As a puppy, Charlie was pretty nippy and bitey but absolutely nothing compared to my new puppy, Betsy. She is a real determined horror for biting and would snap constantly at hands, feet and clothes. So, I've been thinking about how best to deal with it, in a structured way. It's so bad that it is interfering with training that I really should be getting on with, in particular handling. The first thing is that I have to be really careful that she doesn't spend too long in her crate. Because it's often necessary to put her in her crate (to save visitors, my older dog, and our ankles from being ripped to bits), the danger is she spends too long in there. I have three crates, which helps - a pen in the utility room, a crate in the kitchen, and a crate in the TV room. That means that when she does have to be in a crate, she is not also isolated. The yelp thing, standing up etc. seems to have pretty much zero impact. Stepping out of the room, or over a barrier works much, much better. The problem with this though is it takes a little bit of time and when you have a puppy that is constantly snapping, rather than just on occasion biting too hard, it's impractically slow to make much progress. Giving her a toy to put in her mouth is a great management help, but didn't seem to significantly speed up the stop snapping thing. It is pretty painful to interact with her, but I just have to grin and bear this because if I don't interact with her lots, she won't get better quickly. Luckily, I do not have to go to the office this summer, and I hope my hands and arms will stop looking a total mess by the time I do! Long sleeves, close fitting clothes, and boots help! She does draw blood on a regular basis though, so it really does hurt and I just don't see a way around this. Training take it, and thank you with a tug game was fantastic - because the cue thank you transferred easily to hands and clothes. So now at least she'll release human flesh and clothes on the cue thank you. This is a godsend, and has made everything else much easier. Training a nose touch also helped a lot, because it got her used to having her mouth close to a human hand and keeping her mouth shut. It didn't help as much as playing tug though. Equally as good as tug was (after I had got a little way through training leave it and she would not grab at food held in my hand) to hold a treat in one hand, so she was focussed on it, and pet and handle her with the other. A few seconds of petting, got her the treat. This was really successful and made a big difference because she really, really loves being stroked and adores tummy rubs so helped hugely to get across the idea that human hands are for something other than biting. I'm going to switch this away from visible food to something on cue now. Other than that, I have spent a huge amount of time training things that don't involve me touching her! To give myself a break, really. Her placeboard training is pretty awesome.
She's definitely VERY mouthy. The first thing she did was put her mouth round my hand when I met her. I balled my hand into a fist as I was prewarned and luckily my hand is too big for her gob (at the moment!) but I can see how hard it must be when that's her first response!
Sounds so so familiar Julie!! Similar experience as my last lab was nowhere near as bitey as Mole. It was relentless. I also trained thank you and still use it. It was great. He did eventually stop but it took a bloody long time for it to really stop - 4 months was getting better and by 6 months we were there. My hands and arms were shredded! He still needs to have something in his mouth a lot but luckily these days it's a toy, a bone or a Kong ... Not my arm! Sounds like the place board thing would have been a good idea for us! Have you tried a rawhide strip - really helped with Moles evening biting frenzy!
I do have some chews for her - not rawhide though. I have some beef pizzles, rice chews, dried fish stuff and some venison chews from Billy and Margot. Just like Charlie though, she chews to eat, so just sets about eating whatever I give her as fast as she can get the thing into her tummy, and she is as fast at doing so as grown up Charlie is! I was reading Mag's post her about adopting the approach of just waiting for puppies to stop biting, and I do think there is a lot in this, for sure. I am very much regretting this getting in the way of things I want to do with my puppy though, so anything that will help I'm prepared to try. I'll go do a vid of Betsy's placeboards to cheer me up!
Jusy red this stuff and i know it should put me off. I remember rory was terrible but but I still find myself wanting another pup.
My first 2 were too. Rory came from a 9 pup litter all Boys except for 1girl they were all a bittey bunch of savages
I agree, the only thing the 'yelp' does is to interrupt the pup for a split second while you find an alternative for those teeth. The thing which works with Kara (11 weeks) is saying her name, getting her to sit and giving a treat. Of course that doesn't last long either but it gives me time to give her another toy to play with, or to do some training. I have a stash of toys out of her reach, so that the toy I give is fresh and interesting. I save rice bones, hedgehog chew etc for having in my hand when I want to interact with her (cuddles, grooming, handling etc) -also for when I hand her to someone else. I have one in my pocket ready for her to chew on when I'm handling her, but I don't leave her with them. If I'm giving her something to chew it's usually a Kong or soaked-kibble filled bone a Kong if I'm leaving her alone and a bone if I want peace and quiet for a while. ... ...
Oooh ouch, yep know this one only too well. I use much the same tactics as you all do. Give her something else to chomp and interact. We have a thing with Molly in the early morning - yes 5.30 ish - when she is in hyper mode. We have an empty juice bottle, shove half dozen kibbles in and - wow, she is delighted. Yes, I know and no I don't let her chomp bits off to eat but she has learned, very quickly how to shed the kibbles but only after she's partially chewed the bottle so it takes longer to dislodge them. We also adjust her food by that amount. OK, not ideal but she enjoys it, plays happily and is ready for breakfast and subsequently training, quietly, when time is right.
Is excessive biting unique to the puppy do you think, or would you find that it's a shared trait amongst litter mates?
I have no idea - I suspect it is a mix of genetics and early handling. Puppies in a litter can vary.... Betsy is an exceptionally bold puppy, and I think her character is sort of 'dive in and go for the bitey play'. I even remember Charlie being a bit more reserved with strange dogs and strange people than Betsy is - I really have to watch it with the hoards of people in the street that want to pat the sweet looking Andrex puppy - she does a very cute sit with wagging tail sweeping the road and an expression that says come on, come pat me...just a little closer, a bit closer...so I can rip your throat out...
Ripple was a horrendously bitey puppy and I don't think we managed him very well at all. The biting got in the way of lots of training as his lack of impulse control meant that any hint of excitement could send him into a biting frenzy. We only really got it under control with a trainer who got us to withdraw from Ripple completely every time he went into bitey mode. Even now at nearly 15 months Ripple can still start to mouth if he gets really over excited but he generally manages to stop himself without me having to intervene. In many ways Ripple's extreme biting spoilt my time with him as a puppy and has made it difficult to develop a good relationship with him .
I do think this is a challenge, for sure. I'm rather determined that I would rather sustain a great deal of bites rather than not interact with Betsy - that's no criticism of you, please don't think that, for sure I think too often I've put Betsy in a crate again because I can't deal with being bitten one more time....and I started this thread exactly so we could share experiences to help others with this (and also to get sympathy because I look like I self harm as a hobby )
I certainly don't take that as a criticism @JulieT , I don't think anyone could criticise me any more than I've criticised myself. It often became impossible to do anything with Ripple as he got so focussed on biting, and especially as he got bigger his behaviour looked frightening to any outsiders. I probably now have the worlds biggest selection of gardening clothes as so much stuff got torn when we were going through this .
Ah yes the gardening/decorating clothes lol!!!! Obi wasn't a biter but like many spaniels he likes to climb up you so I have a LOT of t-shirts and jumpers with holes in just above the waist.
Betsy has ripped so many of my tops! I had some lovely slightly floaty tops for summer, with zig zag pointy hems. Huh. They are no more....
Ted, now 12 weeks is also a biter. His main targets are my wife, daughter, son and his girlfriend. He goes for their clothes. He's less bitey with me but does occasionally try his luck if I change my trousers. It's been quite difficult to overcome, to be honest. When I offer him a toy to let go of my wife's skirt or shirt (which got torn today), he tends to nose it aside to carry on with the prolonged hold on the clothes. We actually sat down at supper this evening to consider a family approach to the problem. One suggestion was to be prepared with a treat thrown on the floor in front of him when we enter the room, to keep his focus downwards, to click that focus and see how that works. I think it might help if we could anticipate his lunges and head them off somehow. I know all the emphasis is on positive reinforcement but still need help with how that works. Someone mentioned training "thanks" and "take it" and I'd be interested to know how that goes. Anything to help! Puppy classes start in just under two weeks. Yay!
