I have a 9 week old male Schnauzer who LOOOVES to BITE. I know it's normal, but I want to nip it before it becomes a real problem. We always hold his mouth closed, tell him no bite and give him his toys to chew, but sometimes he just wont stop. He doesn't growl and he is not aggressive.

I hear that ignoring them works, but how? He has a crate that he sleeps in at night and when we can't be with him (I'm generally home most of the day). I don't know if it's a good idea to put him in there when he is bad because I don't want him to associate his crate with punishment. What should we do? I don't want him locked away in another room, because I keep a close eye on him for potty training. We had him since Tuesday and no accidents yet (knock on wood). He has allot of fun time and plenty of stuff he can chew on.

Advice?

Hi,
when my beddie was a pup what I did was....
when he's biting yelp like a puppy (ow ow ow ) and get up and walk away from him and go somewhere else for a few minutes - don't look at him, ignore him totally for a few minutes. This is what his brothers and sisters would do in the litter. He should get the idea very quickly, but this has to happen every time with everyone he plays with. This way he'll learn not to bite too hard and have a gentle mouth cos we humans are sooo fragile :). There's no need to put him in his cage at this stage or lock him in another room as he won't understand whats happening. Remember he's just a baby and this is what baby pups do :)

Hope this helps :)
Regards
Dill

In my opinion, the best thing is to take yourself away into another room, just for a few minutes. If you stay in the same room, trying to ignore him, he will try to get your attention to carry on playing with you - jumping up, chewing your ankles, pulling at trouser legs etc. :D

Basically, it works because puppies hate to be ignored. They wonder what they have done to deserve it. So, if you get up and leave him the second he starts biting you, he will eventually realise that it is his teeth on your skin that is causing you to leave him and for the game to stop. You only have to be out of the way for a few minutes, so it should not upset your toilet training. :) The 'yelp' in conjunction with ignoring him may also work. Do make sure the yelp sounds like you are hurting though. It is too easy for it to sound fun and exciting, in which case the puppy will be convinced that you like the game.

When you go back in the room, you may need to carry on ignoring him for a few minutes, otherwise he may just carry on where he left off. I hope this helps!

Monty's Mum :)

This was exactly the same with my mini schnauzer, he's over five months old now and only mouths if he is really excited - usually when he is greeted by his immediate family. All the previous advice worked for me, particularly the high pitched yelling and them removing the hands from his reach every time. If it got too bad then I did used to put him in his puppy pen to allow both of us to cool off and then go back to him after a few minutes. So the good news is that it improves, for me, it got worse after 9 weeks and then started to improve after about 3 months. Keep doing what you are doing and don't be afraid to use the cooling off periods whenever you need to. Good luck

Hello Malachite

I have fostered a lot of dogs with poor manners for our humane society. Our two German Shepherd Dogs know not to mouth our hands or legs, feet etc. I read something in a training manual once that really struck a cord. When the puppy or in my case older dogs with absolutely no manners would bite my hands I would yelp and act as if what they did really hurt. As Silly as it sounds and as stupid you will feel doing it for the first time :) it works like a charm. When the dogs stops nibbling your hand praise the dog profusely!! The logic behind it is that is what the mother dog will do if her pup play bites her to hard. Sounds silly but it works. For many of our fosterers I only had to do that once or twice before they got the message. It seemed to be much more effective then no in redirecting thier behavior.
Good luck
KL

It's totally normal for pups to bite/mouth/nip, whatever we call it, but their owners are often unprepared for the sheer tenacity, and pain of those little needle baby teeth :D

My pup (well pup then, not now, she's growed ;) ) was known affectionatelyl as the Mad Bitey Puppy because she was all of that - bonkers, fast, nippy, strong willed - in fact everything i expected of her breed as the BSds are both guard and herd dogs. So esp. in her case you don't grab, chase or any thing like that because that makes it so much more fun.

I used mostly the "owch" and then calmly put pup in other roon for a couple of minutes. It does follow pack ideas in the sense that a pup is usually ostracised for a short while after it has nipped badly, so it is based on the fact that nipping = removal of reward, pack intregration, etc which is important to a pup. It's really humans carrying on the education which littermates would be doing. But as we can't mimic the expert language of dogs, it takes a little longer and may take up to 20 weeks or more to get a good behaviour here.

The pup is never taken out for more than a few minutes and may well start up again, if tht is the case then just keep repeating. As the pup gets thehang of it, I may start to add a little sharp "ah ah " but it very much depends on how the learning is going. Many breeds are more mouthy naturally than others, and some are much slower to mature mentally, so IMHO this should be taken into account as well.

Also, never forget to reward for good behaviour, so the pup really starts to understand.

Lindsay

Hi Lindsay,

... bonkers, fast, nippy, strong willed... So esp. in her case you don't grab, chase or any thing like that because that makes it so much more fun.

Also, very intelligent, don't forget!

Yes! They're exactly the reasons why I learnt to leave the room rather than trying to put my monster into his playpen. :) He very quickly learnt that a yelp would be followed by arms out-stretched to pick him up and put him in the sin-bin, so he'd better get out of the way! So, whenever I tried removing him (as per most people's advice), it inevitably wound him up further, with me trying to catch him and having to get physical with him. He was very fast and agile (still is!) but also soon became too large to man-handle, especially with bitey mouth and kicking legs going in all directions! :D This method clearly wasn't working for Monty.

I found he calmed down more quickly if I left him to it, and he could apply his brain (- not possible when he's wound up). I could leave the room efficiently, which left him sitting there with a stunned look on his face "what did I do, where's she going?". When I returned a few minutes later he'd be so pleased to see me you'd think I'd been gone for a week! I'd be smothered in kisses rather than nips. Much more desirable. :)

I believe the end result was the same, he was separated from his most desired reward, human company, but without going through all the fun and drama first, thank goodness! ;) It helped me to realise that not all dogs think the same way and that is why there are so many different training tips given on here for each question we get asked. I've been trying to tune into Monty's wavelength ever since!

I think Monty and Banya have some quite similar personality traits though, so I find it interesting to read about her achievements and how you got her there!

Best wishes,
Monty's Mum :)

Monty's Mum, you are so right in that they seem alike - yes, the scenario where they get further wound up, and the rest.....!!! She was really a bit like a hyperactive child, and it wasn't due to her food either ;)

I totally agree, we also used to go out of the room ourselves, and also started to use a long line in the house, so that if we did need to take her out, she could'nt skiddle -addle away and turn it in to a chase me charlie game (she will do anything for a chase game!! )

I do feel dog training isn't prescriptive, and for some dogs the "owch" works very well, but not for Monty and BAnya types :D

Lindsay

You may find some useful tips in this thread [link http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/board/topic_show.pl?tid=14669&hilite=biting#0] Advice to New Owners - Mouthing & Biting [/link]

Christine