My female dog is being a total april23

E

ERage

Giant Member
Nov 7, 2005
4,158
1
482
Marklar
₥10
OK so we've had this new puppy now for about 6 weeks. Awesome dog, smart as hell....almost too smart. She is extremely independant minded and strong willed. She loves to interact and do tricks (for now we do sit, down, stay, and come) All in all she's a good dog, except she is having a really tough time with the "puppy biting people" phase.

She can't stand to not be nipping and biting somebody, shoes, feet, arms, hands, legs, knees, whatever is in reach. I know she is just trying to get attention and we try to appease her by putting a toy in her mouth and playing but she just drops toys and goes back to biting.

My question to you animal people who have had puppies is this: How did you get through the biting phase? What kind of reinforcement was successful/unsuccessful? Negative or Positive?

We have tried this so far: We always and consistently use the command "NO BITE"

We grab and hold the muzzle until she settles down...but this doesn't seem to sink in because a moment later she bites us all over again. This cycle repeats for hours on end.

We have used the spritz bottle of water to zap her in the face when she bites. Worked at first but then she decided water makes her crazy (like funtime crazy) so we had to quit.

We have tried apple bitter on hands, shoes, table legs, etc but that is like sugar for her, she seemed to bite those places more :confused:

Finally we are now trying the ignore technique where if she gets too excited and bitey we stand up and ignore her or step beyond the baby gate till she calms down. The verdict is still out on this one whether it is effective or not, we just started it yesterday.

What do you guys do, or have you heard about that might work? I know she'll grow out of it in time but last night my leg was bleeding and I thought to myself "there must be something I am missing"
 
Ignoring works best in my expierence. Never had a crazy nippy dog though. They also just grow out of it, it's a phase.
 
How are you saying "No Bite"? You should sound A LOT like a very loud growl when you say it. And everyone that interacts with her must do it as well. Consistancy is a MUST. Also, try keeping a toy of her's handy at all times. Whenever she bites put the toy in her mouth. If she drops the toy and bites you again keep doing it. She should eventually get the message that your hand is not a toy. And NEVER let anyone play with her with their hands.
 
What we did was say No Bite and then proceed to stick our fingers in her mouth to where her back teeth are, they hate that... so then she learns not to put stuff in her mouth that doesn't belong to her.
 
You also need to teach her "settle"

With Lu, I can get her totally freaking hyper spastic, jumping around and balls out crazy, then I say "Settle" and she automatically stops what she's doing, drops to the ground with her head on the floor and looks at me for further instruction.

THAT was a handy trick we learned.
 
Pandora said:
How are you saying "No Bite"? You should sound A LOT like a very loud growl when you say it. And everyone that interacts with her must do it as well. Consistancy is a MUST. Also, try keeping a toy of her's handy at all times. Whenever she bites put the toy in her mouth. If she drops the toy and bites you again keep doing it. She should eventually get the message that your hand is not a toy. And NEVER let anyone play with her with their hands.
Click to expand...

Yeah, we bark the "No Bite" at her in a pretty gruff voice. we have stuffed her with a toy consistently for hours on end. Stacey and I both have brought up puppies that have gone through this phase before but this one seems to be a lot worse.

Last night she drew blood, so look out, I think she has a taste for it now :p

She is Luci which now appears to be short for Lucifer.
 
fly said:
And then tears your house up later?
Click to expand...

She stopped doing that. We found out that you actually have to exercise a puppy everyday so they sleep when you aren't home, otherwise they need some other form of activity to expend their energy :fly:
 
ERage said:
Yeah, we bark the "No Bite" at her in a pretty gruff voice. we have stuffed her with a toy consistently for hours on end. Stacey and I both have brought up puppies that have gone through this phase before but this one seems to be a lot worse.

Last night she drew blood, so look out, I think she has a taste for it now :p

She is Luci which now appears to be short for Lucifer.
Click to expand...

hahahahah Mine is LuLu short for Lucifer
 
zengirl said:
She stopped doing that. We found out that you actually have to exercise a puppy everyday so they sleep when you aren't home, otherwise they need some other form of activity to expend their energy :fly:
Click to expand...

This is true. I play with her from 6:30 till 8:00 each morning before I leave for work. Stacey has her for an hour on her lunch break. Then we both have her all night from 5 until bedtime. That dog is never alone for more than 3 or 4 hours and she's usually sacked by the end of the day.
 
ERage said:
Yeah, we bark the "No Bite" at her in a pretty gruff voice. we have stuffed her with a toy consistently for hours on end. Stacey and I both have brought up puppies that have gone through this phase before but this one seems to be a lot worse.

Last night she drew blood, so look out, I think she has a taste for it now :p

She is Luci which now appears to be short for Lucifer.
Click to expand...

If the nonphysical stuff doesn't work then I'd go with Zengirl's suggestion. I hate to recommend shoving your finger down your dog's mouth....but sometimes it's the only thing that will work with a mouthy dog. She'll prolly pull away and gag a little. It doesn't really hurt them, but it sure does take the fun out of it! We actually used it with Bella and now she keeps her mouth to herself.
 
ERage said:
This is true. I play with her from 6:30 till 8:00 each morning before I leave for work. Stacey has her for an hour on her lunch break. Then we both have her all night from 5 until bedtime. That dog is never alone for more than 3 or 4 hours and she's usually sacked by the end of the day.
Click to expand...

Ours does the stair master.

When it's time for breakfast or dinner, I'll put her food in a measuring cup and sit at the top of the stairs. She sits in front of me and then I take the food and one piece at a time, throw it down the stairs, she will run to the bottom of the stairs, sniff around to find the food, eat it and run back up the stairs and sit in front of me.

We try to repeat that around 30 times before work every morning.
 
Pandora said:
If the nonphysical stuff doesn't work then I'd go with Zengirl's suggestion. I hate to recommend shoving your finger down your dog's mouth....but sometimes it's the only thing that will work with a mouthy dog. She'll prolly pull away and gag a little. It doesn't really hurt them, but it sure does take the fun out of it! We actually used it with Bella and now she keeps her mouth to herself.
Click to expand...

No no, not gagging her... but put your hand in her mouth like a bit on a horse. They nip with their front teeth, they can't bite with their back teeth like that, so you just put your hand in the back of their teeth.

I'm really out of it today so I don't know if I'm making sense or not
 
zengirl said:
No no, not gagging her... but put your hand in her mouth like a bit on a horse. They nip with their front teeth, they can't bite with their back teeth like that, so you just put your hand in the back of their teeth.

I'm really out of it today so I don't know if I'm making sense or not
Click to expand...

I've heard this before and also i've heard of putting a finger on the roof of their mouth and thumb on the top of the snout and squeezing a little. supposedly they don't like pressure on the roof of the mouth. She didn't seem to care when I tried it. I'll give your method a whirl later on maybe if she acts up.

She's a really cool dog though, she's going to be a lot of fun when she grows up a little bit.
 
ERage said:
I've heard this before and also i've heard of putting a finger on the roof of their mouth and thumb on the top of the snout and squeezing a little. supposedly they don't like pressure on the roof of the mouth. She didn't seem to care when I tried it. I'll give your method a whirl later on maybe if she acts up.

She's a really cool dog though, she's going to be a lot of fun when she grows up a little bit.
Click to expand...

We also provide Lu with tons of chewies. She love love loves rawhide, and if you say you've had your puppy for 6 weeks, she's probably teething. You might want to provide her with some chewies specifically made for teething.

It was totally gross when Lu was teething because I'd come home and her rawhide would be all bloody from chewing on it till her tooth fell out. :lol:
 
zengirl said:
We also provide Lu with tons of chewies. She love love loves rawhide, and if you say you've had your puppy for 6 weeks, she's probably teething. You might want to provide her with some chewies specifically made for teething.

It was totally gross when Lu was teething because I'd come home and her rawhide would be all bloody from chewing on it till her tooth fell out. :lol:
Click to expand...

She fiends for these:
GreeniesLogo.GIF
 
animepark13 said:
i don't feel like reading your post but that thread title makes me :rofl:
Click to expand...

I can't take credit, my title was raped within 5 minutes of posting it probably because I used the "B" word :fly:

Who knows who came up with the UF Translated version of the title, probably :pandora:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back