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meldar72
Jan 21, 2015, 09:40 AM
I have a 9-1/2 week old lab puppy that will not stop the biting. It is not mouthing, it is biting. Whether we are outside playing, sitting still, standing in a room, he will just come up, start biting, hard, and does not want to stop. I have tried the "yelp" thing, "no", putting him in kennel, etc. Nothing seems to be working.
Any suggestions?

joypulv
Jan 21, 2015, 10:27 AM
Puppies NEED to chew and bite, but not people or other animals or objects around the house. So get some chew toys! (rope, kong, squeeky, nylon bones).
When he first bites say no and quickly give him one of his toys. Commands need to be short and firm, not pleading or drawn out or soft and sweet. He needs to distinguish sweet words of approval from those those of training. If he drops the toy and wants to go back to what he was doing, try a second time. For a third time, put him on a leash and work on sit and lie down for 5 minutes.
All this takes time, but mostly it's the person doing this, not the dog, who takes a long time.
You say 'we,' so if there are other people, they need to know all this too, especially children, some of whom don't realize that they are encouraging biting by waving their hands in front of the dog to tease him.

teacherjenn4
Jan 21, 2015, 02:23 PM
Our lab was a heavy chewer. There are so many chew items on the market to help redirect that behavior. I also used a product called Bitter Apple. We sprayed it on our hands and he stopped the biting. There are other homemade remedies you can find on the internet. Just remember to reprimand the behavior and redirect the biting and chewing to the toys you've purchased.

Kezzy5
Jan 21, 2015, 03:01 PM
My dog when she was a puppy had a habbit of biting are butts when we was walking about and what we did with her was just firmly said no every time and put her in her bed and we got her a chewing bone which helped, but she grew out of it over a couple months old.

Alty
Jan 21, 2015, 05:43 PM
In the wild puppies play with their litter mates, and it involves biting, and rough housing. That's how they play, since they don't have hands, they use their mouths.

Having said that, it's not acceptable behavior in a human household. Sadly puppies don't know that, they have to learn what's acceptable in the human world, which natural puppy traits their human family doesn't like. Teaching takes time, patience, and consistency.

At 9 weeks of age your puppy is very young. I suggest that when puppy starts biting (and this is play, not aggression), you give him a toy (something he can chew on to ease his aching puppy teeth while he's teething), and then walk away and ignore him.

Distract and ignore. It won't be instant, it takes time for him to realize that if he bites he won't get attention, so biting is a bad thing. It can take months. Be consistent, reward when he doesn't bite, and before you know it he'll be over this very puppylike behavior.

I don't charge money for advice, but I do love pictures. Can we see this little furball? :)