# Stopping nipping/snapping from a tenacious corgi puppy



## ayln (Dec 23, 2012)

I've already read The Bite Stops Here, but unfortunately I've tried a lot of what was written already and it doesn't seem to be helping. 

She's stopped playing with fingers and for the most part toes, but she's still nippy and snappy towards me when I reach to pet her or touch places she doesn't like to be touched, such as paws. If she gets into a mood where she does not want to be picked up, she will bite my hands and fairly hard at that. Obviously the ignoring method would not work here, since she'll learn that if she bites hard, mom stops what she's doing. I just keep on doing what I need to do, but it still hurts! How can I get her to stop the biting, and/or tolerating being picked up and touched?

Sometimes when she gets excited she will snap at fingers and toes (and face), as in she will close her mouth or just put her mouth lightly over whatever it is she's snapping at. Occasionally the nips will be harder but they are EXTREMELY fast, like split second fast, so it's nearly impossible for me to yelp at the right time. As for yelping, I'm sure I'm not doing it right as she doesn't seem to care, though my vet taught me how to do a "POP" sound that does seem to startle her and make her stop.

I try redirecting with toys but she gets bored of her toys really fast, OR she goes for the hand that's holding the toy. Crossing hands and ignoring doesn't work because for the most part she doesn't mind me not actively playing with her, but she does mind if I leave her alone. She also does not "apologize" in the way Dunbar describes; if I leave her playpen she will lie down on the side where I left and then look kind of sad, but she won't lick my wound, so to speak. In this case, does that mean I did it wrong, and she doesn't get why I left? Should I just forgo the yelping altogether and just leave the pen, since she doesn't really respond to the ignoring/yelping?


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## Amaryllis (Dec 28, 2011)

I'd just leave the pen for a minute. She'll learn that this behavior ends play time.

As for the touching of paws and picking up, you need to desensitize her to these things. She's clearly very uncomfortable with them and that's not going to get better on its own.


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## blenderpie (Oct 5, 2012)

Here's a video on desensitizing your puppy to touch in addition to the bite stops here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c77--cCHPyU


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