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Old November 14th, 2005, 03:34 PM
amber416 amber416 is offline
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Puppy biting

I know this has been discussed a lot on here, but nothing I have tried is working with my puppy, Cami's biting. It's just puppy play-biting I know, but it hurts really bad...she draws blood sometimes. I have tried the yelping in pain and redirecting her attention to a toy. I have tried leaving and going to another room. I have also tried holding her mouth shut gently and telling her "no bite" while looking her in the eye. I have had her for nearly a month and she's just about 3 months old. I know things don't change overnight, but i have been using most of these techniques (everything except for holding her mouth because that just seems to make her more excited and mouthy) consistently since I got her and there has been no improvement. Anything else I should be trying or doing differently?
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Old November 14th, 2005, 03:44 PM
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StaceyB StaceyB is offline
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Redirecting to a toy right away will just praise her for her bad behaviour. As for holding the mouth shut, you are going to get bit everytime. As soon as you let go she will snap back at you. Another problem is that you have only had her a month and you have tried several different things. You need to pick one and stick with it. Yelling ouch and leaving the room or timing out works well but you need to do it properly and you need to be consistant. She is doing this because she wants your attention and she wants you to play with her. By yelling ouch you are only trying to have her stop what she is doing for a split second so she lets go and you can leave the room. You need to be able to get out of sight and you can't go somewhere where she can follow you. Onc you leave the room wait about 30 sec, or until she is quiet if she began to bark. When you return don't give her any attention. If you can come back to the room for another 30 sec and she has not started again you can then give her a toy or praise for her good behaviour. You want her to think that every time she starts to mouth you leave. This is the last thing she wants because she wants you to play.

You need to stick with it.
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Old November 14th, 2005, 03:59 PM
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papillonmama papillonmama is offline
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She might be fighting you for dominance, like you were a littermate, Trigger did this when he was a pup and Dory did that until I took her into my house. First thing I would try was to make an "uh uh" sound, and get up off the floor and stop looking at them all together. This was easier with trigger because he was only a pup when I taught him, and he's also very kind and sensitive to others feelings.
I know this sounds a bit mean, but because she's so young, it'll stick with her for a long while, when she gets too excited, and you've told her no and made the "uh uh", then, like her mother or an older littermate might have done, you hold her down to the floor until she stops her attempts to get up, in other words, until she understands you don't want to play like that, then you let her up hold your head up and kind of look over her head, she'll understand, and you shouldn't have to do that again.
With Dory it was harder because she came to me when she was alsmost a year, I had to change a lot of her old habits of being so dominant in the house. Along with the brief holding down, I made sure that she only ate after all the people in the house had eaten, (because yours is a puppy and eats smaller meals, you can pretend to eat something before you feed her, useless if she doesn't see). After that though, she started showing me and the kids more respect and she really is a wonderful dog, I can't tell you the benefits of positive reinforcement, whenever they're good always make sure you tell them so and they will want to please you.
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Old November 14th, 2005, 06:12 PM
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PetFriendly PetFriendly is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by StaceyB
Redirecting to a toy right away will just praise her for her bad behaviour.
My pup had my roomate getting all his toys for him. He'd mouth her, she'd get a toy and he'd get to play... Try the technique Stacey suggested, from experience, it works (now he brings the room-mate the toys to initiate play with ).

I'm not so sure about the holding down, if you do it incorrectly, you can really mess up the pup. Though pretending ot eat the dog's food before you put it down sort of works to help establish your spot as leader, but you can also do this by making her wait for you to go through doors first and getting a handle on basic obedience.

Last edited by PetFriendly; November 14th, 2005 at 07:16 PM.
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Old November 14th, 2005, 06:28 PM
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papillonmama papillonmama is offline
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You're right pet friendly, the holding down technique must be done properly and not abused! And only when all other training attempts have failed.
I learnt this method from Dr. Stanley Coren's obedience show, Good Dog! If interested, I'm sure his books have further insight. Persoanlly I like his training techniques because he really tries to understand what the dog is saying as well as explaining the natural behaviour of dogs.
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