Puppy biting

[Sharon & Levi]

Anyone have a good remedy for puppy biting?
 I have tried everything.,

[Deanna & Desi & Cori]

Sedona's training advised us not to try to eliminate biting altogether; rather, she said we needed to help her "calibrate" the strengths of her bites.  If she was "mouthing" gently, we allowed it to continue.  If she used too much pressure, we'd yelped loudly, like a dog would do.  If she returned to appropriate mouthing, the play would go on.  Too much pressure again, we'd yelp more loudly and discontinue the playing.  Sedona "got it" very quickly.  The thinking is that dogs who were "calibrated" as puppies are far less apt to ever bite too hard as adults, even in stressful situations

[Alli and Barkley]

Barkley has started nipping us/clothes especially in the morning (not a full bite though, more mouthing and playing)- I am sure you have tried this but here is what we try to do

 

1) Redirect with a dog toy- we have learned to constantly have them on us.  If he starts nipping at our shoes, etc we just push the dog toy in his mouth

 

2) If he does it to the kids we have taught my son to stand up, turn his back, and cross his hands

 

3) If he does it to me, I yelp and he so far has immediately backed off, and then comes back to lick me.

 

 

[Sharon & Levi]

Thank you- I have tried all of that. Now he bites for attention, hopefully he will outgrow this soon !

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Hi Sharon.  You should join Puppy Madness if you have not already. That group has many discussions on this.

 

We had a slight problem with Peri biting, but screaming and fake crying each time and physically leaving the room left her wondering "why did they leave"????  She eventually figured it out (I would say by 5 months or so she had stopped that behavior).

[Adina P]

Hi Sharon, I second the recommendation to join the Puppy Madness group.  The topic of puppy biting or puppy nipping has been discussed lots and if you use the search box in the group to search for "nipping" or "biting" you'll find a plethora of past discussions.  That's not to say you can't ask the question, but it would help a lot to look at the suggestions others have gotten.

 

As to YOUR particular case, can you tell us more about your puppy.  How old is he/she?  How long have you had him?  Are there certain times or ways he bites?  And what is the 'everything' you've tried so far and what was the puppy's response at THAT moment to those particular things you've tried?

 

 

[Taylor & Huff]

Put bitter apple of vinegar on your hands then when she tries to bite it will deter her.

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

We went through this so much with Chloe and thought it would never end! We tried the yelping and it worked for a little while, then it was a game to her, We tried the toy redirecting and allways gave her something proper to chew on. She had me in tears so many nights, she would not stop-even got my face a few times. We tried bitter apple and she liked it-vinegar worked better. She did outgrow it though at the time it felt like forever. Hang in there!!

[Kathryn collns]

Poor you! Milo was a horror for about 3 weeks after we brought him home. It was like we had brought home a furry psychotic crocodile! I blame the fact that he was quarantined with kennel cough for 5 weeks in the pet store kennels before we could bring him home. Anyway, once home he was so excited to be outside a cage, that if we were in the room he was nipping us! I had to wear jeans, trainers and taekwondo pads under my jeans to do the washing up as I was covered in bruises! The whole yelping and ignore thing made him bite us even more and harder! We did a variety of things which over time helped:

 

1. If we were playing, I would say "no bite" firmly and walk out of the room (in my case I would hurdle the baby gate on the kitchen with Milo in hot pursuit nipping at my ankles). I would then turn my back on him at the baby gate holding the toy we were playing with before the nipping got too out of control. After about one minute I would go back in and play again. If we did this 4 times then I would walk away from the kitchen leaving him alone for about 5 minutes. I couldn't have him follow me around the house because he would just be biting all the time. I had to crate him if I was away from the kitchen for more then 5 minutes. 

2. I found he loved greek yoghurt and I would put it on my hands and say 'lick" at every lick and "good boy" when he licked the yoghurt. Then when he was biting I would say "lick". This has not made him into a very "licky" dog as I did wonder if I was going to replace all those nips with licks!

He did get better slowly. He is now 8 months old and he still mouths my husband and son during rough play, but never nipping or biting. He rarely mouths me because I would put him in his crate.

 

Good luck with your new doodle, it will get better over time!

[Sharon & Levi]

The trainer told me to grab his snout and growl St him loud while touching his nose with your teeth. It works. The look on his face us priceless 

[Tracey and Alfie]

Furry psychotic crocodile - so funny!!! My Alfie is a piranha. But it is not funny when it is happening. I just wish he wouldn't do it to my 8 year old who desperately wants to play with him but usually lasts less than 5 mins before high tailing out of the baby gate away from him!!!

[Jenny & Henry]

I have been there the past 8 weeks and from all I have read...this is a puppy phase they will grow out of, just remain consistent on teaching him no bite and he should grow out of it sooner then later.  Henry is 16 weeks now and we have been very consistent with "NO" to biting, redirecting, time outs.  He is MUCH improved, still biting but he is now responding to the NO when we say it and I can see he is getting this is not appropriate.  Hoping a few more weeks. 

 

Makes me wonder if this will really stop when the new teeth come in?

[Lorraine Bromley]

I have said no bite sharply with anger and then pressed a finger or thumb into and down on the tongue. this works really well for pups that nip on your hands when playing. I also used the strategy of having Neely hold a toy in his mouth while we played so he didn't play nip on pants and parts! If he gets to wild even now at 2 just tossing his head can catch a tooth on a leg or arm so I say get a toy or ball and then we continue with our attack play. Usually muzzle poking and wrestling.