[Rowan]

Rowan will be twelve weeks this Saturday. I've been working with him on biteing since I got him. I started out "yipping" when he would bite me and his bite is getting softer and softer. Now I have been putting a toy in his mouth everytime he tries to mouth me. He is getting really good about not mouthing me and now it has only been happened about once or twice a day where he was biteing at every chance he got. He now will go get one of his toys and run over to me and press his toy all over me. Over the past two weeks he has started something new. He will just walk by and snap in my face and then walk off. So far he has cut my nose and my lip with his puppy teeth. How do I go about teaching him that it's not okay to do this? He dosn't do it when he wants to play, he mainly dose it at night time. I've tried the things I do when I don't want him to bite but for the most part he is not biteing my face, more like snaping at the air infront of it. I do understand that his is normal, I read a few other places on the board about it but I need to teach him this is not a good idea. We do have one of our friend's grandson over all the time I don't want him to do this to him. We never leave them alone together and Rowan is always on leash when he is over.

We are starting puppy classes next month.

 

[Elaine]

This is very normal and is your puppy playing. Just keep shoving a toy in his mouth at every opportunity and he will grow out of it.

 

[Stosh]

I think almost all gsd pups go through this stage- Stosh still gets to do it to his best friend, another gsd who comes over once a week to play. It's interesting to watch the kind of normal dog behaviors in action when they're not directed at people. I can see why he had to develop those and since we take the place of littermates they have to practice on somebody. I'm sure puppy class will help, especially if there's playtime where Rowan can bite and play on his terms. Maybe you'll find a friend he can get together with every once in a while. In the meantime, you'll just have to make sure he knows that it's unacceptable to put his mouth on people

 

[Rowan]

I'll keep working with him, I do have another dog that he plays with all the time.

 

[Stosh]

Oh well then, forget that part! Every once in a while Stosh will still do an air snap when he really really wants me to do something, like go outside and throw the frisbee.