dont panic janesolo, we have just had peanut six days and she is 8wks old. she doesnt bite like a crocodile,its more like an alligator!!!,but, it can be managed by putting chews and toys in her mouth instead and try to calm her down.however sometimes the teeth get through,my. right arm looks like a tigers had achew!! I am new to this also, ihave had other dogs,but, not a lab puppy. Wouldnt change her for the world. best of luck.ruth and peanutxx
My hands and arms have lots of scratches on them. Even the doctor remarked on it this morning so I had to explain that it was my lab puppy!!!
I’ve also started withdrawing my attention when playing and the biting starts. Bailey’s already started to cotton on and is playing more gently so give the ‘tough love/no attention’ trick a try
Hi All, we are having the same problems here. Almost every interaction our 11-week old puppy has with my 13 year old son very quickly progresses, and ends, in biting. She does it less with me, and much less my 16 year old daughter. She often turns on me, if I'm trying to get her off my son. He's not playing rough at all, in fact his interactions with her are very muted and careful, precisely because he doesn't want to get her overexcited. He feels like he's missing out on playing with her. She clearly wants to and needs to play, but we end up just having to limit interaction and keep things subdued, and this doesn't really feel right either. When we are outside, we'll put toys in her mouth when she comes at us. When we're insider its harder to be prepared, and she'll just go for his legs any time at all. I don't quite know how to take the ignoring' advice - when there is a puppy actually hanging off your leg or arm, you have to pull it off somehow ? At this point, I feels she enjoying the tug of war aspect. I say sternly, "no" several times - with cross tone. and then if she continues I take her to a penned off area to calm down.... ...but in the moment of crazy biting what can/should we do ? Eliza
It may be possible to get her to distinguish between your fingers and arms and toys and food. My new puppy is 9 weeks old and most of the time he can, except when he’s in wild dog mode. If he bites,I say “ouch” loudly, but don’t remove my hand, and when he releases I praise him. If necessary I have used time out(no more than 1 minute for month up to 3 minutes). He’s still small enough for a large Home Depot Box with wood logs in the bottom. When he gets older I can use a door knob and then stand facing away. This is not punishment, its a negative reinforcer because I am removing my contact with him. I don’t yell, I just calmly say: “Time-Out”. And when the 2 minutes are up, I take him back as if nothing had happened. These two techniques can produce a gradual change. Of course, he also has lots of chew toys to redirect. I don’t want him to get the taste for blood---Just kidding: Labs don’t get a taste for blood.
So I was essentially having the same problem among others as you probably read. I started having my son walk the puppy and honestly it made a world of difference! She will still jump on him at home when she is overly hyper, but when he is walking her they get to bond and she even gives him puppy kisses! The “attacking”’at home got better too!
A game of hide and seek can be a good distraction for bitey puppies, as it gives them something to think about. Teach the puppy to sit and wait, then hide a favourite toy and release the puppy to find it. The hiding places can get progressively more difficult and it can be played indoors or outside. I also used old clear plastic bottles with a few treats in to distract a bitey puppy. It’s important to teach a cue word like ‘enough’ and make sure that the puppy has some time out when it’s over-excited - and wear long sleeves and tough jeans, even gardening gloves if necessary!
Sorry but this can be 'punishment' for some dogs. We don't get to choose what is or is not aversive/punishing for a dog. It's why we advise to divert and distract from behaviours we don't want and reward the ones we do.
No, some dogs are just more bite than others . My new winners for the 'biteyness' crown has been awarded to a pair of JRT x Pug puppies - at 11 weeks teeth rarely touched skin at 14/15 weeks I swear they turned into vampires and sharpened their teeth at night
Punishment: makes a behaviour less likely. Reinforcement: makes a behaviour more likely. If removing your attention makes the biting less likely, it's a negative punisher. If it has no effect, it is neither punisher nor reinforcer. As @Jojo83 says, we don't get to choose what's punishing (or reinforcing) for our dogs - that's down to the individual. I'm not saying that all forms of negative punishment are wrong - many people use it when they stop moving forwards if a dog pulls on a lead, for example. It's not necessarily unkind or cruel, but it's also not as "good" as communicating to the dog what you do want and rewarding them for that. With biting pups, there is always going to be some form of negative punishment - withdrawing attention when they bite is very effective, for sure. It needs to be no more than a second or two, though. But this should always be paired with lots of praise, fun and encouragement when they are playing appropriately. I just think it's important we all understand the difference between punishment and reinforcement, and many people seem to be confused when it comes to the "negative" parts of the quadrant. Negative reinforcement is generally "bad": because it generally involves applying pressure or pain and then removing it, to reward the behaviour you like. An example would be applying an ear pinch until your dog holds a dummy, then releasing. You remove the pain = negative. This makes the holding of the dummy more likely = reinforcement. Just because it says "reinforcement" on the tin, it doesn't mean it's a good thing
I thought this was a nicely written comment on negative reinforcers from the Karen Pryor website "the strength of the aversive can only be judged by the recipient. What the trainer may consider to be mild may be seen by the trainee as blisteringly severe. Furthermore, since all negative reinforcement, by definition, includes a punisher, making a practice of using negative reinforcement puts you at risk for all the unpredictable fallout of punishment: avoidance, secrecy, fear, confusion, resistance, passivity, and reduced initiative, as well as spillover associations, in which anything that happens to be around, including the training environment and the trainer, becomes distasteful or disliked, something to be avoided or even fled from."
Source for above quote: https://clickertraining.com/node/274 This part especially is so true and something we have to always keep in mind. Look at the dog in front of you. We can't say "I just did this", because "just" is our interpretation, not the dog's. People often say things like, "Saying a stern 'no' isn't harmful", but that depends. It absolutely can be. Just because you're not physically beating your dog, it doesn't mean you're not punishing it, and sometimes quite severely. If I were to shout at Willow, she would find it terrifying. Even talking to her in a stern tone would make her incredibly anxious. That's harmful to both her mental state and her trust in me, which then impacts on her general wellbeing. If I were to do the same to Squidge, she'd probably just lick my ears. In Willow's case, it would certainly change her behaviour, but I'd have a huge amount of emotional fallout. In Luna's, there would be no change of behaviour because she simply wouldn't find it punishing. Back to the original issue - it takes time and patience. Set up specific training sessions so you're being proactive rather than just reactive. Play with your puppy. When she bites too hard, withdraw your attention for a second or two. With Willow, I would crouch down next to her to play and, if she bit too hard, I'd immediately stand up (without saying anything) and turn my back on her. A couple of seconds later, I'd crouch down again and re-engage. Standing up quickly is key here so the puppy makes the association between the bite and the game ending; even a few seconds' delay, and the association will be lost. If you have reduced mobility, using a stool would help. I was lucky with Willow that she wasn't a leg-grabber. Luna was a different creature altogether, and if I tried the same tactic, she would just grab hold of my calf and bite down hard. Ouchies. The advice of "stepping over a baby gate" was impossible; I couldn't do it with a full set of puppy teeth embedded in my leg. So instead I set up sessions where we would play when she was in her crate, door open. As soon as she bit too hard, I'd close the door, extracting my hand as I did so, and wait a few seconds, then start again. This was very effective and meant I could get space between us really easily. I would still use the method I used with Willow from preference, but it does depend on your puppy not wanting to shred your calves! The withdrawal of attention really should be no more than a handful of seconds; that's plenty of time for the puppy to get the message. Any longer and your communication will actually become diluted, plus you run the risk of (in the case of the standing up scenario) the puppy trying to get your attention back by biting you again or (in the case of using the crate) the crate becoming an unhappy place to be. Throughout this, you should remember that your puppy isn't being bad - they are simply trying to play with you, and haven't yet learnt that we humans have pathetically thin skin. It's our job to kindly communicate what is acceptable and what isn't. We should also choose our battles; if the puppy is completely crazy, there is no learning going to happen. She is probably over-tired, so just pop her in the crate with a kong to decompress and probably have a snooze. There is absolutely no point trying to teach her when the devils set in. Above all, you need patience in spades and lots of time. You'll probably end up with lots of broken skin. That's part of having a puppy. As someone once said, you really just have to get over it. It's not a sabre-toothed tiger ripping your arm off, it's just superficial scratches. Yes, they hurt, I know they hurt. I sympathise. But you're not going to lose a limb You know what? Your puppy is already exhibiting brilliant bite inhibition. If you don't believe me, chuck her a raw chicken drumstick and see what short shrift she makes of that!
Our Maxx is 11 weeks and in full, crazy biting/destroying mode too. We offer a chew toy but he ignores it and just keeps lunging for our hands/arms/feet/face. The furniture and garden are in constant danger of being destroyed. Don't look away for one minute! We put him in his pen to calm him down then he barks as though he is being murdered so I can only imagine what our neighbours are thinking . We were in total despair until we found this wonderful forum so now know that it will pass...sometime soon.
“There is no point of teaching her when the devil sets in” that really made me laugh because it’s like they get possessed a few times a day lol. Thank you for all your advise! I’m trying to stay consistent and diligent! Some times are better then others! We just had a nice walk came back and she was possessed running around like crazy biting me and my son, so off to the crate she went and is now happily passed out.
Yup, you will probably find she’s often a bit crazy after walks. Hey, my lot still are and they’re all adults They grow out of the crazy bitey phase, but the crazies stick around a while. Welcome to the wonderful world of Labradors
Lol thank you! It’s so nice to read she is a normal puppy! I definitely did not expect any of this!! I think my patience has grown by a mile since I had her.
Honestly same here! I was overwhelmed and just stressed out and worried I had an aggressive puppy! This forum helped a TON! For my Molly switching toys for arms doesn’t work either, she literally can care less and just keeps going for my arms. I tried turning around and ignoring her as soon as she bites based on some advise from here and that has been working much better. I also learned no belly rubs because in puppy language that means play time aka hand biting time.
