puppy issues

just looking for some helpful advice, hopefully someone can help. Ruby is nearly 12 weeks old, we have had her from 8 weeks, her training is going really well, toilet training is done, she knows a lot of commands already (sit, lay down, paw, high 5, speak, drop, leave it, wait, wee, come, back up) but for the life of me i cant seem to stop her nipping/jumping and nipping. the other 4 from her litter were nippy, but she was so calm and mellow, we visited a few times between the ages of 4-8 weeks and she was always the same. she was a bit nippy as soon as she got home, but its been getting gradually worse. shes a faily submissive dog, will roll over as soon as she says hello to anyone, and will follow commands from any of us 4 (unless we have a visitor in the house). i dont know if its normal or not, up until her we have only rescued older dogs rather than buy a puppy so i cant really think what pups are like at this age. is this normal and does anyone have any tips to help kerb it? so far we have tried loud squeeks such as 'ouch', then total ignorance and stop all contact for 5 mins before trying again, shouting 'no' at her when she starts, and praising when she sits nicely and lets us stroke her normally without mouthing at us. it just doesnt seem to be getting any better, shes at her worst with young kids as shes got a thing for hair flapping around so she jumps up to bite at their hair.

another problem we have is peeing when saying hello. when we first got her she didnt really do it, not every time, but now especially 1st thing in the morning, or when visitors come into the house, shes terrible, literally racing around in circles while spraying pee over peoples feet/the floor. if we totally ignore her for say 10 minutes, then wait until shes calm and slowly stroke her she doesnt do it, and then wont no matter how fussy we get with her. shes immediately let out of her crate and into the garden to go for a wee, but even if shes only just done a wee she will come straight over and spray pee anyway. its ok for us as we know what she will do and we totally ignore her while shes at her most excitable but visitors struggle with ignoring her as shes doing the jumping/nipping thing so they put a hand down to stop her which triggers the peeing. ive now resorted to crating her for the duration of peoples visits unless they are dog savvy and do as i ask and ignore her, its a big ask given she nips and snags clothes etc. again, any tips for this problem or am i doing right in keeping her separated until they leave?

shes also over the past few days began developing red itchy arm(paw)pits. nothing has changed in the house, nothing has changed in her diet, shes had all her jabs and flea treatments etc from the vets. we cant get her to the vet until monday evening now though as we dont have the pennies until then to take her. ive given her a bath in puppy shampoo, and thoroughly rinsed and dried her to make sure she hadnt rolled in something that could have irritated her, it looked to calm down slightly after that but its looking red again today and shes using those sharp little puppy claws on her back paws to sit and scratch at them (i am stopping her when i see her do it) ive been told to try sudocrem and see if it helps. the grass in our garden was fairly long until yesterday also, so it could even be something shes allergic to out there i guess.

wow this is one epic post!!! sorry

I no this isn't going to help but you seem to be doing everything right! I was reading your post and thought 'well I'll suggest that' and carried on reading and your already doing it lol!

I guess some pups just take longer to learn, if yoyr consistant I would hope Ruby will learn. You could try having her onlead when visitors come, that way you have control and can try and keep her calm. Apart from that, keep doing what your doing.

Maybe someone else can offer some better advice, been a while since I had a pup Xx

We went through all the nippy phase with Tilly and did most of the stuff you are doing , it's a puppy thing more than anything else. I agree with no dog savvy people then maybe it is better to crate her and keep her calm , but they are oh so friendly doggies My OH is a childminder so for us Tilly would have lots of quiet time at that age as we didn't want her eating the kids !! We also had an accident in the garden when the kid from next door wouldn't listen to us and insisted on getting her over excited, result was Tilly went to grab her sock and nipped her leg, no major damage but over the top parents and a trip to hospital for the "wound" but never anything remotely suggested about Tilly being aggressive or anything and sometimes it just takes something minor like that for kids to learn. You are doing everything right and it just takes time. Tilly will still get over excited now when I come home and sometimes mouth but I tell her " NO ! TONGUES NOT TEETH" and I get a big kiss instead .
For the weeing I can only suggest perseverance and a very short greeting for people followed by a trip to the garden.
Again with this we had the same problem , not random spraying but weeing from excitement so when I come home , a quick fuss and then out into the garden and let her back in in 5 minutes for playtime and that seemed to work well for us.
Sorry about the itchy armpits I couldn't comment but if they are causing her real discomfort then go to the vet sooner rather than later , most vets will accept payment plans if you struggle for the cash
And lastly , your little girl is beautiful so happy staffying

thank you will carry on as we are then. its still very early days i know but it already feels like shes been here forever im liking the lead idea for when visitors come, hadnt even thought about that! will give it a go tomorrow, we have a night latch on the door anyway so will be able to clip her lead on before answering the door. actually looking forward to getting my next visitor now to see how she does. ive put a dab of sudocrem under her little pawpits, and it already looks much better and she hasnt been scratting at them since so will keep that up until vets asap for check over. havent had a staff in nearly 10 years, and was only a brief time with the girl we rescued back then. really loving having this cheeky little character in the family and shes so very well behaved 99% of the time even the cats beginning to accept her now

She will get the hang of not nipping eventually if you keep doing what you're doing. Don't forget that she'll be starting to teeth now so her gums might be a bit sore & that'll be making her nip more. You could try getting some doggie teething gel from one of the pet stores & that might make a bit of a difference.

The weeing is fairly normal in a submissive pup. At that age she doesn't really have full control of her bladder, so when she gets excited she forgets to hold it in and, well, you know the rest. It's something that should improve as she gets older.

The soreness will be helped by sudocrem. Have you cut the grass recently?

its good to know we are headed in the right direction. i figured she would be teething sometime very soon, shes taken to chewing her rawhide chew and rope toys for hours on end. ive heard about getting a rope toy wet and then freezing it for them to chew on so may try that for her too.

hopefully she will grow out of the weeing, though we had it with my old collie x who did it from puppyhood right up to the day she was pts at over 10 years old, its not a new thing for us to live with. will keep fingers crossed she gets over it soon, we never tell her off we just whip her outside a bit quick so she can go and relieve herself again if need be though she often doesnt go again. its all easily cleaned up and to be expected with puppy days

we cut the grass yesterday, although she was irritated before that she had been out on the front garden which had been cut before that and we also have a lot of red ants out there thinking about it, so theres a few options for what may have triggered it. its only in the 1 pawpit at the moment and im keeping a very close eye on her

Sounds like you are doing everything right to me as well. When she starts to teeth frozen treats like sliced carrots, sweet potatos or a stuffed kong will help out alot.