HELP... My 12 week old puppy is constantly biting with her razor sharp teeth. She tackles my ankles, jumps and won't take "no" for an answer. What to do? We have enrolled her in training at Petsmart (beginning this weekend)... I tried the peanut butter on the hand idea saying "kisses" and "some" of the time it works. The only problem (if it is a problem) is when she bites my SO, he smacks her with a rolled up newspaper... When I tried this she literally attacked me ... actually frightened me because she was acting so aggressively. I don't want her to be an aggressive dog.. I have grandchildren and worry about her around them. Thank you for ideas... Tory
Re: 12 week old puppy biting and biting and biting Hi Tory and welcome to the forum! Pretty much everyone who has ever had a Lab puppy with sympathise with your post because overexcited biting is one thing that these little furballs are exceptionally good at Rest assured that your puppy is not the slightest bit aggressive - believe it or not, she is biting as a game. Labradors are very mouth oriented and pups are all about exploring the world (with their mouth) and playing games (with their mouth). But they do get over it, with our help It will stop. As you have found, getting physical in response to biting does not work. It just revs them up (or makes them scared of you and your hands...not good either). When she was whopped on the nose she probably thought that this was part of the game too, and that you wanted to play very vigorously, so she stepped it up... Avoid pushing, whopping, smacking or anything of that nature. It will make the situation deteriorate. For an approach that will work (with patience and time) check out this article on the Labrador Site - it also links to a number of other articles at the bottom and much of the actual advice is in these: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies-when-biting-gets-out-of-hand/
Re: 12 week old puppy biting and biting and biting welcome to the forum to you and your "crocopup"... read the strategies that Rachel sent you to with the article....and rest assured...we've all been there. They do all move past this eventually, but it can be (painful) and frustrating for sure! I did the "ouch- no biting Bella" thing with my girl, and when she got way too wound up...she had a little time out session to break the cycle. She is now a loving and crazy nearly 7 month old darling...but I don't miss the crocopup stage in the least! ;D ;D
Re: 12 week old puppy biting and biting and biting As has all ready been said, and will no doubt be said again, it is a stage we all go through. I tried everything to stop her and nothing worked. The only way to not get bitten was to keep out of her way. Are you sure putting peanut butter on your hand and allowing her to lick it off is a good idea? It is asking a lot of a pup to discriminate between when it is OK to use her mouth on you and when not to. Dogs noses are very sensitive (as are ours) hitting a small creature on the nose with a rolled up newspaper is downright cruel and really teaches them nothing. Your pup will grow out of it at between 4 and 5 months.
Re: 12 week old puppy biting and biting and biting Welcome to you - what is your puppy's name? They are all crocapups at this age! This link will give you lots and lots of strategies, all worth using. At the bottom of the same page are more links for more info. http://www.thelabradorsite.com/your-labrador-puppy-biting/
Re: 12 week old puppy biting and biting and biting As Mollly said, we've all been there and it is a worry if you weren't expecting it. I must admit I thought the play-biting phase would be a little bit of teeth-mouthing, I had no idea it would be quite so full on as it was! Puppies are used to play-biting with their litter mates and their mum, they have no idea that our skin is less fragile than theirs. So, to their little minds they're only playing and they think you're enjoying it! As well as reading the articles Rachael linked you to (which absolutely put my mind at ease) I found it helpful to "train" my niece and nephew around the pup Children's voices are so appealing to pups (high pitched, excited, playful) so I did find Bonnie's play-biting increased with the little ones. We worked a lot on having the children keep Bonnie calm (they loved the idea they had a role to play in her upbringing) and explained why she was play-biting, that it was good for her to learn how to use her bite. You would judge this by the age of your grandchildren but I said that Bonnie was learning how to use her bite so that she never got bullied in the puppy playground. Understanding that the dog needed to learn made sense to the kids. And also reassuring them that it was play, not biting, to the dog helped them to stay calm. Children flap their hands a lot as well which is just like a game to pups, so watch out for that one too! : Good luck
Re: 12 week old puppy biting and biting and biting Absolutely stop smacking your dog. If you scare her or cause her pain, that's a surefire way to end up with a dog that's nervous or even scared of you. A scared dog can very easily become an aggressive dog. At this stage, what she's doing is completely natural and she doesn't need to be reprimanded for it. You just need to learn how to teach her to be more gentle. The most effective way of doing that is by removing any attention when she does it. Stand up, cross your arms, don't make eye contact. She may continue to worry your legs. Ignore her. As soon as she calms down, start playing again. As soon as she crosses the threshold again, stand up again. She will quickly learn that biting too hard means the game ends. The important thing, though, is that you need to gradually lower the threshold. She needs to learn how hard causes pain to people. The article that Mags posted it excellent and explains why you mustn't stop puppies biting completely. Learning how hard is too hard is invaluable for later in life.
Re: 12 week old puppy biting and biting and biting I too have Grandchildren. I taught them to be a shoot, ie stand up and cross their arms across their chest when Molly was little. Some people say "be a tree" but it strikes me that the outstretched arms can be very alluring to a puppy. At 18 months Molly is still very boisterious, but she does appear to love having the Grandchildren round. I control the situation carefully and Molly spends some time I her crate when they are here. She is happy in her crate so it makes no difference to her wether she dozes in her crate or on the floor. The worst incident was when Molly and 3 year old Alicia tried to go through the same gap at the same time and Alicia wound up on her bum.
Re: 12 week old puppy biting and biting and biting Welcome to the forum. As others have said we have all been there with our pups and come through the other side with all our fingers and toes in tact. With Juno I used squeals when she nipped to hard and squealed harder if she continued and normally didn't have to resort to ignoring her/time out for her to stop. There is a lot of brilliant advice to help you through this phase of puppyhood, but please, please do no allow anyone to smack your pup's nose with a rolled up newspaper or anything else as it can teach your pup to be scared of people and objects because they hurt.
Re: 12 week old puppy biting and biting and biting Children are so interesting to puppies… Maisie stops and looks at kids when we're out on a walk and she only really does that for other dogs or birds! In fact some kids wanted to pet her today but when she got up to them, she had a big spazz of energy/excitement and ran away and so I had to say "oops, too excited today" but she loves them when she's calmer. I think it's the high pitched voices and smaller size perhaps? Seem similar to puppies to them maybe! Another tip I think helped teach a soft mouth cue (i.e. not using mouth for biting/hard biting) was the way I gave treats to Maisie. You are probably giving them in an open palm (to avoid snatching/teeth touching you). If you're not already, well good work. If you are doing that, try switching to pinching the treat in your fingers or in your palm (you can make a fist) and offer it to the pup. If she goes for it with her teeth, your fingers do not open up and release the treat. She should try different ways to get it, softening her mouth. When she tries with a soft mouth (lips/tongue, no teeth), release the treat and praise. I associated this with a cue, gentle, which I sometimes say when she is getting her teeth out even now! I think it really helped teach her how to use her mouth gently, and that is what got rewards - the ignore when biting too hard thing was difficult to gauge how hard was too hard for me, so I think this helped communicate it to her better. But definitely do the ignore when biting! Also, I found the first 4-6 weeks were the worst, then it got much better, and then when teething began in earnest, it got worse - hard bites after having not bitten much for awhile! And at almost 6 months, we are just eliminating the VERRRRY last of the biting, which is not so much biting as she "pretends" to be biting (if you put your hand up to her mouth, she's like oh no… I didn't want to bite you… I was not waving my teeth around at you… oh no). So I'm working on that with her time outs (some people do not like these, as they are punishments, but I use it sparingly and only time out for 10 seconds at a time so I am comfortable with it, if you are 100% positive training you would not use that I don't think) and ignoring when she bites (mostly the jumping is what we have to ignore right now!).
