Dear All,

I am new to ChampDogs and so would like to say 'Hello' to all and really appreciate any advice you can give.

My girlfriend and I have a 12 week old Standard Poodle puppy (Dog), we have had him from 8 weeks and he's brilliant.  However, the last couple of weeks he has started 'snapping' at our faces when we play with him.  We are doing the usual firm 'stop' and halting play, but he is still doing it.  I think he just gets excited and looses himself but that's not good enough for a dog that will be a very big lad when he's fully grown, making this behaviour quite dangerous.

Any advice would be much appreciated as he is growing fast and we want to nip it in the bud before it becomes a problem.

Many thanks in advance.
Pete

This is very normal but over excited play.

You seem to be doing all the right things.

You might like to read/re-read Puppy biting here http://www.dogstardaily.com/free-downloads

This site is invaluable for training and other articles http://www.dogstardaily.com/

Thank you for the links and reassurance 'Brainless' - I will have a look at these.

Hopefully with some more persistence he will focus his excitement in other areas soon.

Many thanks.

Also like with toddlers he could be getting like this when over tired.

I agree - however I think in this case he is only doing it when playing/excited.  We always leave him to sleep when he needs or wants it.

We will persevere, he's a clever chap so I'm sure he'll catch on soon enough :-)

Thanks

Have you really had him since he was four weeks old or do you own the dam as well? No just read again, this time properly, sorry.
You do seem to be doing the right thing would only add perhaps calming games down a bit and switching to training type games may help.

>he's a clever chap so I'm sure he'll catch on soon enough

We all think our dogs are clever.  :-)  But, having done obedience with Poodles I would just like to reassure you.  They are very, very clever and normally do exceedingly well at obedience.  :-)

slightly different but there may be some help in this article http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discuss/index.php?topic=64170.0

One of my favourites.  It's an article that I always print out and hand to my new puppy owners. 

I agree Jean ,it helpeded me understand a lot.I often mention it to people who have puppies

Thank you all - we have him booked into advanced puppy training using only positive reinforcement and also Ringcraft starting in 2 weeks.

Thanks again

Did the training help?