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Please stop me from becoming a bad mom

2K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  Diesel and Lace 
#1 ·
This is a thread about biting.. once again.....

The only reason that makes me start a new thread instead of keep on reading is because I ran out of way to stop his biting.. I have use the search button and read many many threads. I read general puppy books, German shepherd books, animal planet 101, cesar millan (even tho I don't like him). We enroll in obedience school since he was 10 weeks old, start from puppy kindergarten, beginning obedience, and now we are on the second class of household manner...

Lincoln is almost 7 mo and I realize he is a little more stubborn than when he was a baby. I think I can stand anything from digging to jumping. At least I have a will to work with him when we make progress and he does. EXCEPT for the biting. No matter what we do, he doesn't get better... Now he is big and my friends start to get terrified to be around him. Heck I am terrified. I need to find a way. I can be patient. I can be positive. But right now I feel like I'm at the dead end. I know that you guys would post suggestions so i want to tell you what all I have tried so you don't have to waste your time typing the same method...

We try redirection.. give him toys, praise him when he does... does not work. He would rather play with us than being praise by us.

We try sit, watch me, then treat.. does not work. Again he would rather be playing than getting treat.

We try leave the room.. does not work. When I came out he went nuts again.

We try crate him.. At this method we start to realize maybe we weren't consistent with our method so we stay with this method for a while.. result? he ran into the crate himself when I grab his collar.. after stuck in there for a while he starts barking to get attention.

We exercise him.. lots of fetch session in the yards, flirt pole.. sometime it works, sometime it doesn't.

Our trainer tells us to ignore him. The reason he keeps biting is because he gets what he wants... attention. So we turn our back on him when he bites. Maybe it would work if I can stand there let him scratch my back long enough but I can't stand the pain that long.

Our friend suggested us smack him with a roll of paper when he bites. She said it works with her dog almost immediately. We never done this and are not comfortable doing it. But it seems like we are running out of positive reinforcement idea. I don't want to be bad owner but I'm very close to use my friend's suggestion. So please, if you have other method than what I have mentioned above, please share.

Also, if your dogs doing the same at 7 mo, please tell me so. All the friends and neighbors around me seem to all have a well behave dog. I'm such a failure.. ugh.

Lincoln usually listen to my husband more. He bites my husband less than he does with me. I don't know why. Only thing I can see him doing differently is his tone is probably more firm than mine. Lincoln would sit and stay when I tell him to, but if my husband whistle, my command is automatically terminated. I'm not irritated by this fact or anything just throwing it out there maybe you can help determine why Lincoln bites me more.
 
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#2 ·
We chose to use a bitter apple spray. Every time he would mouth us we would spray the bitter apple in his mouth and at the same time told him no, no biting. It took quite awhile as he was very stubborn about it. I would not go with smacking him on the nose with a roll of paper... fighting it with aggression (even if it's just a tap...) would only encourage the behavior I think. I know what its like to be essentially climbed up on and those claws can hurt :( but the bitter apple spray did help and you can get it at walmart and pet stores. The first year I swear is the hardest but with persistence it does get better. I am all for positive reinforcement but for biting it wasn't working and the bitter apple was as negative as I was willing to get after "scruffing" (I know :( bad) a couple times and it just making him bite harder and more.

This is the spray i used: Grannick's Bitter Apple Spray - Health & Wellness - Dog - PetSmart

Hopefully more people will chime in and give you more options, this is just the one that worked for me.
 
#4 ·
We have tried bitter apple spray too. He likes it :( Thank you for your suggestion though :)


bitter apple is if you dont really want to train. with training you teach him bite inhibition and if you're being consistent then he would've learned by now. you cant redirect one time and then the next just let him bite you. just be consistent. and why would you let him out of his crate if he's barking for attention? he gets to come out on your terms, not his. when my pup bites i give him a stern no bite! followed by redirection with a toy. if he still goes for my body parts i block with the toy while trying to get him to play with it. if all else fails i get up and leave the room for a few minutes. i do this EVERY TIME.
Did I say I let him out when he barks?

I agree that maybe I wasn't being consistent enough. I should find one method and stick with it longer time. Thats why I start this thread.. is to find out which is best for my situation. You said he should have learned by now? are other 7 months old out there don't bite anymore? I have been training bite inhibition. But all method I have tried so far has failed.
 
#3 ·
LOL you dont spray the bitter apple at the dog. you're suppose to spray it on yourself and when he bites you, he realizes you taste bad and dont wanna bite you anymore. if you spray him all you're teaching him is to be scared of the spray bottle. talk about using a product wrong. if you want to do it the old school way, take a cotton ball and soak it with bitter apple. then stick it in his mouth and hold it shut no matter how much he struggles for 1 minute. do it for a few days and when you spray the bitter apple on your hand or anything else he isnt suppose to bite, one sniff of it and he'll stay far away.

bitter apple is if you dont really want to train. with training you teach him bite inhibition and if you're being consistent then he would've learned by now. you cant redirect one time and then the next just let him bite you. just be consistent. and why would you let him out of his crate if he's barking for attention? he gets to come out on your terms, not his. when my pup bites i give him a stern no bite! followed by redirection with a toy. if he still goes for my body parts i block with the toy while trying to get him to play with it. if all else fails i get up and leave the room for a few minutes. i do this EVERY TIME.
 
#5 ·
Biting is inappropriate as you know and I bet his 4-legged mom wouldn't be so nice in her response if he bit her. Jazz was still biting me at 6 months so this is what I did. When he bit me I would hold his muzzle shut until he let out a little whine (a few seconds) and say no biting and release. I did NOT squeeze his muzzle. He didn't like that much and he stopped biting me after only a couple of times.
 
#7 ·
Two suggestions I did not see in your post

1. Bite him back everytime, not hard but hard enough that it hurts (yes I have done this)
2. Physically stuff a toy in his mouth when he comes jaws a snappin... Thats also what I do carry a little toy around in my pocket and when jaws start snappin I shove it in
 
#8 ·
We have tried the biting back too. I use my two finger and "pinch" him back. He gets real worked up though. I tried it a couple of times and got really terrified of him lol

Can I ask how long did you stick with those methods? and how old was your dog when he completely stop biting?
 
#14 ·
If you get scared then do not do it! When I bite my boy back he stops and looks at me like OW MOM!! But he does not continue to bite, like previous posters said dont do anything that makes you uncomfortable.

I still carry a toy in my pocket to shove in his mouth. I also have began to teach him the names of his toys so when he comes at me I tell him go get you "football" really excited like. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesnt when it doesnt the stuffed toy in my pocket goes in the mouth. If he spits it out I put it back in. I have bruises everywhere and it is a work in progress.

Again, When I bite back its because he hurt me and its enough pressure that it makes him stop but not yelp in pain. Really a diversion of sorts that makes him think for a second long enough for me to walk away (sometimes) I get mouthed on still and its frustrating! Dont lose hope :D
 
#9 ·
If he mouths your hand, you could shove it deeper in his mouth. Usually dogs/puppies like the tugging - they don't care much for having anything stuffed down their mouths. Much less fun. I used this method to teach my mom's pit bull 'drop it.' She'd hang onto something of hers with jaws of steel. Worked very well - I imagine it could yield the same results with a mouthy pup.

What worked with Ozzy was yelping loudly and totally ignoring him. But he's a Pom and not a landshark, but it's worth a shot.
 
#10 ·
I don't think it makes you a bad owner to use more forceful methods as sometimes different dogs have different levels of stubborn. Our pup is nearly 5 months and land sharks my boyfriend like mad. He doesn't do it to me though. Why?
Because I established at 8 weeks old he wasn't allowed to bite me and if he gets carried away now I tap him on the nose or growl at him and bite back (not hard but enough to shock him into stopping, he never yelps)
Sometimes we have to speak to him in dog language.
We recently took him back to the breeder to see his mum and she was constantly biting him, and HARD. She was telling him off for biting her and I got a little bit panicked he was going to get hurt.
If shoving a toy in place of your body works then great, if not then more forceful methods do sometimes work even though many people disagree with them.
This is just my opinion and please don't do anything you feel uncomfortable doing and maybe get a professional trainer to do one on one sessions with you?


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#12 ·
every one has a different method that works for their dog. take each method with a grain of salt because it really does depend on the temperment of your dog. if you have a dominant dog, holding its mouth shut or "biting" it isnt the way to go. do what you're comfortable with and stick to it. some people teach it through force, real training, bribes, etc. a 7 month dog shouldnt constantly want to chew on you. once my pup got done teething, the land sharking deceased every week until it was just all slobber and no pain.

imo a pup constantly wanting to chew on you is the most frustrating thing about pups. once you get over this, it is much easier to enjoy your dog. i still remember tip toeing to go to the bathroom because if my pup woke up, it was not going to be fun lol
 
#13 ·
From everything I've read, bite inhibition seems like the best training in the long run... Unfortunately, I hadn't heard of it until after our pup was mostly out of his biting phase.

We did the "push your hand/body part INTO the bite" method most of the time, which worked well. It's actually a technique my mother told me about that's used in restraining children who are melting down (she works in a school, and a lot of times when kids won't calm down they hit/kick/bite adults). It's supposed to make the bite less effective, as the biter can't actually use their jaw muscles to bite down. Anyway, I tried this with our pup, and he really didn't like it. Most all of the "corrections" I do, I try to just make the dog uncomfortable. He's pawing me for attention? I hold his paw and keep him from pulling it away. He bites? I push into it and keep him from pulling away.

Careful not to over extend the jaw muscles, it's not meant to be painful, just uncomfortable.

You could also try rolling his lip over one of his teeth and pressing down gently until he stops biting. Kind of a "see what your teeth feel like"? (Not really sure they make that connection, but it does sometime get the point across.)


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