Nipping and Biting

[jrad]

We just got ourselves a 6 week old baby girl who is now 7 weeks and by all accounts is a great little girl. She sits on command, is good on a leash, eats and sleeps well but has a problem with nipping and biting. When she bites the wife and I say "OUCH!" and give her a chew toy. But she still loves to nip and bite us and her blanket. Is this just puppy phase or should we be doing more?

 

[boxer]

Well, it is a puppy phase, yes. But it is exacerbated by the fact that she left her mother and littermates too early. Puppies shouldn't be rehomed until they are an absolute minimum of 7 weeks old, and preferably 8 weeks. That is because the 6-8 week period is when puppies learn to be dogs (mothers are more than just a food source) - they learn how to play, how to accept discipline and how to moderate their bite during this period.

Just to underline how important this developmental time is, animal welfare legislation in many parts of the world (including several US States) makes it illegal to rehome a puppy prior to 8 weeks of age. Not sure what the law is in Canada...

Anyway. Since she was removed from her mother and littermates so early, your puppy has missed out on the education she'd have got from them. So you're going to have to compensate for that and teach her yourself. It's quite possible to do so, it just means that it will probably take a bit longer than if she'd already got a bit of education from her littermates. You're on the right track with squealing "ouch" and trying to redirect her. What her littermates would have done though, is squeal in pain and then retire away from her and refuse to play for a bit. So you should do likewise. Just squeal sharply, then turn away and ignore her for a little bit.

Not all puppies take no for an answer easily though So if she really persists with the biting and continues to pounce upon you biting when you're trying to ignore her, then get up and leave the room for a minute or two. Shut the door so she can't follow. The message you're trying to send is that if she can't play nicely (ie. not bite hard) then you won't play at all. Soft biting/mouthing is OK, but as soon as any pressure goes into that bite, the game ends. She'll get the idea - how long it takes does vary, but if you're patient and consistent with your response, then she will eventually get it

 

[Hercy's mom]

My Hercules does the same things! It's so good to see I'm not alone! He's 10 weeks old now, and has gotten better. He's a white boxer, so we call him our great white and yell "Shark Attack!!!" when he gets rowdy!!! His bites have also gotten a little softer, so there is some kind of hope. I think I might try the spray bottle with water if he continues. A few people posted that it works. I guess it can't hurt to try that as well!
Good luck!

 

[lilliansmith]

My Benny (10 weeks) is just as bad with the biting. I am definitly going to try the ignoring him idea. When he gets all rammy and crazy with the biting we say he's being and Alligator, we even got him a stuffed Alligator for him to chew when he gets crazy...hehehe.........

 

[boxer]

I think I might try the spray bottle with water if he continues. A few people posted that it works. I guess it can't hurt to try that as well!

Spraying with water is something we normally recommend against on this forum. As is the same with all coercive/negative methods, there are better ways to teach a puppy what are appropriate behaviours and what are not than by doing something unpleasant to deter a behaviour. We believe and promote wholeheartedly positive training methods only - which means rewarding good behaviour and ignoring or removing rewards for undesirable behaviour. Not by punishing behaviours we deem undesirable, most especially when they're natural ones that a baby puppy has no idea is "wrong".

Some people may have found success by punishing their puppies by spraying them in the face with water. Plenty of others who try that sort of method find that it makes the problem worse.

 

[Lola's mum]

Our 16 week old pup bites really hard when playing and boy does it hurt. She barks and growls at us too. We say ouch, yelp & then ignore her like we were recommended to do and it makes no difference as she just carries on. For a couple of days we did spray her with water (just on the body) but then she got hold of the bottle and broke it. Now when she gets too fiesty we take her in another room and shut her in there for a couple of minutes and she comes out quiet as a lamb.
She does still play too hard occasionally but we always make sure there is a toy or her blankey close to hand to distract her with.