Hi everyone, My girl is nearly 16 weeks old...wow cant believe that! Anyway, I actually wonder if I haven't done enough bit inhibition training. She's out of her pen more just hanging out...but now she bites more...not so much me but my sister (she's not a child)... I don't want to be too late to get her to learn, so later on if she is scared or whatever as an adult dog, she wont bit hard!! Can someone please give me ideas? Do I need to start from the beginning..so every time she bites hard, put her down (if I'm holding her), or stop playing etc Or do I stop play etc for gentle biting now? Thanks in advance, I'm hoping I'm not too late...
@Boogie recently posted a reply from @snowbunny about dealing with biting in puppies, hopefully they will be along to help you. Cassie, who is almost 16 months, is my first Lab and was very bitey. Lack of knowledge prevented me dealing with it as well as I could have and like you worried that she hadn't learnt proper bite inhibition, until quite recently actually, when she went through a nipping phase. But as someone here pointed out if she hadn't I'd be in A&E . She's much better now.
Some are much worse than others in the biting department- and some take a lot longer to have perfect bite inhibition. But they all get there in the end. At 16 weeks I would say any contact with teeth on skin - all play stops. Not for long, just a short 20 seconds or so for her to get the message. Then restart with a bit of calm training before playing again.
It depends how bitey she is being at the time. When Mollie was overtired I popped her in the pen and she soon went to sleep. If she can be re-directed to some training or playing with you with toys then continue as you were .
Not necessarily, well I didn't. I would just stop with an OUCH!! And disengage. If they stopped biting I would start play again, making sure I had a toy to redirect those sharp teeth into! Or I would switch into a short training game which didn't involve teeth, hand touch for example. It also depended how how excited the pup was, for example if play had gotten a bit rambunctious I would consider a timeout with a kong in the crate.
My guy is 11 months and when he is in a very excited state he bites still. We did a lot of bits inhibition work with him. Thinking it will take maturity for it to stop!
I can't say I did any conscious training with Meg...I just kept her distracted and she grew out of it
Are you speaking of the nibbling that labs do or actual biting? Spencer still gives me nibbles when we cuddle which I think are ok as long as he doesn't actually bite.
Yep, with all my pups it's been actual bites - and drawing blood! But all is play, Wien you watch them playing with other dogs you can see why they try to do it with us.
