# Suggestions on more effectively getting my pup to cease nipping at feet?



## LovelyLily (Mar 26, 2013)

First off, I LOVE LOVE this site. You have all been such an invaluable source of help many times since I have had the joy of having my cutie-pie Lily in my life. 

I was wondering if I can perhaps call on your expertise in regard to how I may better deal with the issue of my Lily seeing my moving feet as a play thing she should attack? This started soon after I got her as a very young pup. Typically young pup behavior, I know, but I am somehow sustaining it or even making it worse by my failed attempts to deal with it. I have made various attempts to deal with this, sometimes see a shadow of improvement for a little while (never cessation), and realize now that she is on the verge of turning ten months of age I need to focus more on this before it becomes even more hardened behavior. 

This is what I have done so far, with failure:

- "no" or "eh" in a stern voice. This fails completely with this pup, unlike with any dogs I have had in the past. She responds by becoming more excited and doing the nipping in a more excited way, sometimes starts zooming in big circles and coming back at my feet with a playful but very excited noise. She totally wrongly sees this as me playing with her in a rough way. Or is perhaps confused. Either way, it does not work.

--ignoring her. When I first began doing this months ago it would work slightly. By that, I mean that at the moment of biting she would stop if I was still, but half the time she would continue once I took a step again. I repeatedly try this but many times end up failing after a few days--my exasperation (or pain if I happened to have bare feet) would get the better of me and I would make some kind of response (like "no" or "eh"--even though I rationally knew this would make things worse). My inconsistency with this undermines it completely, I think, because she thinks if she holds out she will get a response from me -- and any response I think she sees as a form of play or attention. (And when I am home, please know she gets almost my undivided attention--we play fetch, go for walks, go for car rides, do obedience exercises, we cuddle, etc.)

--when she was about five months of age I once tried spraying her with water (having read somewhere that someone had success with this). Big mistake. It intensified her behavior at that time. My guess is she felt fearful and didn't know what to do and responded with more intensity. I don't know. But bottom line this definitely does not work with her. (And I don't feel right with this either--felt like a mean betrayal to me that would erode trust.)

--for the past couple months (embarrassed to say) over half the time I just walk rapidly when she does this so that she gets knocked off and stay silent. I feel frustrated when I am doing this, don't know if she senses this and if it has anything to do with her response, but she just keeps biting away intensely and I think she sees this as a game also. 

What works minimally:

--last few weeks I will keep her in harness with the leash on her when I am with her indoors and this greatly reduces the behavior, almost eliminates it completely, but only while the harness is on. Once the harness is off it is back to square one. 

--when she starts to nip when she has the harness off, for the last few days I have started going back to the very basic puppy training of saying "yes" happily if I get her to redirect and look at me, then telling her sit and saying "yes" very excitedly when she responds. This will cause a pause in the nipping, but most times she starts to nip once I start to walk again (but not with the same intensity). 

I don't know if the redirection technique could be used further or in a better way?

When I was in the Petsmart dog obedience class with her the trainer simply recommended ignoring the behavior if no did not work. Neither of which I have been able to successfully implement.

I know I am causing this, it is always the owner, and I guess I am reinforcing the behavior in various ways -- but am unable to break the bad cycle.

I had another trainer come to the house two months ago but she was totally not of help. 

I am starting with another obedience/socialization class (not at Petsmart) and may see about having the trainer coming to the house (she also offers in-house training)

Does anyone here recommend some other behavior on my part to help with this?

Thanks so much!


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## kilodzul (Oct 7, 2013)

My puppy was doing this... but only when I was walking. If I tried to take away my feet, she would only become more excited. So when she was doing this, I would stop walking, and simply wait in place, ignoring her. She quickly became bored and as soon as she let go of my feet, I praised her and played with her for a minute or gave her a treat.
Very quickly she understood that it won't gave her the play she wanted.

So I think ignoring her is the simplest and best method, and you mentioned it worked a little - and that's great beginning - but you have to be consistent.


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## LovelyLily (Mar 26, 2013)

*thanks*

Thanks, Julia. I am going to give it a consistent try--and then if not getting resolved have the trainer I recently met come to my house to give me input.

Lily is such a gentle sweet cutie pie and all is pretty great other than this annoying issue. (Of course, if she would cease trying to eat any and all inedible objects that she finds on our walks, that would be a good thing too. lol)

Linda


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## CrystalAndZoe (Jul 11, 2006)

She's a cutie!! I'm a big fan of the 'puppy yip'. Basically you're trying to communicate with them in a way they understand. When puppies or dogs are playing and one gets too rough to the place it hurts, the other one lets out a loud, high pitched 'YIP!' and walks away. They are done playing for a few seconds. Then all is forgiven and they try again. Dogs want nothing more then to please us. They don't want to intentionally cause pain. So when you 'YIP!' the second her little teeth are on your skin, she will soon understand she's hurting you and will stop. But timing is crucial. You need to do it the second her little teeth are on your skin. And don't be ladylike about it either. You have to mimic another puppy yipping because it hurt.


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## LovelyLily (Mar 26, 2013)

Thanks, will give that a try. I had called out as though in pain when I did it before but I guess I wasn't authentic enough or she thought it was just part of the game. Will try to do it more like another pup would do.


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## pippersmom (May 21, 2012)

When Pipper used to do this I tried ignoring ( which is hard to do because it hurt), tried redirecting, tried yipping and none of them worked so I tried a "time out" in his crate and would tell him "no biting" when I put him there. I would leave him in for a few minutes and then let him out and when he would start biting again then back in he would go. After just a couple days of doing this he figured out biting was not good behaviour.


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## LovelyLily (Mar 26, 2013)

*Thanks, Kathy!*

I will give that a try, too.


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## kilodzul (Oct 7, 2013)

Oh, I just remembered another thing I did - Cashmere has the instinct to run and catch things, so sometimes I tossed her a toy and she would let go of my feet to run after it. 

How often during the day Lily does that? Maybe she has too much energy that needs to be redirected and i.e. taking her for a walk when she acts like this would help?

And lol, yes stopping Cashmere from eating things from ground is neverending fun too, I feel you.


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## mrsmediauph (Feb 19, 2013)

pippersmom said:


> When Pipper used to do this I tried ignoring ( which is hard to do because it hurt), tried redirecting, tried yipping and none of them worked so I tried a "time out" in his crate and would tell him "no biting" when I put him there. I would leave him in for a few minutes and then let him out and when he would start biting again then back in he would go. After just a couple days of doing this he figured out biting was not good behaviour.


 
This is exactly what I did with my Lily and after a few times it is the only thing that worked. :aktion033:


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## LovelyLily (Mar 26, 2013)

Julia, tossing something to play fetch is something I have tried. It works for the second and then she goes right back for the feet. She sees the biting of the feet as a game and most any attention I give her as part of that. 

It usually has always been MUCH worse when she is tired--at those times she gets super focused on doing that to the exclusion of all else. When she was a pup I would routinely put her in her xpen in another room when she got to that stage in the early evening, and she would soon fall asleep. Now that she is a little older those attempts do not go as well.

Exercising more can definitely be a good idea that I will try to implement (weather permitting, more time walking outside).

Thanks everyone!

Linda


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## LovelyLily (Mar 26, 2013)

*I meant to type "younger" pup in the above post.*

She just turned ten months of age, still a puppy.


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## maddysmom (Mar 8, 2012)

One of the first things my trainer taught me and Lacie was the word "off" so if she jumped on me I would bend my knee forward almost to block her jumping and she wld stop.
When she started biting my feet, I also used "off" and she would stop.
When she gets overly excited, she will lounge at me and try to bite...again "off" and she stops and goes right into the sitting position.
Now if I'm 20 feet away and she try's to play bite or jump at someone in excitement, I can say "off" and she stops immediately and sits.
He also told me that after 1000 comes, she will come on command....I have a long way to go on this one...I say come and she hears run!


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