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I know all puppies bite, and it's normal. I want to teach Ski bite inhibition. But Ski bites HARD. There doesn't seem to be any lead up, he'll roll around a bit and then - whamo. I've got fang holes in my arm. He hasn't drawn blood, but he's broken skin and left welts.

 

I can't get a handle on the process of teaching him to moderate his bite. He has a few (hardly ever) times when he'll just mouth, but it quickly escalates, and then sometimes he just goes straight to trying to bite my arm/hand/leg off. How do you reward soft biting? Should you?

 

I've had couple of people respond, after I've expressed my concerns, with some variation of "oh, puppy biting? no big deal". Well, it is a big deal to me. It's painful. It may not be aggression, but I don't expect other people to know that when he's leaving holes in them. I don't understand the distinction between "puppy biting" and just plain biting. Can anyone give me a more precise explanation?

 

I suppose I'm worried that the apprently extreme nature of his bites is more than just the normal puppy exuberance. He doesn't even seem particularly happy when he does it.

 

I have trouble with implementing the "walk away from him and stop play" method. My home is mostly just one big room with bedrooms attached, so I don't have anywhere specially puppy proof to practice this. So should I only work on bite inhibition in his crate, where I can just shut the door and go elsewhere, or should I take him to his crate when he bites too hard? Or should I simply get up on the couch (where he isn't allowed) and ignore him? In the last case, he does try to get up on the couch so I can't really completely ignore him.

 

And exactly how long should the ignoring continue? And once play resumes, if he bites hard again, does he go immediately back into isolation? What if he gets frustrated with the whole situation and decides playing isn't fun anyways? Sure, he's not biting, but he's not learning not to bite hard, either.

 

If I can get him to repond to a yelp noise (little luck so far) how does that process work. I yelp, and what? Wait for him to bite again or give him a chew toy? He seems to be pretty responsive to facial expressions, so should I seem angry or sad or just neutral?

 

Lol, it seemed simple but there's so many little complications that come up when you actually try to implement a training method.

 

I'm starting to think I'm raising a cat, with all the scratches on my arms and hands from his teeth. I haven't given him many opportunities for biting me, but that's exactly what I'm worried about. I don't want a dog who eats my face when I accidently step on his tail.

 

One last thing, what if I'm outside and he bites my leg? How do you stop play when all it takes for him to play is for you to stand there and have legs?

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I'm not a professional trainer by any means, but I've raised 3 puppies in the last 5 years and any technique that worked with them has pretty much failed with Dexter.

 

I literally feel your pain! Dexter, who's around the same age as Ski, is the exact same way. Completely INSANE. I thought I was raising a fighting dog for a bit. He didn't respond to any of the "tricks of the trade" for a good couple of weeks. Yelping didn't really get his attention. Walking away didn't phase him because he'd just turn to one of his sisters or his brother (all adult dogs) to play. He would take a toy as a distraction but then seriously play for only a millisecond before the next lunge. The lunges seems to come with this evil, possessed look behind them.

 

What has finally worked for us is a redirection - a "No" noise, if you will - some people use "No", my parents had a trainer who used "Nay". Cesar Millan uses his "Pssht" sound. What seems to work for Dexter is a very forceful (but not yelled) "At-at" noise. Once he gives his attention, I ask him to sit. Once he sits, he gets a treat. It's worked wonders!!

 

The only drawback, and it really isn't one but it's more comical, I guess....is that my adult dogs also come running for a treat when they hear Dexter get into trouble. LOL.

 

I'm sure others here have some great suggestions, but I thought since our pups are so similar in age, I'd chime in. I really feel different dogs respond to different corrections, motivations, re-directions, etc. Just like people!

 

Good luck!!!

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He would take a toy as a distraction but then seriously play for only a millisecond before the next lunge. The lunges seems to come with this evil, possessed look behind them.

 

Completely INSANE. I thought I was raising a fighting dog for a bit.

 

Yes yes yes!!! Lol! Sorry, I'm just so relieved that I'm not the only one who feels like that. I keep telling myself "No, this is not Cujo. This is your sweet adorable little fluffball."

 

Ski's my only dog (no one else nosing in on his treats, lol) so we'll see if this approach works any better for him that the other methods I've tried.

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For me, it was hard to actually not get my feelings hurt. You know - he's all sweet to everyone else he meets and then purely evil at times to me. LOL. I learned that dogs don't do sarcasm when me talking to him with, "Oh, sure... bite the hand that feeds you, Mister..." didn't work either. LOL :rolleyes:

 

Editing to add my youtube channel -- some of it may look somewhat familiar! I don't have documented puppy biting, but attitude galore! :D

 

TripleDogDarePhoto on YouTube

 

~Heather

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I don't understand the distinction between "puppy biting" and just plain biting. Can anyone give me a more precise explanation?

 

I think the distinction lies more in the motivation behind the biting than the biting itself.

 

If Ski is playing hard and gets mouthy in the context of play, that is most likely puppy biting. But if Ski is biting to show you that he doesn't like something - I would consider that just plain biting.

 

I know how painful this can be. When we adopted Dean, who was 10 months old at the time, he had ZERO bite inhibition! Zero - at 10 months old! He didn't bite to show displeasure or to stop us from doing things. In his case he got excited and snap went the teeth! And it hurt sometimes! And it was extremely dangerous given his size and strength and the fact that he seemed oblivious to the fact that he was even doing it!

 

It took quite a bit of withholding things he wanted for him to really understand that teeth on the skin resulted in him not having access to the things he wanted. But over time he did get the idea.

 

I suppose I'm worried that the apprently extreme nature of his bites is more than just the normal puppy exuberance. He doesn't even seem particularly happy when he does it.

 

Based on your previous descriptions, I have this same concern.

 

I have trouble with implementing the "walk away from him and stop play" method. My home is mostly just one big room with bedrooms attached, so I don't have anywhere specially puppy proof to practice this. So should I only work on bite inhibition in his crate, where I can just shut the door and go elsewhere, or should I take him to his crate when he bites too hard? Or should I simply get up on the couch (where he isn't allowed) and ignore him? In the last case, he does try to get up on the couch so I can't really completely ignore him.

 

You might try out some different approaches to see what works best. I would probably elect to leave the room and ignore him. You don't need to leave him for very long to see what happens. You could simply turn, walk out of the room, close the door (gently!), wait a few seconds, return, and see what he does.

 

You could work on it with him in the crate if it's logistically possible and then shut the door and go elsewhere if he bites too hard.

 

And exactly how long should the ignoring continue? And once play resumes, if he bites hard again, does he go immediately back into isolation?

 

I would start by ignoring only briefly - maybe 10 - 30 seconds. If he bites hard again, yes you ignore again. The repetition is what is going to help him see that his choice to bite hard is resulting in access to you being removed.

 

What if he gets frustrated with the whole situation and decides playing isn't fun anyways? Sure, he's not biting, but he's not learning not to bite hard, either.

 

If this were to happen in the short term, I wouldn't worry about it. Even if he stops playing for a bit, he will resume when he's ready. The desire to play in a young dog will win out before long, and he will start to look for ways to keep you engaged in the game.

 

I hope that helps!!

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Belle went through that puppy biting stage, with a penchant for pant legs. One day while dusting with some orange based cleaner, she came over to investigate and the smell made her back away pronto. I went out and bought the most orangey smelling product I could find which happened to be "Pure Citrus" air freshener. That "Apple Bitter" stuff had no apparent affect on her, but she definitely didn't like anything with an orange smell.

 

Whenever Belle started getting nippy, I sprayed my pants legs, my hands and wrists with it-never on or around her. (Caution though, that stuff is VERY drying to the skin). She gave up being nippy shortly after I started using that stuff. I don't remember it taking very long for her to get the drift. Was kinda funny explaining to my co workers or visitors why I smelled like an orange grove.

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Others having given some good advice but you may need to go a step further.

 

With my dogs - if the simple - EH, NO, walking away or squeal does not work I will escalate to a correction of some sort. It will depend on the dog. For one dog I grabbed the muzzle and yelled at her - it took just a couple of these to make her stop. For another dog, I grabbed the lower job a couple times - yes I did get bit some but they realized how uncomfortable it was to have their jaw held and being yelled at. For another dog, I would just shove my hand in the mouth so they couldn't really bite down very hard and firmly told them NO... some may consider these harsh but they do not hurt the dog. I have other dogs that when they got out of control I would just put them in a quiet time out in their crate. I never used the crate if I yelled or carried on because I did not want the crate to be a bad place but quiet time outs made them realize when they bit, didn't settle when told, etc... they would be crated without toys, treats, etc... I would leave them in there 5 minutes and bring them back out if they did not fall asleep. If they started to get crazy again back to the crate them went.

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Heather - lol, you and me are in it together. I was so disgruntled the first time I took him to visit someone and he went all wiggly, licky, big sweet look-at-how-cute-I-am puppy eyes at them. Little two-face :rolleyes:

 

Kristine - thank you again :D What I tried doing today was playing gently with him around and inside his crate for a short period of time, focusing specifically on mouthing. As soon as he put his mouth on my hand(before he bit down) I would treat him. When he got too excited and bit hard, I shut his crate and left the room for just a minute or so. Then I came back like nothing happened and started again. After a while he started thinking instead of playing, and would reach out to grab my hand, then look up for a treat. *shrug* Didn't seem like much fun to me, but maybe if I do this a few times a day it'll carry over to more intense playing. I think clicker training might work better to pinpoint the soft mouthing, if I can work out the timing and the needing three hands to manipulate clicker, treat, and puppy.

 

RuthBelle - Aha! Now I know how I'm going to keep him from biting the bottom of my jeans. And possibly the couch.

 

Kim - Those are the methods we used when I was younger, and all those dogs turned out great. But Ski is a pretty serious puppy, and seems to take those kind of corrections as a personal affront. He hasn't got much back-down in him, and if I hold his mouth closed or yell at him (both of which have happened) he gets rougher. We do use timeouts when he gets particularly annoying.

 

Sue_Deutscher - I was thinking about that earlier. Ski isn't allowed on the couch, so I decided to lay down on the floor to see if he'd curl up with me. He decided he'd rather jump on me, suck my ear, chew on my hair, bite my arm, and lick my face. And I was thinking, 'If I was a big dog, who knew better than to bite or growl at little puppies, what would I do?' So I just turned my back to him, still lying on the floor, and everytime he came around to the front I'd give him my back again. If he bit me I just scooted away. A couple times he bit really hard so I got up on the couch, the went back down when he chilled. It really didn't take long for him to quit bugging me and gnaw a rawhide instead. Then he curled up against me and went to sleep. :D

 

I think the yelping thing doesn't work for me because I just don't have a puppy personality. I can't yelp and pull away convincingly; he knows I'm faking. So maybe I'll try to find some videos of grown dogs with pups and give him those kind of reactions.

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maybe I'll try to find some videos of grown dogs with pups and give him those kind of reactions.

 

 

I can tell you what my 3 older dogs do with Dexter. He is at least consistent in that he pesters us all mercilessly sometimes. :rolleyes:

 

They will actually try some of the same techniques discussed above:

Avoidance: Ignoring him which usually also includes looking up at me, "Mommmm...why did you have to bring him home? I thought you said he'd be fun!?"

 

Warning with The Growl or Yelp: He just growls back and paws at them like, "HEY! Be nice to me, I'm the baby!

 

Dexter is at least consistent in that the minor corrections that didn't work when I try them also don't work when my adult dogs use them. They use a "Growl and Show My Teeth like I'm a Big Scary Wolf" move, combined with the growl. That's his first serious warning to leave them alone. When that doesn't work, they put above-referenced big scary wolf teeth over his muzzle, with the growl and he looks at them like, "WTH? I was just playing!" and moves on.

 

btw...the serious growl looks something like this: :D

3266411890_f969b5a038.jpg

 

I have to admit, when he was younger, seeing that the muzzle bite worked, I put my mouth over his muzzle too and it REALLY stopped him dead in his tracks in a hurry. He looked seriously offended and completely surprised (I was too that I went to that extreme...LOL) But as he grows, I know I can't be running around the house biting my dog, so I had to develop another option. :D

 

If you've never raised a puppy before, one more thing you can watch out for if it isn't happening already is Possession By Puppy Demons. Even the most well-behaved puppy, I've found, goes through an inner wrestling match with their inner demons and seems possessed from time to time. I mention this because it may look like you make great progress one day only to have another outcropping of serious mischief. I equate it to a human toddler trying to find their limits.

 

~Heather

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I haven'd through all your posts regarding Skis' biting, but here are a couple sugggestions:

 

1) Stop treating him like a baby. He is a dog. You are the human. Establish that relationship now while he is small. Make your hands, ankles , body parts more unvailable. By that I mean, stop "offering them" and moving them around. Many people make the mistake of getting down to the pup's level, to play. That puts you on equal terms, and you don't want to be. A little pup can't bite your arms/hands if you are standing; and if he's going for ankles, pants legs, it is much less fun to bite something that is stationary. Stopping movement usually stops the action.

 

2) If he is persistent in biting pants legs and the muzzle hold isn't working, elevate him off his feet. Pick him up, not cuddling, take him out of control of the situation. Once he settles, put him back down. If he persists, a time out in the crate until the idea leaves his head is warranted.

 

3) If you haven't already, start teaching him to "settle" in his crate. He needs to learn he has an "off button". Give him some crate time to chew a bone, chill out, not demand attention. Start in short increments, when he is quiet, randomly, quietly go by the crate and drop a small treat in. Don't reward or give attention when he is "demanding" attention, only when he is quiet.

 

4) Teach an "Off" with a toy. Get him playing/biting a toy. Use a toy on a rope, or a long tug toy. Not something that he can accidentally latch onto your hand with. Move the toy around, play with him, then once he is engaged in biting/chasing the toy, firmly clamp it to you thigh/hip, and say "off". Game over. The movement is stopped, and he will soon think this non-moving toy is pretty boring. When he lets go of the toy, praise, pause a few seconds to let it sink in, and then the game can resume. It's a give and take game. You offer the toy = he gets to bite. You stop the action and say "off" = he stops biting. If he trys to get to your hand instead of the toy, the game stops. He learns that teeth on human skin is not permitted. Once he understands "off" on a toy, you can use the command with anything he is mouthing/biting.

 

Laurie

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Has anyone ever seen what a mother dog or some other adult dog would do if a puppy was biting hard enough to hurt? I have not.

 

When we first brought Dean home I saw the coolest thing. He and Maddie were playing and Dean bit down hard on her ear. She immediately turned her head away from him and paused for a short time. Then she turned back and I saw him take the same ear in his mouth and he mouthed it gently. She responded by engaging him in play again.

 

Granted, he was older - 10 months - but it as amazing watching her teach him such a gentle lesson. He learned it, too.

 

After a while he started thinking instead of playing, and would reach out to grab my hand, then look up for a treat. *shrug* Didn't seem like much fun to me, but maybe if I do this a few times a day it'll carry over to more intense playing. I think clicker training might work better to pinpoint the soft mouthing, if I can work out the timing and the needing three hands to manipulate clicker, treat, and puppy.

 

The fact that he is starting to think instead of play is not necessarily a bad thing. Once he has the rules structure figured out (this would happen over a period of time), he will not need to think so much. Even though you are teaching him something in the context of play, it is a learning experience.

 

Also, the more you can engage his brain in ways that do not cause him to find himself in conflict with you, the more you will build trust which will translate into your play sessions.

 

One other thing that has struck me - you say he is not allowed on the couch. Have you provided him with a comfortable place of his own to be while you are on the couch? Perhaps a dog bed near your feet? You would probably need to teach him to settle there, but that would be fairly simple using rewards.

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Laurie - I am aware that my dog is not a child. Thank you. But I want a dog that is capable of behaving himself when I am down on the floor as well as when I am standing. I want him to understand that there are better things than me to play with, even when I'm moving around. And I also want a dog who is capable of biting softly, which is actually the point of the excercise, rather than complete cessation of biting. If he learns how to mouth softly as a puppy, then as an adult dog, if he is hurt or startled and lashes out, the severity of that bite will be lessened because he will have awareness of how hard he is biting.

 

Kristine - It makes me feel better that Dean could learn to do that at such a late age. Ian Dunbar really emphasizes deadlines in his book (I had to put it down a few times because he was stressing me out, lol) but it's nice to remember that dogs don't stop learning just because they passed their "development deadline". Ski has a nice fluffy towel on the floor. He had a nice fluffy bath mat, but he had a tendency to go to it to pee. He settles on the towel pretty well with a chew toy.

 

Heather - ooh, scary :rolleyes: Possesion by Puppy Demons is a such a perfect way to describe it. It's the only time I feel he's actually aware he's being evil.

And Ginger looks seriously PO'ed in that picture, lol.

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One last thing, what if I'm outside and he bites my leg? How do you stop play when all it takes for him to play is for you to stand there and have legs?

 

Ok, sorry. Not to laugh at your (literal) pain, but that just struck me as funny. Quinn wasn't interested in biting hands but he went through a brief phase of nipping me on the shin as he went running by. Hahahahahah. Isn't that hysterical? He thought so. :rolleyes: After a few bruises I ended up giving a shout when he bit and grabbing him by the collar to tell him in a stern voice I did not like being nipped. He moved so fast that he might have gone on to pick up a toy, toss the toy aside to jump on the Sheltie, pick up another toy before I had hold of him. I think my loud "HEY!" helped him understand what he was being corrected for three or four (rapid) behaviors later. He stopped after a couple corrections since I was being such a drag. :D

 

My first choice is to teach inhibited biting which I've done very successfully with some puppies. With Quinn I ended up going to zero tolerance for teeth on human skin. I just disliked the level of pain he was inflicting. With all of my puppies, I have been very happy to see those awful little needle teeth fall out.

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Kristine - It makes me feel better that Dean could learn to do that at such a late age. Ian Dunbar really emphasizes deadlines in his book (I had to put it down a few times because he was stressing me out, lol) but it's nice to remember that dogs don't stop learning just because they passed their "development deadline". Ski has a nice fluffy towel on the floor. He had a nice fluffy bath mat, but he had a tendency to go to it to pee. He settles on the towel pretty well with a chew toy.

 

I was seriously worried when I found out that he was taken from his litter at 5 or 6 weeks old and then was raised for 8 months with almost zero structure. There are still a few "holes" in his foundation, but he has learned a great deal that a dog supposedly can't learn after certain development deadlines. It was a struggle at times - both for him and for me - but in most ways he really is a very normal almost three year old Border Collie now.

 

So yes, even if you miss those "deadlines", it can still be done.

 

One thing you can do, then, when he tries to jump on the couch, is to redirect him to his towel. I would make that highly rewarding for him. You can even say something to him when you see him going for the couch - "You want to relax? OK, get on your towel" or something to that effect and then toss the toy onto the towel to redirect. Over time he will start to default more and more to the towel..

 

Since you don't want him on the couch, you can also use the towel to teach him an "off". You could say "on" or "towel", and then toss treats onto the towel and then cue "off" and reward him off of the towel. Once he can get on the towel when you say "on" or "towel" and get off when you say "off", you can then start to redirect him to the towel verbally when he goes for the couch. You could use an "off-towel" or something like that.

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Admir Ski said "

I can't get a handle on the process of teaching him to moderate his bite. He has a few (hardly ever) times when he'll just mouth, but it quickly escalates, and then sometimes he just goes straight to trying to bite my arm/hand/leg off. How do you reward soft biting? Should you?"

 

 

I can think of 3 reason why dogs don't have bite inhibition. I'm not advocating any type of punishment for puppy biting, which could cause a dog to later "lash out", not knowing how to control his bite. Another reason dogs don't learn bite inhibition is that some pups never mouth or bite at all as puppies, so never learn inhibition. When the day comes that they need to use their teeth, they go "all out". Another reason is being taken away from Mom and littermates too early, before his "own kind' have taught him that hard biting is unacceptable.

Your puppy bites. Do you really want a dog that puts his teeth on you as an adult? Why would you "reward" any type of biting? Basically, you just tolerate "puppy mouthing", and then teach an off to deal with the hard biting. It's not rocket science. You are probably making way too much out of the whole thing. Some pups just bite hard. They need to learn not to.

Laurie

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Your puppy bites. Do you really want a dog that puts his teeth on you as an adult? Why would you "reward" any type of biting? Basically, you just tolerate "puppy mouthing", and then teach an off to deal with the hard biting. It's not rocket science. You are probably making way too much out of the whole thing. Some pups just bite hard. They need to learn not to.

 

I think that is what he was asking here. And I think lots of people struggle to stop puppy biting. I needed some pointers with my first puppy and 4 puppies later, none of my techniques worked with Quinn. I had to resort to correction for his very painful drive by nips. I haven't noticed any lashing out yet.

 

As far as rewarding soft biting, I rewarded the Lhasa by allowing him to play with my hands as long as he was gentle. If he bit too hard, I said "owww," kept my hands out of his reach for several seconds, then put my hand back out at which point he would much more gently chew on them. He picked up on this quickly and has a lovely inhibited bite. At 6, he still once in a while plays gently with my hands.

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As far as rewarding soft biting, I rewarded the Lhasa by allowing him to play with my hands as long as he was gentle. If he bit too hard, I said "owww," kept my hands out of his reach for several seconds, then put my hand back out at which point he would much more gently chew on them. He picked up on this quickly and has a lovely inhibited bite. At 6, he still once in a while plays gently with my hands.

 

Well sure. But to me there is a lot of difference between a dog bred with his foremost job as a "lap dog" and Border Collie. I would certainly hope that a good Lhasa would have pretty strong inherent bite inhibition, or he wouldn't be much of a companion dog breed. Herding/working dogs are much more apt to use their teeth as part of their jobs, so therefore might be a little harder to convince.

I have a five year old dog that I raised from a pup who still likes to mouth my sleeve/hands occasionally when we run agility. I let her get away with it as a pup, when I didn't have a toy or leash handy, and needed to distract her fom staring down other dogs. Her default when she gets too excited in agility is often to "mouth" at my sleeves or hands. I wish I hadn't let her do it, but hind site's 20/20. Granted, she doesn't break the skin or even leave a mark, but it would be a stupid way to get disqualified. Laurie

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I have a five year old dog that I raised from a pup who still likes to mouth my sleeve/hands occasionally when we run agility. I let her get away with it as a pup, when I didn't have a toy or leash handy, and needed to distract her fom staring down other dogs. Her default when she gets too excited in agility is often to "mouth" at my sleeves or hands. I wish I hadn't let her do it, but hind site's 20/20. Granted, she doesn't break the skin or even leave a mark, but it would be a stupid way to get disqualified. Laurie

 

You could try off switch games from CU to work on this now to create a new default.

 

It's really not too late, even after five years! :rolleyes:

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But to me there is a lot of difference between a dog bred with his foremost job as a "lap dog" and Border Collie. I would certainly hope that a good Lhasa would have pretty strong inherent bite inhibition, or he wouldn't be much of a companion dog breed. Herding/working dogs are much more apt to use their teeth as part of their jobs, so therefore might be a little harder to convince.

 

:rolleyes: Have you met many Lhasas? They are as a rule incredibly strong willed, pushy and irrepressible. They divide the world into three categories: Mine, I Want It and Go Away. Give them an inch and they'll be horrid little tyrants. Chili did not have inherent bite inhibition. Neither did my first Lhasa who never learned it because I didn't know how to train it back then when I adopted him at 9 months. The good thing is Lhasas have little jaws. The bad thing is, well, they're Lhasas. :D

 

Actually, Chili is pretty nice for a Lhasa, even if Quinn would take huge exception to that statement. He's very smart, very prey and food driven and so quite easy to train for the most part. But lap dog, other than "that lap belongs to me" he's not so much. :D

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I have a 9 week old Border Collie puppy and was experiencing exacty the same as you were for the first week, however he is absolutely fine with me now.

 

What did i do? As soon as he snapped, i would tap him on the nose firmly and say 'NO' - and then withdraw immediately from playing with him.

 

He soon got to know that no meant no and that if he was to play rough then i would stop playing.

 

He is learning to display his affection in the form of kissing/licking me now, however occasionaly you will feel the front teeth coming into play, and as soon as i feel it i say 'nicely' in a slow low/growl voice, and he then reverts back to the tongue instead of the teeth.

 

However - my Wife and children are still suffering, he behaves when i'm around them, but whem i'm not he will play up and bite/nip.

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  • 2 weeks later...

You're not alone Admiral, My puppy Kate is behaving exactly like Ski... I've had several BCs but never one that wants to bite as much as Kate, it's like she's obsessed with it. she's a sweet little dog, but you can't even reach down to pet her without her biting and sometimes it's like she just snaps - when you least expect it she'll let out a yelp lunge and bite you so fast you don't even have time to see it coming. She's just playing but she bites waaaay to hard, I've been working with her on this issue several times a day but progress seems to be slow, her mouth is just constantly in action. I realize she's young and teething to boot so I'm trying to be very patient and hoping she'll outgrow it in addition to my working with her. I've been reading quite a bit on the subject of biting both here and elswhere on the web and I'm trying to use the techniques I've read about and hoping for the best. Wish me luck and good luck with Ski!

Matt

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Ski's doing a lot better about biting these days. After we stopped correcting him constantly, his whole attitude improved a lot towards us. He's happier, we're happier. He doesn't snap at us for touching him anywhere anymore. He likes having him stomach scratched, and actually calms down for it.

 

He still bites, but it's obviously just puppy play now. I correct him with an "aaht" sound and hold his mouth shut for a moment if he iniates biting, followed by doing something else before he works himself up to biting again. If I initiate it, he can mouth on my hand unless he gets hard, then I stop playing with him.

 

I haven't got any new holes in my hand, so it seems to be working pretty good. :D He still nips at feet/pants legs, usually only if I'm wearing jeans. Guess he thinks I should dress better. I tried bitter spray but he seems to like it. :rolleyes:

 

He still doesn't really get the soft bite, but it's managable now. And I'm waiting for the day he wakes up and says "You know what? Biting just isn't fun anymore. I think I'll join a tap class." Or something to that effect.

 

I'll give a more complete update on him once I get some pictures uploaded :D

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