# Lab puppy bites way too much. How to stop?



## Bennieficial (Jun 18, 2012)

I have a 12 week old lab puppy. I've only had him for about 2 weeks. He's at that stage where he puts ANY and EVERYTHING in his mouth and tries to swallow it. And he also constantly bites. I can't barely even touch him anymore without him trying to bite me everytime. He never used to do this when I first got him. He even bit me in the face while we were playing and made my face bleed. I've tried everything. I try yelling stop everytime he's biting on something, and swap by putting a toy in his mouth. But he'll drop that 5 secs later and go back to biting the object. It is also the same with biting me. I'll swap, he play with the toy, then go back to biting me. I've also tried ignoring and stop showing him attention when he really bites hard, but he'll just attempt to follow me to bite me some more, or give up and go bite some furniture. How can I teach him that biting is bad? I don't know what else to do


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## NozOnyCalAur (Jun 6, 2012)

My 12 week old pup also does this. I have since puppy proofed my house, there is nothing on the floor that she's not supposed to play with. So there is nothing there she can pick up and swallow. Outside on walks, she likes to pick up rocks and sticks, or her leash, she carries them but doesn't swallow. Because I'm afraid she'll swallow, we're doing the 'Give'. She picks up something I immediately place a smelly treat in front of her nose, she drops what she has and goes for the treat. I say, 'Give,' when she drops the object.

On biting: Did you try everything in this sticky: The Bite Stops Here. It does take time. I've also had my pup for 2 weeks and she's still mouthy and I don't expect her to stop being mouthy until 5 months at the earliest. I also come to discover that my pup is more mouthy (and often painful to me) when she's needing something. So full fill all her needs first, food, water, potty, and probably needs a nap.

The chewing on things, furniture, etc is boredom. How many toys does your pup have? My pup is on a weekly toy schedule, she only gets her lamby on Monday, dragon on Tuesday, and so on. So when Monday rolls around, she treats the lamb like she's never seen it before. I also give my pup some cheap toys like empty soda bottles, lid, ring and label removed, or I gave her the extra lids to my Gladware stuff. Make sure the pup is mentally stimulated as well as physically. I spread my pup's food all over the floor, hide treats under her toys, pillows, furniture. Take a muffin pan, put a treat in each cup, then cover the treat with a tennis ball, now your pup has to figure out how to get the treat out.

At 12 weeks yelling stop isn't going to work. I use a short, "Eh,eh," when my pup is doing something I don't want her to do. I won't even begin to use the word, "No," for another month. I have gathered all this information from reading books, "Other End of the Leash," is my favorite, "Idiots Guide to Positive Training," and "Puppies for Dummies," and reading the posts on this forum. There is a wealth a knowledge here and I'm thankful for it.


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

Labs pups are piranhas with fur . My Lab drew blood on us until she was over a year old, and finally outgrew it! But we were bad trainers then, inconsistent. The Bite Stops Here should help if you're consistent. I might add a timeout--pop the puppy into another room (puppyproofed of course), because they just get so excited that they have to taste everything.


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## 3doglady (Jul 31, 2011)

Lab puppies are very mouthy and bitey. With training, similar to what you're doing (not necessarily the yelling part), like swapping a toy for your hand, yelping - like you're hurt, eh-eh, and walking away, you should be able to teach them bite inhibition by about 5 months old. They tend to continue to have accidental skin/tooth contact periodically, but it will not be the norm and it will not be as hard. NozOnyCalAur had some great ideas about hiding food to re-direct them, empty soda bottles. I would only add, they will enjoy one or two ice cubes a day as well.

Read The Bite Stops here and hang in there.


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## bonesygirl (Mar 2, 2012)

Agree with everything already said. My lab's almost nine months, but she was a monster at that age. I couldn't touch her either. I would say ouch twice, and if she didn't respond, I would step on the other side of the baby gate. It took a bit of time, but she figured it out. I found consistency to be very important.


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