New puppy . . at wit's end . . . HELP!

[fatewineroses Hatchling Find all posts View Profile Close fatewineroses]

Sophie is about seven weeks old and is driving me crazy. She is mouthing like crazy and I can't get her to stop. I've read numerous articles and a couple of books . . . still no change in her behavior, but definitely lots of scrapes and nicks on me and my daughter.

I desparately want to fix this problem, as I have a large family with many young children and knowing her behavior with the neighborhood kids I'm afraid of letting her around my nieces and nephew.

We definitely are in love with our puppy, but are afraid to pet her due to her biting and nipping!

PLEASE HELP ME!

[SalemWitchChild Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close SalemWitchChild]

Everytime she bites hold her mouth close and say no! Don't even let her play bite.

[RedyreRottweilers Cub Find all posts View Profile Close RedyreRottweilers]

what breed is your puppy?

Have you spoken to the breeder about how to deal with this?

You can find my training article on this website, called Puppy Training 101, I would encourage you to read it and print it out.

Puppies who mouth this way need correction along with direction and bite inhibition training.

I correct by taking the pup by the loose skin under the chin, taking them GENTLY off their front feet (now I have complete control of the puppy), and then scolding in a low growly tone of voice with hard direct eye contact.

Follow this correction by 5 minutes of ignoring the puppy.

Redirect your puppy with toys.

Make a toy box and keep it stocked with lots of interesting things to chew and play with.

Make plans NOW for obedience class.

Do a search on BITE INHIBITION, and work on that with the pup.

[Jenmm Cub Find all posts View Profile Close Jenmm]

Hi I am new here but i think i can help. I have 8 dogs of all kinds of ages and temperments most are rescues and they ALL mouthed when i got them.

Dogs mouth for different resons. Your pup is because its a pup. I recomend tring this first (hard to explan, do this right before or when he is biting) poke your pup behind the ear on the back of the head with 2 fingers and make a sharp "CH" sound "PIST" sound or a "NO". the poking will mimic Mom and the sound is a sound you can get him use to as being a no instead of no it also gets his attention.

or you can try to make him uncomfortable. you can do this by: instead of pulling your hand out of the mouth push it into the mouth touching the roof of the mouth, making your pup want to let go.

the other thing is, in your HIGHEST squeel, squeel like he just drew blood, and do this every time your pup "looks like" he is going to put his mouth on you. he will look at you like your nut but it tells him "ouch that hurts please dont do that" dont look or pay him any attention for 3 seconds then act like nothing happened.

I hope this helps

[fatewineroses Hatchling Find all posts View Profile Close fatewineroses]

RedyreRottweilers - The puppy is a boxer/shepard mix. She was rescued, not bought from a breeder; thus no breeder to call. I actually read your article before I posted. It's great and I can always use more advice in this realm! Luckily though, the mouthing is really the only problem I'm having. I appreciate the term "bite inhibition," as I hit upon a LOT more relevant articles when using this term versus what I was using before.

EVERYONE - I definitely appreciate everyone who responded and gave advice. I've tried many of the methods mentioned and am finding that FINALLY the yelping/ignoring is working best. Well, at least it's working with the hand nipping. I'm still having major problems with ankle biting. ~sigh~

Luckily the visit with my family went better than I thought it would as they all have puppy experience and understand that's just what puppies do. Unfortunately *my* puppy experience is very much in the past and my parents dealt with most of these sorts of things. I wasn't responsible for training until she was four months old.

So thanks again everyone!

[RedyreRottweilers Cub Find all posts View Profile Close RedyreRottweilers]

Fate,

Glad to hear you found some things that are working for you.

If you have more specific questions, please post, and I'll try to help.

:D

[fatewineroses Hatchling Find all posts View Profile Close fatewineroses]

Actually, there was another post about a nippy puppy you responded to that gave me even more advice that helped. She's getting better with the hand nipping (with others, I seem to be doing something wrong that is making her more aggressive ~sigh~ I'm working on figuring that out) but the leg/ankle nipping is BAD. The stomping seems to help . . . others that is.

DEEP BREATHS :shock: !

[wahhutch9 Hatchling Find all posts View Profile Close wahhutch9]

So is the "Puppy Raising 101" article only for Rottweiler's?

[kerryclair Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close kerryclair]

No!
Please take a look and read it.
Excellently written, it will give you much advice on raising any dog...
http://animalforum.com/dpuppy101.htm

[ZooMom Hatchling Find all posts View Profile Close ZooMom]

Same issue here with a Jack Russell Terrier!

We rescued him from our neighbors (he was chained outside all day and night w/o food or water). Grrrrr! We think he's about a year old. He had never been inside the house or had much attention. He is not aggressive at all but he does "play" bite constantly! I'm looking forward to trying the tips here.