We are having the same issue here with our 7 month old, complete great white shark here lol. She's very mouthy. Sometimes its hard, sometimes she has really good bite inhibition. I notice it the most when she is over tired or is really excited and in play mode.

The "yelps", no/no bite, leave its, etc don't always work. Her most solid out of everything is the "leave it command" but it depends on her excitement level. We keep redirecting and keep a rope toy on hand.

We're seeing a trainer this weekend for help on this issue and a few others. Good thing is that she really only does it to hubby & I, but we don't want her to start this with dog-sitters in the future.

I'll be watching this thread too

 

By 8 months, it's ok to start actively discouraging the biting.

 

Elaine, what did you do to stop this?

 

What has worked best with us (Angel is 7 1/2 months now) is to completely ignore her if she starts getting too mouthy. She usually only does it now when she is really hyped up in play mode (playing rough with hubby) or when she gets overtired. If she gets mouth and starts to bite, we just say NO BITE and ignore her. Dont pet, dont look at, dont say anything else - for about a min or so. Sometimes takes a time or two, but then she does great!

 

I hate crate time outs as I find them pretty worthless. Dogs aren't kids and don't reflect on their behavior.

First of all, don't confuse him by wrestling and then telling him to stop biting you. Not saying you are doing this, just mentioning it. Once he understands not to bite you , then you can go back and wrestle if you want and be able to tell him to stop when you tell him.

For now, do not allow any biting or mouthing. Do try and redirect with toys, make them very attractive by shaking them and tossing them. By tossing the toys, you move the teeth away from you - always good.

You can try stopping all movement when he bites you and put your mad face on. It's not a lot of fun to bite you when you aren't cooperating by not moving. Once he lets go, you toss his toy and life is fun again. Be sure to smile and praise him when he goes for the toy.

For the very determined biter, I have no problem with either swatting the dog on the head or taking him by the collar and yelling at him. I make myself appear very large and angry and express my displeasure. The second he stops, I will quietly stroke and praise him. If you go crazy with the the praise, you will just ramp him back up and he will want to bite again. You want to give him the opportunity to succeed so don't make this too hard.

Once they start to get the idea, you can back down on the correction by using the mad face along with a verbal no or uh-uh, then quiet praise for not biting and then toss a toy if available.

Most dogs will gradually stop the biting on their own by redirecting to toys, but some don't and then you have to correct them to stop it.

It doesn't take more than a couple of corrections to stop most of the biting. Be sure to make this very black and white to him by not allowing any biting. If he doesn't bite you, be sure to praise him, while keeping the praise down just enough so he doesn't ramp up and lose it again.

 

Thanks for the responses. Believe me we are never in any way encouraging the biting and we forgo the wrestling as Bear is not very gentle with the whole rough housing thing. He does calm down a bit if we give him a little crate time out. But I always make sure that later I go back and treat him in the crate so that he doesn't have any negative associations (which I know he doesn't have).
I guess I was also wondering if there any dogs out there that maybe has never given up on the landshark thing? Should I be concerned?

 

I thought I had the great whites! (yuk yuk)

If you haven't already, teach the dog to take food from your hand without grabbing for it. We used the words easy and wait. (Wait if they started to lunge, easy as they were taking the food) If you can do that, you can use the same commands when they start to get overexcited while playing.
If the dog lunges forward to grab a toy from you, pull it back and tell them to wait. As you're giving them the toy say easy. Try touching the top of your hand to their mouth before they can take the toy. (just a reminder to them that there's skin behind that toy)

Anytime teeth touch skin tell the dog no and stop whatever it is you were doing with him. Wait until he sits calmly then reward by throwing the toy. (or tugging etc.)

The most important thing is to be consistent. Biting doesn't get rewarded, the fun stops.

 

You do have the Great Whites!LOL
Thanks for the great tips, ironically he's very gentle when taking treats, he's also got pretty good focus so I'll work on that as well with the toys.

 

This is how vet/behaviouist Ian Dunbar recommends you teach bite inhibition.

Teaching Bite Inhibition | Dog Star Daily
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Sue

 

My youngest is 11 months and still a land shark. If he weren't so cute about it and willing to stop when I ask, I would put a stop to it. He's by far the longest biting dog I've ever had.

 

I wonder if dogs without other dogs to correct them for their biting are a bit longer in teaching them not to bite.

I've never had a over zealous biter, but my dogs have always had another to learn the ropes from.
And the ones that were prone to be the 'landsharks' tended to carry a ball constantly, so mouth was stuffed. I still remind Onyx to get a ball so she isn't going after Kacie in herding mode or showing her bullyheaded attitude.

 

I wonder if dogs without other dogs to correct them for their biting are a bit longer in teaching them not to bite.

Could be, or we just don't notice it as much because the pup is biting the other dogs not us.
Harley was alone as a pup and bit us a lot more than Annie. Harley bit us, Annie bit Harley. No one bit Annie. Won't she be surprised when we get another pup and it starts biting her!

 

So from what I read on past posts about the landshark phase it is supposedly supposed to end somewhere around 6 months. Well, I now have an 8 month old that is now a great white!
I have tried repeated to re-direct with little to no effect. He has pretty good bite inhibition, but, we're still talking adult canines and not puppy teeth anymore! Is this something that I should be concerned with or will this to pass? And for the record he gets ton of excerise and mental stimulation!

Not sure who told you it ends at 6 months.....but German Shepherds are puppies until they are about 2 years old. They learn as they get older but it doesn't completely turn off at a certain age. Even my 10 year old if you get him amped up can be a great white on occasion.

 

it doesn't completely turn off at a certain age. Even my 10 year old if you get him amped up can be a great white on occasion.

 

@ Elaine. I love your post, too many people just don't tell their dogs NO, I don't like that. I experience this alot with the overly barky undisciplined dogs that live immediately around me. if our shepherds, or rottweilers, or pit bulls did this same thing, our neighbors would be up in arms and have animal control down our throats over our "dangerous" dogs. But it's okay for other dogs breeds, really? Mine don't react, except to the immediate neighbor's dog who actively agresses at the fence.

 

I've noticed that my boy gets a little mouthy when I take his "treasures" that he finds in the yard. I don't want him eating pine cones and potatoes from the garden in the house. He also does it when I'm asking him to come downstairs to his crate and he doesn't want to go. When we're playing he likes to grab my hands. When he does, playtime stops and he gets to relax. He protests the leash when I grab his collar, but after I get the leash on he's fine. Sometimes he gets mouthy in protest and sometimes it's to get my attention. He's six months old now, and I'm trying really hard to teach him that he can communicate with me in other ways. I've been working with him since he was seven weeks old and he's improved a lot, but it's a labor of love with a shark, or an alligator as I call him!

 

Hey Psychedelic! You're in Boulder too! Maybe your alligator and my shark should get together and then they can bite eachother, lol!