Hi my 12week old mini schnauzer Monza bites very hard. Shes not a chewer and sometimes she plays with a softish mouth, nips when playing that dont hurt but in the evening when she appears to have an routine hour of crazy, she bites so hard she draws blood, hard clamped jaw. when she does and i get my had free i fold my arms and walk away but she seems just as happy to get on on her own and therefore not see the significance of whats happened. Is this normal for her age?

Before we reply can you say how long you have had her, and was she an only pup.

All pups have a 'mad time' in the evening. try turning this enegy into a training time with you pup, at 3 mths old they are keen to be learning new things. mind stimulation. you want to teach you pup things or it will go what I call  'self employed'.

It's normal for some puppies to have a crazy time in the evenings and/or sometimes to have 'tantrums' where they appear not to realise there is a person on the other end of their biting. 

I'd suggest you need lots of massive soft toys - if you take a trip to a £ World you should be able to pick some up cheap - and just stick them in front of her mouth when she's in this mood and let her bite on them.  Make sure you always approach her holding a toy and never with your bare hands, or she will bite on those. 

I'm assuming you've also enrolled her in a good puppy socialisation class which has supervised off lead play as a component, so she is learning bite inhibition from play with other puppies...

When pups nip each other too hard the other pup squeals and then moves away terminating the interaction. Opinions about how to do bite inhibition vary but google the "bite stops here" and Ian Dunbar's advice.

I think a pup like yours probably needs to be startled with a very loud and high owww as soon as it chomps down, this often stops the pup in its tracks, and then you walk away immediately and ignore pup- for up to 15 seconds and then resume interaction and repeat if pup bites hard again. If the pup appears to be actively trying to temper its bite after your intervention then redirect pup onto a chew toy/ puppy chew and praise if it chews that. Currently you are just walking away is only half the feedback the pup needs.

Occasionally terrier pups can get even more wound up by the "owww", so if this happens you may need to use another sort of interruptor coupled with timeouts. However, your pup is still young, so hopefully this will not be the case.

Some pups get over tired and stroppy in the evening and become hyper as a result. You may need to supervise her play and rest a little more and get her to engage in chewing in the evening rather than playing- which may lead to excessive biting. I'd also just check she is on the right diet and she is not being hyped up by something in her food.

I've just noticed you say your pup doesn't chew- she may have to actively be taught how to do this- most dogs and especially pups do need to chew, it actively relaxes and de stresses them. I would explore various safe puppy chewing options, but explore what has additives etc..Pup chews should not be too hard as this can damage their dentition, but they do need something. Many pups want and need to chew like little maniacs, especially in the evening and it sounds like yours has decided humans hands are a great choice.

i have had her for 2 weeks, she was one of 8 pups. I should have been clearer she does chew the own things, what i meant was biting is def higher on her list of priorities. we havent attended puppy classes but she has lots of play and interaction with my step fathers dogs and dogs in the park.

I think you are correct about the over tired and stroppy sounds exactly right and I am struggling to calm it down. The rest of the day she is very good about settling down between outdoor sessions and play and lessons but after her tea for about an hour I cant seem to settle her.

> we havent attended puppy classes but she has lots of play and interaction with my step fathers dogs and dogs in the park.
>
>

You really need the puppy classes.  Not only to train the dog, you need training too, it will improve your canine perception more than a walk in the park.

hi jean

thanks for your reply, although we dont attend puppy classes we do have a one on one training at home.

I second that you need puppy classes.  It is so much easier to prevent problems than to wait till you have them, and then try to undo them.  This biting situation, for example, could well have been prevented or reduced if you'd had good advice at a well run puppy class.

Sounds pretty normal, I call it the 'piranha stage'! You are doing the right thing by walking away and refusing to engage her, even if she appears happy to do something else. I agree puppy classes would be worth giving a try. :-)

I have had a puppy like this and found that it was worse when she became over tired and crazy like a small child she became impossible, biting too hard etc.. I resolved this by giving her time out in a crate with a chew toy, (a kong stuffed with some tasty treats) solved the problem until she grew up more and matured.

When I brought my now 17 week old PWD puppy home, I thought he was the cutest bundle of fur around....overnight he turned into the Tasmanian  devil from hell !!!!. And his favorite chew toy was the hubby, (who used to say, can't we give him back till he is grown ) his teeth were sharp at it hurts like bl**dy h* ll  when those Gnashers catch....all the argh argh,s squealing  turning your backs on him! was like water of a ducks back , he just did it more! one game was  when burning off energy running round the garden , stopping half way to throw himself at you with teeth snapping , catching any flesh or material he could get his chops around,  he did not discriminate ......the only thing that worked with him was to pick him up and put him away till he calmed Down, that and lots of chew toys.

I used to tell folk don't be fooled by that cute bundle of fluff, there is the son of Jaws hiding inside, it was a bit of a problem when the kiddies came round as they got him to excited, but it's passing,  he forgets himself on occasion ,specially when hubby is reading the paper....but on the whole we are  leaving the biting stage behind, I am sure something else will pop up in its place.

I think we forget how much work pups can be , and the biting stage can be a shock if you are not used to it but this time goes so fast, before we know it they are oldies. .....so best enjoy whilst we can.

Lol jackbox, your pup sounds like my last 3 Briard pups, my current one is nearly 6 months old. It is not funny when they emulate the wall of death and you are the target. But you are right, they do get older very quickly and you find yourself missing the mad behaviour sometimes.

I find that my pup still does this at night and will probably continue to until he is at least a year old, my breed take several years to become half sensible, full sensibility never happens, even when they are seniors. The Peter Pans of the dog world!

Redirecting has helped us. We take a few favourite "special" toys, ones that he doesn't have access to unless I give them to him, and then put them in his mouth when he is biting us. The more fuss and noise we make the more he thinks its fun and ignoring just gets your back bitten and scratched. These are his "lounge" toys and he only gets them when he is being sensible and allowed in but in these circumstances, I make an exception as he really does relish and enjoy these toys. He runs about with them shaking his head and "killing" them, pouncing on them and growling. I did try some training with all of mine when they were in this mood but quickly found that they were not in the right mental state for learning. I allow him to go wild with these and if he still continues to use us as his teething testers, he is then put in his crate with a tripe stick or other favourite chew toy, (a kong is good, I stuff these with various food stuffs and then freeze so they have to work at getting it out) until he calms down. It also gives us time to recover as if we are feeling a bit stressed by it all, he very quickly picks up on it, one seems to feed off the other I find.

A good pup training class sounds like it will really help you but try to find one that is recommended by someone who has been to the one that you are considering

Ah yes, the evening madcap hour (or two) and when are a lot of training classes on? In the evening when their being at their silliest! I've been taking my pup to one, but will be changing to another one held in the mornings. Not for that reason, but a different type of training more towards her breed (gun dog).

I am visiting and walking a tiny pug puppy the same sort of age as your min schnauzer and she is exactly the same. I haven't had small breed pups for years (my latest pup was a GSD) and the small breeds hurt 1000x more so I sympathise with what you're going through. I find re-direction onto a toy the only thing that will really help in this scenario. The puppy that I walk gets very bitey when putting her harness and lead on, so at this time she gets a small treat on the floor and it goes on whilst she's eating that so she doesn't get in a bad habit.

She is adorable and I love walking her, but I always come away with a new war wound from her tiny teeth! ha ha

I'm so relieved I'm not alone - my collie who is 5 months is most definitely going through adolescence and apart from teething badly now frequently gets totally hyper about all sorts of things - ranging from not letting me walk anywhere if I want to wear my slippers as she just HAS to have them to throwing herself at me when she's over excited and trying to use me like her latest chew toy to ignoring me when I say sit or down as though I'd never said them before to her in her life!!

The rest of the time, she's a charming, affectionate little sweetheart and sits and lays down on command, the rest of the times it's like being around a Tasmanian devil on crack!!