biting and snapping =/

right well scarlet is 9 weeks tomorro and has been doing fantastic with everything but one problem .. she keeps biting and snapping at my little boy, my partner and me! I tell her a firm no and she doesnt even bat an eyelid she continues doing it , so i put her on her bed for time out. But its gotten worse she wont even listen to me or my partner anymore! But what upset me the most is about 2 days ago she had been playing with my little boy and they were playing on the floor as the normally do and she bit him on the ear, i was upset told her off and told her to go lie down as its not on, but my partner today awoke to this (sorry if it shocks anyone but i was gobsmacked at what she did to my little boy!):


I woke up and about fainted when he showed me it she actully left bad bad brusing and teeth marks im really upset with her and this is the one thing i cant seem to combat. she is a lovely dog and this one thing is holding her back and actually hurting my little boy! any advice? (btw she has multiple chew toys and even teething toys she knows thats hers!)

The best way to deal with this is to turn around and ignore her each and every time. Everyone in the house must do the same. She is trying to get attention with nipping if you ignore her she will stop. If you give her any attention for nipping it will validate the behaviour.

You can also try a yelping sound when she does it because at that age she doesn't know how strong her bite is.

Also you can use a can with rocks in it and shake it when she nips.

I would also advise to not let your child play with her on the floor. If you are on the floor a dog will play with different rules similar to what they do with other dogs.

ive tryed yelping and the ignoring but she just doesnt seem to take the hint its naughty and she should not do it.

as for floor playing there has never been a problem before but me and my partner sit on the sofa with her tug toy and my little boy does the same now and i can see hes a bit scared of her which i really dont want as he loves her to bits.

do you have a crate? you could try when she starts getting carried away locking in there for a time out and ignore the whining

yeah we have a crate ive done it a few times when she has nipped us but she gets out and does it again! its like she doesnt want to learn sometimes lol!

She is still very young and needs time to learn. Every handler goes through this but turning away and ignoring is the best method. You just have to be consistant and patient.

You also have to make sure she has been given enough exercise and training or she will have frustrated energy that she will want to let out. Training sessions should be kept short 10-15 minutes and 2-3 times a day.

I know it's frustrating but with patience and hard work it pays off. As a breed they want to please their handlers but just need to be shown how consistantly

could also be the on set of early teething symtoms?

yeah im continuing with the ignoring jstaff as it seems to get her attention i know it will take time but my little boys ear just shocked me!

steve - yeah she has a wobbly tooth actually lol

try frozen bones toys etc, may relieve some of the pain if it is

If she is starting to teeth make sure you have plenty of frozen treats. A frozen kong, frozen sliced sweet potatos or frozen sliced carrots will help her with the pain

My puppy was exactly the same when we first rescued her she was roughly 6months when we rescued her and she bite quite hard leaving teeth marks we gave her so many toys and things to chew but it still carried on, she completley ignored me saying no to her i yelped and she thought it was a game and when i ignored her she just went and played with my other dog and then came back and did it again. But although she was ignoring all this at the beginning ive still carried on doing and it a firm NO and she is getting much better now i think just continue it and she will learn it probably is showing signs of teething too

hang in there she'll get the message!

Same boat as me. I think ive the devil of all dogs sometimes. Doesnt listen and wen i put him out he comes in and does it again. He not just teethn hes also snapping. Hopefuly puting him out everytime wil start to take affect soon cuz nothing else works

ive got a 5 month old, and a firm load NO usually stops his bites and nips. im seeing a gradual improvement. i found been firm from day 1 despite the cute puppy eyes has helped. mine tends to get nippy when he wants a walk!! (so much energy and bordum dont mix. :-)

It will stop eventually, just be firm and be constant also as said frozen carrots worked for Billy

We went through the exact same thing with Ted. He was a NIGHTMARE! My hands and feet used to look butcherd from his little razor teeth! He used to go for me constantly from been about 8 weeks, growling and barking at me. I used to really worry that he would never grow out of it and that we had an aggresive puppy!!

Whenever he nipped or showed any signs of unacceptable behaviour I gave a firm NO, put him in the kitchen.. door shut.. light off and with no toys around! (Didn't use his crate as punishment as that's his safe place) and it did take a couple of weeks but he really did eventually get the message. He HATED being isolated. Hes 6 months now and is a completely different pup. Also, frozen carrots and frozen tea towels work a treat on his mad teething days.

Keep doing what you doing and be consistant and you'll see changes eventually.

As for your son, she'll not have meant to hurt him. She will just be playing with him as she would other pups in her litter.. she's still a baby.. she just needs to know this type of play is unacceptable.

Hope this helps

I really hope Monty gets the messages with the form NO and ignoring, he is terrible for it. Kids are always coming up to the dog wanting a smooth. Just tonight we left the house and all these kids walking up the street cam up to Monty making a fuss, he jumped up to one of the kid and almost snapped her face. He is such an exciteable dog and is forever jumping up on people, but with the jumping comes the snapping also. I really hope he grows out of it !

Although the nippings stopped for us, jumping is something we still cant seem to train Ted out of either! We also have that problem when meeting people in the street. He thinks he can jump up at anyone and everyone.. even people who walk passed and give him no attention. It's embarrasing.. especially if he catches his muddy paws on someones clothes Our neice is two and hes constantly jumping up at her, he seems to be obsessed with children, hopefully he'll calm down as he matures.

He learnt to roll over in minutes yet he wont stop jumping no matter how much cheese i shove in his face!

this what puppys it doesn't matter breed you get, i will say this babies are alot heard to train the pups

I was just about to come online and say my pup is causing a nightmare too, biting and nipping constantly. I'm going to try some of the advice mentioned above also.

Please remember that dogs play with other dogs by mouthing & nipping. At 9 weeks your pup is just that, a pup. She doesn't know that it's bad to nip humans or to play too roughly with 'little' humans. That will only come with training, and the training must be repeated many many times for it to take effect, especially when the pup is excited.

lmjc90 wrote:as for floor playing there has never been a problem before but me and my partner sit on the sofa with her tug toy and my little boy does the same now and i can see hes a bit scared of her which i really dont want as he loves her to bits.

I have never allowed my children (when they were young) to play on the floor with a pup. You're asking for trouble! She's getting bigger & stronger & will be testing her strength, so always make sure your son keeps both feet firmly on the ground when he's playing with her, and if she gets too excited the play must stop immediately & if necessary give her some time out in her crate to calm down.

yeh caryll stopped it the floor playing alltogther anf she has been much much better! also my son loves playing her rope toy now and she is learning aswell that he does play on the floor and she is not to go near him or his toys when he is playing

I dont no if this is a option 4 u but our kids are young and only 1 and 5 when we first got Ty but we dont let our dogs on the sofa with us. We have found that its been one of the best decitions we made. It means the kids can eat play etc on the sofa with out being harassed by the dogs and sharp teeth etc.

Carly - yeah she doesn't get on the sofa but my sons adamant that he's going to play with scarlet on the floor! I've ha to explain a couple of times when he can't play with her on the floor he gets upset but starts running her in circles and
Playing with a her pull rope

Unfortunately young kids and pups are a liability when together for the first couple months, as Caryll said, pup's play really rough with each other, and they dont have hands to hold things with, just a gob full of needle sharp teeth! ... and likewise, young kids just dont understand this, or how to deal with them! ... IMO I really think that young kids should only really do their bonding during the quiet, loving times with a very young pup when they are tired and just want to snuggle up ..... at only a few weeks old a staffy pup will want to play too intensly for a young child, and one or both will get hurt, it does pass pretty quickly (even if it seems to last forever!!) and the pup will soon learn that nipping = no playing at all!

Stick with it .... its worth it

Caryll's advice is spot on. All I can add is that in the not so distant future, those razor teeth and problem nipping WILL be a thing of the past.

When we got Diesel at 9 weeks old - from that day forward I told my kids to keep their faces away from hers, dont wind her up, blow on her, pull her about etc etc... [my kids are 4,7,10,11]
Diesel never nipped or growled at anyone, the only thing she did a lot of was mouthing throughout the teething stage.
I would let out a high pitched 'ouch' or 'ow' if she mouthed a bit too hard and the look of sorrow and guild on her face is to die for ! she knew damn well not to do it. Sometimes she was sent to her bed.
Now - I can safely literally put my hand in her mouth and she will do nothing at all. She even nibbles my nails with her front teeth ever so gently lol !
Start as u mean to go on, and everyone needs to be consistent.
When visitors come - she is send 'out' into the other room, until she is calm then shes is invited in to say hello, I cant abide her jumping up at ppl unless she is invited to !
I reckon im pretty lucky with Diesel to be honest, she is a sneaky one but if I see her chewing something she shouldnt - I tell her to 'leave' and she drops it right away.

Kids need to know they cant 'play' with an untrained puppy, its a learning curve for the entire family imo !

For teething have a filled kong with something tasty or frozen carrots, anything she can knaw away at safely will soothe those gums.

i had this with chester when we first got him at 9 weeks its called mouthing was your pup taken away from mum to early? yelping when he did this did not work at first but as hes got older it did also any mouthing needs to be ignored so if pup starts to do this you stop play and move away from pup always praise good behaviour and ignore bad but for the time being only supervised play with your child and pup would be a good idea

Both skye and buster have gone through this and skye has taught buster not to bite her hard if he does she tels him off then goes and sits on the sofa to ignore him
My kids (14 & 15) also were told about not playing with hands and as some times they didnt listen they had the bruises to prove it
Buster is now getting used to playing nicely with us (just with other dogs its an issue atm) and skye is totaly out of it apart from when she plays with my oh but its his fault if he gets hurt lol
They do learn quickly but you have got to be consistent (which is probably the hardest part )

Well ive gotten her to calm down on it now we just make "tssssss" sound and she knows she not to nip im getting there with her shes comming on leaps and bounds but im concered at her having a wobbly tooth this young (11 weeks on friday!)

lmjc90 wrote:Well ive gotten her to calm down on it now we just make "tssssss" sound and she knows she not to nip im getting there with her shes comming on leaps and bounds but im concered at her having a wobbly tooth this young (11 weeks on friday!)

really pleased to hear progress has been made and boundaries accepted

Taz was teething at around 4 months old for about a month - I have a collection of them in a sealy bag - the dog tooth fairy didn't collect them

I think that's about average - Keep an eye on her - see if any more wobble - which tooth is it ? the front ones came out for Taz first I think

its one of her front, but today she was yelping eating her food so when i got vets on friday going to get her checked and make sure she is ok