I think it's perfectly acceptable to get your puppy to sit and wait for very short periods until instructed to eat but blocking a dog from it's food is just asking for confrontation.

Hi PurpleJellyFish,

I agree, I don't think I'm going to use that approach again. I think it confused her.

I understand that puppies use their mouths to explore the world, but her growling and biting seems to be more than just nipping and playing. She bit two of my friends when they came round (maybe overtired? loving the attention?) and I'm starting to get my neighbour's 5 year old son to come over to play with her but worried she'll go for him too.

I know it's not her fault - I need to find the trigger, but it's so demoralising sometimes! Am going with the ignoring approach and will just have to be patient.

Thanks for the support!

Arby is getting better, we have developed a scale of reactions.

1. Say no and toy replacement (ocasional tap on the nose); sometimes works, but sometimes he really wants flesh so we then
2. Walk away and ignore; again, sometimes works, but sometimes he continues to bite ankles, trousers and toes even with you back turned to him so then its
3. Exlude him from the pack by putting him outside on his own. Leave him 30 secs - 2 mins (dependening on the offence), but only let him back when he is calm.

This works every time, now he often stops when i just head to the door to exclude him. However, he now recognises when he is going to be excluded and runs off and hides under the table and barks. Then we use a hissing corrector devise to break the behaviour, after learning myself that he likes me chasing him under the table! Any loud noise will generally work, but its not ideal, not sure whether to still put him out then.

I think he is getting there, but its still tough. He is generally replacing biting with barking when he knows biting is wrong. Now how to deal with that!? I have to calm myself when correcting and not get too cross, its tough when a puppy is snapping at your face. He is strangely agressive/submissive, he also has a submissive urination problem so I wonder if I've been too tough on him.

This is a hard one. You seem to be doing well.
Personally though I'd scrap stage 1 as you said this only "sometimes works"

I'd try to be 100% consistent with the last two and you'll definately get there.

It's hard work- I can sympathise

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as it is over shadowing our enjoyment ov this little bun

thanks, we will do it less but the problem I have is differentiating between "mouthing" and biting, often seems a fine line between them. Its seems a bit harsh to be militant about any mouth on flesh contact when playing with the pup (which is when we use toy replacement), or am I being too soft? Got a bit worse the last couple of days, two steps forward, one step back! Also he has now learnt to bark when he knows biting is not getting the desired response. So I need to look up a new thread *sigh* Thanks for the feedback though, its useful to be able to express our frustration!

we have a 14 wk old cocker.

As you have said this issue and the worry of it being more aggressive than simply play biting is overshadowing our enjoyment of an otherwise very bright and sweet dog.

Things have improved but still this snapping occurs as soon as we play or with any excitement, stopping us from being able to play as much as we would like.

The only thing that works is time out at which point she almost immediatly wees in the kitchen just the other side of the gate!!!! Getting instant attention before she walks wee all around the kitchen. HELP

Hello all

I'm glad I joined this forum if only for the information I have just read about puppies nipping. Sal my new German Shepherd has started doing the same thing while playing and it is quite sharp. I thought it might be too physical playing with her but it seems most dogs do it.

I'll try giving a different toy to play with when it happens. Will look at exclusion for a short time if that does not work. (I'm a bit reluctant on this though as I want to reward good behaviour and not punish bad behaviour, will have to see.)

I will hope it just goes away - but I will keep reading this topic to see if any more ideas come forward.

CD

PS just happened again, wasn't playing this time.

Our pup lab used to do that alot and we found the best way to make her stop was to either walk away or put her in another room when she kept biting.
We also had the air blower behaviour toy and that worked quite well when she used to bite our feet.

Can I just add a note about yelping when a puppy nips? I've just been reminded of it on another forum and it's worth mentioning:

Terrier breeds are often more wound up if you emit a high-pitched yelp/squeak - think of the noise a rat makes A deeper "OW!!" and time-out might be more effective.