Hi everyone. I have 4 month old yellow lab puppy. She is doing really well on most of her training. I take her to obedience class once a week and then to puppy day care every Friday. She is fully potty trained. It didn't take that long to potty train her. My problem is her biting. I can understand her biting everything. What I don't like is she is now started to bite my leg last night when we were on our walk. I think she fells like she is playing but she is not. Her teeth are hard and she gets threw the skin when she bites. She bites my boots when we are out in the snow. Does anyone have any suggestions for this? I already put her in timeout. She is also always trying to eat anything from the trash. Does anyone have any suggestions for this?
Re: biting and eating the trash Hi and welcome to the forum!! Puppies certainly do bite very hard - I know that it might not seem like it but your puppy really is playing The biting that you're experiencing is totally normal. It is important, though, to teach your pup to use her teeth gently on people. Generally, the way to do this is to take away the reward for biting, which means taking away the opportunity for a game (as the puppy is trying to initiate a game by biting). Time-outs are good (just for 10 seconds or so). Standing up and walking away from your puppy is also good, even if you need to go into another room to get away. Don't ignore her for long - just a brief time. Then welcome her back and praise her for more gentle play. If she is bitey again, remove yourself again or do another time-out. Make sure you also take every opportunity to reward your puppy (with a little treat) anytime she is calm and playing nicely. If you click on this link you'll find a thread with links to a series of helpful articles on puppy behaviour, including a bunch on biting: http://www.thelabradorforum.com/index.php?topic=1203.0 With the trash eating - this is pretty normal for a Labrador, I'm afraid. They do love their garbage!! The best solution is just to keep anything that you don't want your pup to get into well out of reach or securely shut away. Preventing access is sometimes the best, fastest and easiest approach If she is getting into rubbish out on walks then I would walk up to her and put her lead on or else just steer clear of anything you don't want her to get near.
