Charlie our 7 month old Border Collie 'Pup' still insists on biting us. Not in a nasty way, but in his sort of playful way. At what point do we expect this behaviour to stop, as we are somewhat bitten to pieces already and are wondering if it will ever stop! I can no longer blame this on teething as he has all his teeth now. ( bloody sharp an all! ).

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Got no idea when the off switch will be but you could speed it up by putting him in his crate when things get out of hand? Try to be confident when your handling him, if he sees you as a toy he may well see you as a play item. Dont move your hand away from him (usually insitlls a reaction to target) if he bites corect with a 'no' if unsuccessful gently crate him.
I dont know what youve already tried or what your limits are though turning away from him, not giving him eye contact, making him move for you when your walking towards something (even if it means bumping in him with your legs) will direct your authority.
Look at whats yours and look at whats his if he is allowed to do a lot around the house maybe cut back on some of his perks.... sitting on the sofa, laying on your bed, getting strokes whilst watching tele etc etc. Hope this helps a little?

Thanks for that my friend.
He is one spoilt dog! Yes he has looooads of 'perks'. Little sod. Well, big sod now. Not only has he damaged my shoulder due to his extreme pulling on the lead, I have scars mostly on my right hand and up my arm, with one on my forehead! The latter was really my fault holding a plastic bottle above my head and he jumped up. It's funny though, that all this is making him out to be a really bad dog, and he is not. Just playful. He loves people, and thinks that everyone in the street is there for him to get a fuss with. I think you are right, he sees both of us as 'playthings'. I think things would be a lot different if we had another dog with him, but the Mrs won't do that. We used to have two before and they were both the perfect dogs. However we never had them from puppies so this puppy thing is new to us.
I love Charlie to bits, but the biting is getting us down. We do have a large pen (with roof) for him which he sleeps in through the night and once or twice for an hour in the day. I have been known to put him in it if he gets totally out of hand, which fortunately is pretty rare. Funny thing actually, when it's his bedtime, he knows that it is so he runs to the back door and dives on the floor and becomes all limp, so that it's hard for me to pick him up. Then when I'm almost getting my hands around him, he sticks out his legs to make it more awkward for me. He's a clever sod. He really make me laugh at times!

The biting stops when you tell him to stop so it's up to you.

Mine used to play bite when he got a bit carried away but I just stopped playing with him and walked off thus removing the reward. Biting = no play.

Play is the greatest reward you give a collie in my opinion. They live for it. Food treats work for about two minutes but they are too busy playing or wanting to play to be hungry sometimes.

How do you play with the dog is the first thing you need to evaluate. Is it tug-o-war games - a big no no. Is it hide and seek - a big yes yes.

If he starts to bite when you are petting him, rubbing his belly or playing then the easiest thing to do it just say "No!", get up and walk away. This ends the play session immediately. He won;t like it as he wants to play but he will soon work out why the play stopped if you are consistant and firm with your voice on the "No!" bit.

Don't set the dog up to fail so change how you play with him and what makes him reacts with a bite.

Good luck.

Puppies love playing, and enjoy interacting with people which sometimes includes biting.
So try to have toys for your puppy to play with, and do not allow any games that have the puppy biting a person (such as tug of war or wrestling).

If the puppy does bite you, give a high pitched "Ouch" loud enough to surprise him. Your puppy will actually recognize what you are doing: when puppies play with each other, they let one another know that they've been hurt with a loud whelp. So do the same, and your pup will know to stop biting.

Hope this helps

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Labrador training guide

As he is older now- the crying and acting hurt technique may not be so effective. So I would use timeout.
Have him on a house line- the moment his gets OTT say "ah! ah!" or "that's enough" and lead him swiftly (but don't drag) out of the room into another room. Shut the door with the lead trapped in the door so you are holding it on the other side and the dog is in the other room. Leave him there for 20 seconds.
The message to him is: Nipping= No attention - no play

Timeout helped alot when my border collie was a pup

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Hi. I would work on establishing yourselves as pack leaders so he does not think it is ok to bite and to pull you all over the place on walks. In my opinion failure to do this, may result in you setting yourself up for a fall. What happens if whilst out he decides to play and bite someone else. You could also end up with a dog who does not respect humans which could cause problems down the line.

As I have only had problematic rescue dogs, I always look at worst case senarios, so don't let me frighten you.

With regards to time out, it should only last few minutes, after this the dog does not know what it has done so it is not worthwhile. If you find that the techniques you have been using or advised on do not work, you will have to look at harsher methods. These could include imitating a bite, which is what they do to each other (except it is the real thing!) Or forcibly putting the dog in a submissive position, with you taking the alpha role. However you are best to try the softer approach first.

Good luck x

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there are some people on here that kennel their dogs outside I let mine sleep in the house, I dont know if this make any difference to their behaviour once they are in - Id say if anything they should be more cautious as its not their sleeping environment.
Do be careful of how you let him interact with you, these early stages are essentail for building rules. Ive always had older dogs too and just got a new pup - the biting I find happens either when they are tired or when they are thinking they can get away with something. Make you space yours, (my last post didnt read that well so .... have a loot at what is yours, and have a look at what is his.) when your laying on the couch try to keep him off you but dont make it into a game, just be direct in everything you do - sort of like putting a knife back in its draw calm and usual.
Hell definitely protest to new rules though should take well to new training its just a matter of being consistent - within a week you should see definite results. Dont invite him to do things as an 'oh hes been good', keep with it and then after a few weeks let him do something

Hi, my yorkshire terrier who is 6 months old does that but since i have given him chewy bones its got alot less, maybe it made his jaw ache abit lol. My only problem with my dog is that he wont do the loo when he's taken out for walks he will hold it in to do it when he gets home, which is anoying.

Thanks

Sandra

Hello again,
I wouldn't get too bogged down with the nipping being with dominance (not that you mentioned it but often for us as dog owners it is one of the first things thought of sometimes ).
The reason he does the nipping could be down to two reasons or a mix of these.
Number 1- By playing with him and tolerating the nipping he now thinks it is an acceptable way to play. He's not being nasty, dominant or otherwise. It's just like you said, he is a playful pup who thinks it's perfectly acceptable.

Number 2- collies supposedly have a disposition to show nip type behaviours as pups. I myself am a collie owner (my lad definately has at least some working stock in him) and we didn't find this too much of a problem with him other than the usual puppy nipping or overexcitment.

The only thing that occured to me is does he have a bite inhibition? You mentioned having scars from some of his over enthusiastic play behaviours, so that would suggest that that is something to work on. When dogs play with each other they will often nip but because they have learnt a bite inhibition (usually as pups) they will know not to nip so hard that it hurts or breaks the skin.

This article may be of interest:
http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/te...inhibition.pdf

I would also think a timeout/withdrawal of attention would be really useful in teaching him to play nicely. If you think he is getting over excited or nipping during play, immediately say "that's enough" and turn your back on him and walk away.
Alternately time out (i think i explained above) is really good. Use it in the same way as a withdrawal of attention. Nipping= "that's enough" or "no" = immediately lead him into another room for timeout for 10 or 20 seconds.
When you let him back in, don't greet him madly but calmly if at all to encourage calm behaviour.

With collies I think it's pretty important to teach them to have some "chill-time". With my collie, as a pup I would reward him for sitting calmly in his bed. I might notice him lying there, I would go up to him tell him "good boy" and give him a food reward. An "in your bed" or "crate" command is really good so that you can tell your dog when to go and have some quiet time.

Hope this helps

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