10 week pup nipping q’s and advice

[Matt and Nismo]

Morning all,

This is my first post here so I hope I’m in the right place! We have a 10 week bc pup called Nismo. He’s doing great so far, house training, crate time etc all good. My question is how to control his playful nipping more effectively. He will sometimes mouth us gently which is fine but when his energy levels are up he gets over excited and even directing him to a toy he keeps trying to nip and gets more determined each time. We do sometimes give him a little time in his crate to calm down but are worried to use this too much. 

Any advice is much appreciated. 

Picture of pup below  

Matt. 

[GentleLake]

Welcome to the Boards.

I'm glad you've asked this question early, while it's still easiest to address. Treat your adorable little monster just like his littermates would, and how he'd treat them if they were biting too hard. Use a high pitch "ouch!" and immediately stop play. Just walk away and ignore him. For most puppies several repeats of this is all it takes for them to learn that if they bite too hard the play (i.e. the reward) stops, playmates go away and there's no more fun to be had.

Some pups are a little slower at learning this than others, so don't expect it to work the first or even second time. As long as everyone he interacts with is consistent in doing this, it should put an end to your problem.

p.s. As long as crate times out aren't punitive, you can use them as often as you need to. When the puppy's doing something that needs to stop and/or just needs to calm down, just pick him up and plop him in the crate. Either use a quick, happy sounding phrase, like "uh-oh" or "too bad." If you can't manage to be upbeat say nothing at all. The idea is that he makes a connection between whatever behavior lead to the time out and the consequence, which is losing the opportunity to interact with you. Again, consistency with all people involved is key. And the times out don't need to be very long. At this age just long enough for him to reset and calm down, maybe 2, 3 or up to 5 minutes depending on how long it takes, should be enough, though if he can't settle down it may have to be longer. When he comes out, again make it matter of fact and keep things low key for a bit so he learns that this is the behavior by which he earns freedom.

 

[D'Elle]

I second everything that Gentle Lake says above.  Baby dogs and other animals learn how hard to bite in play from their pack-mates and parents, who will do just as GL suggests: make a hurt sound and walk away. For most puppies, and especially border collies who are hard-wired to interact with human beings, being separated from you is enough, and the "ouch!" is a marker sound to tell him what has caused the separation.

Very important to use a calm demeanor when popping him into the crate for a few minutes. Do it right, and it will not make a bad association with the crate.

 

Welcome to the boards! And let us know how things are going. :-)