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Hi!
This is my first official post besides a brief intro. posted yesterday.
We have a 5.5 month old pup who just graduated from puppy kindergarten tonight! She is very smart (not biased or anything) and did really well in her class. When she's in the mood to behave, she's awesome.
However...
She is very mouthy and not finished teething as I found out tonight when she lost another tooth.
I've read, and we've tried, all of the tricks to get her past the alligator stage but she still enjoys a good human chomp. I have 4 kids and there's enough yapping and high pitched ouch in my house to make a pupster crazy so the verbal "act like an injured puppy" thing doesn't go very far since my kiddos are howling all the time. A little too much of the boy who cried wolf for our pup to take a high pitched squeal seriously.
So...we've been trying the "game over we won't play with you if you're going to be a bully" tactic. My problem with this (although when we can pull it off it works) is that the second we turn our backs to Lucky she nails us from behind by either jumping and biting or attacking our ankles to herd us back to the fun. If we just walk backwards, she continues to jump on us and nip and run. We end up in a physical confrontation just trying to get away from her to end the physical confrontation.
She is much better than she was a few months ago as our clothing proves. My son still will need a new coat and entirely new wardrobe for fall since our pup has nipped holes in all of his clothes and we all will need to replace holy sweaters and jeans she's got the better of (while being worn, by the way, not as a consequence of her dragging them off into the house). Our spring clothing is fairing a bit better but she's bigger now and stronger so even though she's nipping less, the nips she gets in are with more force.
All that to say, I know (hope/pray) she'll outgrow this whole nippy mouthy thing but I'd like suggestions how to get away from her when she's doing the hit and run. It's especially hard on my 9 year old son (who loves her like crazy) since he can't play ball with her without her getting overly excited. She loves to play, but she turns into an animal (small joke, there!)
Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer wisdom!!
This is my first official post besides a brief intro. posted yesterday.
We have a 5.5 month old pup who just graduated from puppy kindergarten tonight! She is very smart (not biased or anything) and did really well in her class. When she's in the mood to behave, she's awesome.
However...
She is very mouthy and not finished teething as I found out tonight when she lost another tooth.
I've read, and we've tried, all of the tricks to get her past the alligator stage but she still enjoys a good human chomp. I have 4 kids and there's enough yapping and high pitched ouch in my house to make a pupster crazy so the verbal "act like an injured puppy" thing doesn't go very far since my kiddos are howling all the time. A little too much of the boy who cried wolf for our pup to take a high pitched squeal seriously.
So...we've been trying the "game over we won't play with you if you're going to be a bully" tactic. My problem with this (although when we can pull it off it works) is that the second we turn our backs to Lucky she nails us from behind by either jumping and biting or attacking our ankles to herd us back to the fun. If we just walk backwards, she continues to jump on us and nip and run. We end up in a physical confrontation just trying to get away from her to end the physical confrontation.
She is much better than she was a few months ago as our clothing proves. My son still will need a new coat and entirely new wardrobe for fall since our pup has nipped holes in all of his clothes and we all will need to replace holy sweaters and jeans she's got the better of (while being worn, by the way, not as a consequence of her dragging them off into the house). Our spring clothing is fairing a bit better but she's bigger now and stronger so even though she's nipping less, the nips she gets in are with more force.
All that to say, I know (hope/pray) she'll outgrow this whole nippy mouthy thing but I'd like suggestions how to get away from her when she's doing the hit and run. It's especially hard on my 9 year old son (who loves her like crazy) since he can't play ball with her without her getting overly excited. She loves to play, but she turns into an animal (small joke, there!)
Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer wisdom!!