique seemed to only worsen the behavior.  We used a can of compressed air that is sold at the pet store and it honestly had the most effect on startling him to stop a behavior.  It cost approx 15.00. Just hard to have the can handy at all times.

[Becka]

Sadie went through a biting phase around 14-17 weeks (I got her at 10 weeks). Mostly it was during playtime, but she would also get pretty vicious if I was trying to make her do something she didn't want to do, and I looked like an abuse victim. I was pretty freaked out by it--to the point that I hired a private trainer even though we were already in puppy school. The trainer wasn't exactly unhelpful, but I found that we just had very different philosophies about a lot of important things. (Also he insulted my neighborhood.) Anyway, I tried everything you're supposed to try: yelping loudly, ignoring her (even shutting myself away from her in the bathroom for a minute), putting bitter apple on my hands. But what I really believe did the trick was taking her to the dog park, which I did as soon as she had all of her shots at 17 weeks. Everything I was unable to teach her about bite inhibition she seemed to learn in about three days from her canine pals. She's almost 6 months old now and I can't remember the last time she did anything even remotely aggressive.

[Leigh & Allie]

Allie is almost 2 years old. I remember this stage well. My vet told me to grab her mouth (kind of pinch her mouth with one finger inside her mouth and one outside her mouth which is very easy because your fingers are probably already there) and say "no bite". You are not "pinching" hard just kind of holding her mouth. She really hated to be held this way and I must say we were over this stage in about a week. Good luck.

[Mimi Linna, Lilly and Lolly]

loved this part" because your fingers are probably already there":)  I will try this with Lilly..okay...so do you hold her bottom part of mouth or top part or muzzle..