Yes I am sure kindness and consistency is the way forward, and I have spent more time interacting with Cassie doing a couple of excercises I found else where on this site, one to build up touching her without grabbing my hand and another to teach her not to grab food, it does our relationship good to interact in a positive way to help get through the play biting stage. Helps me see she's a dear little thing really!! This forum definitely helps to know your not alone -- if anyone else I know has a lab that did this they don't admit it!! I worry a little bit though that she hasn't learnt bite inhibition though
Bite inhibition takes time to learn, and when excited they tend to forget. I went and saw my mum today with my boy. He adores his nan and is such a gentle boy with her (mum is not to steady on her feet these days unfortunately) and its like watching a different dog when he's round her. After being a lovely boy with mum he got one of his toys out of the box (yes mum has dog toys there too), he got excited and wanted me to play tug. He got my hand in his mouth and started to chomp - until I said "excuse me", he then turned it into a massive slobbery kiss! First time he has done that ever! I usually have to stand and turn away, but it actually shocked me! My boy is now six months old and I really feel that finally he has bite inhibition! Well with me anyway - other half is a different matter!
Here's a story from my grown girl - two years old. She hated having her claws trimmed, so I did lots and lots of work to desensitise her to it - there's a thread about it somewhere. She's had a few paw injuries along the way, which haven't helped. A couple of weeks ago, I was filing them, and I obviously touched a sore bit. She reached down and, ever so tenderly, put her mouth around my hand. She was letting me know that she didn't want me to do that. I looked and saw a little thorn in her paw, which I removed. There was no snapping, growling, squealing or flinching away (I don't hold the paw strongly, so she can always move it away if she wants anyway). Just a very clear signal that something wasn't right. It can take a while for bite inhibition to be learnt, but it's one of the most important lessons out there.
Hi, have been applying the advice given in this forum which in the main is working well and have also identified that some of the behaviour is associated with a little bit of anxiety eg when I've been away from her upstairs, or giving attention to the horses, but what I'm struggling with now is being "attacked" when sitting in armchair or on sofa - I just seem to become a target, I try very hard to insisit on her taking a toy instead but with limited success. I'm quite fortunate in lots of ways with her, it's just this really, lead work, recall etc coming on well, and housetraining although not quite complete is nearly there - regresses a bit when it rains! Rolling I fox poo eating yucky things I can deal with!! I'm thinking of using the clicker to reinforce her good behaviour when she does lie down, which she does if I sit kitchen table or in the garden. Be glad of anyone elses advice, cheers
@selina27 how old is your puppy? We're also most likely to get nipped when sitting on the sofa (4.5 months), but I realised that this was most likely to happen when she was excited/playful, so if she's in that sort of mood I wait for it to pass before I plonk myself down. If she's calm then she'll settle really fast or will happily be redirected to a toy, but I honestly found that assessing the situation first has saved a lot of tears and clothes.
Yeah ha ha! can definitely relate to that photo Briar! Cassie is just over four months, I do my best to assess the best time but to be honest it just seems to be ithe fact of sitting in comfy chair, it is often were I sat with her when tiny, and as I never did stop the 10 week biting , yelping was like game on to her , I think I got the timing wrong and somehow she has made that assiociation
I know there's a lot of topics on biting but I just wanted to ask if it's normal for the biting to restart? Stanley was a bit of a crocopup, definitely not the worst I've seen. But he seemed to really calm down and the biting got to virtually nothing. He's about 5 months now and this past few days it's come back with a vengeance. We've just been ignoring him when he does it and when it's a full on attack putting him in his crate with his chew to calm down. I don't know whether he's teething or this is quite normal for it to start up again at this age? Thanks
