Tried some of the suggested ideas for puppy biting, holding sides of mouth, no bite and snarling like her mum, all make her worse :( I have started picking her up and putting her in her crate for 5 mins. What I want to know is a) will this work and b) could it cause problems with her crate training. She is excellent in her crate. Sleeps from when we go to bed to c8am with no howling/soiling. I don't want to spoil this by her thinking the crate is a place for punishment.

i think i am right in saying that a crate should be a safe place for your dog to go, and should never be put in there as punishment? she will end up hating her creat and think that when she gets put in there at night, that she has done something bad?

EDITED to say- i think you know that it will halm the training, so dont do it. i got told to- when ever she growls/bites, dont respond or talk to her. leave her alone. she will understand she hads done something bad.

NEVER use the crate as a punishment. If used properly the crate is puppies own space and he/she should want to go in there, not be put there for misbehaving.

Hi
I have a 5 and half month old working cocker spaniel and have had the same problem with her, I have found that the best way to deal with it was to ignore her and walk away. If she greets us nicely without biting then she gets a fuss, but if she starts to get silly and starts biting we just ignore her and walk out of the room for a few minutes, then we repeat the process again this, seems to have worked for us as we very rarely have a problem now. She has a crate which she sleeps in and I think that her crate should be place where she feels safe and secure.
Good luck

We found the same thing all the physical ways of trying to stop our pup nipping just made him even more boisterous ,its very tedious doing it but picking him up and putting him in another room for a couple of minutes really worked for us even though when we first started it was up,down,up,down very frequently.I think his crate should be his little haven and I think you may be storing up problems for yourself by using it as punishment.

Best of luck
Steve

absolutely agree with steve - our puppy's gone through different phases of chewing/biting and the most effect form of correction we've found is to shut her out in the hall on her own for a couple of minutes - she well knows she's done something bad then and calms right down.

other thing is - pup's last nipping phase arose because she was jumping up on the furniture. we wree telling her "off!" and half-picking her up to put her off, half-pushing her off and she got so she was liking the attention and trying to turn it into a chase-ruby-on-the-sofa/chair and was trying to nip the hands. to remedy that we keep a long light lead on her lead at likely times and then when she jmps up on the chair, you can just pull her off (gently) with the lead. Depending on what's making your's nip, can you utilise a lead to give you some distance control, take her away from whatever she's nipping?

good luck :)

hi

putting our pup out of the room worked for us too,now when she bites and gets boisterous we only have to say "do you want to go OUT" and she stops and lays down straight away,i agree the yelling ouch and ignoring ,turning back etc never worked on our pup either she needed picking up and putting out we used the back porch and left her there for at least 10mins or more and if she did it again then back out she went!

Agree that to ignore and walk away is the best way to stop the unwanted behaviour. Also think if you need time out then you should take it, I do, put or send the pup to her cage, not in anger, calm and gentle, give her something to chew on and take a break to recover yourself. If she is winding you up you will get no where let her calm down a bit whilst you do the same.

I have to admit that when Saffy was a puppy, I wasn't aware of any advice not to use the crate when she was naughty, so I did use to put her in there if she was biting too much, etc. Ignoring and so on made no difference to her - she would carry on doing whatever. I also never had any rooms I could shut her in easily. At night time, she would hear me making preparations to go to bed and without my saying anything would happily trot into the crate and go to sleep. If anything did happen that scared her a bit during the day, she would go to her crate. I don't think that she ever disliked her crate, so using it for time out (in our experience) did no harm. I suppose every dog is different and if you found your dog getting reluctant to go in crate at night and so on, then you could change how you handled things.

Fiona and Saffy

It's important to reward the puppy for good behaviour too - telling it off for bad may well get it all excited and achieve little :)

Also, distract with a toy. Keep dog on a long line in the house if removing the pup leads to a chase game...but take it off if you leave the house. I had the bitiest puppy (known affectionately as Mad Bitey Puppy) and she learnt slow but sure by being calmly removed (or if it suited us going out) the room.....you do have to keep doing it, and it takes patience, and can be annoying - but done consistently it really does work. Once the pup bites, you ignore - no eye contact or voice, and take out for up to 2 minutes. Then back in, and keep repeating!!! :D That's the hard bit as people give up after a few days!!! ;)

Lindsay

When you are ignoring a puppy this includes eye contact. There should be none whatsoever. You will often find that if a dog isharrassing you in any way and you withdraw eye contact it will settle down. It may take longer for a pup but it does work.

Christine

Hi after my success with the barking and the water spray I found it works on the nipping as well. Get a little spray bottle the water comes out in a fine mist and it has stopped my pup nipping and barking. You only have to do it a couple of times for them to get the message. I tried all the other suggestions and none worked but the water mist worked almost immediately. I am new at this so I am sure someone will tell you if it is wrong to do it but it certainly worked for me.

Thanks everyone, some useful tips there. I have also found the main times the biting/snapping occurs is when she is shooed off the settee or told to get down. I also agree with the eye contact, any aggressive staring makes her worse. The reason for the crate is I can't trust her on her own in the hall or kitchen for 5 mins!! We have a stair gate to stop her going upstairs so could really do with one to keep her out of the room. I am going to try the water spray and tin filled with stones.

I am a little concerned. Big D, your pup is if i remember 14 weeks (sorry if i'm wrong, i'm typing that from memory :) ) and you have understandably tried lots of things..... grabbing the muzzle, snarling (who on earth told you to do that?!) maybe aggressive staring and so on. Pups do get excited and many continue to nip until they are several months old. Please don't panice and feel you have to stop your dog NOW, and that if you don't it will get worse :)

To me she seems a normal pup but will be very confused if you have used lots of different methods in so short a time. By 14 weeks, one cannot say a certain method doesn't work ;) as they all take a little time. What you may also find is that a pup will give an extinction burst - ie gets worse before it gets better. This is in fact proving that the technique is working :) although it has to be said,this is the time most owners give up.

If the pup is biting and snapping when you shoo her off the sofa etc, i am certain she is feeling either very over excited or else intimidated and defensive. It is best to train pups to Off (NEVER Down) and reward them for doing so. If necessary lure and reward or use a lead to gently pull her off and reward.

If you are clicker training her :) do remember that the best results are gained from consistent training in all areas :)

Have fun, best wishes
Lindsay

I used my dogs crate as a "Time Out" when she got too excited and started nipping etc. or just being the usual naughty puppy. It hasn't harmed her and she doesn't see her crate as a punishment. When I need to go out, shower etc. when I can't leave her to roam the house she readily goes in her crate, I always keep a bone for her if I am leaving her in there for more than an hour so she always readily goes in.

I will also admit that I have put my dogs in their crate when they were pups, and they were going too far, or we needed a break and mine both LOVE their crates still.
At bedtime, I'll say "ok Henry, bedtime" and he totters straight in. Rocky sleeps with my youngest son at bedtime, but during the day, he'll often go in for a nap...or to get away from Henry when Henry wants to play and Rocky doesn't.
They are both very happy to use their crates whenever they want to......Henry is in his now, having his usual morning nap, Rocky is on the chair having his nap :)

Hi Lindsey

Don't be concerned, when I say snarling, I mean a low growl merely what her mum would do if she were nipped. I'm sure this has been suggested on the forum.

Adult dogs have a variety of signals to give puppies before they resort to verbal communication - to straight away start snarling at a pup and expect it to understand is very unfair....