Hi, my puppy is almost 3 months old (GSD and is getting pretty strong). And whenever she gets excited, for example when I come home or my husband does, she starts kissing us (licking our faces, I read in the book to stop her from jumping we have to kneel and let her kiss us) and after a while she gets into biting our hands, trousers, legs/feet, shoes, or whatever. It hurts a lot. I tried giving her toys as soon as she starts biting, and cooled frozen wash clothes tied in the knot, forzen veggies, a little wooden log my husband got her, bought her tons of chewing toys, even rawhide sticks. But it is not working. Every time I say command "come" and she runs happilly to me and I give her a pat on her head or behind her ear or under chin, and I praise her, she gets excited and starts biting and than I have to say "no" and it really confuses her. I even tried isolating her, still whenever she sees me or my husband - it is the same story. Will this habit ever go away or I have to be more patient and stick with the plan and eventually she will grow out of it and gets the idea that biting hurts.
Anyone???
Alina D.

Hi Alina
Cant offer advise, just really to let you know your not alone. My 9 week old lab does this, not with me or my husband but with our children. She gets so excited when they come home from school that she licks and then bites them, so far this week my 5 year old got bitten in his ear which bleed and bleed for ages, my 4 year old has a small hole in his foot where she got him and she has now torn 4 school shirts in her excitment.
How i am stopping it is teaching her recall, when she starts biting i call her to me, so far this has worked wonders and unless they have food she will come everytime.
This probably wont help you tho as it is you that she is biting.

Good luck

Debbie

Hi Alina_d,

The Ian Dunbar method worked quite well with our Akita (until she started full blown teething when she regressed somewhat).  If you are in a room with her and she bites then give a loud "OUCH" and walk away from her, leaving the room, this is what the dam would do.  If this is not possible such as being in the living room and not wanting to leave her there, then "OUCH" and put her into another room for a few minutes.  The key way to stop puppy play biting is to let her learn that biting ends any play, it is also suggested that you stage the response, firstly do this for hard bites to teach bite inhibition, when she's got that then then do it for any teeth on human skin etc.

Also do a search on puppy biting on this forum as there is a ton of stuff on it.

Regards

CJG

Hi cjg
I am going to try this, infact Buffy is at this minute doing a 'time out' after biting my son between his legs. It is all in play and excitment but she is really starting to hurt the kids now.

Will let you know how it gets on.

Debbie

Hi DebbieN,

Ouch indeed!!!  Our girl does this as well (sticking their head between your legs is a thing Akitas do apparently), if she catches the inside of the thigh, not to mention anywhere worse, it hurts like hell !!

Good luck

CJG

Hi, thanx for advices. I read about this technique in the book as well, and I just bought a dog repellant, "bitter apple", a lady in the pet store recommended me this brand, she has an 8 months GSD, she said it worked on her furniture when the puppy was teething and also she sprayed a little on her hands when mouthing happened with her GSD. I took Marta with me in the store and we tried bitter apple on her, when she tried to bite this nice lady, and Marta did not like the taste of it. But I am a little concerned. Is it safe for a pup to eat/swallow/taste/smell it? Are these repellants toxic to the dogs?
Thanks, Alina D.

Hi Alina,

They're not toxic at all, they just don't like them, you can even use bitter apple on the dog themselves if they're licking or biting themselves on a lick pad for example (although don't do this without a vet advising you of course).  Bitter apple seems to be the only one that actually works though, our girl couldn't care less about the others being sprayed on things.  The only thing I would be a dubious of in terms of using it on yourself is that we felt by doing this we wouldn't be teaching her bite inhibition and not to bite, she simply wouldn't bite, mouth or lick because we tasted bad.  A theory behind puppies having such sharp teeth is that it helps them learn to control their jaws, which is a lot better done at this age than at adulthood of course.

Regards

CJG

My 6 months old JRT still like to play nip and bite, esp my feet and it is so annoying. He understand almost everything except NO... but I love him to bits!

Hi, I have noticed a slight difference in her behavior lately. She now runs to me and start licking my hands and my face, and only after she has greeted me, and if I dont stop her, she starts biting. But she is getting better. With bitter apple and toys, and isolating her for a few seconds when she bites, I think she gets the message. She is my pride. :)

Should I start a new thread by asking, why is she, when is fed, and walked ,and played, and groomed, and everything done to her to make her feel good, starts whining before she falls asleep. Or if my husband and I cuddle, she comes to us and starts crying as well, untill falls asleep by my husbands legs or feet. She also, I have noticed, like to sleep on my pillow. Well, most of you probably know I am 8 mos preggo and have a special pillow that I carry around if I have to lay down and sit down, she just loves it, and whenever I take it away from her she looks at me so sadly, it breaks my heart. Is she jealous, or just wants to have my scent right under her nose?

Thanks, Alina D.

I have the same thing with Sam, whos 14 weeks old.  I take him for walks and all he does is cry!  So I throw his frisbee, he bounds after it, brings it back and cries again!! I have found the only way for Sam to let myseslf and hubby have a cuddle is involve him - he has his belly tickled when we are having a cuddle, he loves this, and after a while he gets off us and goes to lie by himself - which means I get more cuddle time :-) :-)

I would really like to know what all this crying means as well

Jennymc

OUr lab pup used to cry all the time on walks. We put it down to simply being nervous of new environments etc. He also used to cry to let us know that he had had enough and wanted to go home.  He is 7 months old now and obviously doesn't cry so much now as he is more confident, although he still lets us know when he's had enough and wants to turn for home!!  Don't worry about it, wouldn't you be a bit scared of the big bad world if you were their size!!???