My 11 week old male puppy is biting my pant legs all the time, jumping up on me when im sitting on the couch and wandering around the room where we have been hanging out. I think he must be bored, we go outside in our yard and he doesn't want to come back in. Treats don't work to get him to come in so I end of picking him up and carrying him in. I've resorted to using the bitter apple spray on my legs and feet to keep him from biting me. The toys seem to be boring him, rope toy,
It’s exhausting and I have a very active 10 week old puppy that takes up all my time. However, over the two weeks I have had him, he is calmer but certainly far from perfect. Pippa’s clicker training for good behaviour is excellent. It’s a case of being very clear about the behaviour you want ... catch them being good. When he gets over excited and cannot clam down I place him in his crate. Most times he calms down. It is difficult getting the balance right because I want him to love his crate and not see it as a punishment. This forum has fantastic clicker training methods and the Happy Puppy book by Pippa is excellent. Good luck ... it is not easy!
Are you training your puppy, in several short training sessions each day? Mental stimulation is essential and there are now loads of excellent online puppy training courses in this time of coronavirus, giving you a structure, and help from someone who knows you and your puppy. What treats are you using, that your puppy isn't interested? That would worry me. Food motivation is really essential for training purposes. I would be ensuring I'm training the puppy with all meals instead of giving them for free and if the pup doesn't want to work and earn the food, it usually means they're not hungry enough - so I put it away till the next meal time. You shouldn't need to spray bitter apple spray on you to stop him from biting you. Either that stuff doesn't work (as reported by many people) or, if it does work, it is working as an aversive - the puppy dislikes the taste. Do you really want to associate yourself with an unpleasant taste, when you're working with a young impressionable puppy within the socialisation period? (I wouldn't...). Instead, just ensure your puppy can't reach you if you don't want your legs to be eaten. That means having the pup in a crate, in a room with a stair gate on it or similar so that you can choose to sit out of reach of your puppy. Meanwhile, using toys to play with the pup so that you are actively teaching the puppy something more appropriate to play with.
Thank you for your reply, I will continue to put him in his crate when the biting happens. I've been waiting for Pippa's puppy training course to be up and running. The foundation course seems to be for older dogs. If you could send me a link for an online puppy course, I would be very happy to begin training the correct way. I just don't know which course to choose. I see so many offered on YouTube.
Hi there, the puppy course will be starting within the next couple of weeks. But your puppy at 11 weeks is nearly old enough for the Foundations Skills course. The puppy demonstrating the course was about the same age as yours at the start. That would probably be a better place to start as the puppy course is really aimed at puppies from 8 to 12 weeks old.
