# 8 month old pup. Biting problem.



## OkariXterrum (Jun 14, 2012)

Hello everyone. Me and my fiance just got a 8 month old puppy. We got her from the shelter, and she was so calm there and we agreed she was the one. We still think she is the one, but she has been biting alot lately, and we are unsure of how to tackle the problem. We know she may be teething, and that she needs to chew, so we got her different textured toys so she could have something to chew on. The problem is that shell be chomping on her Kong toy, and the next bite will be on my clothes, or hands, etc. We have trying the yelping method, and a lot of stern no's but nothing changes. If we leave the room to ignore her after saying no, she just starts to bite on our bed.

Tonight she bite my thigh, and my arm pretty hard, and broke skin slightly on my arm. She is obviously in play time mode, and not aggressive mode. We are going running with her tomorrow to drain some of her energy hopefully.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get her to slow down the biting, or how to get her to snap out of her biting mode? Even bitter apple didn't slow her down. 

Any advice will be appreciated.


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## Dright21 (Jun 7, 2012)

1. What breed of dog is it?? 2. What forms of exercise do you use for her?? Though some may say you need to run your dog into the ground, you also need to challenge her mentally as well with training and things like that.


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## frazierplw (Jun 14, 2012)

Four weeks later he was back to his normal, cool GR state.


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## OkariXterrum (Jun 14, 2012)

She's a Collie/Lab mix. We walk at the park and the beach, we take her to dog parks and we have some Kongs with the treats hidden inside (She loves to chew and to find the best way to hold it so she can reach the treat.), and we also do training. She is never in an aggressive mode, but at night time around bedtime, she tends to start this biting frenzy,


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## Dright21 (Jun 7, 2012)

Ok Collie's are herding dogs, so they will nip and snap because that's what they were bred for, that's their job. And your right its not them being aggressive its them letting the cattle know who's boss. The next time she snaps or nips at you, put her in her kennel, then let her out after 5-10 mins. Every time it happens you have to be firm and then put her in the kennel after a month she'll understand the kennel is not where she wants to be. Good Luck and let me know how it goes


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## melundie (Aug 2, 2011)

Don't let your dog's breed excuse bad behavior. Trust me--I have 2 BCs! 

She's still very young, she might just be tired at night and doesn't know how to chill out. My dogs can be like that at times. When I know they're exhausted, I'll just put them in their crates (after they've been out to potty) with a bone or kong, shut out the light and either leave the room or get into bed. They both love their crates and understand that being in the crate means it's time to relax--which they both do.

Please don't use the crate as a punishment. If you do, it definitely won't take your dog an entire month to learn that the crate is BAD. It'll be a hell of a lot quicker than that and then they won't want to go into it-ever. I'm very pro-positive reinforcement, but I do think "punishment" needs to exist when the dog does something bad, like nipping or biting. You have to be consistent. If you don't want your dogs to bite or mouth you, never, ever let them do it. Not even play biting. When ours were younger, if they ever bit us, we quickly and sharply say "no!" or "ouch!" and moved toward them (not pulled away, which many people do) and then simply ignored the dog (ignoring is the "punishment") for 30 seconds to a minute. NOT 5 or 10 minutes. That's WAYYY too long, especially for a young dog. After 5 or 10 minutes your dog will have NO IDEA what they did or why they're still getting punished. Just a sidenote: it'll be more effective if you have your dog on a leash so she can't go anywhere or do anything self-fulfilling while you're ignoring her.


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## Dright21 (Jun 7, 2012)

Your right 5-10 mins is a long time for a puppy but I have a 9month old pup and she was teething and always biting. I didnt mind it until my Fiancee got bit one time and it broke the skin. She has a 9 year old brother so I realized that could seriously scare him if he got bit by the dog so when she bit or tried to bite we would put her in her crate. She still till this day loves her crate and will go into it looking for treats or just to lay down. It was a firm way to say no, thats wrong and thats what our trainer at Petsmart enforced us to do. The leash in the house thing is very effective. We used that for potty training as well. It may all depend the kind of dog, but our pup didnt start disliking the crate, she understood it was the calming down she needed to do when she was in there in order for her to come back out and be where she truly wanted to be.


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## melundie (Aug 2, 2011)

Another suggestion I have is this: If you're playing with your pup and she gets excited and nips you, tell her "no!" ignore for 15-30 seconds or until she visibly relaxes a little bit then do some training with her for about 2 minutes. It'll give her a better outlet for her energy and the training will help her relax from the over-excited state she was probably in when she nipped in the first place.


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## OkariXterrum (Jun 14, 2012)

Thanks for the tips. Ill definitely give it a try. I would love to have a night were she can rest and relax, and I don't get any new piercings lol.


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## Hambonez (Mar 17, 2012)

My pup is still younger than yours - 6 months old - but the first few months of having him home, when he would get overtired he would LOSE HIS MIND. It seriously brought me to tears many times. Starting at about 8pm, he would just become insane, and bite and bite and bite and no amount of ignoring or ouch or any bite deterrent behavior would deter him. I finally figured out that I gave him a rawhide chew just as his overtired whiny behavior was starting, it would keep him busy and happy for about an hour, at which time he was able to go to sleep. You might want to try something to burn that last bit of energy so she can crash out. 

That said - that phase is behind us. He curls up on the couch with us between 8 and 9 and just conks out. He will lead me to the couch to sit with him if I'm still up doing things.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

If your adolescent pup is getting 'cranky' at night, this isn't teething, it's a need to burn off that last bit of energy before bed. Labs can easily have this problem. Before she gets cranky - I imagine this happens about the same time every night - take her for a 10 - 15 min. walk to burn off that energy. If timing and my diagnosis is right, then she'll go to bed and conk out fairly quickly after the walk. If she walks up an hour later, she should still be calm and be reasonable about lying quietly.

As far as nipping on its own, there are some tweaks to the technique... it takes 3 days for some dogs to begin to 'get it' ... and you have to watch carefully for the 'dog apology' -

Tweaks to Bite Inhibition - I just posted this for someone else... (Sticky:The Bite Stops Here ... Using Ouch or Yelp!)
1. When the pup bites, then yelp. It should sound about like what the pup does when you step on its paw...don't step on her paw for a sample . When you yelp, the pup should startle briefly and stop nipping. Praise and pet. SHe'll bite again.
2. When she bites the second time, Yelp. When she stops, praise and pet. SHe'll nip again, although it may be a little gentler. ...
3. When she bites a third time, Yelp (see a pattern?). But this time, turn your back for 15 - 30 secs. If she comes around and play bows or barks, then that is an apology. Accept it, (This is important) praise and pet... and cringe in expectation of the next nip...
4. When she bites the 4th time, Yelp, then leave the area, placing her in a 2 min. time-out. It is better if you can leave, rather than moving her. Then, return and interact. (SHe's still hungry...)
5. When she nips the fifth time, yelp, and leave the area, stopping interaction for now.

Immediately after you yelp (in this case), you should notice that the second nip is a bit gentler... not enough, but a bit.

Dogs need to sleep over night in order to learn their lessons. So, keep doing this for 3 days. By the third day, you should notice significant Bite Inhibition. SHe may still nip, but it will be softer and she won't draw blood. Keep up the training and make sure that everyone yelps.... Very powerful method.

If you learn the technique, then you can apply the "yelp" to other circumstances, also. I believe that "yelp" is "Please don't do that, I don't like it." in dog communication. For example, I used the Yelp method to shape an energetic Tug with very well-defined rules, yelping when my dog broke the rules.


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## ManyRoses (May 28, 2012)

I have been having a similar issue with my pup of 3 months (GSD/Pyrenees cross) and was finding that the "yelp" didn't do anything but get her more worked up! She was also only doing this in specific situations, although for her, it is when walking, rather than just before bed.

She has been improving greatly using the "ignore" technique. I think that it helps because it a) doesn't reinforce the behavior with any kind of attention and b) forces her to calm down a little. I would definitely recommend it! 

Put her on her leash and collar around this time, if you know that she is likely to get over excited. Then, when you get a bite, immediately stand up, put her in a sit, and turn your back to her. Give her no verbal commands, no eye contact, nothing. If she tries to get up, you can use the leash to keep her in her sit, but otherwise, ignore her. After 30 secs - 1 minute, turn back to her, and continue what you were doing, relax, whatever. 

If you haven't had luck with walking out of the room, it may be because she is just too energetic before bed, and turns her attention to something else (the bed) rather than calming down. Using the leash to make her sit forces her to sit in one spot and calm down.

And please don't use the crate as punishment!! The dog will start to associate it with punishment, but then won't be able to tell the difference between "I am being punished" and "Its time to go to sleep" or "I am being left alone" - you may develop other issues as a result. If you really, really wanted to use something like this, get a wire pen with a divider, and an airline crate for sleeping. Use the pen for "time out" and the crate for relaxing.


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## OkariXterrum (Jun 14, 2012)

AI did notice that the yelp method worked one night, but I did not know that it would take around 3 days. We gave her an extra walk in the middle of today, and my fiance says she fell asleep when she got home. Ill give her a final walk and mental games before bedtime tonight. Hopefully she'll be albe to shed that extra energy.


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