we had our first one to one training session and the lady was really helpful and informative. She has given us some training exercises to do with dog and my son to help with the situation of him targeting him for biting. However she has said about doing a deep loud ow when he bites us....she demonstrated and the puppy did stop biting her and looked a bit surprised however no matter how loud/deep etc I say ow it makes no difference. What am I possibly doing wrong? He just completely seems un phased but my ow. Any suggestions.
Our puppy doesn't listen to me as much as my husband. I have started clapping my hands loud and the noise startles her. Once I have her attention get her to sit and then give her my attention when she isn't biting
Saying 'ow' is bad advice in my opinion. It works with some puppies and some people - it works if the puppy is startled or alarmed. Your puppy didn't know the trainer so was taken aback by the noise, whereas when you make the sound your puppy feels confident and it probably just makes him more excited. Your son is probably even more exciting - his voice is likely to be higher (I assume he's a child) and his movements are likely to be quicker. So I would suggest two ways forward. One is to remove yourself as soon as your puppy's teeth touch you, so that your puppy learns that teeth on skin mean interactions cease. However in practice I know that this is not always easy as I know that some puppies latch on to skin or clothing like lightning. My own personal preference is to always have a soft toy handy (at my level - so numerous ones throughout the house and in my pocket) so that I can immediately put this in the puppy's mouth. The advantage of this is that you maintain engagement with your pup and don't scare him. Clapping or anything designed to cause alarm is a bad idea - you want to be the safe place for your pup. If your son is a young child, never leave him alone with the puppy and teach him to 'be a tree' (stand still and silent with arms by his sides) when the pup bites, and then you rescue him by removing the puppy, or distracting pup with a toy. (I am a trainer - member of the IMDT (force-free training) If you are in the UK look on this site to find a trainer : https://www.imdt.uk.com/find-a-qualified-imdt-trainer)
I agree with @Joy , an ow is not helpful. Distraction is the best way I found, use of a toy or give something to chew on.
I absolutely agree with Joy. I will add that your OW is not new to your puppy. Your other post mentioned that you were already using that technique without successfully changing the behavior. If injecting a toy doesnt seem to work, make sure you are making the toy become the most interesting thing. Simply putting in front of the puppy's face may not work, but wiggling it around while squeaking it may gain the attention. And PRAISE. When the puppy finally shifts attention to the toy, give recognition/praise that shows you approve and are happy with the choice and behavior.
I'm also a +1 for not using the Ow, unless you are lucky enough to have a puppy who does respond to that, which it doesn't seem you do unfortunately! My puppy has never responded to the Ow approach to stop biting, it's always been a distraction toy or, when that doesn't work (which believe me is often!), it has been removing her from the room for a little while for her to calm down. The other thing that works really really well for me is to immediately switch into "training" mode, getting her to sit, paw, lay down, etc. She loves doing that (something to do with the rewards I suspect!) but that will now stop a bitey episode immediately. Maybe try something like that with your son involved so you can turn what is currently a negative experience for them both into a positive one? I know it seems really bad right now, but honestly it does get better, we've had our Cassie for nearly 8 weeks now, and she is definitely heaps better than she was initially. Good luck
