Niping
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our new puppy is really a smart, independent a proud little dog. However, we've been trying to break him of his nipping habit, which is becoming more serious. He is 12 wks old and is scheduled to begin clicker type dog training classes in the next week. Does anyone have experience with this typeof training and any tips to stop the biting?
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OHHH Yeah! If I may speak for every puppy owner - we've all had this problem - I call it mouthing. It is surely to be expected. My advice - have plenty of chewies for your little guy and have them within arms reach to replace the unwanted behavior with the good chewy behavior. You'll be teaching your pup what is his and acceptable for chewing. I'm about sure when they're pups that teething is a huge part of this behavior. So - before he even thinks a banister rail, floor molding, chair or table is acceptable, make sure you have lots and lots of toys and tasty chewies like rawhide or better the bully sticks. I know if that doesn't work - you'll pipe in here as your baby gets older.
Congratulations and much luck in continued training your new pup. And remember that the best training comes with positive reinforcement techniques. Do a search here to find many discussions on positive reward training.
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OHHH Yeah! If I may speak for every puppy owner - we've all had this problem - I call it mouthing. It is surely to be expected. My advice - have plenty of chewies for your little guy and have them within arms reach to replace the unwanted behavior with the good chewy behavior. You'll be teaching your pup what is his and acceptable for chewing. I'm about sure when they're pups that teething is a huge part of this behavior. So - before he even thinks a banister rail, floor molding, chair or table is acceptable, make sure you have lots and lots of toys and tasty chewies like rawhide or better the bully sticks. I know if that doesn't work - you'll pipe in here as your baby gets older.
QUOTE]I am wondering… I define mouthing more as that playful kind of biting where the pups grab at arms, legs, hand, whatever to chew or hold on to.
Nipping, to me, is more that quick snap sometimes done when they are disturbed or unhappy with what is happening.Which type of biting behavior are you refering to with your pup?
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I hope that at 12 wks they talking about mouthing….
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Mouthing can be gentle or too hard, but nipping usually pinches the heck out of you. Whatever…we yelped and cried out when a pup did that to us, and it got their attention, then we distracted them. If the pup was with his siblings, they would teach him to play gently by trouncing him if he bit too hard. Gentle mouthing is normal, and how they play with you (some people say you should never let your basenji mouth you, though). A water spray bottle can help too. And if all reasonable methods don't prevent the nipping, there is something called Direct Stop, a citronella spray, I have heard this works very well with even a very stubborn dog. It doesn't burn or hurt, just smells really bad to them.
Anne in Tampa, who won't take a dog younger than 2!
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Gentle mouthing is normal, and how they play with you (some people say you should never let your basenji mouth you, though).
Anne in Tampa, who won't take a dog younger than 2!I think it depends on the dog. Keoki gets WAY too rough and excited when we play with him, so no mouthing of any kind is allowed.
Jazzy only plays that way with me, no other family members, and she is very easy about it so I allow it with her.Could be that's the wrong approach to many though:)
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I think it depends on the dog. Keoki gets WAY too rough and excited when we play with him, so no mouthing of any kind is allowed.
Jazzy only plays that way with me, no other family members, and she is very easy about it so I allow it with her.Could be that's the wrong approach to many though:)
I think you have the right approach, each are different and react differently to stimulation… good and bad...
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Thank you for evryone's response. I"m sure socks is mouthing, as everyone has described. He chews everything, so we have suppiled him with toys and nylabones, which were recommended to save our furniture during this phase. I'm sure our hand, arm, ankle is just as enticing. So we're trying our best to substitute his mouthing us with a toy, etc. As with children, most stages pass.
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Thank you for evryone's response. I"m sure socks is mouthing, as everyone has described. He chews everything, so we have suppiled him with toys and nylabones, which were recommended to save our furniture during this phase. I'm sure our hand, arm, ankle is just as enticing. So we're trying our best to substitute his mouthing us with a toy, etc. As with children, most stages pass.
The method that worked well with both our Basenjis – more with Jazz than with Keoki, but she catches on to most things faster :) -- is when we caught them with something they weren't supposed to chew, we'd tell them, "NO" and immediately replace it with something they could chew.
They learned pretty quickly the difference, and will almost always bring us the forbiddens items and wait for the trade now. Again, Jazz is more reliable than Keoki, but he is younger and more impulsive anyway.
Good luck to you and your furniture. :D
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we had a gated area for ours to play…when they got too excited and started that nipping we just stepped over the gate and turned our back on them. Similar to a "time out". :) They both outgrew that nipping with time.
