I'm At Whit's End With Puppy Biting!

[joey13]

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad :mad :mad :mad

I have a 13 week old Bull Terrier Miniature! She has been with us since 8 weeks old!

I am really really struggling with the puppy biting! no matter what I do, she just doesn't seem to get it.

I've tried the high pithced 'ouch', time out and removing myself from the room, light tap/flick on the nose...everything my puppy school has taught...doesn't matter what I do, she just keep doing it. She is so high energry it's almost like she is possessed. She will jump up at my face, grab my ankles, my hands, my wrists, my shoes my pants...EVERYTHING! It's so frustrating.

My 5 yo cannot play with her let alone touch/pat her because she just goes nuts when she see him.

I really don't know what to do. She just doesn't get it. She hurts like hell when she bites too with her razor sharp teeth drawing blood nearly every time.

She just seems to get more excited no matter what I try.

[Sheridan]

How food oriented is she? My bitey puppy I taught to kiss instead so each time he kissed me he got a treat.

[Kirislin]

usually the mother and siblings teach them a bit about bite inhibition. I wonder how much time she spent with Mum.

[Dame Aussie]

My Aussie was like this. Nothing worked other than ignoring her. Yelping hyped her up even more. If she bit, we would get up and walk away every time. No interaction if biting. Eventually she stopped, at around 4-5 months I reckon. You could also try holding the bottom of her mouth with your thumb and pressing down, not too hard but they find it uncomfortable and that can work sometimes.

I remember Lili running full speed at me and jumping up and biting my face.

Some pups are just land sharks :laugh:

Edited September 14, 2015 by Dame Aussie

[Little Gifts]

How food oriented is she? My bitey puppy I taught to kiss instead so each time he kissed me he got a treat.

We diverted a bite to a nose boof and praised with high value treats too. Basically no wiggly fingers were ever placed in front of the dog - only a low closed fist. Whenever he touched it with his nose he got praised so it turned into a 'touch' game. Fists are not as fun to chew on either. We started with the treats inside our closed, loose fist which encouraged sniffing rather than biting and moved on from there. It was fairly quick.

[LisaCC]

My Aussie was like this. Nothing worked other than ignoring her. Yelping hyped her up even more. If she bit, we would get up and walk away every time. No interaction if biting. Eventually she stopped, at around 4-5 months I reckon. You could also try holding the bottom of her mouth with your thumb and pressing down, not too hard but they find it uncomfortable and that can work sometimes.

I remember Lili running full speed at me and jumping up and biting my face.

Some pups are just land sharks :laugh:

Yep these are the only things that worked on mine too. Mostly the thumb thing.

If you go the ignoring route, it was complete ignoring, as in the humans needed to get up and removed themselves from the room, as moving puppy into crate/outside even via a dragged leash was enough attention to reward mine.

All my pj and tracksuit pants from the first month of having my puppy were thrown out as they had holes in them from puppy teeth...

LAND SHARK

Edited September 14, 2015 by LisaCC

[Dame Aussie]

God I remember trying to get dressed All of a sudden land shark would have my pants and there'd be a fight to get them back. Little bitch. She was a shocker. My Anatolian never bit as a pup

Edited September 14, 2015 by Dame Aussie

[joey13]

How food oriented is she? My bitey puppy I taught to kiss instead so each time he kissed me he got a treat.

She is fairly food orientated.

usually the mother and siblings teach them a bit about bite inhibition. I wonder how much time she spent with Mum.

The mother was moved on and re-homed at around 6 weeks I think and was the only pup in the litter so this makes sense.

The annoying thing is that she seems trainable. I can get her to touch, sit, drop, leave it and off (let go). She's also starting to make progress with loose leash walking.

Just the biting!!! She just won't let you touch her without doing it! Majorly frustrating. Sometimes when I go to remove her from the time out area shes jumping up and biting my hands before I've even taken her out!

I got pretty upset today and gave her a couple of light smacks on the snout when she did the wrong thing which I now feel guilty about. However this only seems to make her more defiant and encourages the behavior so that's out!

I guess it's just going to have to be consistent with time out and the other suggestions above!

[Jemmy]

I used to go and sit in the kitchen behind a baby gate, removing myself worked better than moving her.

[Kirislin]

I wonder if you can give her time with a good female dog who's had puppies before. She might teach her some manners. Even male dogs will do it, but you need to get ones who wont tolerate a naughty rough puppy, she needs to be put in her place firmly.

[Dogsfevr]

I would suggest you get a non slip mat or if you have a bench area that isn't slippery & each day place puppy up there for touch time .Calmly place puppy up & just pat ,no performance .

This is important if you need to go to the vet anyway as most will place them up on the table to treat.

The table is neutral & an area where you can teach & bond quickly ,as she gets better you will also groom her & check feet & body for lumps & bumps plus if you need to apply spot ons,creams etc etc the table is a great tool .

All my show puppies that will weigh nearly 40 kg are brought up with table manners very early ,they adore there table time for one on one attention .

What is her routine during the day educate her ??

Are you taking her for short walks.

What games do you play?

What toys does she have to really chew on as she will have hit the horrid teaching stage.

Will she happily play outside on her own or is she inside all the time reliant on you to amuse her?

Personally i have never been a fan of grabbing the mouth on a teething puppy & the chances off you being able to do this on a Bully head & with a breed that has a high pain tolerance & requiring you to bend down to her won't end with the result you want .

If she enjoys food then use that for training ,fill your pockets with treats ,get her to think more instead of her setting the rules ,make her work for her rewards .Enrol in an obedience club to get her out & about & working with other dogs .

Also consider a bored pup can be a naughty pup & being told off is still a rewarding experince .

Is the time out because she was being naughty or is the time out simply a puppy time out to go sleep & have quiet time

[huski]

Have you tried redirecting her to something she can bite? Do you have a puppy pen set up so you can contain her when you can't supervised her directly?

[Rascalmyshadow]

Any pups we have had that were overly mouthy we would make sure we had good chewable or squeezable toys (especially sqeaky ones) as soon as they put their mouths on our hands, clothes etc we would redirect with these toys and turn it into a positive game instead of having to use punishment.

[joey13]

I think it might be a combination of things that is causing this. She is spending a fair amount of time outside while we are at work and we have had a few family emergencies as of late and haven't had the chance to give her the daily training sessions we would have liked.

I know she is trainable because she is learning the basics very quickly and when she is in training mode, she DOES NOT bite. She is actually progressing really fast after several hours time with her today. I have noticed that she is absolutely buggered in her indoor crate now more so than usual.

I think it's boredom mixed with excitement from spending time as well as the fact she's a naturally mischievous and difficult breed.

I'm going to continue to employ all of the above suggestions aggressively every day for the next 7 days and will keep you updated.

Thanks for all your help!

[Mrs Rusty Bucket]

I tried the yelp, scream - and you have to scream the same way as the dog does when you step on its tail... but it didn't work with mine.

What ended up working was if she grabbed me - I'd very slowly push my hand towards the back of her mouth until she spat me out. And then I would ignore her for 10 seconds or until she started getting upset about it - a little bit longer than that.

And if she didn't bite me again - then I'd pat her very gently, nice long strokes. I found with her - the more rough I was with her - the more rough she'd be with me and that's how she played with other dogs.

What she did when other dogs were too rough - was sort of freeze up and repeatedly present her butt - no more running or playing and if the other puppy didn't let up - she'd come back to me to sort it for her.

I also use collar grab. You play a game where you train her to love having her collar grabbed (say name then grab collar give treat and repeat five times), and then you can grab the collar when she grabs you. And praise when she spits you out (looking for treats) but don't give her treats - well mine would just learn "bite + let go" means treats. You don't want it to be that good.

I also highly recommend rigger gloves - they don't last forever but it hurts much less when a puppy bites (and makes the push back game easier). And a kong full of frozen food. for a bully - a black kong.

[tdierikx]

My recently departed old girl was a shocker as a pup... everything had to go in her mouth and be tested. What I did to stop her was to "bite" back... when she bit down, I'd pinch her ear or lip in semblance of a bite, and loudly growl "aarrgghh!" or "uuhhh!" as I did it. She learned really quickly that there were consequences for her biting that weren't overly pleasant, and she stopped doing it.

T.

[YippeeGirl]

Our six month old German Shepherd was a holy terror when she was younger. She would bite hard enough to draw blood and any action made by you to discourage her from doing so (I tried every method covered in this topic), would only result in winding her up even more and her biting even harder. I had bruises all up and down my legs and arms because she was such a feral.

Basically the only thing that really worked, was either removing ourselves from the room, or putting her in the crate to calm down when she got overstimulated. Redirecting with a toy would sometimes work, but then she learned to carry a toy in her mouth and ram you in the back of the legs with it.

I personally think it's a stage most puppies simply age out of. I think if you have a particularly bitey puppy/breed you really just have to grit your teeth and manage it the best you can. Sometimes it seems like no progress is being made at all, and then one day, you wake up, and you can actually pat your puppy without losing a hand :laugh:

[juice]

Mine is the same, still very mouthy at 7! I think she was taken away too young aswell and kenneled as a breeding bitch.

i wouldn't suggest you stick your hand in a bull terriers mouth , they are not known for giving way easily.

i would try what huski said, and try and redirect.

[ellejaytee]

My vet also recommended the thumb in the bottom of our mal's mouth thing to. I don't recommend. He'd just bite down on my thumb. When he was a pup, my hands were cut to pieces from his little razor sharp teeth. He gave me a really hard time!

I never recommend smacking either, that just escalates the situation.

When I play with my mal, sometimes he grabs my clothes, and sometimes he accidentally pinches my skin. The other night he got me good and I yelled 'stop!' out of pure shock. He can so tell the difference between pretend angry and real angry! He laid down and relaxed for a few minutes.

Our dog trainer recommended a shaker tin- I have one of those breath mint tins with about 4 5c pieces in it. Have taped the lid shut so they can't fall out. When our boy was really naughty, I'd shake that tin just once at him and say 'NO!'. It amplifies the 'no', and he'd take notice.

You can stand up, fold your arms and turn the other way and ignore when she's biting. But if she's as cheeky as my mal, she may just bit the backs of your legs/ankles!

What works better than anything is time out. This means no humans, no toys, no fun. We totally ignore him - don't even look at him. If our mal is being naughty - jumping, digging the grass, not listening, he goes in to time out for 10 mins, then he can go back to his toys once he's calm. Some days he'd be going into time out 3 or 4 times a day, now it's once every few weeks. They do grow out of that very naughty biting stage, eventually!

[The Spotted Devil]

Funny thing is that people say "growl at the puppy like the mother does." The more my Em growls at her daughter the more fun Ginny thinks she is. When she completely ignores the crocodile hanging off her ears, Ginny loses interest. I like to actively teach pups not to bite rather than trying to manage it when I'm busy. Play with a tug toy - nice and fun and rough but freeze and take their collar the second they go for your hand (mine are super comfortable with collar grabs). When they stop biting let go of the collar and play again. Wear old clothes and garden gloves to start with if they are real biters. Teach alternative, incompatible behaviours inside - can't run amok if you're lying on your bed being fed your meal one biscuit at a time. I do play it smart with pups - outside or crated or penned if I can't focus on them properly - saves them learning inappropriate behaviours.