Hello, I have a litter of 9 pups, they are 6 weeks old, most have new homes to go to in 2 weeks. They all bite and mouth which is perfectly normal, but 1 pup which happens to be the one we are keeping is much worse than the others, she hurts. If we sit down with the pups they all come and play and nibble us but "Pinky" (collar colour no name yet1) jumps and snaps at our faces and is just generally much worse.She sounds like a crocodile with her snapping! I have a 4 year old son who is fine with the whole litter apart from Pinky, she has him crying within a few minutes. I have never had a pup this bad. Has anyone found a cure for this? I am assuming she is too young to learn yet anyway? She does really hurt! I am hoping when her litter mates go she will calm down. But if anyone has any ideas they would be appreciated. Thanks.

You need to read "the bite stops here" by Ian Dunbar, it will help nip this in the bud, keep pup and son separate as he may retaliate and hurt the pup.

I teach bite inhibition before my pups leave home.  I guess with a child so young it's impossible to spend individual bite training for a whole litter.

All you can do at this late stage is to shove a toy in pups mouth every single time this happens.  (Has to happen every time, or training won't work.)

And don't allow children near any of the pups.  They pick up kids excitement.  And most youngsters move too quickly, tempting pups teeth, as, for them, it's an invitation to play.  And dogs play with their mouths.  Don't wait until any pups leave home, start your training now, and remain resolute.

>keep pup and son separate as he may retaliate and hurt the pup

Read this after posting.  Yes, very important.

It makes me smile that you are worried about the pup - not the child - I love doggy people :-) ( this isn't meant ironically!!)

Sometimes there is a pup like this, had one in my last litter I nicknamed him monster, (for good reason :-D ) he was an absolute terror and really hurt, he had no fear and my usual bite inhibition training was not working with him. He wasn't the pick of the litter however, there was no way I was homing him like that.

What I did was take him away from his litter mates for a half hour 3 times a day for one to one socialising with just me, whilst my hubby/mother (if there) or sons watched the rest of the litter, he soon learned to calm down and listen to me, bonding with me as much as with his littermates, he knew his name and was already doing the sit and wait commands when he left.

If I'd allowed my mothers dogs to come over too, I would also have used them to calm him down as he just needed an authority figure to tell him no and mum wasn't doing it this time.

Sometimes you have to just start earlier and offer a calming influence as the occasional pup can be pretty wild. :-)

Yes, will read "the bite stops here" I will try the toy in the mouth thing. I have 3 children, (4, 9 and 12) they are not allowed to run about when in with the pups as I know this makes them worse. So they have to sit still. No I am not worried about my son at the moment but she jumps and snaps, (honestly sounds like a snapping crocodile!) so may be hard to put a toy in her mouth but will try. The other pups play bite, but I always think this is an essential part of learning?! I have a couple of pups going to homes with children so glad in a way that she is staying with us.

Does mum not sort her out? I would leave mum with her on her own for a while and let her teach her some manners.  None of my bitches would have put up with sore play and taught bite inhabition much faster than I could.