Puppy Won't Stop Mouthing

[SnoFyre]

Hi all,

Need help with a problem I am having with my 18 week old puppy. When we got her at 8 weeks she was very mouthy, would grab your hand/finger, not hard but somtimes she would clamp down and puppy teeth are sharp as you know.

This is in no way an aggresive thing that I can see. She would jump up and instead of licking would have her mouth wide open & if it made contact with a shirt/hand or anything she would close her mouth over the object and puppy teeth being what they are, you can imagine this was somtimes painful.

I have trained her (nearly) out of jumping up & she doesn't have her mouth wide open if she does spring up anymore.

Have spoken to her breeder and she said the dams side is mouthy. but no suggestion on how to stop this behaviour.

When walking past her sometimes, especially if it is the first contact for the morning or I have been out, she will grab my hand in her mouth, not hard, and then let go.

I have growled at her, Growled NO at her and turned my back on her to indicate this is not acceptable behaviour but it is continuing, albiet not as frequent.

Last weekend at a show she even growled at the judge as she went to check her teeth, but that may have been because I had just given her some bait and is perhaps a resource issue instead.

What can I do to put a stop to this behaviour?

She runs in our yard with 2 other dogs, F 3 yrs & M 4.5 yrs

[GarryJC]

my puppy who is a little over 4 months now has this problem aswell, when he is playing with you, instead of licking like other dogs do, he will bite... i know its not aggressive because it is too soft and he has accidently bitten me while trying to bite a toy before and that friggin hurt!... i just cant get him to stop biting... the things he goes after most are your thumb joint and your shirt... i have read that to get them to stop this play biting you are suppossed to try yelping like u are another puppy and showing him that he is being too rough, but this has not seemed to do anything so far.

[SnoFyre]

I have also tried yelping like I am hurt as well and she does stop & look at me to see if I am ok, but the behaviour has continued.

Really need to stop this ASAP as I have my grandson come over for visits and I am worried that she may accidently hurt him

[kelpiecuddles]

Why not give her a command instead. Kelpie's can be very mouthy depending on their breeding and Sascha certainly was as a pup. The only time that Sascha get attention at all is when she follows my command to sit or drop. Once she is quiet then she gets a pat, if she starts mouthing and getting excited I take my hands away and she knows immediately that she needs to sit back down. It won't happen overnight but Sascha is much better and it's also great for training them

[krat]

my pup was VERY mouthy i tried correction words, replacing my hand with something she could chew and also ignoring her. None of these approaches made any difference ( at least not on my pup, im sure they do on some others) we ended up doing what a trainer suggested (after she 'bit' the trainer) whenever she bit to shove your hand that she was biting further into her mouth with out saying anything so that she associated bighting us with unpleasentness. I wasn't a fan of how this sounded and felt like the worst owner ever when i did it, BUT within 2 days she learned and it is VERY rare that she will bite us now. Im sure some people wont agree with this method and thats ok, I also understand that it might not be suitable for all dogs, but after the more traditional methods didnt work for us this one did.

ETA: only push your hand into the mouth until she backs off it. once she backed off i would offer her my hand again and when she licked iot or was gentle she would get rewarded.

Edited November 22, 2005 by krat

[Clyde]

This isnt as convenient, but has worked well for me - try smearing your hand in bitter apple or just a touch of chilli paste. They soon learn not to grab your hands. I had a dog who would grab visitors hands, so would leave the chilli or bitter apple in the mailbox for them to apply before coming in the door - took two days and never again

[slinky]

My 7.5week old female Staffy does this too. I have only had her since saturday so she is still learning she has to listen to me. She only does it when she is playing, and FFS it hurts, she has a real hard bite on her and then she does the head shake thing and that really hurts. She also goes for my ears and chin when I lay down to play with her and my OH's pony tail too. will it never end She still doesn't know the meaning of the word NO

[Tawnydal]

This has worked for me as a last resort! After trying the NO, ignoring the behaviour, rewarding the good behaviour, etc.

What I did is (you have to be quick) is when the dog mouthed my hand I would push the bottom or top lip on to the teeth and push down not to hard, but untill the dog gave a little yelp, then reward pat, food reward etc. My theory on this is that is shows then how much it hurt. Teaches some bite inahibtion(sp?)

[phatdex]

My Amstaff still does it and he is almost 3 years old.

No help I'm afraid, just wanted to state it. Doesnt hurt one bit once they get adult teeth.

[Lablover]

I cannot help wondering how much attention these young dogs are getting.

Are these young pups in the house with you when you are home? It sounds like exictement normal puppy behaviour to me.

[wolfie]

Hi I have a different take on this and encourage my pup to mouth. She's 9 months now and is now really gentle with my kids, she mouths, but ever so softly.

The dog's mouth is one of its main way of exploring and sensing the world, to inhibit mouthing may cause later problems in teaching your dog to retrieve.

Most importantly allowing your dog to mouth helps teach bite inhibition. Your dog learns where the limits are. It's thought that dogs which are never allowed to mouth and bite my have no idea where the limits are and if they do lash out and bite in fear, the bite may be a lot worse than a dog who has been allowed to mouth.

Having said that, my dog now considers my skin to be as delicate as a tissue. She barely uses her teeth when taking your hand or arm. This was taught in stages, from reacting to the full on hard bites with a squeal, very quick time out etc. Then gradually over weeks reacting to lesser pressure from her. This gave her a chance to adjust and learn what was acceptable.

I've never really punished her from biting or growling. Doing so may just teach a dog to hide its intentions or feelings, which could lead to bites/attacks occuring without warning. If my dogs feel they are going to attack something, I really need to know about it, and a growl is their way of communicating.

Your pup growling at the judge may have been fear or as you said resource guarding; another issue altogther.

Wolfie

[Christina77]

What we did with our pup (ACD) who was a bit mouthy but also wanted to "round up" the humans in the house and the cat too but the cat soon sorted that out was to

1. yelp loudly if the bite was to hard , walk away and loudly yell "yerk" or any forcefull sounding word , and totally ignore pup for some time (5 minutes is fine)

2. go back to play after a while , repeat the above until you see some improvement over time .

3. remove toys , you instigate to the pup when it's play time and that you control the toys , put toys away when play is over.

encourage your pup sit , for receiving the toy and when its time to put things away , also helps them learn to sit/wait etc

pups will naturally mouth but they need to learn which pressure is acceptable and what is not.

I can play with my ACD now and she's 18 months , and she has a soft mouth now although I do ocasionally stop play if I don't like the way she's playing , play is controlled by me .

Puppies soon learn what play is being accepted , if your lying on the floor and you pup has access to your face , that's what will either get slobbered on or bitten !

If you laugh at the antics , it's like reinforcement to the pup that hey this is fun , be serious when you need to be , pups soon pick your reaction to their behaviour.

To stop my pup from going for our heels I used rolled up newspaper , that I whacked on MY LEG not the pup ,and use "No", the paper makes a cracking sound and is a negative response for the pup .

I was really suprised that this worked for my pup , I also find that because of early training she's also easy to train now , and still learning new tricks as she wants to learn/earn/please all the time.

[Innana]

I see what I think are Siberians in your avatar? Is this puppy a Sibe?

Teaching bite inhibition in stages to get a soft mouth on the dog seems to be your best bet here.Isn't it a trait of Sibes to be not only mouthy as pups but also to enjoy 'holding' the owner's hand or arm gently in their mouth? Maybe when your pup does this in particular,it's apart from the other mouthing and more a gesture of affection since you said the pup does this after seeing you again after a separation.A way of saying hello,I love you.

Maybe it would reassure you to know that my dog was extremely mouthy as a pup (drawing blood at times) and has never bitten and I think never would bite anyone-it took weeks of training using positive reinforcement methods and some shunning (ignoring her completely) when she was very persistent,but it paid off.I didn't know at the time about soft mouth training,wish I had,it would have benefitted both of us.

Lots of excellent advice here,you'll get there,puppies do grow out of it with our guidance

[SnoFyre]

Thanks everyone for your advice and training methods.

The puppy is indeed a Sibe and that was bewildering about the behaviour at first. I thought it was aggresive until I realised that she WAS just greeting me/partner/guests etc. I guess it is more annoying than anything and the negative/positive reinforcement will work over time.

The main reason I wanted it to stop ASAP is because my grandson is only 18 mths old and just at a level with her face. He visits regularly and I don't want to see him get hurt by an exhuberant playful puppy.

In answer to the query as to where she spends her time, She is kenneled with my 2 older dogs outside at night .......... Spends one on one time training and playing with me twice a day for about 1/2 hour each time and has rest time during the day inside with the other dogs if she wants to.

A day or 2 before a show, whoever is attending the show that weekend will spend the night inside after a bath (usually on my bed)

[slinky]

My ESBT still won't stop it. I have tried everything but the chilli on the hands (i'm allergic) Nothing seems to phase her, my hands are so torn to bits I have even tried work gloves. Even they don't work (just stop it from hurting) I think she still doesn't know the meaning of the word NO! She is only 8weeks 2 days old. She was really good at puppy school, didn't do a thing wrong but she was a bit scared, maybe I'l ask the trainers what they think when I go again on Saturday. Have tried to get her to have a "soft" mouth but she doesn't get it Will she ever grow out of it? I can't wait til she has no needle teeth

[chaos_chick]

Argh, yeah this is happening with my GSD pup too

At first it started off with him just gently nibbling occasionally, but its grown into a real problem. He doesn't just nibble, he clamps down on anything (my hands, pants, shoes, ankles, anything he can fit in his mouth) and doesn't let go. He doesn't listen to 'no', loud yelping, putting my whole hand in his mouth doesn't phase him one bit and neither does the loud, growled 'bah' sound and a gentle flick on the lower jaw (that was suggested by a dog behaviourist)... And he just barks and growls like all hell while he's at it... Its the same when he's playing with other puppies. He's 9 weeks now so I've enrolled him in a puppy obedience school... Going there on Sunday for the first time and boy will I be glad to...