German Shepherds Forum banner

9 Week Old Puppy Biting

1K views 14 replies 11 participants last post by  WNGD 
#1 ·
So my pup is going through a bit of a phase where he does not know how to play without getting a little too aggressive with his biting. I've tried the classic methods (redirecting, making a loud yelp and walking away and isolating him) but none seem to be effective, he just keeps going and gets way too excited.

I know I have to be consistent with one method just not sure what is the most effective.

Any advice here?
 
#2 ·
I doubt Yelping is going to help, it usually makes only worse.

Misha was a biter, like very terrible (since she was separated from her only litter mate and mother at 6.5 weeks) there were times I would think she would eat us alive lol

First, I corrected her with collar and VERY firm NO BITE. I didn’t want her to think it is ok. No way. She will not listen first.., so after “no” I would always redirect her, but not with toys, she wasn’t interested in them by then. Each time she came to that bite mood, I would redirect her to do something completely different, like training session with treats. So she switched And would forget about biting for awhile. Next time she comes back to that mode, I would distract her with short training again. God, we had millions short trainings during the day. But it did help to stop her each time. Meanwhile she was learning No Word..

it took long time to teach her not to bite, probably couple of months, if not more. I could not see improvement right away, but I noticed in couple weeks she would do less attempts, and more often stopped after NO.
 
#6 ·
 
  • Like
Reactions: car2ner
#7 ·
As far as redirection goes, hope your timing is good:

"Because unless your timing is good, redirecting = rewarding, and that timing can be difficult sometimes if the pup is fired up.

How do I get a dog to perform a behavior? I get that behavior to happen and then reward the dog for it. It seems to me that stuffing a toy in the mouth of a puppy just after it bites me is counterproductive. That's just my opinion and I don't fault anyone for using a particular method as long as it is fair and productive." - @David Winners


Here is a video that may help OP:



Above video originally posted by @David Winners in the following thread:

 
#8 ·
We're going through this with our girl (11wks). She gets into these moods where she's a right little terror! Bitting, nipping, growling and barking at us. We call it "the witching hour" because it seems to happen around 6:30pm and lasts about an hour. We are trying to teach her it's not ok to bite when agitated (or any other time) by holding her muzzle when in a bite. Not hard of course but long enough that she doesn't like it and releases. We then follow up with "gentle" and let her sniff/lick the hand she was just biting and reinforcing with "good gentle" in a soothing voice. It's a timing thing for sure though because sometimes she's so fast that we often react with a loud sharpe NO! and that typically stops her. Aren't puppies fun?!?!

Good luck!
Tammy and Piper.
 
#9 ·
Tons of biting threads on here to sift through....dozens.

Ditch the "Ow, yelp, ignore, walk away" stuff. It just doesn't work in the vast majority of cases.
Reward the actions that you like and fair, firm, age appropriate corrections for what you don't.

Distract, redirect and correct can be used in an age specific ways and build on each other as your communication improves. No you don't have to wait 6-12 months for things to improve or hope they just "outgrow it"

Search puppy biting threads...
 
#12 ·
I found that just stuffing a toy into my boys mouth aggravated him. Instead we put on leather gloves and just enjoyed rough housing with him. When the gloves came off he knew the game time was over. Worked well for us. Then when his jaws became strong enough to crunch, the gloves got tied to a strong string and we used it like a flirt toy. And we learned how to play tug with toys. It is a skill that goes way beyond just offering the tug. Having a good trainer who helped us work toward our BH was invaluable.
 
#13 ·
As @WNGD said, so many puppy biting threads to learn from here...

Redirecting worked well for me but I often added a negative to the bite. My dog is fairly hard so words and posturing didn’t work when he was so young. When he bit, I would sometimes roll his lip in so it was between my flesh and his teeth. Not a big correction just a result of a certain action.
So it would go like this...
If you bite me, you bite yourself. But here, if you bite this awesome running toy, we play. And it’s the most awesome thing ever.
 
#14 ·
We've all been there. They just like to bite an chew and go on a frenzy from 9-16 weeks. For them, it's fun and it feels good. For us, it hurts, and our hands get chewed up until the behavior can be corrected. Good news: This is the time when they develop a gentle mouth if you use the opportunity to teach them. We have always used the high pitched "ouch!," and it works if you then immediately disengage and turn away or walk away from the puppy. You can re-engage after a short time out, but as soon as the nipping feels painful, repeat the process. We also train gentle mouth by giving treats by hand until the puppies grab or lunge for the treats or get too much/vigorous tooth-finger contact. Then, "Ouch! No more," and the treats are demonstrably put away. As a last straw maneuver, if the behavior continues, when the puppies nip or bite hard, we hold their mouths OPEN and shove our hands into their mouths and push down on their tongues or the inside of their lower gum line. It's uncomfortable for them, and they quickly learn that having a hand inside their mouth is a bad experience. (Holding the muzzle closed actually encourages them to lunge-bite-pull-back which is a worse behavior than nipping.) Our vet always remarks that we have the gentlest shepherds he's ever seen.
 
#15 ·
This is why you have to find out what works for your individual dog I guess and so many people come here asking what to do when "ouch, yipe, ignoring, time outs" results in amped up dogs and increased blood flow from the poor owners arms and legs.:LOL:

But you're right that if you've taught your dog bite inhibition and he knows not to put teeth on you, an escalated but fair correction is in order. It's actually frustrating to hear people saying they're still trying to yelp or ignore their dogs after months of being chewed on!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top