Aggressive Biting

[SassySammi]

I am a new GSD puppy owner and I have notcied a daily routine of aggressive play with my pup Bailey. She only does it about once or twice a day and since I am new to the dog world I am not sure how to "correctly" repremand her and show her it is not ok. She attacks my hands during play and I almost feel that she gets too excited or when I yelp it makes her charge me more.

Please give me some advise as to what and what not to do!

Thanks!

[Bubbles]

spray water in the puppies face with a spray bottle.

[Kyleigh]

Spray water in the puppy's face? REALLY? Sorry Bubbles, but I don't think that's very helpful.

First off ... how old is your puppy? This is a normal thing for puppies to go through ... they are learning bite inhibition - how hard is too hard ... when soft is acceptable, etc.

To teach her to stop ... when she bites your hand you can say OUCH in a firm voice and then give her a toy that is appropriate for her to chew on / play with and encourage her to play with it (wave it at her, drag it along the floor, etc.)

There are many threads in here under puppies, and biting that you can read to get a better idea on how to handle this very normal behaviour.

Why don't I agree with the spray bottle? She might simply turn around and start biting at the bottle - which is in your hand ... so you could end up getting bit even harder ... and secondly, what do you do with the dog that LOVES to be sprayed in the face?

My last dog LOVED being sprayed in the face ... whenever I misted my parrots (for their baths) she would come running to me and stand there with her mouth open just waiting for the spray!

[Twyla]

Puppy BITING!!! Teaching Bite Inhibition

Check out that link for good ideas about it.

BTW - welcome to the land of German Shepherd Sharks lol

This is very normal behavior. Redirect her with toys, saying ouch loudly and when the behavior just won't stop, you are frustrated - a very short time out.

It does get better, once she learns how to play with humans instead of her litter mates

[SassySammi]

Thanks so much for the advice ! I will take a look at the link and search around.

She will be 10 weeks tomorrow. I absolutely LOVE her.

[msvette2u]

Originally Posted by Twyla

Puppy BITING!!! Teaching Bite Inhibition

Check out that link for good ideas about it.

BTW - welcome to the land of German Shepherd Sharks lol

This is very normal behavior. Redirect her with toys, saying ouch loudly and when the behavior just won't stop, you are frustrated - a very short time out.

It does get better, once she learns how to play with humans instead of her litter mates

Please don't spray a puppy in the face with a water-bottle.
We declined an adoption two days ago due to people wanting to do this with their newly adopted baby puppy (a few other issues, too, but still).

[Bubbles]

Originally Posted by msvette2u

Please don't spray a puppy in the face with a water-bottle.
We declined an adoption two days ago due to people wanting to do this with their newly adopted baby puppy (a few other issues, too, but still).

lol water doesn't hurt dogs. That is no reason to turn someone away from adopting a dog. I've been told by many people to smack the dog in the nose with two fingers , grab the nose, toys, ice and other dumb ideas. Only one time did I smack her and it didn't do nothing. Hot sauce on the hands or spray bottles work well. Its a deterrent that doesn't harm them. They just don't like it.

*removed by moderator*

[Kyleigh]

Bubbles - did you actually read what I wrote?

What about the dogs that do like it? Then what? Like I wrote in my post ... I had a dog that loved it ... it's certainly wasn't going to stop her ... so then what?

[msvette2u]

A good trainer told me this...
You're walking down the street in a foreign country, and someone runs up out of the blue, and throws water in your face.
You have no idea why. You're freaked out, because it's nothing you expected. You aren't sure when/if it'll happen again. However, you go on your way, a bit more cautious, and now stop at a vegetable stand. Again, someone runs up and tosses water in your face.
Now you're really upset. You have no idea why they're doing this, if you're offending them somehow, or what!?

And dogs are just like that. They are new to us, the ONLY way they know how to explore their world is with their mouths. They ONLY know how to play using their mouths. They don't sit around playing Monopoly and Go Fish.
They play with their mouths.

I agree you ought to discourage the biting but don't punish the puppy for normal puppy behavior. This is why redirection is much better- you're actually teaching them what to do, instead of constantly punishing them for what not to do.

[Capone22]

Lots of us stop our puppies from biting us with toys. It's typically something they grow out of. And if you redirect them to something they can bite. They get it, eventually. Plus I don't want my dog to end up not liking water. Or afraid of a spray bottle or something. Capones old owner sprayed the puppies with the hose for barking. He was terrified of the hose for months. Now he tolerates it but still avoids it if he can.


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