Puppy biting clothing

[tulpe]

Another day, another question!!

Ruby's favourite game involves her biting my clothing - not just any flappy bits of cardigan either - she is grabbing my skinny jeans despite there being hardly any excess fabric to grab

I have tried telling her "shame" or "no" and she ignores me. I have tried tempting her with another toy but nothing compares to the sheer joy of biting my clothing apparently

She responds to commands to stop biting furniture/carpets but I am too irresistible

Any advice?

our puppy used to nip things at first - the rational seemed to be that this is a puppys way of getting their siblings to play with them. when you say 'no' how assertive are you being - is it strong grumpy no or weaker one? i think she is trying to play and not getting the message. mind you i had to be quite assertive with her shoe eating - smacked her with it the last time and that stopped her.

i had 4 washfulls of crap on my line once and our puppy took the only thing of value off and chewed it - a jaeger shirt my husband had bought and worn once - this is the man who thinks next is expensive!

When she grabs your clothes say oww very loudly and as if she has just bitten you. Then stand very still,maybe turn away and cross your arms and do not interate with her at all especially no eye contact.

She should learn that when she bit at your clothes all the games stop.

If you watch a litter of puppies, if one does bit them they will yelp and then move away from the offending puppy.

What could happen is that when you stand still she will try really really hard to get you to play with her again and may even start biting chewing more if this is the case say oww again and remove her from you and go away from her. If all the family are consistent she will learn very quickly that the fun stops when she grabs the trousers!

Thanks for your replies.

We are all being assertive with her and doing the "oww" thing. Last night, we started actually leaving the room because she was still continuing to bite even when I turned my back/removed all attention. She soon calmed down.

We had the same issue again this morning and so I repeated the walking out of the room. She seems to have got the message again so presumably it is just a matter of time.

There are times when she clamps on so hard to my clothing that I have to forcibly open her jaws to get her off. I was worried about doing this but I can't see any other way of removing her. If I pull away, she just pulls harder in the opposite direction! And then of course you get into a tug of war game which she perceives as play - no matter how cross I am getting.

Thanks again. These pups are such hard work! It's like she's already in the terrible twos stage!!

It will take time - things will not change overnight - think how many times you have to tell the DC to put their clothes in the wasning basket!

But if you are consistent things change quicker. Also sometimes being vigilant and stopping the behaviour before it happens is good. Can you guess when she will do it, when she is bored? when you sit down, when you are busy doing other things.

puppy will get the hang of it long before dc put clothes in washing basket, ime

Minimu - I think general over-excitement is the cause. She often begins by "mouthing" my hands. Allegedly, it is wise to let them softly mouth you as you don't want to inhibit their bite.......is that correct? And I give her lots of praise when she nuzzles and mouths softly too. The soft mouthing doesn't always progress into biting - she seems to enjoy the mutual adoration which comes from when she softly mouths me as she gets lots of fuss as a result. However, if I shouldn't be encouraging this then please let me know!

This morning she bit me very hard on my arm - despite having two layers on, she pierced the skin . I immediately put her in time out. I am trying the time out method as she is so hyper when she is biting that she can't possibly listen to anything I am saying. I had to do this twice this morning and then she got the message If she is less hyper then I distract her with a toy. Is this sending a confused message by using the two methods?

I am trying to do a short 10 minutes "skills practice" with her each morning before DCs get up. She is always desperate to see me which is fine but I don't want her all hyped up first thing because that's when she seems to bite the most. It seemed to make sense to give her attention in a more controlled way. Today we started working on "fetch" which she really enjoyed (reward for sitting nicely before throwing object, reward for returning to me - whether she brought the object with her or not!)

What do we think, oh Doggie Gurus? I am feeling as needy as Ruby for reassurance that I am doing everything right

Minimu will, of course, give you more extensive advice but what Ruby needs to learn is called bite inhibition. At the moment she has no idea that biting you causes pain - that's why you need to say 'Ow!'. There are then 2 schools of thought: either you take a zero tolerance approach and allow no biting or mouthing whatsoever, or you teach her to inhibit her bite by letting her know which bites hurt and which don't. You do need to bear in mind though that she only has little puppy teeth right now, and also that what may be acceptable for you may not be for a small child or a visitor. So maybe zero tolerance would work better for you.
In any behaviour you are trying to stop, it often gets worse just before it gets better, so don't be discouraged by a sudden escalation of biting. Imagine you've put a coin ina vending machine abd got nothing in return - you might press the 'return coin' button a few times and then, if nothing happens, start pressing it frantically before you give up & walk away.
Dogs are exactly the same - except Minimu's can work vending machines on their own
Whatever you decide, you need to be totally consistent as a family, otherwise it will be very difficult.
HTH

The 'ow' thing really worked for us with our lab. Helped we think by the fact that we went away around this stage and she went to stay with the girl who takes her for us and there are lots of other dogs and I think they helped train her too.

Hi Bella!

Hope you & yours are well

We are well thanks Bella. Hope you are too.

Tulpe, my 17 week old has been a clothes biter too, but is getting much better - yesterday he didn't bite any of my clothes or try to chew my feet a single time, hooray . He did pee on the floor though, unfortunately .

We do the 'ow' and turning round thing. I put a bit lot of effort into teaching 'leave it' too, and he will usually let go of whatever clothes he's trying to rip if I say that firmly. It's easy to teach: play tug of war with something, then wave a treat near dog and say 'leave it' as he lets go of whatever he was holding in his mouth. Quicker with a clicker - click as he opens his mouth.

More sage advice Thanks all.

Will try the Tug of War/leave it scenario with her.

I have tried the "Ow" but perhaps my yelping isn't as dominant sounding as it needs to be .

Bella - your so right about levels of acceptability. In light of that, we will take a zero tolerance approach.

Regarding clicker training......do you literally by the gadget and click every time they do a good thing? Or do I need to attend some major clicker training sessions??!!

I mean "buy" of course, not by

Read this thread and one or more of these books and come on here to ask minimu what to do when you get stuck

But the basic way to get started is to click and give the dog a treat a few times until it's clear she realises that a click means a treat's coming. Then click as she does things you like. For example when she sits, click as her bottom hits the floor, and treat. When she jumps up, wait for her to get down and click as her feet hit the floor and treat. When she's biting your jumper, click as she lets go, and treat. Etc. When she's doing the action reliably you introduce the word 'leave it', 'sit', 'off' whatever.

But defer to minimu who may well arrive and give some proper advice.