driftwooddragon Posted August 19, 2007 Share Posted August 19, 2007 Hi, I have had my puppy for 1 week and 4 days ... my arms are mauled. I pull him by the scruff to try to stop the biting. He has 5 million toys, chew things. What is the best way to handle this. Thank you, Kylie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonymc Posted August 19, 2007 Share Posted August 19, 2007 Driftwood,watch two or more Pups playing.They will be jumping,grabbing,wrestling,biting and having a great time.The Game will flow with the roles of Prey and Predator swapping back and forth.When one Pup feels the Game has gotten too much or too rough,he or she will let out a yelp and or turn and walk away.Try imitating this yourself. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rainey Posted August 20, 2007 Share Posted August 20, 2007 Driftwood,watch two or more Pups playing.They will be jumping,grabbing,wrestling,biting and having a great time.The Game will flow with the roles of Prey and Predator swapping back and forth.When one Pup feels the Game has gotten too much or too rough,he or she will let out a yelp and or turn and walk away.Try imitating this yourself. Tony Perfect advice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
driftwooddragon Posted August 20, 2007 Author Share Posted August 20, 2007 Tonymc, Thank you for your advice. I understand what you mean. I certainly will give it a try. Today he was not so bad but am sure he will try again. The scruff and saying "no" does not seem to work, so will try your way and see what happens. Thank you very much, Kylie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golden Dragon Posted August 20, 2007 Share Posted August 20, 2007 G'day DWD - I'm certainly no expert but I can sympathise. My boy is 14 weeks old now and he LOVES to bite and nip when playing and those little razor sharp puppy teeth are deadly. I have also worked out that if I scruff him, or grab his muzzle to tell him off then he thinks "GAME ON" and gets even more excited. Now, as soon as he bites or tries to bite I yell "NO" and then walk away and leave him on his own. He seems to be getting the hang of it. Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
driftwooddragon Posted August 20, 2007 Author Share Posted August 20, 2007 Golden Dragon, thanks for that, puppy is a big boy 13.5kg at 10.5 weeks old. And those puppy teeth do kill!! My fault but I have so many rips and scabs on my hands and arms, I was getting at wits end with the little devil dog. Good luck with yours as well. Thank you, Kylie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disorder Posted August 20, 2007 Share Posted August 20, 2007 (edited) My puppy also used to bite and nip at hands and anything else he can grab hold of when he was in one of his "moods". My partner and I used a really simple method that seems to work for us. When he got over excited and started biting we would yell "Ah Ah!!" and put both our palms up in front of him. He usually stoped biting straight away and then we would reinforce it by giving him a toy and ignore him for a bit until he calmed down and forgot that he wanted to bite and grab at our hands. Hope this helps! Edited August 20, 2007 by disorder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deltron Posted August 20, 2007 Share Posted August 20, 2007 I've tried the puppy yelps (he bites more), the scruff (he bites my hand), popping the lead (i haven't perfected the technique), 'uhuh' / 'no', (he has selective deafness when in prey drive!) tap on the nose / grabbing the nose / rolling him on his back (he bites my hand) and none work on my pup. Currently I am trialling a spray bottle of water. I mist his face when he bites, and he stops. It doesn't hurt him, it just redirects his attention. He now settles down whenever he sees the spray bottle. It's not stopped the biting yet but it's a lot better and I only started using the water bottle yesterday. It's also handy for when he is attacking my feet, because a lot of the correcting techniques involve touching the dog, and he is too quick and runs off before you can get near him. The downside is that you need to carry the bottle around with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
driftwooddragon Posted August 20, 2007 Author Share Posted August 20, 2007 Thank you both Deltron and Disorder. Hmmmm seems will be a trial thing .... will try a few things and see what works best with him. Stupid me put my hand up for his sister .... I am hoping they will ravage each other and leave my hands alone!! Once again thank you to everyone who posted, will try all methods. Kylie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tonymc Posted August 20, 2007 Share Posted August 20, 2007 thank you for your kind words Rainey.Driftwooddragon not a problem at all.Perservere and you will get the result you want.All the best with your Pup. Tony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WinGus Posted August 20, 2007 Share Posted August 20, 2007 Hi, I have this problem too and the way I deal with it is when pup nips, I yelp and get up and turn my back on her for a minute or two. If she is really bitey, then I'll go and hide out in another room, leaving her alone. Normally the lack of attention does work. It has made her nip less and she'll actually lick my hands instead of biting, but sometimes when she is in her moods (tiredness?!?!) she still bites. When that happens I just put her to bed or give her something else to chew on. I haven't yet worked out how to stop her from jumping up and catching hold of clothing! OH is annoyed that she has ripped a couple of small holes in his jumper!! Lucky she's only a tiny thing and can't do too much damage to clothing/hands yet!!! Good luck with your little one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lil Miss LeiLani Posted August 20, 2007 Share Posted August 20, 2007 My pup is 8.5mths old and he still does it ! We have tried yelping & walking away - he obviously stops when we walk away, but later when we cuddle him or anything, he starts nipping again. We tried the water bottle- he did stop when we spray it, but then he still keeps doing it. We tried lemon in the water, he likes it. What else can I try ??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
driftwooddragon Posted August 21, 2007 Author Share Posted August 21, 2007 Thank you all for your advice. Today was cold and wet up here in Brisbane. He slept alot, Played out in the rain .. he grabbed my wrist which had just been operated on 4 weeks ago ... not happy and extremely painful .. I was in so much pain I could not even berate him ... but he did know that he hurt me (so maybe worth it?) .. mum's dog he did, but the spray bottle stopped that. At the moment I have a semi harmoneous house!! :D Will see what tomorrow brings. Christal & Zorro hopefully someone will be able to help you out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shekhina Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 (edited) The last puppy I raised was, to be honest, an absolute monster when I brought him home. I have never in my life met a puppy so nasty. I tried all the usual things: redirecting his attention, telling him no, time out, walking away, ignoring him, spraying water etc. etc. The only thing that worked was a harsh scruff and a loud and nasty growl from me followed by dominance down. He's never, ever done it since and it is a very rare occasion when I need to get him by the scruff of the neck now. My other pups have never been so awful and a growl has always been enough...but this last pup was a pup that would launch himself at you and grab on, if you pulled him off and turned him on his back he'd come straight back at you worse than before. He's now a dog that you can do absolutely anything to and he will not move until I tell him he can move. He learned respect. Different temperaments require different training methods. Edited August 21, 2007 by shekhina Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawg_luvr Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 as usual tony i like the way you go back to the basic principle/ideas of how things work. This is the stage ur pup is learning his bite inhibition. Thus he will know when he bites too hard and when enough is enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawg_luvr Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 My pup is 8.5mths old and he still does it !We have tried yelping & walking away - he obviously stops when we walk away, but later when we cuddle him or anything, he starts nipping again. We tried the water bottle- he did stop when we spray it, but then he still keeps doing it. We tried lemon in the water, he likes it. What else can I try ??? Vinegar.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mushaka Posted August 21, 2007 Share Posted August 21, 2007 Im getting sick of the "gently gently" approach with Indie. Its only play biting but she just isnt getting it. Im going to have to be tougher on her. She bit me a minute ago so i tucked her gums under her teeth and squeezed. She yelped and sat down and stopped the biting straight away. Looks like she is a tough nut. My dane was always very easy,..a "NO" was all that was ever required for her. Such a sweet girl! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eileen Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 We were at our wits' end with Dolly, boy was she a biter! The only think that worked for us was giving her time out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sas Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 (edited) We had a terrible time with Dante, he was a horrible puppy LOL Most of the typical things you would do such as ignoring them and walking away wouldn't work as he would run after us and bit us on the back of the legs. As others have mentioned, this type of biting is typical of a puppy, they need to understand a different set of rules when they're removed from the litter, some handle the rule change really easily and others are a nightmere LOL The things we tried: 1) Re-directing to a toy - you were stuffed if you didn't have a toy. 2) Scruffing - would wind the puppy up more. 3) Growl - would wind the puppy up more. 4) Smack - would wind the puppy up more. 5) Bad tasting spray on our legs and hands - worked for about 2 days. 6) Time outs for 2 minutes each time he did it. 7) Water Pistols - worked for about 2 weeks but again, you were stuffed if you didn't have the water pistol close by. 8) Walking away/ignoring - absolutely no use. At puppy school we learned to submit the puppy, I wish I had gone to this puppy school when he was biting, it would have helped us so much. Edited August 24, 2007 by sas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anthony mazzeri Posted August 25, 2007 Share Posted August 25, 2007 8) Walking away/ignoring - absolutely no use. I just saw this on 'It's Me or the Dog' last night with a Great Dane pup (about 12 months) called Dylan. When the lady owner asked Victoria why Dylan was mouthing her and not Victoria, her reply was simply that pups don't mouth more dominant members of the pack, so he doesn't see his owner as the dominant one whereas he perceived Victoria's dominance just by her attitude. The solution was the 'quick high pitched puppy squeal' (which I doubt men can imitate successfully, if at all), cross the arms, turn your back and look away - ie, total ignore / game over. It worked virtually instantly. There's definitely something about the squeal resonating with dogs as the one she emitted on TV even startled my little Cocker Spaniel pup out his sleep and he started looking around. He's also one of these mouthy/nipping pups because I play with him so he sees me currently more as a playmate than the boss, so I had the thought of copying Victoria's squeal (I taped the show) and putting it onto some sort of tape player to use when needed... but I don't have one. Anyway, the thought's there, so a possible puppy training tool? I know they make electronic clickers now with chirps and trills, so maybe one with a sqeal for the mouthing problems? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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