Aggressive Puppy Biting

[Erin & Maizey]

Hi Everyone,

I know this topic has been covered ad nauseum here and I have read as many posts as I could find on it, but I was writing to see if there were any other suggestions.  After a little bit of puppy bliss, Maizey is now 11.5 weeks and will not stop attacking me as if I was a giant chew toy.  I have tried:

• yelping
• growling (this worked for a little while, now nada)
• clamping mouth shut
• saying no bite
• i tried that stick fist in her mouth thing but she bit me hard
• replacing with other toy (she gets distracted for about a minute)
• trying to do a training session working on sit/down/etc. (she willl start biting when we stop)
• time outs (worked for a little while, now she's started chewing the molding in bathroom where I put her)
• doing that thing where you kind of pop them over and hold the scruff of their neck
• letting her mouth my arm until it hurts then saying no but then she starts to clamp even harder
• turning my back (this is the worst bc then she attacks my backside)
• leaving the room (I can't leave her unsupervised for too long and when I come back she resumes biting me)

She has ripped holes in several of my clothes and I'm covered in scrapes and cuts.  I'm at my wit's end and it really hurts.  She has a gazillion chew toys, both soft and hard and bully sticks and all sorts of other dog appropriate things.  Why does she insist on attacking me?  What am I doing wrong?  We go to puppy manners class once a week and she's a superstar there and behaves properly and follows commands really well and everything.  We practice what we learned at puppy class and she does great at home with it but as soon as we stop, she morphs into satan's spawn.  I'm just really frustrated and she's making me not to be around her!  I try to bend over to pick up a toy to toss it for her to chase and she tries to bite my head, hand, arm, shoulder, etc.  She's totally out of control at times and its hard to even grab her collar to take her to a time out because she starts writhing and snapping and biting and barking.  Why won't she listen to me?  I feel like I'm clearly doing something wrong.

Are there any other ideas out there?  Is there a way to fast forward to the part where she's a normal sweet fun playful dog?  Any ideas on how long this phase lasts?  It is a phase, right?!?! Is this normal puppy behavior?  Everything I've read suggests that one of these methods eventually works... All the methods work for a little while but then she just ignores it.  There's an end in sight right?  Please?  I'm so scraped up.  :(   

Any advice would be much appreciated.  I'm just trying to teach her the right stuff and help her become a happy dog but this biting thing has got to stop (plus she's already 17.5 lbs so I'm worried that when she gets bigger it will just be a disaster). 

Thank you in advance!!!

[Barbara O'Brien]

I noticed that many have mentioned bully sticks for chewing. I have a 12 week old puppy who's great usually...until I gave her a bully stick to try. She turned into a different dog immediately. She was aggressively guarding and just wild, when she's usually well behaved. Maybe the bully sticks bring out a wild streak. I threw it away.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

I can't get over how much your post reminds me of myself with Sophie a little over a year ago. Boy am I glad that phase is over. I'm also glad you got the help you needed!