bite inhibition, nipping, etc

hi - i have a 12 week old little girl who is a big cuddler and very sweet and we just love her like crazy. she like every type of puppy is doing the biting/teething/chewing thing. i was told by trusted friends to keep my hands in her mouth as much as possible to teach her bite inhibition and "control" with my hands, i.e., i can put my hands wherever i like and you won't bite me. she is getting gentler day by day, but simply mouthing (and the holy grail - no biting at all! ) hasn't started yet and she still jumps and nips, or grabs on to our clothes, etc. she is getting better with that too if we give her a good, LOUD "DOWN" or "OFF" and then put something else she CAN chew in her mouth.

I guess my question is should I really be letting her learn bite inhibition with my hands? I don't mind, but I don't want her to think she can bite. I want the biting to stop ASAP as well. I know it won't happen over night and we've only had her 3.5 weeks, but again, hoping for sooner than later.

I read the important link posted here on Biting and it said to smack her when she bites, which I do NOT want to do, and then it said ignore her and walk away when she bites which I'm doing and that really works.

Trying to figure out what I really should be doing. What have all of you done?

http://staffy-bull-terrier.co.uk/stopyourstaffypuppybiting.html

what worked for us, was just saying NO loud and ignoring him, and it soon stopped, you could also yelp as well, we have never smacked Billy

have a look at the linf, lots of good info there, and good luck

Girly wrote:I read the important link posted here on Biting and it said to smack her when she bites, which I do NOT want to do, and then it said ignore her and walk away when she bites which I'm doing and that really works.

Trying to figure out what I really should be doing. What have all of you done?

You read a link here about smacking a dog? If you did, please let me know which one it is & I'll remove it - we certainly won't condone smacking as a training aid!

The best way is, as soon as she nips or jumps up etc, tell her "no!" and stop all interraction straight away - turn around & ignore her, don't even look at her. When she calms down, you can give her calm & quiet praise. It may take a few repetitions, but she will soon realise that nipping/jumping up means no fuss & calmness means fuss!

i take it back i misread it - the heading was some general don'ts (from the link here on this site), but i missed that and the first thing i saw was "smack your puppy..." VERY sorry! OK whew!! i definitely don't want to smack her at all ever

we have tried the ignoring and walking away thing and the pathetic, sad puppy looks we get back and immediate calm is great. it's the manic, clothes grabbing death grip she gets on our jeans, sweaters, etc., that worry me - especially when it's on my step-kids. she's getting better, i just wondered if there was another approach we missed to not even get to the manic stage.

thanks everyone and again, very sorry - my bad for misreading.

Phew! I'm glad you misread it!

Seriously, if you keep doing what you're doing it will get better. Your pup's still so very young & that's the way they would play with their siblings. It will take a while for her to understand that she can't play that way with humans.

Make sure that everybody who comes into contact with your pup does the same thing, though, or she'll get confused.

It's a problem time for her anyway - at 12 weeks she's going to be starting to lose her puppy teeth, so she'll want to bite/chew so much more. A frozen banana or frozen carrot is good to satisfy the need to chew, and the cold will help to soothe her gums a bit.

The turning around method worked for us. As Caryll said make sure everyone is treating the behaviour the same way so she won't get confused.

Like everyone has said, the turn around and ignore method worked for me along with the loud ouch/yelp. Bella had a habit of jumping up and biting the calf muscle so quite often the ouch/yelp was involuntary. With clothes the loud no or eh eh noise worked.

i have a 11 week old pup and like everyones said, the loud and firm "no" works most of the times, there are times when it doesnt work and i turn around and ignore him for a minute or two which works almost always. sometimes when hes over excited and doesnt listen to anything or anyone, i say "no" loud and firm and pick him up and put him in another room and that always works, when he comes back into the room, hes calm and well behaved, but dont be afraid to keep doing it. i once put zeus in an out of the room 10-odd times.. he finally got the message!

i have also tried the bite inhibition technique and it works a treat, when i start puttin my hand in zeus's mouth at first, he'd bite as hard as he could (which didnt hurt). over the past few weeks, i say "no" when he bites and through this period, hes learnt that he cannot bite my hand. most times when i deliberatly put my hand in his mouth, he'll push it away or move his head away.