Our puppy is 10 weeks old, He is already crate trained and potty trained. He is doing well in all of those areas. Currently working on basic commands: Sit, Stay, Lay and Heel. Seems to be responding to the those commands well during training time. However, the sharp puppy teeth along with biting seems to be no end in site. He has an assortment of toys including the Kong, (we've tried freezing them with PB) doesn't show much interest in biting and chewing on it though. Tried the bulleystick, which worked for a little while. If I were to describe him I would say he is a relentless puppy who never gives up when trying to bite at us. Our ankles, tops of our feet, Arms... anything that passes his glance can most 100% expect a chomp in return. All the forums I have read have that same information that goes along with puppy biting. I know it's to be expected. However, never having had a dog let alone a puppy, It's hard to navigate what is normal when it comes to "biting/teething". We have tried to remove ourselves from our puppy when he begins to try and bite. And what's amazing is that no one mentions how to handle puppy when they are biting your ankles and feet. I have read that say to stay still, fold your arms and tell him no. But how can you stand there and endure the sharp teeth that have already made contact on your skin which more than likely already has a raw portion from the previous bites/gnaws. New puppy parent warning... I'm not sure what to do and my limits are being tested to the core. What can I do to help our puppy alleviate his sore gums on something that is acceptable. and for him to stop targeting us. So far he doesn't go for furniture or other things around the house. How doe we show him who the "pack leader" of the house is without having to be mean? Also, and any other helpful tips for us, as we are new to this whole puppy lifestyle. Would be appreciated.
This is all perfectly normal Lab puppy behaviour, so don't worry about that. Before we go any farther, I just want to stop and address the concept of "pack leader". This is based on outdated thinking, although it sadly still permeates the dog world. You feed your dog, you control the access to everything he wants. Your dog really, really, doesn't want to usurp you. Here's an article you may find interesting: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/dog-dominance/ And this one, I love: http://io9.gizmodo.com/why-everything-you-know-about-wolf-packs-is-wrong-502754629 mainly because of the quote "Until my pup gets himself a credit card and a pair of opposable thumbs (and stops dissolving into delighted wiggles every time I tell him what a good little man he is), I'm pretty much the boss in our relationship." Right, now we have that cleared up, let's get on to the matter in hand. Yes, the needle teeth. This is something I wrote on another thread when my latest puppy was going through the same: You can see the rest of the thread here: https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/vicious-puppy-biting-help.17796/
I kept my leather boots on for the first few months we had our puppy and everyone who visited us was told to keep their shoes/boots on. The first morning, we stupidly came down to her in bare feet and both got bitten badly on the backs of our ankles - we had a big learning curve that day .
When our puppy gets in his land shark mood, we completely ignore him, get up and remove ourselves completely from his ability to bite us. This usually means going behind the baby gate for 15-30 seconds until he's calmer. It has helped a LOT with ours and I have significantly less bruises and bite marks over the past couple weeks. Good luck!
What I would do - Is always have a toy within reach of you. So when pup starts to bite you - you give up a stern "no; no bite" and put the toy in his mouth and praise puppy. Puppy will soon associate the toy as a chew toy and not your arms, feet, hands, legs ect. Worked with my dogs
I absolutely agree with having a toy in easy reach, which was our approach with Bramble I am though, struggling a bit with the stern "no" and putting the toy in his mouth? Thinking in gun dog terms, would it not be better to be excited about the toy, then offer? Thus avoiding any aversive association (stern voice and toy) plus, now I am not good at describing this..but working dogs do like to toys to be interesting...is there a risk that having a toy placed directly in the mouth would run the risk of the toy being boring?
I totally see what your saying! I could have worded that differently -- The way I see it is; If you tell the puppy "no biteing" you are telling the pup what you do not want. Then offering the toy to the pup - so it would be a reward. I don't think it'll run the risk of the toy being boring; they will probably take the toy happily and be on their way. With Deik; my gun dog. This is what we did - he didn't associate the toy as bad. We also; don't play with regular toys with him - we just throw bumpers for him. So maybe that's why. Clarification -he does play with toys himself - (we just don't get on the floor and play tug with him) I hope this makes some sense. It is hard to explain - and hopefully i just didn't make myself sound dumb lol
I think it's always better to avoid telling the dog what you don't want and just tell him what you do want. After all, unless you've trained "no biting" as a cue (which, let's face it, no-one does), then it's meaningless noise. And since biting at this age is simply playing, you're also being stern about your puppy playing. Hmmm, nope, I wouldn't do that. I want my puppy to want to play with me and not be concerned I'm going to be grumpy about it. I just teach her the fun games I do want her to play.
