# How to stop puppy biting?



## Eleven13 (Feb 7, 2014)

Hey everyone,

My girlfriend and I recently got a pug/beagle, and she just turned 3 months old.

She's a great puppy overall; she is house training well, she loves people, she loves other dogs, and she thankfully isn't a huge barker. 

However, she gets *very* nippy when she gets playful and excited, and we can't figure out how to stop it. When she is calm and when she isn't very hyper, she generally is extremely sweet or will just gently nibble or gnaw on your fingers. But when she gets very hyper she tends to chomp and can draw blood if she gets a good bite.

We have been told to try and ignore her when she does this, but for instance I was in shorts today and she began getting rowdy and nipping, so I stood up and crossed my arms to ignore her but she then proceeded to bite my calf and ankles which makes it hard to stand my ground in the ignoring department.

We've also read that picking her up and placing her on her side for a few seconds will calm her, but this can have the opposite effect and she just gets even more hyper.

She also gets extremely nippy when putting her harness on or her jacket for the cold weather.

We are trying to keep the crate as her "happy place" and not use it for punishment, but recently we've had to use it briefly a few times just to calm her down. Ideally I would not like to make this a go-to discipline tactic, but I really have no idea how to approach this. 

I know that she is just a baby and she is in the teething stage, but is there anything we could do to train her not to bite us like that?

Thank you for any advice!


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## kathnewb (Feb 3, 2014)

I hate just directing people to a video, but Emily Larlham is a really great trainer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c77--cCHPyU 

My Australian Shepherd did the same thing, almost exactly, and I used her methods. He hasn't play bit since he was maybe, maaaybe, 5 months old with the exception of me egging him on to see if he has a herding instinct, and that's just me being an idiot. With the harness and jacket, I would probably do the same approach. In the first training session, reach toward her with it, if she doesn't react, she gets rewarded. Do that a few times if she doesn't respond well, and the next step would be to touch her with the harness or jacket. Next, put a leg in, etc. I think it's important to mark the behavior you want with a clicker or a phrase, so if you're not familiar with clicker training, that would be a good thing to look into. Also, you could look up some videos on 'capturing calmness.' I'm not sure how familiar you are with training, but I've had a lot of success with my wild Aussie using capturing. He now has a "relax" command, which he actually finds really rewarding, and it makes my life a lot easier. 

It sounds like you are doing the right thing by ignoring the bad behavior as reprimanding her for it won't solve the problem. Putting her in the crate for a bit could be effective if all else fails, but I think this option would only really help you not get bit. I don't think this would deter her from biting you because, if I'm not mistaken, you would have to pick her up immediately and get her in there within a few seconds for her to understand why she is being crated. Honestly, I don't know if you could put her in quickly enough for it to make sense. I was taught in the training program I attended that a reward needs to be delivered within 3 seconds max after a behavior for the connection between behavior and reward to be made. 

As far as laying her on her side goes, that sounds a lot like a dominance hold/dominance down/some sort of dominance exercise. My vet told me to do this to one of my puppies years ago, before I started training dogs, and it only created problems between the dog and I. She became slightly aggressive and fearful from these exercises. I personally do not agree with training that uses intimidation. I might just not be familiar with laying a dog on it's side though... Regardless, I think a dog can easily misinterpret something like this, especially when they're feeling playful. When I first started teaching training classes, I would put smaller dogs on their backs in my lap, if they were comfortable with it, to teach "settle" the way my employers taught it (by rubbing a slow circular motion on the dogs chest and chanting settle.) I still don't know if there is any merit to that method of teaching "settle" though, because I never saw it work. I have never seen it taught that way anywhere else.

Hopefully I've made some sense. If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I will gladly elaborate.


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## CobbersMom (Jul 30, 2013)

I had a Tasmanian Devil Puppy when I first got Cobber. I still have pictures of my hands and arms practically flayed of all flesh from him, just to remind myself if I ever think of getting another puppy  I got some great advice from the forums. First piece of advice -- become the most boring, slow-moving human of all time. Every fast movement of any type will just set off that need to bite/mouth, so move like you're made of frozen molasses. It's not a lot of fun - I really wanted to play with my puppy, but that just made him bite all the more. As far as keeping your ankles and shins safe, I was taught to play red-light/green-light. As soon as the problem starts, attach the pup's leash to some immovable object (tree, chair, fence,) and get out of range. Then turn around and ignore until the pup settles. Turn back and reward. If the biting starts back up, step out of range and turn away again, etc. Eventually, they start to get it. I did end up using Cobber's crate somewhat. When he was overly tired and having a puppy meltdown (think babies and toddlers who refuse to take a nap even though they really need one), I would very happily scoop Cobber up and say "Crate time" in an upbeat happy voice, whisk him into the crate and walk away. 19 times out of 20, he'd fall asleep because he needed a nap. It wasn't ever meant as a punishment, just a place for settling and nap time. If you are anywhere near an ex-pen you've set up indoors or outside, you can whisk him into that and walk a way for a few seconds until he calms down. It's an ongoing process, and keep in mind that the puppy will grow out of it after awhile. I remembe how hard it was to keep that in mind as I was getting bitten over and over (it friggin hurts!).

Good luck! Remember, be slow and boring. If you can leave his leash on him then you don't have to go near his head to put it on and remove it for every trip outside, same with the harness.


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## doxiemommy (Dec 18, 2009)

I agree with not using the crate as punishment. We have a separate area. We have the laundry room baby gated off, and, when our puppy nips and won't respond, we put him in the laundry room for a quick 30 second-1 minute time out.
But, before we get to that point, we would first say OUCH really loudly when he nipped, and then offer a toy. If he chose to play with that toy and not go back to nipping, we'd praise him like crazy. If he chose to nip after that, we'd say OUCH again, and whisk him off to time out.
The leash idea mentioned above works, too. The point of the time out, whether it's a place you put the puppy, or whether you leash the puppy somewhere and you leave the area, is that contact and play ENDS with the human when they nip. They're so social, and they want that human contact, so having that contact taken away for a minute or so can be very powerful.

And, the biggest thing for us is that it takes longer than you'd think to do away with the nipping. Most people are expecting it to be a few days, a week or so. For our first puppy it was three-four weeks. With our second pup, it was closer to two and a half weeks, but, our new pup, he's taking awhile. It's been a few weeks and it's getting better, but, he still has his nippy times.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

I agree with Doxie!

You might Search the Forum and Google "Bite Inhibition" for more suggestions about the OUCH method.


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