Can anyone advise, we have a lovely 8 week old staffordshire bull,we have 2 children, the puppy keeps on biting our daughters hands chest etc and growling at her, is there any thing we could do to stop this early?

thanks

It is normal and pup needs to learn bite inhibition... i.e. she needs to learn when to stop and when it's too hard.

We've got a different breed pup, but what we've done including my 4yo son, is to clap our hands (gets the attention and makes him stop instantly) and say a very stern NO.  Or if it's been possible, have put one of his toys in his mouth, to try and teach that it's ok to bite the toy but not us.  Also, if we're playing a game already when it happens, we stop the game immediately.  We're trying to teach that biting is not acceptable.

i have tried this, but I think our little girl is too scared of hurting her, i think our little girl will have to be more forcefull in her voice.

thanks for the suggestion.
swift

Have a read of this article.

thanks for this, we will give it a  try!

Hi Swift
On the advice of others on this board we just screached a loud owwwww!  whenever our puppy bit us a little too hard.  We then followed the 3 strikes and you are out rule - on the third consecutive attempt to bite puppy gets a stern 'no' and is put in the kitchen on his own for a 'time out' just for 15 mins or so.  Also, if he bites during play (Even if its accidental) the game stops every time.  We were suprised at just how successful this method was.  3 weeks later he hardly attempts to bite at all.  Thanks to everyone on CD who replied to my post.
Good luck!

i use the owww method but i scream whenever the pup takes my hand in its mouth (even if it doesnt hurt) they learn very quickly. and if they try to bit my face i scream owww and then give then a scruff and a firm NO . children should be taught to scream oww at them too.  i hope this helps.

At just 8 weeks, you can expect this mouthing to go on for some time yet, :P

A good pup class will help, try www.puppyschool.co.uk whicih will also be great for your staffie to attend for socialising carefully with other dogs :)

Just remember it's normal, but will end eventually  - try looking back on some of the pup biting threads on here too :)

Good luck
Lindsay
x

We thought we had probs with this as our dog was mouthing still at about 5 or so months during play.  Someone told us to make sharp yelping noises and the response was remarkable. Each time the person being bitten yelped the pup froze and then everyone in the room ignored her for a while.  She soon got the message and curbed the biting. 

thankyou, my daughter has ready this, and is really keen to give all suggestions a try..

swift

it is really hard, the puppy is really happy to see you, but starts to mouth, it really hurts, i think most suggestions come down to the tone in your voice, it works for us but not for my daughter,

i have shown her the infomation and now she is really excited to see if it works...........

swift

this sounds good, we have tried the owch, it works for myself and my husband but not for my little girl.

so will will ty this and hope it really works.

swift

The trouble is that children have high-pitched voices which are naturally exciting to a puppy. (Prey squeaks when bitten, you see!) Also children move suddenly and jerkily, which is also naturally exciting. A puppy will respond to to its surroundings - if that's calm and peaceful the puppy is less likely to get hyper ...

try getting your daughter to do a deeper voice (sometimes it works).