my puppy is biting me when it is playing but its starting to get out of hand. what should i do?

Question

my puppy is teething and she wants to play all the time, but all she wants to do is bite me. iv bought her all the toys in the world but still she'd rather bite my hand. iv tried shouting, ignoring her and taping her on the nose, but it doesnt work. it really hurts and she's makin me bleed. i know its not intentional but i want to control it.

Answer 1

mine was the same way and it STILL is except he doesnt bite nemore...

what we did was when we were playing and he would bite me hard or even a little bit i would pop him on the nose(not too hard ofcourse) and in a deep tone say "NO BITING!" and i did that EVERY time and he stopped!! every now and then when he gets too excited and bites a little i'll do that and he'll quit. he's learned what it is and what it means....

GOODLUCK!!!

Answer 2

My puppy also did this play bite thing to excess. I called a few professional trainers and one thing they all said is to start regular obedience ASAP. Just teaching them to walk on a leash, come when you call, fetch a ball, sit, lay, stay. These all take patience and concentration for the dog. Durring this time they are not biting or playing, they are learning and one thing they are learning is that you are the leader, not another play thing. I didn't have much faith in the idea that if I taught my dog to walk on a leash that would solve my problem, but I did it and sure enough when I came home from work I'd walk my little puppy until it was plenty spent which doesn't take long when they are little. Then it was dinner time and a little practise at fetch and sit and then night night.
They also said to keep my hands out of reach until he grew up a little more. Just handle the dog so that he can't get you into his mouth. It really works, because those bites hurt.

Answer 3

You aren't really training her right... there are other more effective ways to train her not to bite. They type of discipline you are using actually reinforces the biting as a fun game, which is why it is getting worse. If she is just sort of play-biting, not seriously meaning to hurt anyone badly, then what I am going to tell you wil help.
But if she is biting aggressively, with growling, and with intent to draw blood and bite very hard, then you must take her to a professional trainer immediately because that would be a very serious problem which needs more help then I an give on the internet.

1. Exercise her more. This is almost always the first step in solving dog behaviour problems. The more tired she gets, the less she will need to play instead of sleep. Brittanys are active dogs especially when they are young.

2. do not give her any physical discipline for biting (tapping her nose etc). Her biting is a physical game, and by touching her nose, she thinks you are playing with her and having fun, so she keeps biting.

3. give her something better to do than bite you. get a few new toys and make sure there are always some around her. but alternate which are available and which are put away because she will ignore them and become bored if the same toys are always near her.

4. try new ways to stop the biting. the key is consistency, if you sometimes allow her to bite then she will never learn. here are some ideas, try them for at least a week in the order I wrote them because the first one is the best usually: when she bites, yelp/cry out like you have been badly hurt (like a dog would yelp if you stepped hard on its tail) and then look at the floor (not at her) for a few minutes, untill she walks over to you not biting. Exagerate how hurt you are, perhaps even whimper a little like a sad puppy if she doesn't seem to notice your pretend sadness. this makes her think that you are not enjoying her 'game' so she should stop eventually. Or when she bites you, take a toy and put it in her mouth. keep sticking it in her mouth whenever she tries to bite, so that all she ever gets is the toy. soon she should give up trying to bite your skin because she knows she cant. Or, if she is getting really out of control, gently but firmly hold the back of her neck in your hand, stare at her eyes (if she looks away from you, especially sideways or downwards, she has understood already, if not, keep looking and say NO once slowly in a low calm voice. do not use your hand to move her head to make her look at you if she doesnt want to). this is where a mother dog would bite a naughty puppy, so it reminds her that you are boss without being hurtful or encouraging the 'game.' but do not do this more than once every day or she will learn to ignore it. for more ideas you can google "bite inhibition" but do not use any methods involving physical punishment, yelling at her, or seem very harsh. (if you have a question on it you can pm me)

5. go to a trainer. if you are unable to stop the biting on your own, you may need a couple private lessons. look for a trainer who uses the 'volhard motivational method' if possible. make sure they do not use harsh discipline (such as yelling or hitting your dog) and answer all your questions for you. whether or not you can fix the biting without a trainer, you should go to group obedience lessons also. brittanys are generally very smart and if you don't exercise their brains by training them, they may design their own 'project' such as chewing your furniture. look for a class specially for puppies if you can, or just take beginer obedience if you have to.

Answer 4

your puppy is biting you rather than her toys is not because of teething. she is playing with you. dogs don't have hands, they use their mouth for everything that would require the use of hands. she is hurting you because they don't understand just like human children and need to be brought to understand what they are doing wrong. its not their fault that as puppies their teeth are very sharp and will dull out once hitting adulthood. if their teeth were dull you might not even complain about her bites. they would feel much softer. it doesn't take a sharp object much pressure to hurt you. the reason she is biting you and not the toys, is her way of bonding with you much the same way a father bonds with his son by throwing a football or baseball around with him. try these 2 solutions ok. first when she wants to play, try taking an old sock and tying it up or something that you can have her play tug of war with. this will put her attention on the item and not your hand. this will help you bond and keep you from getting hurt. second if she does manage to hurt you, try getting a kennel to put her in or find a place to put her such as behind a gate that blocks her off from the rest of the house or in the backyard. change your voice to a tone to let her know you are upset. don't scream or hit her. just let her know you are not happy with what she did and show her where she bit you while doing so. then put her in time out wherever you decide that may be and leave her there for about 30 min to an hour. after a while she will take the hint but don't expect fast results. this is a learned behavior and will take time and much patience.

Answer 5

Place your hand gently over the top of the dogs snout, and gently tuck the puppy's lips against its teeth on both sides with your fingers. Then each time the puppy bites down, it bites its own lips rather than your fingers. That way it learns the relationship between biting and the effects.

Answer 6

If you make a puppy-like bark that sounds like a hurt-type sound, then that should get your puppy to temporarily stop. It's best to think like a dog to figure out how to communicate, sometimes.

Now is the perfect time to enroll in an obedience class. It's much better to address these behaviors before they continue on; your puppy will be teething for a couple of years.

Answer 7

dont play with her then because as of right now your just training her that its alreight to bite you by playing with her...if you play with her every now and then thats fine but when she bites you say NO! and hit her on the noes...not enough to make her hurt for a long time and not so soft that she thinks its by mistake....be the leader...dont take this crap....

and when you play with her and she doesnt bite either give her a ***** treat or if you dont have any a hand full of regular cherriors...small yet a treat to the dog....plus it will lower the dogs clorestilor(sorry)

also if you dont like my ideas theres this show on national geographic chanel called the dog whisper and hes a trainer for dogs that bite and stuff like that!

hope ive helped

Answer 8

blowing in the puppy's nose will definitly help but blow hard it may make her not be able to breathe for a little while about 4-8 seconds besides she is just a puppy. alot of puppys do it while they are young but dont infact dont punish her for biting orelse she will start to dislike you and wont have a good relationship with you a tap on the nose would safice

Answer 9

Wear gloves and each time tell her in a firm voice, "NO!"
Use one toy to play with her and no others and put a name to it, teaching her to focus on that toy only for play. Throw it and teach her to fetch it and call it by name.
Your pup is going through a learning process and it may take several weeks but it will be well worth it in the end!

Answer 10

You DO NOT need to smack, hit or flick your dog. People who need to do that are not willing to take the time to learn to effectively communicate with their dogs. It may be easy and seem to work, but in the long run it will backfire. You want a dog who looks forward to being with you, training with you and sharing it's life with you. Dogs are not people - and since we're the smarter species, it makes the most sense for us to learn to speak their language.

Please don't listen to anything from the "Dog Whisperer." Any person who has any credentials or education in Canine Behavior will tell you that his methods are ineffective and dangerous.

The following information is from http://www.dogdaysusa.com/ in the Behavior Center Area. There is other good info there as well. It's simple and straight to the point.

Bite Inhibition

If you watch a litter of puppies playing, you will notice that they spend much of their time biting and mouthing each other. Because your pup has very sharp teeth and a weak jaw, his harder bites or mouthing hurt his litter mates - so they yelp and refuse to play with him for some time. Soon the pup learns that play time ends when he bites too hard. Because an adult dog has duller teeth but a very powerful jaw, Bite Inhibition (a "soft mouth") is one of the most important lessons your pup can learn while his sharp baby teeth are still in. You and your children should mimic this puppy play behavior in daily life.

There are two phases to training Bite Inhibition:

Step 1: Practice several times daily for 3-4 weeks. (Best for pups up to 12 weeks of age but if you've never done bite inhibition exercises, this step can be used for older pups who have varied mouthing pressure) Allow pup to mouth/playbite. When he exerts slightly more pressure than usual, say "Ouch!" just loud enough that he stops in surprise, and immediately stop playing for a few seconds. Now allow him to mouth again and repeat the "Ouch!" and stop playing steps several times until he ONLY mouths softly. If your pup is not responding to the "Ouch!", simply skip it and just stop playing and/or get up and move away for a minute, then start again. Your pup will quickly learn that fun ends when he mouths too hard.

Step 2: (Only after Step 1 has been practiced for a MINIMUM of 2, and preferably 4 weeks) Now, any and every time his teeth make contact with human skin, say "OUCH!" and immediately stop playing. Get up and leave, and/or ignore the pup for a minute or two. Your pup should now start to believe that humans are very sensitive and cannot stand the incredible pain of any tooth contact to their skin. The point of these bite inhibition exercises is to first teach your pup to have a "soft mouth", and then to teach him that the instant his teeth touch human skin, play time is over. Remember, if your pup doesn't respond to the "Ouch" or seems to get more riled up, just skip it and simply stop playing or interacting in any way for a few minutes.

By the way - I have two rescued American Pitbull Terriers. I used "soft mouth" training on both of them. We can play with toys and know that even if our hands or fingers end up in their mouths, they never apply any pressure. I'm so happy I used this method.