I've had loads of great advice from you all over the past couple of weeks and I'm back for more!

Tessie my 15 week old westie is biting, nipping and tugging.  I know that to some extent this is normal puppy behaviour and we have been trying to follow 'the bite stops here' by isolating her.  The thing is, she bit me twice whilst we were out walking yesterday.  I don't mean just a little nip I mean she ran to the front of me and grabbed me by the ankle.  I ended up having to walk home with the lead at arms length to stop her doing it again.  Nothing had happened to initiate this behaviour.  Admittedly it was a bit of a stop/start walk with her wanting to jump in the stream, sniff every lamppost and generally sit in the middle of the road.  The thing is, how can I stop her doing this when I've nowhere to isolate her to?  Also, the tugging thing is becoming really, really excessive.  I can't even walk from one end of the kitchen to the other without a pup hanging off my trouser leg.  We always tell her no and give her something else to chew on.  She will take another toy but immediately drops it and grabs legs again.  I did this constantly for about 30 mins yesterday where I didn't move more than about 2 steps the whole time and still to no avail.  We've also tried to treat this in the same way as 'bite stops here' by isolating.  I don't want an agressive dog and am panicking a little that I won't be able to stop this behaviour.

I also read the post from annieg3 about her Westie growling and baring teeth.  My pup does this too and it definitely does like an aggressive growl!  She does this whilst trying to nip and bite!  I'm really worried I'm gonna end up with an agressive dog.  Help!

Sorry it was Maxine788 not annieg3.  My mistake!

What do you do to"isolate"her ?

We put her in her travelling crate to isolate her.  Only for a few minutes.

>  Nothing had happened to initiate this behaviour

From her point of view your ankle going backwards and forwards is exciting enough to be seen as practise prey. 

Terriers are vermin catchers and are easily stimulated by anything that moves, for them to pounce and bite hard to kill, sadly it was your ankle.

This is entirely normal puppy fun, and ignoring her and keeping at arms length was a good choice, the other would be to stand stock still, no eye contact or speaking to her.  I suspect squealing would only incite her more.

Just carry on with the 'bite stop' training consistently, and try and keep her and things around her calm, and be aware of her getting tired and fractious.

Her walks on the lead should only be about 15 to 20 minutes at a time at her age (5 minutes per month of life) for socialisation purposes.

> We put her in her travelling crate to isolate her. Only for a few minutes.

That is akin to punishing her & I doubt that she will learn very quickly, that her natural behaviour isn't acceptable.

She need to learn bite inhibition

Hi Helen,

agree tthat keeping her at a distance from your side while out walking should help to curb her ability if not desire to tug and bite at your legs.  At home, if possible, don't wear trousers or only ones close fitting at the ankle.  Alternatively tuck them inside socks so nothing is flapping (attractive perhaps not but worth it LOL)

Re "isolating" her - putting her in a crate for misdemeanours, however short a time, is giving the wrong signals.  It is tantamount to punishment in the pups eyes and it is still too young to know that anything it does is unacceptable.  Apart from not being likely to help the situation, this could also make the pup fearful or resentful of the crate which is best avoided :)

Should the pup (or family!) need "time out", it is better to leave the puppy and the family go into another room for a few minutes as physically removing the pup instead is a form of attention/reward which is not the purpose of time out!

Bite inhibition IMO and IME over many dogs and many years is always the best way forward however I do appreciate that some dogs pick up on this better than others :)  Try to stay calm and consistent and ensure all household members do the same.  This awkward and often irritating phase is just that - until one day it clicks in the pup's head what it is you actually expect and then all the hard work will pay off :)  You may find that a squeak or high pitched ouch is not communicating the message you want and is possibly exciting the puppy further - if you think that's the case try a deeper tone saying "Oi", not LOUD, just firm and this may be more effective with your youngster.

HTH, Teri