# How do you teach a puppy not to . . ..



## Huginn (Nov 21, 2011)

. . . bite. 
Huginn has decided he is an alligator. I know that this is normal puppy behavior (mouthy puppies), but I also know enough to know that it's not a behavior that I should let go untouched. What I have been doing is removing his mouth from my skin, by putting pressure on his upper jaw with my thumb inside my mouth. This started out ok, I praise him when he releases and give him a toy. But now, he is getting worse, biting more often and starting to clench his teeth as I try to pry him off of me, when I finally get him to let go he will growl at me and lunge back at my arm or leg. 
I am getting a little frustrated with him. . . I know that I shouldn't, but I am starting to get covered in cuts and scrapes and bruises. I want it to stop now, before he weighs more. 
Any ideas?


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## eternalstudent (Jul 22, 2010)

There are many ways to go about this. However, I only have experience with one method and it worked so I never tried the others .

When my little land-shark went to bite by me i would walk her to the corner of the room and stand there and look at it. If she settled I would release, if not I would walk her to another corner.

Eventually she learnt that bitting my legs = corner which = NO FUN!!!

The bitting at a young age is normally a call to play, so after I had her calm I would then get out the tug rope and play.

The other thing that I have noticed with both my pups is that it is not me they bite most often. They know that they get lots of play with me so don't normally need to instigate it. Basically I try to anticipate when they are going to want to play so I start the game not them 

Hope that makes sense!!


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

I'm really sorry, but I'm laughing. I remember this stage well. It was fun, now I look back  I remember my husband telling me that he was worried because Mollie too aggressive and vicious. Another thing I remember well is going to puppy class, absolutely covered in scratches and bloody teeth marks, and, everybody else was exactly the same, everyone of us were going 'oh, thank God, it's not only my dog'. 
You can try the screaming thing if he bites down too hard (Mollie thought that was funny and would bite more often just to hear me scream).
The other thing was everytime she hurt me, I'd cross my arms and turn my back. But then she'd attack my back or my head or my calves or feet. 
The only thing that worked was just her getting older. But, one good thing is that once she got past that stage, she had great bite inhibition, 
Good luck, but enjoy it, they are only puppies for a second and one day you will look back very fondly and kindof miss the naughtiness and mischievousness stage!


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## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

I would stop doing anything physical. Remember the dog is trying to play with you like he would another dog, anything physical you do, short of actually abusing the dog, is likely to be interpreted as part of the game. Our dog was one of the worst puppy biters I've ever met, I too had parents who were seriously concerned about his temperament because of how much and how hard he bit. We all bled daily. We just did the yelp (make it genuine so that random in he house run in to find out what you did to the puppy lol) followed by getting up and ignoring the puppy, sometimes we'd leave the room and close a door so that he couldn't have access to us if he started going after pants or something. Then after a minute or so of ignoring quietly go get a toy of his and sit on the floor, when he comes over show him the toy and if he bites it start playing with him, if he goes for you again yelp and ignore once more. It's just a matter of teaching him how people play, because right now he's just trying to play like dogs play. If he is clamped down and yelping doesn't get him to let go then you may try giving him a puff of air in the nose just to get him to release (but watch out for your face), you must still go through with the ignoring followed by giving him the option to use a toy to play.


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## IslandPaws4Raw (Sep 7, 2011)

I've always just re-directed with toys. When there is a puppy in my house there are toys strewn around every where, so you can easily put a hand on a toy if they get interested in biting you. If the toy thing doesn't work I always say " ah ah! No bite! " in a low growly voice, then offer the toy again. I guess I've been fairly lucky and my guys weren't super bad biters and they've all learned good bite inhibition really early on. 
This is a major rule in my house, and no one is allowed to rough house with the pups. They can tug and growl till they're hearts content, but no teeth on skin until they are well over a year old. By then they know how to play nice with people.
Also, be very aware of him trying to herd you. Kai was never allowed to herd me by biting at my ankles. Be mindful of this if there are going to be kids around. It's probably not so bad with a BC because they are all about the stare, whereas cattle dogs are more geared towards nipping to get the results


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

IslandPaws4Raw said:


> Also, be very aware of him trying to herd you. Kai was never allowed to herd me by biting at my ankles. Be mindful of this if there are going to be kids around. It's probably not so bad with a BC because they are all about the stare, whereas cattle dogs are more geared towards nipping to get the results


Yep, this is very true. Had plenty of nips on the ankles and calves, which hurt like hell. It didn't take long to redirect that behaviour to a good nose poke in the calves. She still does the nose poking which is fine by me, it's just the type of dog she is.
I roughhouse with Mollie all the time, but I sure didn't when she was a pup, needle teeth just hurt too much.


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## brandypup (Jan 23, 2012)

I use bite inhibition
Dog Tip: Bite Inhibition -- an Essential Part of Socialization


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

I am trying not to feel smug because I only have old dogs 

Good luck. It sounds like everyone goes through this!


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## Huginn (Nov 21, 2011)

I have tried the yelp thing a few times and it just makes him go after me harder lol. I'll keep working at it and try a few more of the suggestions offered. I don't mind anyone who is laughing at me, I was telling my boyfriend about it and he thought it was absolutely hilarious. I've been lucky with the past pups I have been around, they learned early on not to bite. 
I have been working on the not herding me thing, I have a couple of scratches on the back of my knee from when I left a room that he didnt want me to leave. But that was easily fixed by me not moving when he tried to do it and telling him "no" with the "ah ah" (weird deep noise that I use for the horses out of habit. . . ), now he just trips me lol.


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## monkeys23 (Dec 8, 2010)

I prefer the redirecting to toys as well. You could yipe and say no all day... Spaz would still gator you, lol. But make him sit for his tug toy and oh man! He will seriously tug for like 10 min at a time. Crazy little booger.

Also I have to say that some of the craziest pups I knew have grown up to be the best dogs. I was like 10 when my aunt got her dog Pig as a small pup and I remember being all scratched up and bruised from the little tasmanian devil.... she's so old now, but she has seriously been one of the best dogs I've ever had the pleasure of knowing in my life. And yeah my parent's are awesome, they were just like well if you don't want chewed you shouldn't be teasing the puppy, lol.


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## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

The point of yelping isn't to punish the dog or actually teach the dog not to bite, it's mostly to surprise the dog into letting go so he's not clamped on and you can get up and ignore. The important part is the removal of attention. If yelping makes things worse you certainly don't need to do it.

My concern with immediately redirecting to a toy, without some sort of punishment (which is what attention removal is) is that the dog still thinks biting initiates play, he will bite to get you to play with him with a toy. Kind of like my dog when he bothers the cats. I hear him barking at one, run into the room to tell him to stop and he lights up, runs to his toy box, and brings me a tug toy "I knew you'd come, let's play!". I had tried to deal with cat bothering by redirecting him to playing with his toys instead of the cats. But obviously that depends on the dog. I just feel like by attention withdrawal followed by OFFERING a toy (you don't start playing with him until he chooses the plainly offered toy over your flesh) might prevent that sort of cycle of bite=owner plays tug with me. It worked really well for us anyway. 

We also worked in bite inhibition like they talk about in brandypup's link. I didn't remove myself for EVERY mouth on flesh incident at first, only ones that hurt or where there was obvious pressure. If it was light mouthing I would let him do it so long as it stayed that way. Only later did I start require the dog to not mouth at all (by pulling away hands, then moving away from him). This allows the dog to learn to gauge the strength of his bite so that if someday in the future he really feels he MUST bite for some reason (is injured and you try to move him, some child falls on his face and knees him in the head, redirects out of frustration, etc.) he will know how to give a warning or inhibited bite, one that will send his message without maiming the person. Rarely in this situation is the dog looking to injure somebody, they just need them to stop, and so the dog will choose an inhibited bite IF HE KNOWS HOW. If the dog is just taught not to ever put his teeth on skin from the beginning and never learns just how much pressure human skin can handle before it hurts, he'll never know what is enough for a warning bite and will bite too hard if he ever does bite. He'll probably use the amount of pressure that other dogs can handle without getting injured, and that's more than your skin can.
By teaching bite inhibition my dog can be rough housed with and not leave a mark on my hand. He also has a bad habit of leaping up and nipping when I or the rest of the household that he likes come home (we have not worked on this because I know my family will not put in the effort, he doesn't do it to guests because he is terrified of them), even though he is super out of control in this situation and is biting our hands he leaves no marks whatsoever because he is not trying to hurt us and he knows how not to.


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## Huginn (Nov 21, 2011)

Maxy24 said:


> My concern with immediately redirecting to a toy, without some sort of punishment (which is what attention removal is) is that the dog still thinks biting initiates play, he will bite to get you to play with him with a toy.


This is the main thing I was worried about, is that I was teaching him to do it by giving him a toy and that is why it was getting harder to get him to stop. Today, I have started adding in a sit and wait and then giving him a toy. 
It seems to have helped a little bit. 
When it comes to biting on my shoelaces and clothes I have started the turning away and ignoring him until he stops. For some reason the sit and wait for a toy doesnt work with clothing, but with my skin only, and turning away doesnt work with my skin . . . he's just an odd pup. But the combination of tactics seems to have worked.


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

MAN....I feel horrid.....but I havent had to deal with this since Brody, and really dont remember, other then I use the spray bottle A LOT!:wink:

Rhett never chewed on me or tried to herd.....and Keeva doesnt, but she has a sister and 3 brothers to chew on!!:tongue:

However Im not HUGE on a bunch of punishment....IMO Rhett learned a LOT better with VERY little.......I go with a LOT more congratulating when good and ignoring (or correcting without acknowledgment) when wrong....and when I DO "punish" I dont really make it into that big of a deal, I do it quick-try and allow them to punish them selves(like running into my up turned foot with running behind me, etc) and then go on to show them the PROPER thing to do!


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## Huginn (Nov 21, 2011)

The most "punishing" I have done is sticking my thumb in his mouth and saying no lol. I don't do the jab thing with my thumb, just apply pressure to get it off of me and usually a "no, let go". . . and then a "yes! Good boy let go!" 
He just gets so worked up over it lol.
Once he gets his shots we are going to start going to the dog park for a while everyday and play some off leash to let him get more out . . . I'm just worried it's going to get worse when he starts teething next month. . . 

I just realized that I think it got worse when my friends were over this weekend, I think my guy friend rough housed with him while I was at work and let him do it.


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

Huginn said:


> The most "punishing" I have done is sticking my thumb in his mouth and saying no lol. I don't do the jab thing with my thumb, just apply pressure to get it off of me and usually a "no, let go". . . and then a "yes! Good boy let go!"
> He just gets so worked up over it lol.
> Once he gets his shots we are going to start going to the dog park for a while everyday and play some off leash to let him get more out . . . I'm just worried it's going to get worse when he starts teething next month. . .
> 
> I just realized that I think it got worse when my friends were over this weekend, I think my guy friend rough housed with him while I was at work and let him do it.


Ya, that is kinda what I mean...that kind of stuff they dont even remember other then being slightly annoyed and kinda remembering that it will happen again!:wink:


And hahaha, well as you know...no one is allowed around my pups without 100000% supervision!:wink:


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## Huginn (Nov 21, 2011)

Hahaha, ya I am not worried. I have known him for like 11 or 12 years, I trust him. I just hadn't thought about the fact that he was still young and could pick up bad habits. 

And hey! You left Brody with me for a whole weekend when he was a baby! 

Once he learns his boundaries, they can play rough with him. He just needs to learn them before that can happen. Men, always causin me trouble.


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

Huginn said:


> Hahaha, ya I am not worried. I have known him for like 11 or 12 years, I trust him. I just hadn't thought about the fact that he was still young and could pick up bad habits.
> 
> And hey! You left Brody with me for a whole weekend when he was a baby!
> 
> Once he learns his boundaries, they can play rough with him. He just needs to learn them before that can happen. Men, always causin me trouble.


LOL....ya we did......but only cause it was TOTALLY needed!!(After I had called the B&B and said nearly everything to get him to be ok'ed to come with us!:tongue::lol


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## Huginn (Nov 21, 2011)

Scarlett_O' said:


> LOL....ya we did......but only cause it was TOTALLY needed!!(After I had called the B&B and said nearly everything to get him to be ok'ed to come with us!:tongue::lol


I see how it is . . . don't trust me. . . fine :tongue1:


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

Huginn said:


> I see how it is . . . don't trust me. . . fine :tongue1:


HAHA, no if I didnt trust you then we wouldnt have left!!LOL :tongue:
(If you hadnt been able to watch him my parents already knew not to book the B&B!LOL)

Now with Rhett.....well I dont think it would really matter how much I trusted someone......I just could NOT leave him with ANYONE!!:wink:
Now with Brody, Leo and Dixi Ill leave them with someone I trust, like you or Liz(only 2 people locally who I know will feed/care for them how it needs to be done!:wink I dont know yet about Kee.....I dont think anyone would WANT to care for her!!HAHAHAHAH


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## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

How old is your pup? Tucker's biting was *dramatically* better around 4 months (we got him at 10 weeks old) and 100% gone shortly thereafter. He kind of made me hate puppies just because of the first month we had him lol. Like if we had gotten him at the point he was at by 4 months I might like puppies, but alas, he was such a terror he has scared me for life. So many bites.


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## Huginn (Nov 21, 2011)

Hahah you are such an overprotective mother :tongue1:

But I know exactly why.


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## Huginn (Nov 21, 2011)

Maxy24 said:


> How old is your pup? Tucker's biting was *dramatically* better around 4 months (we got him at 10 weeks old) and 100% gone shortly thereafter. He kind of made me hate puppies just because of the first month we had him lol. Like if we had gotten him at the point he was at by 4 months I might like puppies, but alas, he was such a terror he has scared me for life. So many bites.


He is right around 12 weeks, will be 13 weeks on Monday. I have had him since right before he was 10 weeks. The biting started about a week ago.


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## Dude and Bucks Mamma (May 14, 2011)

With Buck we just straight up ignored him. He could latch on all he wanted but he got NO response from us. He could gnaw on us all day long and we wouldn't move a muscle. He picked up (and VERY quickly, I might add) that biting meant no attention. Being smart, he would sit back and stare at us for about 2-3 minutes like he was trying to figure something out. It took much less time to discourage him from biting by ignoring him than it took me to do the same with Dude when he was a puppy by disciplining him in any way (even just the thumb trick). It can be pretty painful at first since you just have to ignore it but the biting stops very quickly. 

The only contact skin has to teeth is when I tell him to "hold my hand". He grabs my hand with his mouth and holds it very firmly but gently. It's too funny. "Let go" is the release command.


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## bridget246 (Oct 26, 2011)

I think it is most important to figure out the cause behind the bite. Bridget had a few. One of the major ones was her trying to take over the house. She wanted to be alpha and wasn't going to deal with anything else. I seriously doubt she was playing with me. Toys didn't work, she didn't like them then and she still doesn't like them now. I didn't get any marks on me but my gf did. Bridget didn't just nip at me or others. There were times when she went all out. Only thing I could do was hold my ground as it seems like she was trying to dominate me. I've went to a number of trainers about my problem without success. Exercise was hard with the biting but we still did it several times a day and jobs, she had tons of jobs before I even knew they were called jobs. Nothing at all would work for me. How do we put a dog in the corner that is not going to stay? It didn't seem like she was going to grow out of it. Two professionals recommended the alpha row as the only solution as she tried to bite them too when they told her no to something. Either that or send her off for training where someone else would have used the Alpha Row on her instead. Only difference was they were professionals and could do it correctly, or so I was told. 

Keep in mind that I like to keep a calm peaceful house. I'm hardly ever stress. I just didn't know what happened to my dog before I got her. Mines came from the pet store at a huge discounts because of this very problem. I always wanted a GSD and my gf didn't. I kept teasing I was going to adopt one when my gf went to the store and actually saw one she wanted. I jumped at the chance to get a GSD because she actually wanted this one. I thought once home she would calm down with good food and a nice loving family with plenty of stuff to do. It wasn't quite that easy.

Dogs bite for many reasons. Bridget had more than one trigger. Took me awhile but I think I got them all expect for 2, with 1 of those 2 being worked on now and the other one I had to put on hold until after my recovery. My dog is so nice now that a part of me misses the old puppy that caused me so much grief. She had a deep lack of trust in all humans. I recommend anyone going through a dog biting situation is to watch. Take note of anything and everything that happened before this. Even small things like your body language, distance from the dog, other noises, other people or animals, location, and other things. The changes in the dogs body language is also important to note. The more information you can get on what is happen the better others here can help you and your dog out. The fact that the op is being active about seeking help probably means he will be just fine. 

Last note. Ignoring the bites might have worked. My problem was my dog was too strong when I brought her home. Ignoring them then would have been a health risk.


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## bridget246 (Oct 26, 2011)

I love the look of the little dog. I doubt your problems are going to grew into anything to be worried about. Just try to stop the rough play and everything should be fine in my opinion.


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## Liz (Sep 27, 2010)

We start considerably younger to teach them not to put their mouth on a person (6 weeks) generally if they start biting I will just place them beside me until lying down until they are calm and then they get lots of slow, calm petting (massaging) and are allowed to go play. That is harder with the older pups though I would leave the area for starters so he learns that is unacceptable to you. It has worked for my collies and shelties. Some dogs are tougher than others though. Also try not to get excited, stay calm and relaxed and just deal with him, he will know if you get to emotional about it and carry on biting and trying to get a reaction. Don't let anyone else rough house with him, he doesn't understand. JMHO (IF this seems harsh to some - having bigger dogs, I am very wary of allowing any mouth on human behavior for any reason.)


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Honestly, I think you are over worrying, just enjoy it, your pup will learn, he's a smart little so and so and he's pushing your buttons. He's only a baby, and babies play and push the boundaries. I hate to tell you, but Mol was probably over 6 months old before the tazzy devil sort of went away, it was no big deal to me, I enjoyed every second of her puppyhood, I swear that this dog has an awesome sense of humour. Now I can roughhouse like anything with her and even though it does not worry me in the slightest to let her teeth contact my skin, she is as gentle as anything. 
Seriously, enjoy it, it's just a stage, he will be absolutely fine in the end and before you know it, he will be 5 years old and you'll be pining for the days he was a devil of a pup. Trust me. 
Oh yeah, I'm willing to bet you a thousand dollars that, by the time he is a year old, he's going to be the most lovable, attentive, intelligent, mischevious, little $hit out there. Wait and see.


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