i know that its normal behaviour for a puppy to bit and tohme's link to clicker training is very helpful. Our pup is only 8 and 1/2 weeks and we've had her for 10 days and with clicker we have learnt her basic sitting and 'paw'. the problem is with biting(mouthing) us, we've tried distracting with another toy (not us!) and when in the garden we say 'nice walk' and click and treat when she is walking calmly beside us. The problem is once she attaches to your leg/foot/trousers she will hang on for dear life and even though we stop walking she will swing off your trousers etc until she physically hurts you. My question is are we going about things the right way and how should we approach the leg/foot biting when ignoring doesnt help especially my 6 year old!

The puppy is only 8 1/2 weeks old , it is just an infant.. sitting and giving a paw..!!

mouthing at this age is the way they discover the world in my opinion. All have mine have done the mouthing stage, we have always practiced the " yelp" when they do it and they all have grown up none biters..

I personally think you are expecting too much..  If you puppy is doing all that with the clicker I would get it on video I think !!

Good luck

obviously she isnt sitting and giving her paw perfectly every time but when we do five minute activities with her (to keep her mind stimulated) she responds quite well to these commands. I understand that she is only an infant and i also apprieciate that this is a natural stage of her development, i was just asking for 'advice' on how to approach this matter as ignoring and yelping doesnt seem to be getting her to soften her mouthing. Again i know its early days but id prefer to be fully aware of how to try and deal with matters rather than letting them arise and then trying to work things out ;-)

Have you tried replacing your hands, feet, trouser legs etc with a puppy chew? Every time she bites you, grab her muzzle (firm but not hard) and say "no bite" then offer her something of her own to chew on.

approximately 70% of the time a chew or toy will suffice but when she attaches to trouser legs she will not let go for anything, you have to physically remove her mouth from your leg and i want to know if any other way will help rather than opening her mouth as she just trys to reattach!
Yelping seems to antagonise her and she come back even more aggressively than before and then it seems to be a battle between us which i dont want to enter into (she's an 8 week old baby after all).
My main concern is that if allowed to do this she will always do it and by correcting her i want to know that my methods arent damaging her psychologically.

Blue, clicker training can be started before puppies leave the nest; it is not unusual to have puppies doing all sorts of things way before they are 12 weeks old such as sit, down, stand, recall, retrieve, speak and sendaway not to mention loads of other things.  The beauty of the clicker system is that it is extremely "black and white" to the dog, is stress free and most importantly fun for both dog and handler!

The dalmatians puppies and in 101 dalmatians and andrex puppies are all clicker trained!

tohme,

I do appricate that and have and fully understand the clicker method and have used it myself :-) (although I don't now). I personally feel 7-8 weeks old is such an infant most have not even left their dam and I personally would never expect too much of them at that age.. The dam would normally be telling them off still herself... 12 weeks is a whole different ball game and a huge difference in maturity.

Puppies are puppies and will do all sorts of things, to discover their new environment and their new family.  These exploration period I personally think is as important as training. It makes them confident etc.

The original poster should have nothing at all to worry about, everything she is experiencing is 100% normal for a puppy of that age. My reply was in reassurance that things are definatly fine.  I do still think it must be quite a clever puppy..

To the original poster, I am confused as to where you were shot down. People have replied to you with their opinions.  Mines based on your comments of what your puppies ability at it's age which is very very good.  My interpretation was that you thought the puppy should almost not be doing that due to where it is at with it's clicker training and this is not the case. All puppies or most go through the chew your feet, socks and big toes when they can get them stage :-))) and this is all very very normal and not to expect too much of him/her too soon.

BFN  

Blue, i apoligise after re-reading your advise where i thought you were critising the level at which i said my pup is at, i now see that you were offering good advise :-)
My original thoughts were that if left 'unchecked' then she may develop to be an agressive dog, but as everyone has suggested this is just normal behaviour for her age and therefore we will just have to ride the storm;-)
I waited so long to be in the position to get this pup and thought long and hard before making the final decision, and i think that i have read so much information that i thought i would be pre-informed and capable of handling any situation correctly.
Thanks for all the good advice and needless to say i'll be asking a whole lot more in the not to distant future :-D

Good luck with the puppy, just don't rush things.. and wear boots around the house Tee Heee ;-)

"I waited so long to be in the position to get this pup and thought long and hard before making the final decision, and i think that i have read so much information that i thought i would be pre-informed and capable of handling any situation correctly."

God, Sweety, I can so relate to that!! I know exactly what you mean as I also waited ages (well, all my life, really) to have a dog and researched the Great Dane for 5 years - reading all the breed books, training books, dog magazines, visiting dogs shows and breeders, babysitting friend's Danes,etc, etc - before I finally got this puppy. I feel like I have invested so much time and effort and energy and spent so much time studying and preparing that I should have a perfect puppy...sadly, real-life isn't like that! I got really stressed the first couple of weeks but since then, I've learnt to relax a bit and realise that although she isn't perfect, I'm doing pretty damn well for my first dog, of a specialist breed, who has a pretty strong personality...and now I enjoy her so much more, rather than constantly worrying about how she isn't behaving as she should! But I totally empathise with you and sometimes, I think the people who don't do so much preparation and who don't have such high expectations have a better time of it!! But I suppose we did the right thing... :)

Hsin-Yi

Hi
I smiled when reading your message, not been nasty, it just made me think when we first got our Bichon Frise puppy. He is now 14 weeks old but at 8 weeks he to was attaching his jaws to trousers, skirts, feet etc and holding on for dear ilfe. We thought there would be no light at the end of the tunnel but I assure you there is. We used a spray bought from the pet shop that is used to spray on furniture etc and tastes bitter. It dries clear so doesn't mark your clothes but he sure stopped. The advice for saying no bite is also a help. Even though this is all normal part of puppyhood these things you don't seem to be prepared for by books etc. Good luck and keep us updated.

Deb

I don't know if your puppy is too young for this (although she sounds like an amazingly quick learner!) but maybe it would help to teach a "drop it" command? Offer her a treat (very smelly nice one) near her nose when she is hanging onto you and as soon as she opens her jaws to get the treat, say, "drop it" at the SAME time and then praise her madly and give her the treat. (timing very important - she must associate those words with actually letting go). My puppy got the hang of this very quickly and it helped a lot because rather than wrestling with her to let go and prising her jaws open, you're actually giving her a command for a specific action, which she then gets rewarded for. Once she isn't hanging onto you anymore, it's then easier to redirect her attention to a more appropriate thing for her teeth (and praise madly again)! It's also a very useful command for later when she nicks things she shouldn't and runs off with them! I got my puppy at 7 weeks and although she wasn't as bad a mouther as yours, we also went through a stage of her trying to mouth us. We did the yelp and get up-walk away-ignore thing, as well as teach her the "drop it" command and we got through the stage pretty quickly. She is now very good with the "drop it" command, to the point where I can play tug-of-war with her and then give her the command and make her stop immediately and drop the rope.

Hang in there! My puppy is now almost 7 months old but I can remember really vividly what it was like when she first came. Those first 2 weeks were the longest of my life!! There were so many times I burst into tears and wanted to send her back to the breeders.  Everyone keeps telling you that it's just a puppy stage and that it'll pass and that they're just babies...and you know that, but it doesn't make it any easier! And my puppy is a Great Dane so all the usual puppy problems were magnified 10 times!
Good luck! (By the way, what kind of dog is she?)
Hsin-Yi

Sorry - forgot to add, you might want to use other words instead of "DROP IT" but just be careful not to confuse it with the command when you want her to leave something alone BEFORE she has it in her mouth. I use the word "LEAVE" for that and my puppy understands that this means she shouldn't even approach the object. I only use "DROP IT" after she has the object in her mouth. It's quite useful to have two separate commands for these situations.
Hsin-Yi

thanks hsinyi
it makes a big difference to know that someone will offer advice when its asked for and not just shoot you down ;-)
i realise she is still very young and its a natural stage of her development, i think that it might be over excitement as she's at her 'worst' between 4 and 7 (this coincides with the kids coming home from school) so she has lots of different peoples attention whereas in the day its only me and her. I'll keep on trying the advice given and let you all known how ive gotten on :-)

It could be simply that she's getting over-excited! I know it's not easy, especially with children, to keep things calm and quiet all the time, but it makes a lot of difference to a puppy's behaviour.
:)

Sweety, am I missing something here? I have read through all the replies several times and for the life of me cannot see anyone "shooting you down" Everyone has offered good advice as far as I can see.