When does the biting STOP?

[Megan]

Okay, I am fedddd up with this biting crap. I feel like I've tried everything and Brooks will not stop biting when he is excited. It's still the same puppy bite from before, but he's 7 months old and I thought it would have ceased by now. I feel like I've tried everything from yelping, ignoring, spraying him with bitter apple in the mouth and closing his mouth and sternly yelling NO BITE. It is only when he's in that "mood" - but its annoying because when people come over, he gets excited and wants to just put his teeth on them. Will it stop as he gets older? I feel like it got better at 5 months and now its BACK! My arm is NOT a chew toy! Help!

[Stella]

I think your son needs to establish his role as 'superior' to the dog before he ges down on the floor with him. On the floor, your puppy probably thinks of your son as a play buddy and this is why he is behaving this way. My husband sits on the floor a lot, while I sit on the couch. Both dogs think he is there purely for them to play with, while I am "the boss"!!!! Once Thomas accepts your son as his superior, it may be easier for him to play nicely with him.
PS: I found spraying Bitter Apple on my clothes helped when things got desperate!!!

[jamiegirl]

I have been a member of DK for several months but I am new to this group. Seeing that I am not the only one with this problem gives me some relief about the experience that I am having. My right thigh tonight is full of bruises of varying colors because of my puppy biting. She's 5 months old and she has her adult teeth in. The vet says that she lost her puppy teeth quite early so I was hopeful that she would have gotten rid of the biting early, too. It didn't turn out that way. I think that she sees me as a litter mate - when I try to "claim" an object as mine, she seems to think that I am asking her to play with me as she would jump and nip to try and get it from me. I laughed at the entries of your puppies latching on to your legs when you try and ignore or leave them because that is exactly what she'll do. That tactic never seemed to work for me. I'm running low on tactics so I hope this stops soon.

[Adrianne Matzkin]

I laugh when I read about the nipping - my DH has a hole a in his bathrobe the size of a honeydew melon from Samantha's puppy days!! I can honestly say that she did grow out of it but not after she jumped up on me, grabbed my gardening work shirt that I stole from DH and put a hole in it the size of a softball. We did the scream 'you hurt me' and sent her to a timeout. I honestly don't remember how long it took for her to stop the jump and nip game but she did. It does end!

[Megan]

When did Samantha grow out of this you think? Brooks is 7 months now and we have good and bad days and Brooks def. knows she is not supposed to put his teeth on skin, but he just doesssss...he loves to put his teeth on me..and doesn't bite, just presses lightly...especially when he is excited. We are trying to stay patient and keep on the training and consistency. He was like an angel this weekend..we had guests and everything...then boom...the last two nights he's been the tasmanian devil dog!

[Debbie and Thomas]

Hi meg, My dog is 7 mths old also. His moutiness has slowed down a bit but he still paws, jumps and bites for attention to play with him. Especially my son,EVERYTIME he sits down to watch some TV, the dog is all over him It is really getting annoying. Especially this week(he was neutered Friday morning) because we have has to curtail his activities. That in itself is a joke-He is bounding around like a loon and his stitches are perfect. I am seriously thinking of buying one of those dog trainer devices. It is a handheld converter like thing that emits a high frequency sound that only they can hear. Apparently it makes them stop their naughty behaviour. They also have ones that shock them-but I'll leave that as a last resot.LOL I have jeard that this nipping snd biting can last in dogs over 1 year old. Mine was a vampire as a puppy-once the nipping started-ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch was one of our most common words.

[Jackie L'Heureux]

spencer almost never does it at 5 months, but still does it at times--but his trainer says when he does he is punch drunk [over-stimulated] and needs a time out [crate] and if he keeps doing it--it is end of day and he is done. getting him to reduce never worked by negative stuff--he only saw it as a game and came back with more play-biting--he only reduced it by me leaving him immediately. that other stuff made it worse. you can say ouch--but you have to leave right away. they can't stand it.

[Debbie and Thomas]

At 5 mths, he almost never did this either. I guess he has regressed. Everything you said is the same for us. Leave the room and ignore bad behaviour. But at 7 mths-he has decided to try it all again. it's like he has forgotten the last 5 MONTHS of continuous training. Others on this site tell me that their dogs were the same-they call it adolescence!! I am told they will grow out of this stage as they did the others. This neutering (last Friday morning) hasn't helped because he is not allowed to go to the dog park-and when he runs there-he is the best behaved dog. Happy and tired.

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

AHhhhh! Doodles!!! We all love them, but they do have their days. If you read throught the discussions on doodle kisses about doodle "Bad" behavior the two recurring items are jumping and mouthing or "biting" when they greet people. Both seem pretty hard to stop. Roo is about twenty months and over the mouthing 99% of the time. Jumping is much much better. Now my 12 month old Tigger has returned to mouthing and never really stopped jumping. Hang in there - it does stop! What helped with the mouthing with Roo is to teach him to get his "bone" a large zogoflex rubber bone ( they call it a hurley) that he loves because we play fetch with it. This is not so great with Tigger, because although he knows how to fetch and will play fetch, he is not as keen on it as Roo. They other thing that works with them is to give them each a stuffed kong or a bully stick when people other than family come in. Family just have to guts it out! I have tried everything also - even had a trainer come to the house, that lasted about four days. I got volunteers to ring the doorbell to reinforce sitting and waiting and greeting nice after the trainer came, but apparently doodles are smart enought to tell a plant from a real visitor. The end is Tigger is still a pain, Roo is pretty good, would be better if Tigger weren't so nutty right now. Be patient and know that you are not alone.

[Jackie L'Heureux]

Whoa--here's the other piece of bad news. I have serious joint problems, even though I look completely normal, because I was in a serious car accident in 2000, so I have been really dilligent about training. I will really get hurt if Spencer pulls or he knocks me down, etc. But here's the deal--I can train him perfectly--but if I think something is locked in and don't keep the training up--even something as simple as racing to me when he hears 'hear'' about six weeks later he doesn't do it anymore! Now a few days of wedding it to treats cements it again. But smart or not--skipping that five minutes a day of training and it goes away. And I won't be able to keep him if I don't keep up the training. Jackie

[Susie Vetter]

I have the same problem with my Jersey. I can be walking her calmly down the street and suddenly she will jump up and go for my derriere.  Always in front of people on the street I might add.  I do just ignore her and she quits in a few seconds I think that is the really hard, but effective way to do it. If she starts acting up in public when we are sitting in a patio dining or something or visiting friend, I always have her chew bone and hold one end while she gnaws on the other end.  At home when she acts up, I mean biting and nipping, barking etc I put her in a dark bathroom, close the door and wait ten minutes.  then I just open the door...let her walk out and do not give her any special attention. Just go about my business and she seems to get the message. It does calm her down. Hopefully this will all go away in time. She is only 5.5 months.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

You don't need to wait quite so long - 30 second will be long enough.  That way also - if she does calm down, then her reward can be to continue playing.  If you wait too long, then even if she does calm down there is no reward for the good behavior.

 

The way we did it is instead of locking the dog away, we locked ourselves away.  Basically taking away her favorite "toy" for 20-30 seconds, then only resuming attention if she was being nice.

[Melody & Bruin]

I will try it again...in the meantime you google search correcting aggressive puppy behavior and click on the ehow website - that is how I found it.