Puppy ruining clothes

[lulu2]

My 9 week old lab puppy loves to bite onto our sleeves or trouser legs and pull on them.
We have tried to keep still and not reward him with attention but we have to get him to let go of clothing.
What s the best way to deal with this please?

[digerd]

At 9 weeks you must give him an alternative to get his teeth into, like a play toy. When I had a litter of 7 Westie pups, from 6 weeks I was walking in slow motion as had 4 hanging on to one trouser leg and 3 on the other. My lace up boots were a definite NO NO to wear.
There are some play toys which he would like better. The best I found was a rope style with knots each end and tough fringing which waggled. For your big pup - compared to little Westies- it must be an appropriate size and toughness.
Good luck

[punter]

Agree with digerd, spent many hours standing like a statue while lab puppy shredded the ends of my jeans (leggings are better). When you offer him/her the chewing toy do lots of praise when they take it so they think they have made the 'correct' decision. Also I found that removing myself from the room for just a few minutes (again and again if necessary) means they lose interest. Although this is difficult if we have several people around and they just go from one to another.
They do stop - eventually.

[lulu2]

Thanks for help. It's difficult when he hangs off my dd's school skirt.
I guess keep doing what we are doing and not rewarding this behaviour with attention.

[littlewhitebag]

We were told by the puppy trainer to hold back some of their kibble and use this to train the pup during the day. The way she told us to stop them jumping and nipping at clothes and feet was to distract by throwing a few pieces of kibble away from you so the pup stops biting and gets the reward for stopping. When you do this don't engage in any eye contact or discussion with the dog - as little reaction as possible is best. Our clothes and nerves were in tatters prior to getting this advice but it worked well and she stopped it quickly.

[littlewhitebag]

We were also advised not to play tug of war type games with her until she had stopped doing this. Have plenty of allowed chew toys to swap in. Our pup is 9 mths now and only chews her designated chew toys or bones.

[DeepRedBetty]

Have lots of raggedy tuggy toys and always swap her onto them the moment she starts. Praise her when she's chewing them, quietly remove her mouth from anything you don't want chewed without rewarding her with any voice or game.

And only wear jumble sale level clothes when you're with her! I've got a truly disgusting old coat for when I'm working with puppies.

[lulu2]

Thanks all, looks like we will all be wearing our oldest clothes for a while! We do try and not react but sometimes it hurts!