Bitting

[rajajikesh]

Hello everyone!!! I have a 4 and half month old pup. He loves to play but when he plays he likes to bite alot. Sometimes he bites hard and sometimes hes just playing around. I have been teaching him not to and being firm with him. He listens sometimes and sometimes I have no controll over him and have to put him in the room, tie him up or even hold him till he calms down. Can anyone help me with this

 

[DGPEREZ]

I am in the same situation. My puppy is 5 months and she likes to play rough and bite my arm, leg, whatever which usually ends with me saying ouch and getting up and walking away. I have been doing this for some time now. Probably about a month and I have see little improvement. Hopefully one day she will understand that she cannot have her favorite play mate if she is bitting me. I am sure she is just being playing with me but it is very frustrating. Its always in the evening about an hour after we have been home from work and she has played outside and we are ready to sit on the couch and relax. I know she has a new set of molars that have just came in so that may also be the reason for biting and playing rough. She also jumps up at me and bear hugs my leg. I usually tell her off which results in lots of barking. We then go straight into a training session with treats which seems to help. Its always at around the same time every evening and then she calms down and plays nice.

She has been well socialized with other dogs and people, she also graduated from puppy classs and did really well. We brought her home from a breeder at 7 weeks and she is from champion blood line.

 

[gmacleod]

Teaching bite inhibition is a process - and one that takes time. Do note that just trying to stop the pup using his mouth is actually the wrong lesson

Some very good information on what bite inhibition is, why it is so critically important to train it correctly, and how to go about doing so in this excellent article: http://www.jersey.net/~mountaindog/berner1/bitestop.htm

 

[ELubas]

The article referenced above is very good, and it is critical that you address this. All puppies bite but need to learn what is appropriate, from you and from other good dogs who tell them what is too much. They actually start to learn it from thier Moms and thier littermates. I have a dog aggressive girl and I spent A LOT of time working on bite inhibition. I am so glad I did because even though she is not reliable around strange dogs the times when she was younger and off lead dogs charged her she never sunk her teeth in. I think it is one of the most important things we teach our pups. Good luck

 

[kayboxer]

We have taught our 5 mo. old "no bite"! If he continues, we immediate stop play and remove ourselves from the situation. If he starts, we say "no bite!" or say loudly "ah ah!" and he stops. If he is really wound up and continues after the command, we immediately get up and sit in a chair and end play. He has learned if he continues, playtime is over.