Quote:
Originally Posted by maya
Our JRT puppy is now 3 1/2 months old. He is lovely, sweet, funny, clever and strong willed but he has begun biting quite hard now. He has always nipped, bitten and chewed, and we have done a number of things to stop him as advised on here and elsewhere eg:
shout no
say 'owwwww' in a loud voice
do the above and put him outside
Can't exactly ignore him though as it hurts so much now with razor sharp teeth. I have cuts and bruises on my hands, wrists and arms and as I have two children I really need to stop this behaviour.
I've read he is probably teething and we provide things to chew on, so its not so much chewing as downright biting that is the problem at the moment and nothing we do seems to help.
The other thing is he has started chewing and pulling on his lead sometimes when we take him for a walk. We usually take him out 2-3 times a day as he is so active. He started off walking perfectly, as if he'd done it a million times so I don't know why he's started this now.
He grabs the lead and wants a tug-o-war, then starts growling quite visciously when we try to take the lead out of his mouth. It is getting very frustrating taking him out and we refuse to alk him with is lead in his mouth like that so it is stop-start trying to get the lead off him.
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The biting thing just really needs patience and persistence. There was a marked difference in Oscar from about 4 months with this so stick with "sin binning" him.
Oscar did the lead thing (still does occasionally). I do think it is a dominance thing but it drives you nuts. I found the best way of dealing with it was to stand on the lead quite close to him so he is left with just enough lead to stand but not enough to get hold of or jump, then ignore, let him kick off then when he stops treat him and carry on repeat if necessary
It is the same as the biting persistence will pay off, Oscar is soo much better now and stops quite quickly now if i say a firm no and tug the lead.
I know it's hard to do it when you have the kids in tow but it is the only way. Terriers are a persistent breed so you just have to stick at it.
Good Luck.