Biting - Page 1

Hey everyone! We have a 13 week old puppy who LOVES to bite!! We have tried to tap him on his snout, like our breeder suggested, but it only makes him more mad. We have tried to tell him, "No," and then praise him when he stops, but the problem is, he usually keeps at it. He bites at our feet, hands, everything. I watched a video online that tried to teach him, "off" while holding food. That has worked, as far as him not going after my hand with food in it, but he doesn't put the two together when he is trying to bite my hands and feet. And to be honest, most of the time I can't just sit there saying, "No," or "Off" because he is biting so hard he is drawing blood and that hurts! Any suggestions will help! I just saw something about a water bottle with half water, half vinegar??? Haven't tried that but right now I am willing to try anything!!

  Continue what the pups mother has already started, the pup will understand that. Grab the pup by the hair on the back of the neck and grab the pup by the muzzle, look pup in the eye and growl until the pup knows you won't tolerate it. It only takes enough pressure to cause pup discomfort. If you watch a pup being weaned or disciplined by the mother or older dog they will grab the pups muzzle in their mouth and growl while looking them in the eye. The more resistence the more pressure. I have old dogs that are very hard dogs that all I have to do is growl at them and they straiten right up. If you don't control them as a pup, you will never be able to when they are grown and fired up on something or someone.

hank

What do you have this dog for?  Pet?  Or are you going to train him in Schutzhund? 

How you deal with his behavior now could/will impact how he deals with the correct behavior for this sort of work in the future. 

Actually, your pup sounds teriffic!  Lots of us love those little land sharks with enough spunk to "get mad"...lol  HOWEVER since you don't like it:
1.  Remember to redirect...have toys, sticks, balls, tugs other toys that are ok to bite and when he is doing what good German Shepherd pups do (chase you bite ankles, sleeves, hands) give him something else to bite and play with him.

2.  Make sure you get him tired with a lot of chase games like getting a flirt pole (lunge whip) and tying toys to it and swirling them around for him to chase.

3.  Make sure you are acting as a leader, calm, assertive, never aggressive (if he's a really good pup he might respond in kind).  Use a low growl voice for no. If holding a muzzle and growling does not work, then you can even hold him down on his side and gowl but ONLY AS A LAST RESORT..this is what the mother does when she really has had it.  with some dogs a yelp might work, but some might escalate with the yelp.

4.  Speaking of mothers, how old was this dog when weaned as he usually should learn some manners from Mom? 

5.  DO NOT HIT THE DOG or tap his nose (that is hitting) you will increase aggression and damage the bond your dog will have with you. Mother dogs put their mouth over the muzzle like Desert says, not hit or tap.  I still do that with my older dogs if they get out of hand (very rare).

If you do 1 and 2 enough you won't have to do 3 often and as the pup gets older his land shark behavior will stop.  A lot of us with sport dogs NEVER correct the dog for biting but redirect because we know later we will be encouraging biting. 

However I did have one that thought jumping and taking a nip of your lip was fun and I did alpha roll him, went over him with my hand on his neck (like a bite) and growled while staring him in the eye and he never did that again.  BTW, never do that to an adult dog esp one you have not bonded with for a lifetime and even then probably not.

When mine did this as a puppy, we were told to yelp loudly, like another dog would do when he is in pain.  He would then let go.  I was told that this is what they do to each other in the litter when play gets too rough.  I then would give him something that he could bite, like a chew toy or bone.  It took a little while but eventually he did stop completely.  Good luck with your puppy.

My dogs love the yelp and it excited them to bite some more.  Sometimes even now with my one year old, I let him have my hand and start patting him and then he licks me and stops, but if I yelp, he will bite hardER.  Yelping does work with some dogs though.

Hmmm. Mine always see the yelp as a "Hell yeah, I'm on the right track. If I bite a little harder and maybe shake my head...." 

I have found that yelping only makes them MORE excited and they bite harder.

I stopped my now 7 month old puppy from biting by pressing my finger down on her tongue or ignoring and turning away from her when she was really excited.

Nothing will be an immediate answer for your puppy biting but one day you will just realize that you are not fending her off every 5 minutes.

Have fun because it sound like you got a real live one there.

If you are not planning on doing bitework with this pup in the future, or have a child in the home that you are worried about the puppy nipping, this trick works wonders, but it WILL inhibit biting later in life. If the puppy bites you hard, grab his tongue & hold on to it, not the tip of his tongue- grab it right by the base. Don't try to hurt him, just don't let go. The bulk of your hand in his mouth will keep him from clamping down on you, unless you are very small or he is really big. In a minute he will not be biting, but wanting you to let go. Tell him 'No!' or 'Fooey!' He may try it once again to see if the same thing happens, but he probably will not continue after that. Make sure you only do it when he BITES, not before or after, & do it calmly, not in anger. When he starts backing up let go immediately, & have that OK to bite toy right there for him as a reward for letting go of you. It has worked on every puppy I've used it on. You want them to understand that biting you is not such a good idea. But he'll remember that later, & while I've never had a dog not be protective afterward, I've never continued Schutzhund training or bitework on a dog that I have done this with. Well, good luck! jackie harris