Biting help?

[awick14]

Omg she's so cute!!

When we got our puppy he was the same way. We just kept up with holding him in a submissive position, and yelping like a hurt puppy. It took a few weeks and he finally started to stop biting.

He still bites once and a while when DH gets him worked up, but its so much better now then it was. (He only bites hands now, so you know it's coming more lol)

Sorry that wasn't as much help as I thought it would be.

[charlatti]

I would try to start NILIF training -- if you google you'll get a ton of links. It stands for Nothing in Life is Free and it works well for almost all dogs (submission techniques can backfire in a lot of dogs, from what I understand). I don't know if any of the old Pets board folks are still around, but they all used to recommend NILIF. In short, you start teaching the puppy that he has to do something to get anything -- sit for attention from you, sit for food, sit for playtime, etc. -- which helps him learn the pack order.

[patches31709]

First - Cesar Milan is an idiot - don't hold your dog in a submissive position, you aren't helping anything.

If she bites you, exclaim "OWW!!" and that's it for play time. Ignore her.

And like the previous poster mentioned, definitely look into NILIF.

[setsail1999]

Yeah, definitely wouldn't "pin" or hold. Mouthing and nipping is normal puppy behavior. Just do the "ouch!" or "yip!" in a high pitched voice, get up and separate yourself. Once she settles down, go back in all happy and repeat if she starts nipping again. Usually they learn bite inhibition from their littermates around this age so it isn't about the dog being "dominate", it is just normal behavior. Like others said about NILIF would be a good idea, basically you are teaching them how to interact with you and teaches them boundaries.

You are right that you don't want to use the crate as punishment but sometimes you can use it for timeouts when they get overstimulated. Just calmly and high pitched ask them to go in or throw in a treat and give them a few minutes to relax. Once they relax, open the door and praise them for coming out. It helps them to learn how collect themselves and helps with impulse control. In this situation a baby gate would be great, when she gets mouthy you can leave and see when she calms down. Ignoring is usually the best way to extinguish a behavior but there will be something called an extinction burst where the dog will escalate their negative behavior because they don't understand why it no longer gets them attention. Just be patient and correct the negative behavior by ignoring her and rewarding postive behavior with praise, attention, play time etc.

[Deleted]

When she bites I would yell OW and walk away immediately. Are you encouraging her to be mouthy to her toys instead of your hands? Big rewards when she takes a toy from you with her mouth instead of putting her mouth on you.

[sebd12]

I would start very short walks, just don't let her interact with other dogs or eat poop while you are out.
Luckily this is pretty normal and she should grow out of it.
And I don't recommend it for everyone, but we had a dire "no-teeth-on-skin" situation with our puppy (young children visiting while in the biting stage, yipping and ignoring wasn't working) and a gentle bop on the nose was enough of a deterrent to get him to stop almost immediately. (Accompanied with a "yip" and done at the same time as the biting behavior). But some people don't believe in spanking and that is fine.
Also not a solution for everyone, but you'd be amazed at the difference a second puppy makes.
Will she fetch or search for hidden treats under cups? I'm trying to think of some mentally-engaging activities that might get her attention off of nibbling you.

[patches31709]

Stick with it! Did you say she's 9 weeks and and you've had her 2 weeks - so she's been away from her mother since she was at least 7 weeks old, if not sooner? It really is kind of early, so she probably didn't finish learning bite inhibition yet so unfortunately you guys are going to have to teach her.

[fiddles]

Our puppy did this as well. We immediately gave him a toy to teach him what he could bite. After a week or two he stopped.

from my phone yo!

[boomkiss]

We are going thru this exact same thing with our 8 1/2 week old puppy.  We are trying the suggestions in the book that our vet gave us.  It says play biting in puppyhood is a normal behavior, but it needs to be modified so that the puppy does not harm anyone.  Techniques to manage biting in puppies:

• Avoid aggressive play (wrestling, tug of war) 
  
• Keep your fingers curled when playing with your puppy
  
• Supervise play between children and puppies so that your puppy won't learn to dominate the child.
  
• When your puppy bites, make a high pitched sound (yip, ouch).  This is similar to the sound puppies use when hey are bitten by a litter mate. I have to say this step didn't work for us, it make her more excited, lol.
  
• Use time out (only 5 to 10 minutes).  Time outs should not be done in the dog's crate as you never want a negative association with the crate. Instead use a bathorrom or spare bedroom for time outs.  Often simply ignoring he puppy during this time is enough. We got a cheap gate from Walmart, $10.00 and put it in the bathroom doorway off the kitchen. This worked the best tonight, she hated being in there alone and cried and cried, when we brought her out she was much better.  This will probably take several times before they finally "get it".   
  
• Use gentle leader head collar.  Not sure what this is but the manual said they would provide us with more info on this training technique, your vet office probably knows about this as well. 
  
• When puppy is biting, redirect him/her to appropriate toys (Kong toy, gumma bone, toys stuffed with food. 
  

Good luck!  I know one of these methods will work, the key is consistency.  Puppies are exhausting, I know that for a fact!  LOL!

[redheadbaker]

Apr 26, 2013 22:35:21 GMT -5 boomkiss said:

We are going thru this exact same thing with our 8 1/2 week old puppy.  We are trying the suggestions in the book that our vet gave us.  It says play biting in puppyhood is a normal behavior, but it needs to be modified so that the puppy does not harm anyone.  Techniques to manage biting in puppies:

• Avoid aggressive play (wrestling, tug of war) 
  
• Keep your fingers curled when playing with your puppy
  
• Supervise play between children and puppies so that your puppy won't learn to dominate the child.
  
• When your puppy bites, make a high pitched sound (yip, ouch).  This is similar to the sound puppies use when hey are bitten by a litter mate. I have to say this step didn't work for us, it make her more excited, lol.
  
• Use time out (only 5 to 10 minutes).  Time outs should not be done in the dog's crate as you never want a negative association with the crate. Instead use a bathorrom or spare bedroom for time outs.  Often simply ignoring he puppy during this time is enough. We got a cheap gate from Walmart, $10.00 and put it in the bathroom doorway off the kitchen. This worked the best tonight, she hated being in there alone and cried and cried, when we brought her out she was much better.  This will probably take several times before they finally "get it".   
  
• Use gentle leader head collar.  Not sure what this is but the manual said they would provide us with more info on this training technique, your vet office probably knows about this as well. 
  
• When puppy is biting, redirect him/her to appropriate toys (Kong toy, gumma bone, toys stuffed with food. 
  

Good luck!  I know one of these methods will work, the key is consistency.  Puppies are exhausting, I know that for a fact!  LOL!

I would've thrown that sheet out when I got to the third bullet. Dogs are not trying to dominate people. At least the rest of the advice sounds good, though.