Hello, I am new to the forum. My puppy is a fox red and is 15 weeks old today, her name is Rubie. Until today I have only viewed the forum as I messed up logging on but just reading past messages has helped me no end. Our little puppy has been challenging with her biting. Looking forward to keeping in touch as we progress. Alison
Hi and welcome to you and Rubie from me and my nearly 20 month old chocolate girl. Really pleased that the forum has been helpful for you with dealing with puppy biting, and look forward to hearing mire about Rubie. As you may have guessed we love puppy photos and there is help to upload them on 'Technical' tab
Welcome from Holly and me in Monmouth. You'll see the word "crocadog" used fairly often on this forum. Those needle sharp puppy teeth can really hurt, but don't worry. Its a phase that puppies go through but it doesn't usually last long. Holly got the message quite quickly when we went "OW" and turned away from her. She learned that biting = no play and stopped. We'd all like to see a picture of Rubie!
Hi and welcome to the forum, I also have a fox red girlie called Penny, who is now 3 years old. We went through a very bitey phase when she was young but with patience and persistence in training she soon grew out of it.
You may find this thread useful, and to know that you are not alone http://thelabradorforum.com/threads/puppy-problems-will-things-ever-improve.1680/
Thank you everyone for your kind words of welcome. On reflection I think Rubie is getting a little better at not biting, we got her at eight weeks but would it make any difference to her biting if her mother had left the litter earlier than this I wonder.
I think in general the longer puppies spend with mum and their litter mates the less bitey they are. They learn so much about doggy manners from mum and bite inhibition from their litter mates and is the basis for puppies not leaving for their new homes until 8 weeks of age. That said Guide Dogs for the Blind have their puppies going to their Puppy Walker homes at 7 weeks. Juno was 10.5 weeks old when we collected her from her breeder in France where the norm to leave mum and littermates is 10 weeks. Compared to most forum members experience she was never particularly bitey and would stop with an "Ouch".
Willow came to us at 8 weeks. Shadow at 14 weeks. Willow went through a bitey phase, but it wasn't too bad and was completely done with by 14 weeks*. Shadow didn't have one at all. * I did a lot of work on this, though, and put aside time every day to work on it. I think it was a combination of personality and training that meant she was done with being a crocopup far earlier than some.
Definitley NOT. When I got Penny I was under the impression that she was just shy of 8 weeks old. When we got her kennel club paperwork through with her date of birth it turned out the breeder had lied to us and sent her home at 6 weeks. She now has a fair few issues that can be linked back to coming away from her mother and litter mates too early. In fact the longer they stay with the mother and littermates the better in terms of learning bite inhibition - which is what you are teaching your puppy right now.
Hello and welcome from me and Lilly, Being with mum and litter mates longer certainly helped with bite inhibition in our case, but we didn't pick Lilly up until 11 weeks. Had is benefits and its disadvantages. Hope you enjoy the forum as a poster
Hi and welcome from me and 8 month old Dexter, he was an awful bitey crocodile when he was younger I thought it would never end but thankfully it does
Rubie was with her litter mates until 8 weeks, I think, but I'm sure mum was away from them many weeks earlier, for which we are now paying the price for, you live and learn, thank you for your post.
I picked up Charlie at 8 weeks. He was somewhat of a crocodile. I religiously did the whole 'ouch' thing etc. But my OH wouldn't bother. He said it didn't really hurt, and Charlie would happily chomp on him, his clothes, his buttons...etc. OH would come home from work, dash upstairs and take off his work clothes and put his 'puppy clothes' on. Charlie would then chomp him all evening. Charlie still just grew out of it, even though he had one human that would do the 'ouch!' thing, and one human that just let him chomp and ignored him. Charlie still mouths human hands and feet, because neither of us could be bothered to stop him. Time to time, someone (eg vet, physio, trainer) will point this out to me, but I just ignore it. It's too much faff to bother about, really....and non of Charlie's family mind. We're used to a Labrador lying with a human foot in his mouth - he seems to find it comforting.... Oh. This makes me sound like a really bad owner.....
Most puppies will be weaned by 6 weeks or so, and the mum won't want to be around them after that (or, in the case of ours, even before they were fully weaned - it obviously hurt her with those needle teeth!). It's still important they have plenty of exposure to mum until they go to their new homes, but it certainly won't be all day. I think the largest part of the bite inhibition stuff in these later stages is done between litter mates, since they're the ones that are really playing roughly together. Mum is just the moving buffet....
Oh yes, if you've ever seen a bitch standing on tiptoes, with a haunted and martyred expression on her face, while eight greedy labrador puppies grab at her with their sharp little teeth, you can understand why Mum runs away and hides from her puppies when they get to around six weeks old!!! Oh, and hello and welcome, Alison and Rubie, from Poppy and me from Germany
