Hi, had our little pup Tess for about a week now and she is settling down really well with us, however, she is really nipping at our feet and legs. It tends to be worse when she is excited for example first thing in the morning when she is full of energy. She is a 9 week old Springer Spaniel.

Has anyone got and advice of techniques to stop her doing this. My feet are gonna get sore otherwise and my trousers will become shorts!

Thanks

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Totally normal puppy behaviour

Find something else for her to play with - if she's nipping your trousers stop (chances are SHE'LL stop when you stop moving and therefore become less exciting) and give her something else to play with, maybe a nice soft little tuggy you can both have a game with.

Teach her a "drop it" cue.

Read "The Bite Stops Here" (Google for it) - very useful article.

This is such a common "problem" that I really think there should be some sticky threads on here about it - unless I've missed them?

Heres the link The Bite Stops Here

I would say, as the others have - normal behavior, but something to work on training her out of...maybe distract her with a toy?

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Thanks for reading my post - Have a good day!

just to re-inforce what has already been said, i think its completely normal behaviour, deefer has been doing it an awful lot.

I have just started the biting recognition thingy from the 'bite stops here' link. i let him have a little nibble on my hand etc at the moment until he bites a little too hard then do a dramatic 'ooowww that hurt' and walk away, ending his playtime. he is responding very well and generally now he just gums/mauls instead of bites. next stage coming up i think.

i also found that when i started making him sit for everything, food, lead, fuss, cuddles, praise he has become a lot calmer. when he jumps up he gets a NO and generally falls straight into a sit position hoping for some praise!

My puppy used to do this. Infact almost every puppy you meet will do this at some stage XD (Especially when they're teething!).

And used to pull a really high pitch "OW!" which would distract her because she thought she really was hurting me. Other than that, I used to give her toys as a replacement for my hands lol, though occassionally she'd lean over from the toy to nip me too.

When she used to get really nippy to the point she was actually hurting then I'd tell her NO! and it would startle her a bit into getting down. Then I'd normally make her sit or work for a few titbits to take her mind off nipping.

It took a few weeks to sort out our puppies nipping but we got there in the end.

Stacey xxx

Excellent work!

just to reinforce what everyone else has said, be patient and stick to one method of dealing with it. Our golden retriever has just reached 13 weeks and is now almost cured of it, other than when he gets really wound up.
it will happen and it wont stop overnight, just don't wear to any expensive trousers round her for a while

hi
I have a welsh Springer spaniel and I got him this weekend and he is 11 weeks old. he is also settling in really well and as you rightly said he is also nipping at my feet toes and also my trousers and especially my silk pyjamas . It is very annoying and it also hurts when he catches the skin.i am also looking for solutions. I keep saying 'no' and i do give him something else to chew on ...but his attention span is so short , he he comes back to my tasty feet ! keep me informed of how you have solved this .
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I have gone through all of the biting probs stated above with my gorgeous 18wk old cocker spaniel, in fact it was so bad I too asked for help on here. She has chewed everything she can get her paws on and no amount of toys/kongs/bones/yelling/No's did any good - she would stop for a few seconds then start again. My daughter and I were scratched to pieces.

Apart from this she has been golden - easily toilet trained and no problems ever at night. All I can say is eventually the nipping will stop, maybe not totally,but it will. Tilly still nips occasionally but I must say she has calmed down a little since being able to take her out and release some energy!.