# Biting issue



## ladee_sarah (Jul 14, 2004)

Basically he chews and bites when he's playing which isn't bad. But his teeth are coming more and more and his biting is becoming harder and harder so it really needs to be stopped soon.

The basic advice I have is to as soon as he starts biting to tell him "No" and to ignore him. However, we haven't quite mastered the "No" command and ignoring him is extremely difficult.

The easiest thing for us to do would be five minute "time outs" in his room (where we leave him when we're out for the day) when he starts to bite.

Good/bad idea? Any other ideas?

Note: I think the main part of the problem has resulted from my younger brother playing with Javier quite roughly making him moreaggressive


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## Toby's Mom (May 7, 2004)




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## LexiAndNikkisMom (Apr 13, 2004)

I agree with Nicole about having to teach the puppy what is ok. Another thing you could try is after you yelp/say no walk away for 10-15 seconds. This will be just enough time to teach your puppy that if it bites the playing stops. You can also try ignore it instead of walking away. The whole point is to teach it that if it bites the playing stops. 

One thing that also helped me with Lexi is to have hard and soft toys for her to play with. When she would bite me I would say No get a toy and "shove"/place a toy in her mouth. This taught her that if she wanted to bite that she needed to bite a toy.

This did not work 100% of the time but as she got older the biting did lessen. She is now 6 months old and done teething. YES! :lol: All I can say is keep trying, it is just a stage and your puppy will grow out of it.


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## doctorcathy (May 17, 2004)

ladee sarah---trust me, the biting phase will stop, but it will hurt in the process. lol. with all three of my dogs, they didnt fully stop biting us till all their adult teeth came in. 

i agree with nicole, your baby doesnt understand why he's getting a time out. when you do a correction, like saying 'no' or yelping loud, it has to be within 2 seconds of the incident. 

my advice: teach him to 'get a toy'. and when he bites you, say 'no', shove (lightly) a toy into his mouth and say good boy. 

dont scare him when you yell, like dont yell AT HIM like crazy. i did that with sprite. trust me, it doesnt work. he'll just get scared when you raise your voice. when you say 'no', just say it sternly. but yelp as high pitched as you can.









good luck!


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## ladee_sarah (Jul 14, 2004)

Thanks.

We've had quite a bit of success with a deep and firm "No!" although yelping always comes out a little high pitched and he just thinks we're playing etc. 

My brother is 14 and we talked to him and he's not as bad now.


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## ladee_sarah (Jul 14, 2004)

It's getting worse...

His teeth are getting longer and he's drawn blood on two occasions, only me thankfully. The worst is when I wear my fluffy jumper which is similar to his favourite toy - I won't be making that mistake again.

Now when we say "No" he doesn't pay ANY attention, he just keeps biting your toes. The only time he's stopped recently was when I shrieked because of how hard he bit me.








Will he stop when he starts socialising? (ie: will playing with other dogs teach him not to bite too hard?)


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## LexiAndNikkisMom (Apr 13, 2004)

Ladee Sarah: How old is your puppy now? I know how you are feeling. Lexi did the same thing. All I can really say as the biting stage does end. 

Until then you just need to keep up with the saying no. One other thing you can try though. Do you have any bitter apple spray? If so, try spraying so on your hands/feet (whatever the puppy is biting on). It will not hurt the puppy, it just taste terrible. I tried this with Lexi but she is kind of strange and she did not mind the taste after a while. But most dogs hate the taste.

If the puppy won't stop biting you can try 2 things:
- After saying no a couple of times pick up the puppy and put it in an area were it can't get to you. Only do this for a few minutes. Just to get the point across that when it bites play time stops.
- Another variation is for you to leave the room for a few minutes. The important part here is to ignore the puppy for a few minutes. Again trying to teach the puppy that when it bites play time stops.


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## Lilly521 (May 29, 2004)

I would say go with the idea of finding some other dogs like that belong ot friends or someone aroudn the same size and let him play with them so that he can understand what is to hard....i had a dog who got taken away from its mom and littler when it was really really little becuase it was an animal abuse thing...i was already his 4th owner when he was 8 weeks old....at the time i didnt really know about why he was bitting so we never did anything about it but he didnt grow out of it and ended up hurting a little kid in the end which i seriously doubt is going to happen with your puppy becuase you seem ready to go about doing the right thing


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