Puppy biting

[rhetts_mama]

I have a 13 week old yorkie who is biting. Not nipping, real biting into skin. I want to knock this behavior off NOW. It happens when I go to put the leash on, take it off, pet him, cuddle...you name it, he bites when I'm doing it. He's doing well with pushing, but it hasn't seemed to slow down the frequency of the biting or his intensity.

I've done all the things the books tell me to with nipping: yelping, distracting, time outs. Nothing works. In fact, most seem to make him even more aggressive.

Any suggestions?

[BrownieNJoyce]

Hi. I am a fellow forum post-er. Glad you are found your way to NDT since it sounds like you are frustrated and other advice hasn't helped. How much reading on the blogsite have you been able to do? That's a great way to begin to understand dogs for who they are and why they do what they do. It's different from other approaches so takes some re-orienting from what you've been told or have read about (unless it was Kevin Behan's book).

Since you have a young pup, maybe do a search on the forum and the blog-site about puppy training. I know there's been something written on that. And others will reply to you who have more experience than I do. I know that puppies have a high need for chewing that needs to be honored and that obedience training shouldn't begin too young. But I sure understand you not wanting to be the chewee. Look forward to hearing how it goes as you learn more. I'm due to post an update about my dog. NDT is so effective, it's just amazing.

[jojo]

You mention pushing but not tug. Since tug would give him something to do with his mouth it might be more what he's needing- are you playing this already too?
Fetch tug would help him get rid of some energy too. Pushing helps the dog to feel comfortable giving his energy to you, but doesn't necessarily get rid of as much energy as fetch-tug might. Also, you mention standard methods to stop him like yelping, and distracting, but are you distracting him with something he could chew and tug on?
How attractive is the offered distraction? I suspect that if it's between your hand and a beef tendon he'd likely choose the tendon- but I could be wrong.

You say he's really sinking his teeth into your flesh, but you don't say whether you believe this is teething, playing, or his way of telling you to stop what you're doing. If it's just teething, providing him with really desirable things to chew might help and it can be waited out to some degree.

Good luck, for me it always seems like things will never change until all of a sudden they're completely different and I only vaguely remember ever having a problem to fix.

[rhetts_mama]

Thanks for the replies. His biting is not teething, there is a definite difference in the intensity and his body language/energy when he bites. I do make sure he has plenty of chew toys:nylabones, rope toys/ soft chew toy and his personal favorite- frozen green beans! I haven't had any problems with him chewing on furniture or anything inappropriate except the occassional shoe (which was my fault for not putting away).

At this point, tug with him seems to make him more angry. If I don't give up the toy right away,he lunges/growls and bites. I'm wondering if I should hold off on tug until I get the biting under control.

Interestingly enough, he shows ZERO food aggression. I can take the bowl, stick my hands in it and even get right in his face without any problems.

I've had multiple dogs in my life, and never had one that I couldn't stop the biting within a day or two. This guy is a mystery to me.

[Lee Charles Kelley]

Hi,

Welcome!

As you've said, this is unusual behavior, or it would've been 15 - 20 years ago. Unfortunately we've been seeing it more and more in recent years. It's usually the result of a puppy being taken from his mother and littermates much too soon (before the pup is at least 8 wks, old, preferably not till after he's 10 wks., though he should be taken from his mother once he's been weaned). But there may be something else going on: a general shift towards more aggression, stress, anxiety, and tension in dogs in general.

This reminds me that in rare cases some puppies have an extra set of teeth (or an extra tooth or two) that can cause problems like this.

Tug is not a good idea for this puppy. It will have the opposite effect (which you've already seen for yourself). In fact, it's probably not a good idea to play a serious game of tug with any pup until his teeth have all come in. Besides the dentition consideration, puppies don't have much, if any, impulse control, and tug can get them too revved up emotionally; once revved up, they find it hard to settle down.

I would also not recommend doing the pushing exercise with a young puppy.

If you can distract him from your hands by waving a toy around until he wants to bite it, and then toss it a few feet away, that might help a little.

It might also be helpful to set up some play dates with owners of other pups who are a little older, and even adult dogs who have a very laid-back, emotionally balanced temperament or personality.

In the meantime, have you tried spraying Bitter Apple or Nature's Miracle - Bitter Spray on your hands? It makes it much easier to redirect the pup's teeth to something he should be biting if your skin has an unpleasant taste. It won't necessarily solve the underlying issue (which may take some time), but it will help with the issue of not wanting to fight the pup over his developmental urges.

Another solution is to wear heavy-duty gloves until his oral development phase passes. Oddly enough, the more a pup uses his teeth and jaws when he's going through his oral development phase (which is a long one), the less likely he'll be to bite as an adult dog.

Good luck! I hope this helps!

LCK

[Heather]

Hi, Welcome, boy do I feel your pain! I have an almost 11-month old dog, on the other end of the size spectrum but he was also very mouthy all the time when little. He started outgrowing the all-the-time mouthing at about 6 months, although it was a very gradual process. Before that he just didn't seem to get it that his teeth hurt! Now he does understand how to be gentle, and even though he still likes to use his mouth a lot (if I gave the nod he would happily munch away), he seems to intuitively understand that people do not want to be mouthed, and it is no longer a big issue.

One thing that I think gave him a good outlet for using his mouth, as well as taught him to enjoy being handled all over, is nibbling a finger, arm or sleeve while having a nice relaxing belly rub/massage (warning: this is going to make a partner jealous, haha). I think Lee has some good info on that on his website! My dog really wasn't up for a lot of touch though until he was older, so that sort of thing wasn't relaxing for him until he was at least 7 or 8 months old. Now his eyes roll back and his tongue hangs out he is so relaxed by massage.

He does still occassionally jump up and bite my arms when he is overexcited, but that seemed/seems to be a separate issue than the mouthiness.

As far as managing the behavior right now...in general Kevin Behan says not to teach a puppy not to bite, that it will be outgrown. Before I found this advice, I tried everything out there to no avail, and in fact what probably happened is that in trying to stop the innocent and very necessary puppy biting, I inadvertently created conflict over biting that is coming out now as the overexcited jumping and biting behavior. In other words I caused a bigger problem than I had in the first place with the normal puppy biting.

One thing you can do if he gets too excited/rough is say "ouch", then if he continues simply get up and leave (or matter-of-fact plop him in a safe area like an exercise pen). It may take months before he makes the connection, but eventually he will. Also redirecting to a toy if he is not yet too excited (if he's too excited that might not work but it's worth a quick try to end the interaction on a positive note).

I also had good luck with using other puppies near the same age to teach bite inhibition, and of course the gloves are a great idea to save your hands. My dog was never fooled into thinking the gloves were hands, though, and things would turn into tug of war with the glove, so that didn't work as well for me because I didn't want gloves to represent bite toys.

re: the behavior being unusual - for me at least I had/have a lot of worry about something being wrong with either my dog or me as an owner...it was always most helpful for someone to tell me that everything I was going through was normal, every dog (like every child) is different, so comparing one to another is not a good idea.

Recently Kevin gave the good advice (I'm paraphrasing here) to keep the faith in your dog's good nature and not get hung up on short-term ups and downs of behavior, which results in a condition in the dog owner he calls "euphobia" - a good feeling when things are going well for a while (no biting) followed by a sinking feeling/fear that things are going to go bad, followed by a return of the dreaded behavior, and a total emotional collapse in the owner.

[Heather]

I wasn't sure if it was clear, but my dog (his name is Happy) would also mouth me, or anyone, whenever touched, putting leash on or off, etc. I say "mouth," because the intent wasn't to be harmful, but the reality was that he was a little vampire with those puppy teeth, it hurt! Ankles, hands, shirts, coats, pants, shoes, leashes...shredded, punctured.

Lately everyone has commented how pleasant Happy is now - you will definitely have a slobbery hand and arm if you pet him, but you won't be bleeding

[rhetts_mama]

Lee-I don't know for sure how old he was when he was taken from his mother. We got him at 10 weeks from a rescue. The rescue didn't have his mother. he's a funny little guy- he seems to enjoy licking the bitter apple off my hand. I had a golden many years ago that loved to do that, too.

Heather, I absolutely DO feel like I'm causing more problems with his biting by doing the "corrections". I'm glad to know I'm not alone in thinking that he wasn't ready for tug. I'll hold off on the pushing for now, too.

We are starting a puppy "manners" class on Thursday. Hopefully that will help him.

I had great success today just walking him for 30 minutes (with breaks). He is absolutely too pooped this afternoon to bite

[rudy]

I know it isnt' funny, but I did laugh when I read your original post. It reminded me of my "opportunity" dog, Lou.

When he first arrived he acted like a very young pup. He was attacking me - not ferociously, but he'd grab on to my pant leg, my sleeve, my ponytail, my hand, socks - you get the picture. Any attempt to snuggle...led to him grabbing my hand or nose or hair. He was a wild man - he wouldn't even put his head down when he'd sleep.

Sadly, I corrected him. Fortunately, every trainer I've ever worked with has told me that I am such a softy that the dogs don't even know they are being corrected Well, Lou got the message of the water bottle...but we're not doing that anymore either.

The non-conflict way I handled Lou was to let him drag a leash around with him all the time even inside, supervised of course. That way I wasn't ever grabbing for him but could guide him when needed.

One fun thing I did with Lou that you could do w/ a pup is to play the Follow Me game using meals. I walked around the house and yard (leash on) with his food and taught him that when I stopped walking he was to sit on my right side. We played for about 15 min every morning. I never said a word, just stopped walking and held the leash and when he sat on my right he got a bite. He learned to follow me, stay on my right, and sit fast in about 2 days. It's fun for the pup (uses some mental energy too) and early moose training for you.