Hi, I had posted this on the visitors section but I have just joined. Just wondering if anyone can give us another opinion, we have an 11 week old Bullmastiff puppy. He is, as I'm sure you can imagine, adorable apart from the biting! I know puppies play bite but this is virtually all the time. Every time you go to give him a fuss or play or praise him or even when you are just walking around the house he bites and will not stop. He is starting Puppy club tonight so that may help. Obviously we are keen to socialise him as much as possible however he bites evryone that comes to see him, hands,legs clothing, anything he can get his teeth into basically. The problem is that the advice with a puppy is not to tell him off because he will see even negative attention as good attention but it's impossible to ignore biting. Any advice on how best to deal with this?

Hi, welcome to the Forum!
As you know, all puppies play bite, and although it is completely normal, it doesn't stop it hurting! There are probably almost as many ways of stopping it (or decreasing it to a level you find acceptable) as there are owners. If you do a "Search" on here (top right-hand corner of the screen) and type in something along the lines of 'Puppy mouthing' or 'puppy biting' etc you should come across loads of advice.

Good luck - what's he called?
:)

Thanks for the help, we need it at the moment! He is called Lenny and is just absolutely gorgeous!

Just a thought - you are increasing his food appropriatly as he grows aren't you?  The worst puppy biters I've come across have been those who haven't been fed properly (either not enough meals in the day, or not increased amounts as the pup grows)......

Funnily enough thats a seperate question I was going to ask, he is on Beta puppy 3 times a day but does not seem to be eating as much as he should, from what you say this may be making it worse. The trouble is that we are getting conflicting advice on what to feed him.

Try changing his diet.  Beta is one of the foods that can make some pups and adolescents a bit manic in my experience.
Sally

Thanks Sally, we were thinking about changing him to Burns as we have heard some good things about it

Hi there

I also have a bullmastiff. I have owned 2 previously, both now passed on and every one of them did the same as your pup, some to lesser degree. As Jeangenie says all pups playbites. What I did notice with my present girl was I thought she constantly bit. I had my ear nipped, my nose nipped and I thought "what was I taking on!". Luckily I realised that it had been 9 years since I had a pup. I had "forgot" all the puppy things they do. When I looked back on my previous girl and boy I realised they did the same I had just softened the memories. Although I must stress that I think your doing the right thing by making sure he is properly socialised and trained.

Hope this helps

Lube