Hiya.

I know everyone is probably bored stiff with bitey puppies but I am beginning to despair!!

My black lab puppy is nearly 10 weeks old and is so bitey I am having trouble following the advice on the previous posts and in the books. (I have pawed!!! over them and read the print off the books)

She seems to have 2 types of bites, one of them is the `normal `puppy bite which responds well to `no` or `ouch` and she is actually beginning to sometimes spit our hands back out of her mouth or at least stop biting so hard in an instant, which she is instantly told `good girl or if not we follow whatever course of action is appropriate depending where we are ie walking away from her and ignoring her for a few minutes.

She doesn`t seem to bother about this one bit and will just walk away and play on her own.

The other bite which is the one i`m despairing about is she will just walk past and `latch on` to a part of the body thats nearest, leg or arm, and won`t let go.

Any loud `ouch` or `no bite` makes her worse, we have never played any tug of war games with her but she seems to be playing a tug game on us.

Out of desperation yesterday I told her to `leave` and `swopped ` her my arm for a tiny bit of treat but I am getting really desperate how to deal with this because she is really hurting me, infact all of us. The kids are scared stiff of her.

Obviously in this situation I cant walk off and ignore her. Even if I do walk off or turn my back on her she will bite the back of my legs and latch on.

We have noticed that sometimes touching her head makes her more bitey when shes tired so the whole family make a special effort to stroke her body if she is tired.

We have just begun to change her puppy food over from beta because we wondered if it may be this that
is contributing to it.

Apart from this we love her to bits, she is sitting well on command and her toilet training is fabulous.

Any advice please !!!

Thanks Hilary

It is not her food that is causing the mouthiness it is because she is a puppy. Children use hands to grab each other/toys/playthings. Puppies don't have hands so use their mouths for everything and have to learn, gradually, that this is not on.

Carry a knotted tea towel around with you and when you think she is likely to grab you then play with the teatowel (or toy) and praise her. If she grabs you instead then go stiff, disconnect her and firmly let her know that that is not on.

It takes time for pups to learn the rules and like babies their memories can be very short

If you do a search for "Mouthing & Biting" it will bring up a thread of advice specificially on this subject :)

Christine

I was going to suggest subsitute a toy for the puppy to chew and bite onto.

As Christine has said this is what puppies do and with doing this and postive reinforcement 'NO' when the pup gets too bitey you should be OK. It can go on for a while as the puppy will do this more when it is teething.

I would keep an eye out on your kids as well as they may well bet accidently bitten if left a lone. Always make sure they are supervised if you are not confident that the are groen up and experienced enough to be left alone. :)

Lucy

Hiya

I forgot to add that we do swap / subsitute her a toy which works a lot of the times except from the times she latches on !!!

thanks
Hilary

i have a 11 week old cavalier who was VERY bitey for a week or so in both the ways you mention. we got her to stop by ignoring her when she bit - also using slightly exaggerated body language (stick nose in air, pout, look MOST put out & refuse to look at her) - sometimes she'd try and bite shoes/trousers for attention & then ignoring her till hse went away worked.

but she did sometimes DEFINITELY bite shoes/trouser legs because she wanted to play. we do play tug with her - with a special dental rope that WE always keep control of. we play really controlledly with her too - i can stop the game at the most hyper points now by again suddenly changing my 'signals' (change in tone of voice, direct looking in eye, suddenly being v still and calm) and going "LEave it!" At first - and sometimes still, she's only just learning this - we have to take the tugger out of her mouth but she hardly puts any resistence up to this. then we praise her and start game again in cycles, so its not always completely the End of Fun, which would no doubt stop her doing it - the odd tidbit for leaving it helps too...!

there are probably more experienced people out there with stuff to say - i only had a dog for 4 weeks! - but i feel strongly with our pup that she has to play some pup games still - she's well learning our games, like retrieving and is learning gradulaly that they're more fun & have more potential but sometimes she just wants to play like she naturally would do. So i don't think encouraging wild uncontrolled tug-tug games with anything would be a good idea, but with ruby it seems to work that she has a specified outlet for this type of desire.

also with the tug game more than the others, we make sure that we play it only when WE call her to us ie we only play tug with her on OUR terms.

oh - i also found that squeaking or yelping in general with a v bitey pup did nothing more than make the game much more exciting, so we stopped. now in general bad pup behaviour gets greeted only by calm and relaxed body language as much as poss. and now she's pretty much stopped biting, if she ever does it accidentally, a good 'wounded' yelp, accompanied by similar sudden and shocking body language (leap away from her, refuse to look at her, never mind play with her) will put her in her place a bit.

Plus the other thing i've tried to bear in mind is that in 'diverting' her biting/chewing onto other toys, i've tried really hard to avoid looking like its a reward. pups have teensy memories, so i try and only give her the other toy to play with when her mouth's off us, even if i have to open her jaws (gently) and take the trouser out! ANd she should notice the change in my body language - if i get involved with her whilst she's chewing my trousers, i'm calm and controlled and have a soft voice - she'll know darn well that its not part of a game i reckon. (It seems that if you avoid eye contact whilst dealing with negative behaviour, don't look at her till she's acceptable that helps too.)

SOrry if i've gone on - thought it might be interesting to hear how someone else's coped iwth somethign similar and its quite a subtle business really.

I was having the same problem with my working cocker. She wouldn't respond to the 'ow' at all when biting my leg, pulling my trousers / skirt, etc. It was always when we were outside - playing in the garden, on a walk, and she was getting overexcited. If we were in the garden, I did try walking / running away to end the game, but she would chase and bite even harder. The only thing that worked was picking her up and putting her in the kitchen for two minutes, after which she was a different dog. On the walks, I tied the lead to a post / bench and stood a few metres away until she calmed down. It seems to have given her the message that this kind of behaviour ends the fun, and she hasn't done it for a few days now. Good luck!

Hi rosemarie,

This is EXACTLY what she is doing, I haven`t hardly played any games with her today I`ve kept her extremely calm, given her loads and loads of praise every time she has actually sniffed my legs while i have been walking without her lunging at them!!

I appreciate it is going to take some time but I will try your suggestion but it is nice just to know that someone is going / has gone through this.

It is 18 years since we had last had puppies and probably either because there were 2 together or because its a little like childbirth, memories fade! but I can`t remember out last dogs being like this mad and bitey crocodile !!!

Thanks Hilary

Hi Hilary,my vet told me that you will forget this horrible faze until the next puppy comes along!!!!
We tried bitter spray and all kinds of hot things on our hands but he licked our hands clean!!!I tried clove oil on my hands as suggested by someone else.........well it numbs your hands so you cant feel them biting hee hee but he liked the taste!!!
My kids were also scared stiff when our springer got that bity stage.Also because they expected him to mouth they would pull hands away quick which just excited the puppy,he thought this was an even better game!!!!
We have got over the kids being scared by getting them to help me with feedoing when he has just woken,not so mouthy and we praise his good behaviour with good boy good boy.
When the kids are in the garden wellies are great to save ankles!!!When i see the puppy bound over to them i call good boy good boy and reinforce the nice behaviour from previous times.
We also noticed the bity behaviour was worse when he's over tired,think how horrible kids are when over tired!!!
It wont always work but mostly things are good here right now,kids not so worried etc and the mouthing is becoming less and less.
Harry is now 14 weeks old and lovely with visitors.Now we are out and about for little walks all the horrible bits are forgotten whilst he's being made a fuss of by people and other dogs
Hope some of this works

Cheryl

I have a Black lab too and she's exactly the same. She's now 12wks old and still the same. The only thing that we found that has worked is to grab the back of her collar and give her a tap on the nose. She may just have sore gums so get some chews from your local pet shop like a Pigs Ear or a teething bone or maybe a chewy stick with yoghurt or chocolate stuffed in it. We've been told that she will grow out of it eventually. So don't worry. Try the collar thing and fingers crossed it works. If he's tired put him in the kitchen and let him sleep. And remember...DON'T DISTURB A PUPPY WHILE IT'S SLEEPING...IT MAKES THEM GROUCHY!

Shelly.

Shelly - don't give a dog chocolate - especially human chocolate! It's poisonous for them. One bar of dark chocolate is enough to kill a small dog.

I always remember, i read somewhere "A Yorkie bar can kill a Yorkie dog".

It's the theobromine that does it.

Having said that, years ago i would give dogs the odd (human) choccie button and they were oK, but i wouldn't do it now.

Lindsay

hiya everyone

Thanks for all your feedback, its so nice just to get support, I have found that by keeping her calm (ish) and by not playing exciting games seems to work (a bit) also when she latches on I hold her (only gently) by her collar or her scruff of her neck and say no very sternly and she lets go and I am able to exchange for a toy now.

She IS worse shen she is tired and I have found that putting her in her crate when she is very bitey NOT as a punishment but is actually kind to her because she goes straight to sleep.

It seems that she doesn`t seem to know when she is actually tired, its a bit like a toddler when they`re tired and after 1/2 hrs sleep she wakes up in a lovely mood.

So thanks again for the support all the books seem to talk about the bitey puppy stage but not how to cross the shark infested lawn !!!!!!

Hilary xx

i DEFINITELY agree bout the tiredness - ruby SO loves attention that she rarely puts herself to bed. she's also noticably more grouchy when she's over-tired. that was definitely when her biteyness was at its worst - part of me wondered whether she was half asking to be put to bed, so to speak? i'm currently trying to teach her to put herself to her basket - she's at least falling asleep where she's playing, so is definitely improving....!

am so glad you're making headway - good luck and have fun :)

Hi

I had the exact same thing with my choccie lab. He's now 6months and never really bites. The worst he does is have a little nibble when he thinks he can get away with it :)

The ouch noise never worked for me it just made it more fun for him. As I had never owned a puppy before it worried me, I really didnt think it was a phase but it was. Also I was so suprised how quickly they get tired...and I think a lot of his biting was because he was over-tired.

Whenever your dog does this put her in her crate...if she isnt tired she will still calm down.
It will get better :D