Biting: PLEASE HELP?

Question

My puppy, a chihuahua poodle, likes to bite hands ALOT!
And tear up paper. Any ideas on how to control his urge to bite? I have children and I can't figure out how to get him to stop, I don't want to hit him, but I have been thinking about it lately. PLEASE HELP ME!!!

Answer 1

Arm everyone in the house with a squirt gun (the teeny ones you can pick up at K-Mart). Make sure the kids do not squirt the dog without cause!! As soon as he gets to biting, give him a good squirt in the face. This is the only thing that stopped my German Shepherd pup, and it works with a multude of disciplinary problems (peeing in the house, trying to steal food, etc).
Good luck! Those needle teeth can really hurt, and I HATED my pup until we instituted the squirt bottle.

Answer 2

You didn't say whether it was snapping or gnawing, there is a difference. First thing I would do though is get it a rawhide, because it may just be teething. One that it can easily bit on, nothing too big. Then if it starts biting someone or someting it isn't supposed to be, you should loudly and firmly say "NO!" and give it a light swat on the snout. Dogs are pack animals and believe in a pecking order. If you don't assert yourself above them, they are hard to control. If it is snapping at people, it may be afraid and it needs to be approached slowly and with soothing voices to get it comfortable. It is continues to snap, if that is what is going on, consult a vet. Remember, you are dominant. Even if it looks little afraid when you are upset, it needs to know you are in charge. As with a child, you need to more than balance out the correction with love. I have a chihuahua/pitbull (I have no idea, that is what my vet said) and by her knowing I'm the Alpha, she is very affectionate and obedient.

Answer 3

You say you don't want to hit him, and that is ok... it is your right as a pet owner to decide how to discipline your puppy. The thing is, there is a small window to deal with this which determines if your dog knows biting is NOT ok or becomes vicious. THIS is up to you how you deal with it. I see a lot of recommendations on here, that I would not say are all bad, but if you want to curb it FOR GOOD, then please follow my advice. When puppy bites your hands, put your thumb into his mouth onto the top of his tounge. Press down until you hear a little yelp. This really is not as scarring to a puppy as beating it, and it tells them that it is NOT OK. It only hurts a little, and they learn that "Hey, when I bite their hands, I get my tounge mashed a bit. I don't like getting my tounge mashed, so I don't like biting anymore..."

There are lots of newspaper articles about dogs getting put down when they are adults... these dogs were probably owned by the "Redirect your puppy", and "use squirt gun" people. I would HATE to see this happen to you, as a family gets attached to their pet. You need to make sure you have a good dog now AND in it's adulthood, so try this and see if you get results. TRUST ME!

Hope this helps and good luck to you!

Answer 4

Puppies bite and chew, they don't know any better. When they are puppies they are teething the same way children teeth. The way to curb the "play biting" is to redirect your puppy. When the puppy starts biting hands or other off limit things, say "No" and then give him an acceptable chew toy. Eventually he will get it.

Just be patient with him, he really doesn't know better. Hitting will only teach the puppy to be afraid of you.

Answer 5

Give him something to chew. Not a hard rawhide bone, but something softer. He's loosing his milk teeth. It takes a while, and don't be surprised to find little teeth around where he spends a lot of time. My poodle did this too. I would play with him and kind of roughouse with him and he would begin to bite me. I knew he was just playing and didn't realize it hurt. My Mom would also play with him like this. When he would bite her, she would in a very hurt tone say "Owe!" jerk her hand away, talk to him about how it hurt and not play with him for about 5 minutes. It may sound weird to talk to a puppy like they can understand, but it worked. He would lick her hand for a few minutes, until she began playing with him again. She did this repeatedly for several weeks until he had lost most of his milk teeth. Now he's 9 years old and will still roughouse with Dad and I, and will play with Mom but will never bite her - even though the rest of us know that he's just playing with us when he nips at us, he just won't at Mom. If I tell him "Owe!", then he immediately settles down and licks my hand. Once he still had my little finger in his mouth and he very gently stopped and without letting my finger out of his mouth started licking it until he felt the pain had gone away. It was sweet really. My point is that now is the time to stop this biting behavior, even though your puppy is probably just playing, if you don't stop it now, it will probably continue as an adult dog.

Answer 6

My friend has a chihuahua puppy and it loves to bite fingers and the web between the thumb and index finger +_+

Just make sure you give it lots of chew toys. If things get out of hand, sometimes my friends would use a spray bottle and spray it in the face, or spank their bottom lol.

Sometimes puppies appreciate ice cubes in their water bowl, or paper towls to chew on. I'm not sure if they should chew on paper towls though lol...

Answer 7

many puppies are mouthy. I find that a tap, in your case with one finger, on his muzzle will not hurt him but let him know its not okay. Also when he starts getting mouthy just hold your hands up, put him on the floor and ignore him.

Answer 8

If the dog is a puppy, he's teathing.....Try to reward him with a treat and pet himwhen he doesn't bite and you can yell "no" or "bad" out ould when he bites somone...dogs are eager to please animals and like to be rewarded when they do something right and they don't like to be yelled at, so they learn not to do what you yell at them for....

Answer 9

puppies teethe just like babies do get him chew toys and rawhide to chew on and a good swat never hurt anyone

Answer 10

When he bites, take a rolled up newspaper and swat him on the nose.