She won't stop nipping

Hi this is my little girl Bella. She's quite well behaved but she loves to bite my girlfriend for some reason can anyone tell me why or what to do she's 17 weeks old the dog not my lass lol

Hello & welcome!

What have you done so far (no point in recommending something you've already done!)?

She's absolutely beautiful, by the way!

Sorry this is my first time on here.
We keep telling her to stop.
Tapping her bottom trying to give her a telling off but sometimes she just barks back at us she is quite well behaved except for her biting.

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Hello and welcome from us.

Firstly, congratulations on being adopted by a staffy and a very pretty one at that !

With regards to your question, you don’t specify if Bella only bites your girlfriend or if your girlfriend has more biting than you.
In both cases, part of the reason could be that Bella is teething so as her gums hurt, she’s biting in general. Do make sure she has toys and ropes to chew, instead of humans !

With any correction, please please don’t use physical punishment (tapping on bottom) but rather use positive reinforcement. With mine, I tell them a stern “No” but they get exaggerated praise and fuss as soon as they do what I ask. Despite appearances, staffies are very sensitive souls and exceedingly smart so you will get very far with positive reinforcement.

If Bella is only biting your girlfriend and not you, it’s because she thinks she can get away with it. Your girlfriend then needs to work with Bella in the same way, a stern NO! for undesirable behaviour but unlimited praise when Bella gets it right.
You must make sure that everyone in the household applies and respects the same rules and you’ll see that this biting will pass in no time.

Thank you for your reply and help. Bella bites me but not as much as wor lass. We have booked her for some lessons so hopefully she'll get better thanks again

Lessons can be a good idea, just check what methods they use.
Are you going to puppy school with Bella yet ?
It’s great for socializing and seeing new things.

That's the sort of thing she will be doing. We take her out to the park and she gets on well with other dogs and people.

Welcome from me and misty. Wow Bella is absolutely beautiful! What a gorgeous colour.

I echo nifty. Please please don't use any physical methods to train. When we got Misty she was terrible for mouthing. Anytime you would play she would try to mouth our hands or arms. The only thing that worked for us was completely ignoring her. We would just immediately stop play and sit quietly. She learned that when she mouths all attention and play stops and as we all know they do love attention!

Do keep us updated and I definitely agree training classes will help. We still got each week with Misty. Can't wait to see more pics.

I'd agree with Emma & Nifty. There are a couple of ways to sort her out.

A high pitched yelp from you or your partner, followed by turning away and ignoring will, eventually stop her nipping. However, you must remember that it's a normal part of puppy behaviour, so it won't stop overnight.

If the turning away & ignoring doesn't help, then every time she nips, walk out of the room for 30 seconds or so. It doesn't have to be for long, but she'll soon realise that nipping makes you go away.

But you must BOTH do the same thing, or she'll get confused!