Our pup is now 7 months and an absolute joy. Our only worry is he’ll jump up and start trying to nip when visitors come in the house and he gets overexcited. All his other biting has subsided and his teeth are through. We give him a firm ‘no’ and he stops and he calms down again. He’s also started chewing his toys quite vigorously again recently. Is this just normal behaviour for a 7 month pup? (Please say yes! )
My pup is 9 months and still reverts to mouthing if she's excited, especially my sister who doesn't spend as much "quiet" time with her. Whenever she sees her, Mira knows the game is afoot and stars nipping excitedly (because my sister usually spends time with her by playing crazy games - a different problem I'd like to fix, but that's another day). I've started supervising their meetings and when Mira stars getting hyped up around her I'll redirect her with a "come" or "sit." This will bring her back down a little and when she re-approaches my sister, she's told to sit again and they'll interact more calmly (I repeat if necessary or remove her from the situation if I can't get a grip on her). I'm trying to tap into her more responsive "training mode" behavior whenever she acts up now, because "no" sends her into defiance mode if she's already hyped.
Prevention! Remember, the first thing you do about any unwanted behaviour, is you look to identify ways to prevent it from occurring. Then you look for training... So you'll need to have a 2.5m puppy house line (Clix make on) on your pup when you are expecting visitors, to prevent him from this behaviour. Giving the pup a Kong before you let people in the house will also help him be preoccupied with something else and by the time he has finished the visitors will have been there a while and won't be as exciting... I wouldn't recommend saying 'no'. These links explain why: https://totallydogtraining.com/dog-training-using-the-word-no/ - article by Pippa https://barksfromtheguild.com/2017/10/10/just-say-no-to-saying-no-2/ Yes.
