Biting Puppies: Help For New Puppy Parents

Hi . I would be interested to hear how you are getting on now when hopefully those bad early days are just a memory. I am going through the terrible jumping and biting stage with my brand new 9 week old Mac. I really empathized with you .

 

Your post read like a review of my days with 9 week old Mac. I am only 4 ft 10 and just can't lift my leg quickly enough to get over a baby gate so I am a sitting target. I have him on a houseline and all i can do is get him into his crate. Please tell me you got through the worst of it .

 

It settles about 16 ish weeks when their teeth fall out. Meg was a crocodile but it soon faded. I distracted her, endless cardboard boxes chomped. Worked a treat !

 

So today is the beginning of my second week with Mac who is 9 weeks old. I feel a bit more confident and less of a failure than I did last week. The biting is easing off and now I recognize that it is most likely to happen when he is hyper later in the day. I am also very aware that I make the situation worse at times trying to get his off me. I cant jump a baby gate and I can only crate him for a few minutes. Then I get him out of the crate and sit him on my knee with a tug rope to chew on. It's not perfect obviously but its more manageable and just knowing other people's stories helps.can I ask if it's a good sign that he gave two people a much gentler soft mouth muzzle last night so he is making a choice here.

 

I'm not great with technology so please excuse my stupid question. I would be interested to read the list you put up but I don't know where it is or how to access it

 

Right now I'm also struggling with a bitey boy and would love to hear how things are going for you. Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

 

I have a houseline on our 9 week old Mac to help with situations like this. Even then I still get bitten but I can get him to the crate without picking him up

 

Hello, the list I created was one based on what escalated our girl’s biting and what helped us. I put it up in our kitchen to focus our attention, remind us and keep us going!

She is 2 years and 4 months now and biting is NOT an issue!!! It lasted for months, but yes there is light at the end of the tunnel, yes! With my current girl I have had to work on many things repeatedly and for a long time. She was easily aroused by many things and somewhat of a nervous girl bless her. I still reward good things she does, good decisions she makes. It’s just the older she has become the more she’s been able to apply all the learning and training we have put in place and is such a good girl . You will get there in the end with your pup.

 

Thanks for this. I can already see times and situations where Mac gets a bit overexcited and my hands suffer. Its been less than 2 weeks since we got him and already he obeys the command to sit and from a sitting position he follows the command to lie down which gets him lots of praise and treats. I know he won't listen to the command when he is stimulated by play so that's my next challenge. Thanks for your advice

 

My lab puppy Sophie is just 10 weeks old today and I've had her for 3 weeks. I am definitely experiencing puppy depression, its been a lot of hard work as a single, 52 year old, working, first time puppy owner. Her biting has increased as I think she's starting to teethe. I noticed she's gnawing more on hard things versus just biting/chewing like she did last week and she seems to be focusing the gnawing on her back teeth. Like everyone else, she latches onto my pants and shoes and I haven't had much luck with that. In fact, I do wear flowy pants because honestly, it's more protection than when I worse leggings and she would just literally jump and bite into my calves. Regardless, leaving and ignoring her is hard when she's latched onto my clothing and has no interest in a toy. I did read an interesting article about putting a rope toy in with her food to help her get distracted. My puppy is more food motivated than toy motivated. I'm going to try this so that the rope smells like food. Also, the first command my puppy got really well is the touch command. She loves doing it. One area where she's actually improving is when I sit in my chair, instead of coming up to me to bite my hands and knees like she used to, she's coming up and doing the touch move! So, small improvement and hand saving act there, but she's still very bitey in other areas so I'll keep working on it. Also having a hard time teaching leave it. It works indoors with treats but outside it's like I don't even exist as she works to eat mulch, grass, weeds, rocks, bird poop or anything else that is in her path. The struggles are real. I'm happy to know I'm not alone and I guess patience and consistency are all I can do right now to see if things improve. Thank you for everyone who shares on here, very helpful and comforting to know you aren't alone in how you feel.

 

I hear you Annamarie- hang in there. I am newly retired-in my 60's- and my lab puppy (who was calm for the first 24 hours), started biting me everywhere when I picked him up at 8 weeks. We would attempt to walk and he would starting biting --his harness, my legs, hands, knees, ripping my clothing- blood everywhere. He was one crazy pup. I followed Pippa's advice, including draining him mentally, a little, by putting kibble in a dispensing ball that he would nose around before we walked. I started carrying kibble with me and would toss it on the sidewalk to distract him as needed. Sometimes I gave him a stick to carry. I took lots of deep breaths and told myself this was temporary, bought extra bandaids, and worked on being patient and staying calm with calm energy (think an unruly toddler). I also took him to puppy school which helped him drain his energy. Around 4 months the biting just shut down. Maybe it was a combination of everything I did, maturating, and his teeth coming in. But it just shut down. Now, at 7 months, I can run my bare feet over his belly while he is lying on the floor- something I would never have tried to do before! He is a much calmer dog at 7 months than as younger pup, and is growing into the dog he will be. It's fun to see. But it was a lot at first.

 

Thank you for this! I needed it as I had to pick her up from eating rocks outside and as I carried her in to take her leash off she really bit me and I had meltdown. She doesn’t like being carried but the way my yard is setup, I have to carry her to prevent her eating tons of mulch.
I came in and read this as the tears and feeling of “this is never gonna change” set in, and you gave me some hope! Thank you!

 

My 13 weeks old crocodile has put me through it the past 5 weeks. He bites on me so hard I have gaping cuts on both hands and wrists. The local pharmacy advised me to get a tetanus booster it was so bad.the past few days I have been getting the soft mouthing more and felt I was making progress. However when he is overexcited or tired the crocodile comes back. I'm having a bad morning with several fresh cuts and I found myself getting really annoyed so I put him in his crate 3 minutes ago and he is already sleeping. I'm not trying to upset you but show you that there is progress albeit gradual. I am in 60s and have not had a puppy before so it's been hard. Please don't ever think it is you. Don't lose faith it will improve.