How To Stop Puppy From Biteing.

[whitka]

My 8 week old puppy is always trying to bite our fingers, hands, arms, toes, feet, legs, face and anything else she can get her mouth on. She also likes to grap onto our pants and shirts.

How can we stop her doing this as she is getting very rough.

[charli73]

Hi Whitka,

You have a few options with mouthing... Depends which one works for you and which one you feel comfortable with...

You could growl and do the boss grip thing, by holding your hand over the pups mouth until he stops wriggling and then release...

or you could put something on your hands that tastes terrible and works as a deterrent like vicks, maybe others will have other suggestions?

Another is to simply put your hands behind your back or in your pockets and ignore the dog...

I can only think of these ones, our german shepherd mouths to get attention so we ignore her, but the boss grip was the only one that worked for us...and tickling her toungue which isnt pleasant, that stops her pretty quickly....

Good luck, Im sure others will have more suggestions for you....

Edited December 14, 2008 by charli73

[fainty_girl]

I posted a similar thread about my 8-9 month old puppy play biting, and it was suggested that I try making a yelp sound when my puppy play bit me. This has been working well .

Good luck.

[Kelpie_Pup]

Good suggestions charli We tried the growling and boss grip thing with our dog, which worked momentarily.. after that, she just got more excited and confident

May I suggest something that worked for us?

Firstly-biting and mouthing at this age is totally normal behaviour for puppies-although we don't like it and they must learn that it is NOT acceptable behaviour..As even though it may not hurt alot now, by the time they are 6 months old, they will have stronger jaws and the potential to do more harm.

Keep in mind that it is our job to TEACH them that its not ok to chew/bite these things and that we need to TEACH them what is acceptable to chew/bite.. they don't automatically know this difference. Negative response for undesired behaviour and positive response for positive behaviour-which sometimes we forget.

We did this.. Halle would mouth/bite/nip .. we "OOWWW"ed in a highpitched yelp.. somewhat like another puppy would do if it was bitten too hard during play.. this is, after all, what the puppy is doing. We stopped play immediately and turned our back on her, or even walked away but still in her sight with our back to her. We left her for 30 secs-much longer than that and she forgets why we left and she goes off to do something else. We then went back to play with her.. we always had a TOY for her to play with and praised her when she used the toy as opposed to hands/ clothes .. offering her only our hands pretty much limited her play toys to our hands.. by giving her a toy to play with always meant she had an acceptable option other than our hands/feet etc. We would repeat it 3 times if necessary-if it got to that- as repetition is the key here-after that, we would stop play for good. if she continued, we would put her in her crate and shut the door.. She obvoiusly needed to calm down. If youdon't have a crate, perhaps a pen or restricted area away from people. After min. 5mins, we would let her out and take her outside to toilet-makes sense after playing and being confined.

Halle did this for a good few weeks, but she gradually started biting less and less. Basically, let your puppy know that that kind of behaviour isnt acceptable with people, but remember to teach her what is.. kongs stuffed with treats or rope toys soaked in chicken stock and frozen worked a "treat" for us

[charli73]

Good suggestions charli We tried the growling and boss grip thing with our dog, which worked momentarily.. after that, she just got more excited and confident

May I suggest something that worked for us?

Firstly-biting and mouthing at this age is totally normal behaviour for puppies-although we don't like it and they must learn that it is NOT acceptable behaviour..As even though it may not hurt alot now, by the time they are 6 months old, they will have stronger jaws and the potential to do more harm.

Keep in mind that it is our job to TEACH them that its not ok to chew/bite these things and that we need to TEACH them what is acceptable to chew/bite.. they don't automatically know this difference. Negative response for undesired behaviour and positive response for positive behaviour-which sometimes we forget.

We did this.. Halle would mouth/bite/nip .. we "OOWWW"ed in a highpitched yelp.. somewhat like another puppy would do if it was bitten too hard during play.. this is, after all, what the puppy is doing. We stopped play immediately and turned our back on her, or even walked away but still in her sight with our back to her. We left her for 30 secs-much longer than that and she forgets why we left and she goes off to do something else. We then went back to play with her.. we always had a TOY for her to play with and praised her when she used the toy as opposed to hands/ clothes .. offering her only our hands pretty much limited her play toys to our hands.. by giving her a toy to play with always meant she had an acceptable option other than our hands/feet etc. We would repeat it 3 times if necessary-if it got to that- as repetition is the key here-after that, we would stop play for good. if she continued, we would put her in her crate and shut the door.. She obvoiusly needed to calm down. If youdon't have a crate, perhaps a pen or restricted area away from people. After min. 5mins, we would let her out and take her outside to toilet-makes sense after playing and being confined.

Halle did this for a good few weeks, but she gradually started biting less and less. Basically, let your puppy know that that kind of behaviour isnt acceptable with people, but remember to teach her what is.. kongs stuffed with treats or rope toys soaked in chicken stock and frozen worked a "treat" for us

We tried the high pitched yelp too but this just made our pup more excited... Doh! and then she tilted her head and kept on mouthing..

[luvsdogs]

This is the way I would teach a puppy that biting hurts.

http://www.dogstardaily.com/puppy-biting

Then read the pdf article.

[TerraNik]

I had a look at that PDF and that's how we taught our two pups. It has worked well!

[Dogsfevr]

The first thingto remember is its often what humans do that encourage it in the first place.What seems cute & funny at that moment suddenly ends with the pup doing something we dont like so all "people" must make sure there not encouraging it & making it seem acceptable.

Its only 8 weeks & most likley had it a few days if that.You are its new pup & play toy.Give pup some consistancy in right from wrong & in no time it will understand whats acceptable but dont rush it ,be patient.

Our place just gets a simple no

[whitka]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions