My puppy is coming up on 6 months and is still biting. Its actually increased lately along with some other behaviors I will post about in another thread. I tell her no biting. She knows this combination of sounds means to stop biting. Problem is she stops for 20 seconds then continues to bite. I withdraw my hands, she bites my elbows. I hide my elbows, she bites my feet. I move, she follows and bites my feet. I put her in "time out" in her cage. I either leave her or remove her some minutes later and she begins to bite again. Its not viciously attacking and biting. She is playing and thinks its fun. How can I stop this??? Its not happening every minute but really nearly every time I try and pet her she does this.
Re: Still biting Dan, it sounds to me as though she is desperate to play with you. Do you think she is getting enough mental and physical stimulation? I know she is alone most of the day because you are at work. I really think this behavior may be due to being along for quite a long period during the day, so in the evening she does everything she can to get rid of her pent up energy. I don't know what kind of training you do with her, but I really think that some formal training (for instance for retrieving) would help mentally stimulate her so she wouldn't feel the need to bite at you to get your attention. The same applies to the barking and mad behavior towards your wife. Please don't give up on this pup. I feel your frustration, but it isn't aggression that she is showing, just a real need for a young dog to get rid of pent up energy, in the only way she knows how.
Re: Still biting Thanks for the reply. We took her to "formal" training. We work with her every day. I have a fetch toy and play fetch with her daily, or my wife does. During feedings, we train her as well. She is asked to come, sit stay, down, up, heel among other things. After food, we throw the fetch toy for a good long time. Some nights, she is taken on a walk. Not a long walk, but a walk just the same. Often times she meets me at the train station for the .7 mile walk home. I think she gets a ton of attention and a reasonable amount of exercise. One other thing I do is hide a pile of her dog food and tell her to go search for it. She uses her nose and hand queues from me to find the prize. Seems like a good way to do things. A week or two ago she jumped on a small childs arm and bit him. Not a menacing bite but he kept saying OWWWWW. I dont even know how she got slack to jump. I hold her close. I was very nervous but the kid walked away. It could have gone much different than it did. Point being this is going a very bad direction. In her training class, she was most advanced and was the teachers pet (ha hah). She also was the highest strung. When she was good, everyone was envious of her intelligence but when she was biting and misbehaving it was not so good. So... what can I do? More suggestions? DOnt get me wrong. This pup is great and wonderful dog. Just a few behaviors that are in need of altering.
Re: Still biting Does she have 'off lead' time every day where she can run a lot? (not just in a garden). Pups do need to be walked on a very regular basis. When Harley was 6 months we walked for 20 mins on lead, then about 45 mins off lead every day, every now and then we would have a lazy day. It does sound like she has lots of energy and needs to run some of it off.
Re: Still biting Sounds exercise related to me. Meg (6 months also) can be like that if life gets in the way and her daily run round changes. As long as she gets a good daily off lead time she is fine. I know in the states that's not so easy. Is there a dog park nearby ! She really needs to run off steam at this age? Emma.
Re: Still biting I agree more exercise would help - at six months, Charlie would have at least 30 minutes off lead a day, running, fetching, playing with other dogs. Plus other activities like gundog lessons outside off lead, and training outside off lead too. Plus a couple of short lead walks and garden play time. Is there a dog park nearby where you live at all? I've no experience of them, but it might be a good thing for her to do if you can find a good dog park.
Re: Still biting I agree that she needs more exercise. If you're at work I would say she needs a walk early morning before you go and every evening, on-lead if you're not able to let her off. I'm now in the fortunate position of rarely working, but I worked full-time for years and got up at 5.30 am every day to exercise my last dog and also had someone come in to walk him during the day. Perhaps you could look into doggy day-care?
Re: Still biting Doggy day care is a wonderful thing! Cooper (5-1/2 months old) has gone twice to DDC and comes home very, very tired. He looks happy when I pick him up, has played with puppies his own age more or less....they get time to play, time to rest and expend their energy. I started him last week and will do this at least once a week if not twice. Give it a try.....hopefully you can find a good DDC in your area. Good luck!
Re: Still biting If you can find a day care in your area that meets your requirements, I would definitely give it a go. Edsel just went for his third day in 2 weeks today and it has been great. He is excited to go, happy when I pick him up and tuckered out. He has an immense amount of energy, needs tons of exercise and physical activity on top of the mental stimulation. His day care days have led to some wonderful peaceful evenings at home for both of us. Lori
Re: Still biting Hi Dan, I also have a highly strung clever lab who is 4 months old. I asked the vet nurse about my pups biting this week and she said it was now an attention thing with him. She said if I play with him, feed him or walk him when he is biting and demanding attention he will keep up with the bad behaviour to get what he wants. I've been told to wait for him to settle by leaving the room for a few minutes and keep doing that if he continues. Apparently I have been doing the wrong thing as I've been trying to ignore him whilst being in the room and he's been biting me harder, so I've been getting toys to try and distract him from biting. She says it is rewarding him for bad behaviour. She also says I need to ignore the rule about not walking lab pups too far and to slowly increase how far we are walking as she thinks he needs at least 40mins twice a day due to his big size and energy levels. I don't know if any of this will help you too, but I hope it gets better for you. I'm going to be trying this to help my pup xxx
