Puppies and Nipping

[SarahJinx]

Evening ladies

Our Chocolate Lab Leah is 13 week. We've not had the best start with her, I was hospitalised for a week just after getting her so all of our early plans went out the window. Anyway, she's been a nipper since day one which we expected. The kids have reacted pretty badly though so for now we're keeping her separate from them in order to build their confidence with her and to try to avoid getting her over excited. However, her nipping is constant now, when petting her or if she's following me, or jumping up and nipping at the kids. Its getting worse not better and I am getting to the end of my tether because it bloody hurts and its so stressful. Can anyone offer any advice? We're going to start training in the next few weeks.

Really though the difference between mouthing and biting is the intent...mouthing is only softer if they've learnt to do it softer.

Basically, puppies bite and it bloody hurts, it might even draw blood.

That's all still within normal for a puppy.

Evenings tend to be worse, like how you get that witching hour with toddlers before bedtime.

I'm not a big believer in yelping TBH, it just excites an over excited puppy more.

Ideally you want to be removing attention while she's trying to wrestle with you, looking away, crossing arms if need be while at the same time really overacting the engagement the second her teeth are on sonething appropriate like a toy.

Usually I'd suggest putting her to bed if she's like that in the evening, but as she's been alone an awful lot is be kind of loathe to at this point, but it's something to consider once she's more integrated into the family, they get overtired and annoying...again, think toddler.

I take your points tabula she's snapping at me rather than the mouthing we usually have. And barking. I'm not going to put her to bed for the reason you give so I have her in the room just loosely hooked up on her leash like a time out for a few minutes? I know that this is over excitement and I will ride it out for as long as it takes. I'm going to ease her in with just me in the evenings to get this out of the way. And then intervals on the day with the kids for now. Does that sound ok? The toddler analogy is a great one.

It's difficult to advise without seeing how you are with each other. One person might see aggression where another person would see playfulness. Tabulah's right - puppies can be very rough. It sounds to me like you could both do with some training. Does your vet practice have any behaviourists you could see? If you google dog training in your area you might find someone who would come out and see how you interact with each other and give some practical advice.

Have you done any basic training? Insisting that she sits before you give her a treat will help her learn to sit on command at other times. Labradors are very food focuses and very intelligent so I it usually isn't too difficult to get them to behave.

You need to get a handle on this if she's going to have lots of different people coming in to look after her while you're at work.

just loosely hooked up on her leash like a time out

Why the leash? I don't understand. Why can't you just ignore her?

Can she get in the sofa yet? If she can you just keep with the down command. If she can't then you have no issue. Just lift your feet into the sofa, keep the rest of the room puppy friendly (ie nothing around she would be told off for chewing) and ignore her.

Associating the leash with punishment isn't a good idea. The leash is supposed to be a fun, great, exciting thing that represents a walk.

Ok no leash. She can get onto the sofa and she's relentlessly just on her back legs biting and snapping then frenzied barking. It's impossible to ignore. She does sit with a treat and lay down with a treatbut she's just in a frenzy and has been since the minute I brought her up and this is how she was before. Manic.

I'd sit on the sofa (feet up off the floor so out of the way of teeth) with a tug toy in my hand. Play tug until the she lets go, then chuck it across the room. Then play tug again, throw it again, tug, fetch, tug, fetch...

All can be done while not moving from the sofa, while watching tv and with very little effort.

It sounds like she's desperate for your attention. If she's been separated and on her own a lot that is understandable.

Once she is settled and part of family life, she'll be more confident that she will always get attention from you when she needs it, so eill be mire content and calm. She may well grow into that "chocolate box image" you imagined.

At the moment she thinks she needs to work for your attention, that it's given sparingly and she's often emotionally "punished". So she's desperate for any and all attention she can get.

The more positive attention you give her, the less she will need.

This was exactly how she was before I made the decision to separate her. That's what's worrying me. I've just taken her outside and then to bed, it's been a horrible evening bar a couple of lovely cuddles, she Doesn't want the toys she only wants my skin. Everything you've said makes sense Fate though and the only way is forward.

She's trying to play with you - manic biting, barking and I'm guessing throwing herself everywhere?

It's how puppies play with each other and you haven't yet taught her how to play with humans.

You'll not solve it in a night, but it is just attention seeking play, it's horrible while it lasts, but it's just what puppies do till they work out what you do want them to do.

Thats exactly is tabula. How can I help her? Just ride it out?

Our dpup is always more cuddly on a morning.

I get up around 6, take her out then have a cuddle on the sofa. When dh gets up he gives her a cuddle while he has his coffee.

When she was in her bity phase, as soon as she started we out her down. If she jumped up, we avoided eye contact and put her back down. When she was calmer we cuddled her again.

The same when we played. If she started biting. It's stopped. Minimal interaction. Until she calmed down.

Because of the situation you are in, this will take you longer. As po says she thinks she needs to work for attention. This is how puppies get attention.

As she has got older she has learnt how nice gentle cuddle and gentle play is and that she gets far more attention when she sticks to gentle play.

We are very hands on with our pup all the time. When we come in we both take time to play with her, cuddle her etc after she has been to the toilet. If she appears by our feet, while making a coffee, we will pick her up and give her a cuddle. That's getting a bit harder now as she is getting bigger.

She gets lots of attention all the time. She doesn't have to work for it, but knows that biting stops the attention.

Also now she isn't biting she gets more attention from the kids.

Some evenings with dpup were exhausting. But now it's enjoyable.

Thanks phillipp

2 years ago, with our rescue pup, I tried everything suggested on puppy forums. Every single tactic. Nothing worked. Not a thing. Some of the suggestions (like yelping) made it far worse.

We have had pups before including one very mouthy one. With him, I thought it was never going to end. And suddenly, one day, I realised.. it had. But this last pup, she was worse even than him. But same thing... Time passed and one day... I realised she hadn't nipped anyone for a while...

She still sometimes nips me and one of the kids (her two favourite people) in the garden, occasionally But we tell her off, or distract her. She stops. She rarely does it in the house.

She was also a nightmare to toilet train, despite all my experience with dogs and never having had a pup that wasn't totally toilet trained within a week or two of having them... She ended up taking 7 months.

When she was a pup we despaired. Now she is a lovely dog and brings a lot of joy to everyone.

The moral of all this is - sometimes, they just take time.

Excellent post Joffrey

She ended up taking 7 months. [to toilet train]

My nearly 8 month old pup still has accidents.

She's also still very mouthy and will chew anything she gets her paws on

When we first for her we told the children to expect this kind of puppy behaviour to last until 12 months old. I'd actually expected her to have calmed by 6-9 months but wanted to set realistic expectations in the children so over-estimated. I've recently started amending this to "she'll be calmer by next summer" (which will be more like 18 months old).

My son is desperate for her to start helping him go to sleep by curling up on his bed at bedtime, like our last dog did. I had expected her to be there by now. But she needs to be calmer and not chewing before I'll let her in the children's bedrooms.

So agree with Joffrey, all dogs are have unique personalities, some take longer to grow up than others. But they all get there in the end.

Thats exactly is tabula. How can I help her? Just ride it out?

You sort out attention seeking behaviour by firstly giving attention. Your pup needs to be given it freely and whenever requested.

Set up a toy box. Use loads of different things. We use empty squashed plastic bottles, cardboard boxes she can rip up, soft toys she's allowed to destroy, sticks, tennis balls, football's, old baby rattles... as well as hard dog toys, tug ropes, chugs with frozen peanut butter inside. You need a massive variety and keep changing things (we raid the recycle bin and charity shops for replacing stuff for the dog toybox).

Then teach the dog that human play means a toy. He excited about the toy. Get her to chase it in your hands (left hand, swap to right hand, left, right, and so on). Make out it's great thing. Move on to tug games and reward training to "drop". Start teaching "fetch" (reward training again), just a few feet away. You need to redirect all of her attention seeking into actively playing with a toy. She then learns that she gets attention from you and the kids by playing with a toy.

This then helps for redirecting mouthing and biting. Don't forget she also needs cuddle attention, belly runs and stroking - these help her learn to calm down. And training attention - don't give a treat until she sits, we teach her "nicely" too (not grabbing at the offered treat)

So today a male friend came over (two adult labs) a loud no/ow from him worked everytime with her but not from me. So I'm practising. I'm letting her mouth a lot with me, and trying no when she gets too much, I think it was fate suggested that. I'm ignoring the manic stuff and stopping play. She nipped dd quite hard today (pierced skin) and dd was just sat on my lap quietly. Ds got one too as he was stroking her, but he took it better. Tonight I'm going to lay on the sofa as you suggested and we'll see how it goes.

And just to say too, she gets loads if positive attention from me. When I'm with her in her space she's on my lap or we treat train with loads of cuddles and stroking, we play with her toys and she has my sole attention as its just her and me there.