Hi everyone! I've been reading through a bunch of posts on this forum, thank you so much for all that you share! I have a 3 month black lab puppy named Luna, she's amazing and learning so quickly! We've been working a bunch on impulse control, making her "wait", recall, eye contact, things like sit/down/shake/crawl/luring into a bunch of different positions and she is doing perfect! In general her biting is what I expected, nearly constant! We're dealing with it, redirecting with toys, stopping play, and taking her to puppy playtime to socialize and learn bite inhibition. She gets excited INSTANTLY, while inside I can usually ask her to "sit" and practice some obedience when she starts getting really wound up to sort of calm her back down. My issue is when I take her outside to go to the bathroom, or to play some fetch or tug. Every time, without fail, she starts frantically ripping up grass and then will jump up, bite my legs or arms and NOT let go. I've tried redirecting her to toys I bring, to give her commands, to walk away but nothing will work at all. She starts growling and biting and shaking my leg or arm and has torn up almost all of my clothes. I have to have her on leash because I live in an apartment so I can't physically get too far away from her. Does anyone have any ideas of what to do in those exact moments? Like my arm will be bleeding and her teeth is in my skin and we're outside and I just don't know what to do! At this point the only thing that works is picking her up and bringing her back inside. I literally have to hold her so that she doesn't eat my face off. I know this isn't a great solution but if not I feel like she would rip my limbs completely off my body! Puppies are hard, which I expected, but this problem is too
Are you practicing training outside too? Your pup is associating outside time with playtime, which is fine. But the game is all wrong. Play a better game like fetch, or find it, or the recall game. and when the playtime is over practice 'game over' signals. Tire her out a bit and then do some training outside. sit, down, paw, roll and especially eye contact can be worked on during fetch. find it is the best way to teach a dog to stay in my experience. And the recall game has its obvious benefits but you need another person to play it properly.
You need to have her on a 2.5m puppy house line and you should be able to hold her away from your body temporarily when this occurs. You should also have a tug toy or a soft toy with you, and should redirect her play onto that item instead of your clothes and body... You need to teach her what is an appropriate toy. Are you getting her out daily to a new environment for a socialisation trip? You should be going to a puppy class, going to the bank, a DIY store, playdates with other well-socialised dogs, dog friendly cafes, pet stores etc etc. Again, a lot of problem puppy behaviours are caused by people not providing their puppy with sufficient socialisation experiences daily to tire out their minds. The puppy then has far too much energy - and it has to go somewhere. Tire puppies out mentally (not physically) and you will have a peaceful house....
I've questioned my pup's level of biting here on the forum, its hard to see how to deal with it at times when you have had a really tough moment or two, or to see and end to it. It can also be quite painful and so going limp or not responding is a challenge I know! We and our pup have also taken quite a time to get through this, but I think we are wining now at nearly 6 months. I'm no trainer but I empathise with you! I had to deal with the worst cases by taking myself out of the room and stop all interactions, as she would just 'loose herself' in the biting she enjoyed and seemed rewarding for her as part of play or getting excited. Its hard to predict sometimes what gets her excited - even a new rug in the living room got her excited - something new to roll on, explore and mouth - got to explore all new things with her mouth ! I appreciate all the amazing guidance on this forum even if it takes me a little while to work out exactly what to do and when. Training works really well to focus her mind and calm her as does a healthy chew. But I needed to understand when to trigger the training, ie very early on in her escalation or even if I could predict it train appropriate behaviours before she started biting /jumping up. I also had to learn when to abandon all hope of training or redirection when she was too excited and have a deal with it strategy (min was to leave the room in the end). All the best!
