Hello,

We have got an adorable 12-week old labrador puppy, our first dog, we got her at 8 weeks old. From the second day that we had her she nipped when we were playing with her or when she got excited. We have read countless tips online and in books, we don't want to do anything to hurt or scare her - all her training has been positive reinforcement. We did expect that she would nip and we were prepared for this - we 'yelp' when she does it and ignore her, but this only seems to get her more excited and she just continues to nip. It will be anything - fingers, ankles, toes, legs, arms, cheeks, nose...

We always praise her when she licks us to try and make her understand that this is acceptable and to encourage her to lick instead of nip. She gets huge amounts of attention and is never left on her own for longer than an hour and even that is rare. We use a puppy crate but we only close it at night and it's a 42" crate (big enough for an adult labrador). She seems to like her crate and comes and goes as she pleases in-and-out of it throughout the day when she naps. She has free access to the garden most of the day and has been going for daily short walks for the past week after completing her course of inoculations. We thought she may calm down after she was able to go out for walks but she has only got more excited and nips more.

Sometimes she will be playing happily with a toy then from nowhere she will jump up, as if to pounce on one of us, and nip. She has also started to growl as well and scratch us. I am quite sure though that she is not being aggressive. I hope so anyway? Tonight she has been relentless - constantly trying to nip us and not interested in any of her toys - she has got my ankle, hand and finger and even when I have tried to ignore her she jumps up and will nip wherever she can reach. I feel the only way to stop her when she is like this would be to lock her in another room but this isn't something we want to do.

I know that people who are reading this will probably think that we are being too soft with her and that she thinks she is leader-of-the pack (which I am sure she does!) but like I said, when we are firm with her she gets worse!

HELP!!!

She doesn't think she's leader of the pack, it's perfectly normal puppy behaviour :-)  This article is excellent, you're already doing the right things - perseverance is the answer :-)

The easiest way is to simply stop all fun when she nips. If she nips, the toys are instantly put away, you leave the room, totally ignore the pup. It shouldn't take very long before she realises that being over excited means all interaction and therefore fun will stop. It's VERY typical puppy behaviour, believe me I have one the same (only smaller) and I'm forever telling my kids the way to get him to stop biting is to stop whatever they were doing. He never nips me, only them -because they react. :) Also just to pick up one one thing you said -that she gets huge amounts of attention -just be careful you make sure she gets enough REST as well as she still is a baby and like human toddlers can easily get over tired and therefore over excited and silly -you know what kids are like when they've stayed up playing past their bedtime!

Oh and no, she definitely does not think she's the leader of the pack -no dogs think that way, it's an old fallacy.

Sounds like you're on the right track, but if ignoring her makes her worse, than you will have to harden your hearts and leave the room altogether so she cannot get any more interaction until she calms down. She will improve I promise, my Ellie was a terrible biter as a puppy and she learned in the end!

Thanks Tigger, very interesting article, explains a lot.

Thanks Marianne, never thought about taking her toys off her, will give that a try. Yes she gets lots of rest, she always takes herself off to her crate for a nap and we never disturb her when she is asleep or dozing.

Thanks Lucy, I suppose we might have to give leaving the room a try! It's good to know others have gone through the same thing!

> It's good to know others have gone through the same thing!

Every pup bites to some degree, borzoi are not bad at all for it but collies can be terrors! My nieces were terrified of my youngest collie when she was a pup, luckily as well as being a viscous little thing she was also quite bright and learnt quickly that this wasn't acceptable and would lead to all fun stopping :-)

I haven't anything to add in the way of advice except to say that it WILL stop eventually. My lovely, gentle flatcoat was terrible for jumping and nipping / biting as a puppy. It used to really upset me. I ignored it as  best I could, though, if I turned away, he would nip the back of my legs! Over the months, he has very gradually got the message and just doesn't do it any more - he is now 16 months and just a super dog. He does still like to 'mouth', particularly when he gets excited, but has learnt not to exert any pressure at all. I think it's a gundog thing.

Please be reassured, we all worry about what puppies do, and think it will never be resolved, but you are obviously handling it in a really sensible way. She will grow out of it.

It will stop :)

My bitch was terrible for this as a pup - she made my daughter cry a few times too. When ever my daughter ran about in the garden she would nip her bum!

But with advice from here, and turning our backs to ignore her (when that didn't work leaving the room) it stopped quite quickly and she never did it again. She hated being left alone ;)

>> He does still like to 'mouth', particularly when he gets excited, but has learnt not to exert any pressure at all. I think it's a gundog thing.

One of my Rottie bitches does this, I swear she's part Lab!

Can be a bit disconcerting for visitors given the breed she is. I should add that she only gets away with doing this with us, and people who we know and are comfortable/confident with dogs. With anyone else they're kept behind a gate until the novelty of the visitors wears off and they've calmed down.

Hi, we have an 8 month old chocolate lab called Alfie, we had the same problem with biting, the only advice the vets gave us is just ignore him (which is hard sometimes as it hurts), of course he grew out of it just as your puppy will, enjoy her! 

Personally I'd give a sharp "no" - not shouting at her but letting her know it was bad behaviour - as well as turning away and stopping all fun.   If she persisted then I'd quietly and without full remove her from the room for 5 minutes or longer if she was making a fuss to get back in.

You could direct the mouthing onto a toy and encourage play.  Otherwise, ignore and leave her for a short time. Which ever works best for her and you. I dont think it has anything to do with who is leader of the pack - you are not a dog and she knows that, she is not a human and knows that too.