Play Biting is getting out of control any ideas?

[c-bus]

Kenya, our 10 week old B is getting a bit too nippy when playing. What is the best way to stop this habit. I tell her no and that doesn't seem to quite do it. I try to stop playing with her at all when she does it but I know it is just because she is young and excited. Does anybody have a strategy to teach her that my hands, ankles, ears, etc are not chew toys? Thanks.

[tanza]

LOL, welcome to the world of puppies… you are doing the right thing by stopping play... and when she does it "scream" loud at the top of your voice as if you are seriously wounded... that is what littermates would do... that is how they express that they are playing too rough... and stop all play... And you have to do it every single time that she bites too hard... it doesn't stop just because you do it once... Honestly, it can last through teething to perm teeth at 6 months....

[sharronhurlbut]

Yes, scream and ignore.
It does work.

[BDawg]

When Lexi would get mouthy, I would tell her a firm "no" and hold her snout closed. And definitely stop playing with them if they don't respond to the "no" to teach her that getting mouthy means 'the fun' ends.

[tanza]

I never did the "hold the snout"…. I would just yelp and stop all play.... period

[BDawg]

I thought you might speak up about my technique, tanza.

To each his own.

Holding Lexi's snout never hurt her and was effective. Different strokes for different folks.

[lvoss]

This is a good article on how to teach bite inhibition and why it is important to teach your puppy to have a soft mouth not just "no bite"

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/spt/SPT_Puppies.htm#BiteInhibition

[rnasto]

Spray your arm with bitter apple before play.

Or

Time out. Stop all play, make the pup sit and calm down. Be gentle but firm.

[sharronhurlbut]

Do let us know how it goes.

[Nemo]

@lvoss:

This is a good article on how to teach bite inhibition and why it is important to teach your puppy to have a soft mouth not just "no bite"

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/spt/SPT_Puppies.htm#BiteInhibition

Can you do step 2 "eliminating bite pressure" successfully when there is more than one person doing it? Seems like it would be difficult to remain consistent in communicating to the puppy what the current "level" is as you are stepping it down.

[lvoss]

Yes, you can. You need to communicate with each other about where you are at with it and though there will be some variation but you should be able to get it into a good range. It is also important that each person in the house do it so the puppy is getting the consistent message that all humans are this way not just one human.

[shankara_n]

My first basenji must have gotten the stubborn gene twice. No matter what I did she would bite hard. Not hard enough to break skin, but hard enough you know you got bit.

I started biting her back. The ears, tail and belly are the most sensitive. I chomped on her 2 or 3 times and her bite was a good deal more gentle.

Though she got me back. After that, she started waking me up to go out by standing on my chest a jabbing my eye socket with her snout.

I slept on my side for years.

[saba]

@shankara_n:

My first basenji must have gotten the stubborn gene twice. No matter what I did she would bite hard. Not hard enough to break skin, but hard enough you know you got bit.

I started biting her back. The ears, tail and belly are the most sensitive. I chomped on her 2 or 3 times and her bite was a good deal more gentle.

Though she got me back. After that, she started waking me up to go out by standing on my chest a jabbing my eye socket with her snout.

I slept on my side for years.

Sorry, this is quite OT, but, I just had a long lost memory :D. I had a horse that I rode, many, many years ago, called Beau. He had a really annoying habit of nipping you when had your back to him, just ready to mount, no matter what you did to try and outsmart him !!!. It was taught to him by his previous owners :rolleyes:. I got so mad with him one day, so sick of bruises over my back, I just turned around, and bit him, right back, on his neck :eek: It wasnt planned, I was so cranky with him, BUT, it worked, he never tried to bite me again, ever ;). He did try it on other people who rode him though, naughty bugger !!!

[jessi76]

@rnasto:

Spray your arm with bitter apple before play.

lol… my dog thought bitter apple was a condiment.

10 wks is young, she'll get it, it takes time to learn. I'm a fan of the yelp & ignore method. it worked for me. (after lots of repetition though!)

[Lori]

I have done the loud puppy cry "arf" and stop playing…it works on older dogs too.

[tsjoe007]

Well, I've tried everything and nothing worked … Except ...
The first thing I've learned Bendji was the "sit" command. Not very difficult if you use his favorite titbit :rolleyes: He learned it very fast (because of the yummy) and when we were playing and it started becoming " a bit rough" I told him : "Bendji ... SIT" ... and he stopped playing and sat down !!! Then I gave him a yummy and started a training session in another room for a few minutes... The trick is that you interrupt the behaviour and turn his attention to something else. Give it a try and let me know. It worked fine for us ... Greetings from Belgium and good luck !:D

[FortheLoveofStella]

I said this to someone else who said that their B pup was being aggressive toward her young daughter. But this seemed to work with Stella when she was little. She would get soo excited during play, that even if I yelped she would stop for a second, but then come back after my feet, ankle, pant leg - what ever she could get her mouth on. So to help her calm down a little, I would hold her down to help her relax. Once she was relaxed she could get up and go about her business. We never her told her no, just yelped, and if she didn't stop, we would restrict her movement.

[snorky998]

@FortheLoveofStella:

I said this to someone else who said that their B pup was being aggressive toward her young daughter. But this seemed to work with Stella when she was little. She would get soo excited during play, that even if I yelped she would stop for a second, but then come back after my feet, ankle, pant leg - what ever she could get her mouth on. So to help her calm down a little, I would hold her down to help her relax. Once she was relaxed she could get up and go about her business. We never her told her no, just yelped, and if she didn't stop, we would restrict her movement.

This might work for my Tyler, but Katie would think it was part of the game, get up and be even more aggressive. Distraction was the thing that worked best for Kate (ie tsjoe's previous post).

[rnasto]

Indy still does some play biting, we have instituted the rule "If you get to play with your mouth I get to play with your mouth!"

This means if he play bites and does not stop when asked we get to play with his mouth too. I stick my fingers in his moutn, open it up and close it, look at his teeth. Seems to get the point across. I don't do it roughly but playfully and he seems just mildly annoyed with it.

[JazzysMom]

With Jazz the yelp and stop play worked great. With Keoki, it did not. For him it works best to stop all play and make him sit/stay until he calms down. Either that or stick our hand in his mouth and hold the bottom jaw for a second; he hates that and stops immediately.