# 8 Week old Pup Biting Issues



## joey1967 (Aug 26, 2015)

My 8 wk old SPOO has a major issue with biting and I'm trying hard to control it.
She is grabbing my pant legs and shaking them grabbing my cuffs on my jacket shirts etc, biting my shoes, it is pretty severe, mouthing biting my feet and hands when exposed. I"m trying "OUCH" which works and stops her dead in her tracks and I try to give her lots of love when she is gentle and praise. I also give her a chew toy, when she starts to play though she forgets her manners and I really have to say OUCH pretty loud and redirect to a stuffed toy called Space Cow she is just starting to get that she chews space cow and not anybody else. The breeder let her bite her legs and this is what is causing the trouble. She told me to grab her muzzle and shut it tight and say NO. But I feel that this is going to cause more trouble. Can someone give me some advice. She comes from a litter of ten and Im gathering this is part of the problem. They all were on each other with this type of play but biting the clothing was the breeders fault.


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## joey1967 (Aug 26, 2015)

I should mention she was given to me at 7 1/2 weeks and I'm trying to undue a lot of things with her that she has learned.


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## peccan (Aug 26, 2014)

Can you make the OUCH even more counter-reinforcing by retreating to "be hurt" for a while to a chair or out of the playpen which of course should mean boring times for puppy?


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## Dechi (Aug 22, 2015)

This is not an issue.. It's just puppy normal behavior and it is temporary. Even if you did nothing, eventually it would stop by itself almost completely. You're there to make sure it stops 100%.

I agree, cry even louder and try to sound like a puppy (i hope no one can hear you so you don't feel ridiculous ;-) )

It won't last long, a few weeks and she will be a lot better. Not perfect, but better.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

This is totally normal puppy behavior! Being in a big litter actually is a good thing because when the puppies play together if someone gets too hard of a nip they learn that it doesn't feel good and they get to understand how to inhibit their bite and develop a soft mouth.

Lily came home at 7 weeks and is from a litter of 8. Javelin came home at just over 8 weeks and is from a litter of 9. Lily was a horribly nippy bitey girl until she was almost 6 months old. She wrecked a fair amount of clothing and left lots of marks on me in the process. I found it very upsetting and it made me regret having even wanting her for quite a while. One day when I came home from work I found myself rather anxious about what I was going to be greeted by when I went in the house so I went for a walk instead. I did some deep breathing and recentered and relaxed myself. I walk through the door. Lily came charging over as usual and then stopped short about 2 feet away from me and sat. Me being calm totally took the hurricane out of her. I have made a point of staying very relaxed around Javelin even during his worst witching hours. He is mouthy, but has not ever been anything like Lily was. He has made two or three little holes in shirts I didn't care too much about and has left about five teeth marks on me in all the time he has been here. The "moral" to the story is to not react internally when the puppy is acting crazy. I agree to saying a loud ouch to interrupt and even to acting hurt, but all of that has to be an act. You need to be relaxed so that the real signal you are sending to the puppy is a calming signal. I also rely heavily on redirecting to a soft thing that the puppy can really sink their teeth into to get their energy diffused. Make sure your puppy really learns that only space cow is for chewing.

As I always recommend with puppies patience, persistence and consistency.


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## Bizzeemamanj (Apr 14, 2014)

Very normal puppy play behavior. Knowing that doesn't make those little puppy teeth hurt less, though!

Cooper was very mouthy when he was a pup. He loved (and still loves) to play rough. What worked for us was a loud ouch (or whatever noise you like - we used "no bite!"), removal of interaction/play with you and redirect to a chewy toy. If that didn't work after a couple of attempts, we escalated to separation. Place pup in either ex-pen/crate/whichever quiet area you've designated for her.

I found when Cooper was either overstimulated or over tired he lost the ability to learn from the interaction. In that case, a well placed separation/time out was the best thing for everyone involved. Cooper's mouthiness got significantly better as he got older and more mature. Now he will self-redirect and grab a chew toy on his own when he gets too wound up.


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## Marta Elmer (Sep 29, 2012)

You might say I am bit nuts, but I bit Woodstock back when he would be biting my hand, or my foot. I would sit on the floor, take gently his muzzle, and bite so that he could feel my teeth. I would even produce sound like growling, and look straitgh into his eyes. Each time I did it, he stopped biting me, looked at me with curiosity and admiration, and eventually he stopped. Maybe this is silly, but we played like this several times, and now he is very cautious. He tries to take my fingers into his mouth, but than he looks up at my, as if he wants to make sure what my reaction would be. Than he just goes after one of his toys.


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## sophie anne (Feb 17, 2015)

Everyone has given great advice on the general biting so far so I won't rehash that.

As far as the pant-leg biting, that's just the puppy's prey drive at work. Your pants look fun to grab, and grabbing them engages her in an instant game of tug! Win-win!

Ari, my 19 week old mini poodle puppy, was the worst ankle/pant biter and hard skin-nipper I've ever had from about 11 weeks-14 weeks. She is 99.8% improved now, so do know that this will pass. Now if Ari's teeth touch me, I say ouch! And she immediately stops and looks up at me. She's still young so the mouthing still happens, but it has decreased in frequency greatly and no longer hurts. She never bites my pants anymore.

Things that helped in the trenches:
- Don't wear pants you care about around the puppy because it's easier to give the 'calming signals' Lily cd re mentioned when your dog isn't shredding your work clothes
- When she attacks your pants, turn into a statue and maybe start playing with a toy just out of her reach or noisily pretending to eat her treats. Usually this will make the pup stop, get jealous, and then you can redirect play to another toy and praise/treat her for sinking her teeth into appropriate things.
- Keep a drag-line on her, 2-3 ft long, at all times (laundry line works well and is cheap) so that you can grab the line rather than the crazy nippy puppy when she is attacking your pants. You can use the line to gently pull her back when she lets go for a second to readjust her bite so that your legs are out of her reach and/or tether it to something nearby so that you can step away and shun her if she doesn't stop.
- *Praise/treat* her when she is chewing and playing with appropriate things! People often forget to tell their puppies what they like, and only focus on telling them what not to do. When I saw Ari chewing a toy I'd drop a treat onto the floor next to her nose for the first week or two.

My steps for management with Ari were:
1. Try redirecting to a toy that I kept in my pocket for this purpose.
2. If she ignored the toy, loudly played with the toy myself.
3. If she ignored this, line got clipped to a nearby tether ring (I put these all around my apartment for just this purpose) and I stepped back out of her reach.
4. If she still kept lunging to bite my pants/refusing the toy I offered, I'd back off for 30 or so seconds to let her cool down.
5. Return and offer the toy, and if she takes it, unclip her and engage in a fun play session as a reward.
6. Repeat until she outgrows the behavior.

Things not to do:
- Do *not* put her in the crate as punishment. The crate is a safe and happy place, not a place to go as a consequence. If, however, she is just too hyped and you have successfully redirected her onto a toy as in the steps above, you can then put her in the crate for some happy cool off time.
- Do not hit her, hold her mouth, or otherwise use aggression to stop the biting. Force works in the moment, but you are not teaching her to avoid the behavior so much as you are teaching her to distrust you and try to avoid getting caught. Then you'll have a sniper, who swoops in for the strike and runs out of reach before you can scold her.

Above all:
-Don't forget that this is normal, that everyone that has had a puppy has gone through this frustration, and that she will learn and get better with time and patience!! In the meantime, :hug:


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Lots of excellent advice here! I worked on gentle mouthing with mine, only yelling Ouch for the hardest bites that really hurt at first, and gradually reducing the bar as they began to get the idea. And try to avoid pushing or flapping at the puppy - when dogs paw at each other it is a signal that they want to play, so pushing the pup away with your hands and feet just makes the game even more exciting. Has she discovered the joy of removing socks from your feet yet? Or the immense possibilities of a roll of toilet paper?!


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## lisasgirl (May 27, 2010)

If you've never read Ian Dunbar's _Before and After Getting Your Puppy,_ that is very much recommended. Here's a link to a free PDF of the entire "after getting your puppy" section. The chapter on learning bite inhibition starts on page 79.

I recently dealt with mouthiness in a 10-month-old rescue, not a tiny puppy, so I don't have good experience with teaching a dog to bite softly but I have done a lot of work on teaching a dog not to bite at all (ideally you want to do both things, not just the second one). For discouraging mouthiness, I recommend the following:

- Always, ALWAYS have an acceptable chew toy on hand or within reach while you're interacting with the puppy. Do not approach without one.
- When the puppy bites, say "Ouch!" and offer the toy immediately - make it really exciting and fun so she'll go for it, and praise like crazy once she has it. With Archie we even added the command, "Get your toy!" And now anytime he's too worked up I can call out "Go get your toy!" and he'll run and find it for me.
- If she switches from the toy to biting you, end playtime immediately. That may mean leaving the room and closing the door behind you, placing her in a playpen, or turning into a statue - cross your arms, stand still, and look away. Archie was typically mouthing hands while up on furniture at first, so I just picked him up, set him on the ground, and turned away each time. Sometimes I'd even sulk a little. Experiment with what works. I usually gave him my attention again after a few seconds, once he'd calmed himself a little.
- If she's really determined about mouthing and nothing is getting her to redirect, give her a tasty kong and put her in her crate until she calms down. You can also give her a time out behind a baby gate. When you give time-outs, be very matter-of-fact and boring about it.
- It's also never too early to teach your dog to sit, lie down, and perform other tricks in exchange for attention and treats. Doing that helps with self-control skills generally, and also teaches her a better way to get your attention than just grabbing you with her mouth.

I would also get a variety of good chewable things, not just the one toy. Bully sticks are a lifesaver around our house, but stuffed kongs and other things are good too. You want to find a variety of things with different textures and hardness for a teething puppy.

And if it helps, try to remember that it's not aggression. It's just that your puppy is very young and sometimes gets so worked up and excited that she loses all self-control. Getting to play-bite her siblings was actually a good thing, as others have mentioned, but now she needs to learn that she's not allowed to bite everything that way. I mean, think about it - for most things in your puppy's life, her mouth is how she interacts with them. She needs to learn something different with you. So show her what to do instead.


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## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

I find that making a puppy whimpering sound works wonders. Sometimes if you scream "OUCH!" the puppy thinks you are playing.


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## dogs123 (Jun 14, 2012)

My spoo is 18 weeks on sat.....I have had other puppies that had the "play-bite" problem and found that they grew out of it. BUT this spoo, Piper, is addicted to play biting...she knows "ouch" and "no", and stops but then goes right back to it. I have found that she tries to bite softly, but she still has some of her puppy teeth (especially the canines) and I don't care how soft she is, those darn teeth hurt! 

My other dogs are small and senior dogs (toy, mini poodles, and 2 schnauzers) that have really turned on her and bit her hard...it scared her and now she respects them, except for the smallest (she weighs 16 lbs) and she just doesn't seem to bite her hard enough, and so Piper bullys her constantly. BTW, when my little schnauzer has a bully stick, Piper won't attempt to bite nor play with her cuz the little schnauzer will take Piper's head off. Interesting, right?

What I get from this is that you have to make it a BIG deal when the bite happens....I actually will admit that I got so frustrated and angry at the biting that I screamed out "stop"!, and took out after her and chased her all the way to the living room...that scared the crap out of her and now if she bites, and I say "stop", she does right now. Not that she will forget later, and do it again. I hope she outgrows most of this as she matures, and it won't be so awful when those d**n puppy teeth are gone....

Play biting is probably the second thing next to potty training that drives a new owner up a wall......I just try to keep on doing what I am doing and hope her maturity helps...

Hang in there....we all have experience it!


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

I always made sure that I was wearing jeans and long sleeves and was never without a distraction, particularly one with a squeaker. I used "No bite!", and either left the room or hooked him to a leash if we were outside, signaling that fun was over. Standing like a statue did not work for me at all. Buck was like a Tasmanian Devil trying to get attention. As I was watching Kiko pup and reading advice on PF about biting, I noticed our yard guy was allowing Buck to nip and jump on him. He's such a sweet man and a big favorite of my dog, so I had to explain to him that Buck doesn't get to steamroll over him. Once he started saying "no", we made progress. As Lily CD said, consistency is key.


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## Wren (Jul 2, 2013)

I agree with everything everybody else said. It is part of owning a puppy. Find a set of sacrificial clothes to wear.

It won't get much better until after your puppy's adult teeth come in. Once all their teeth are in it seems to get much better.

Overly tired, overly stimulated pups are the worst. Make sure your pup is getting enough sleep. She should be sleeping 16-18 hours a day at her age or even a little more.


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## Theo'sMom (Mar 23, 2011)

It took 5 1/2 months for Theo to stop biting. (My second one, Chloe, who is a year younger, only bit Theo and never bit me when she was a puppy, so Theo got payback.)


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