mouthing

[HotSince82]

Hi i have a twelve month old husky/Akita cross.
Shes a lovely puppy, full of energy, still at the chewing stage!

She has a very friendly temperament, never barks, growls and has never nipped or bit, however she is permanently mouthing me. It doesn't hurt but is annoying that she will grab my hand/wrist numerous times a day.

I have tried a firm 'no' and a yelp on the advice of other husky owners.

Is this just something she will outgrow (like chewing) or is there a way to persuade her to stop?

She mouths me for attention and also when I stroke her head.
Its as if she permanently wants to play which I'm sure is normal for puppies but when will it end?
What can I do?

Thanks for any help.

Following as we are having the exact same problem with our 14 month old rottweiler.

Have you tried removing her and ignoring her completely when she does it?

When she does mouth I would stand up, ignore and move away. No interaction at all until she is calm and repeat. Also you could redirect her onto a toy rather than you.

It is annoying though!

I'll tell you what we are trying/have tried with the rottweiler (would be very grateful for others opinions of whether this is right).

We started with the standard "yelp" and "stand up and ignore" her but tbh this didn't seem to be a big enough disincentive and she just carried on.

The lady who runs the rescue (she is a foster dog) suggested holding her by the collar so she can't bite, putting a calming hand on her back and saying sternly "NO BITE" then holding her like that without any interaction/eye contact until she calms down. Great in principle but in practice it ended up either with wrestling her (which is exactly what she wants!) or physically dominating her which i don't really agree with.

What we're now trying (early days so can't say if it works) is giving her a proper time out by leaving the room/putting her out of the room for 60 seconds. Issues with this are that you need to do it immediately after the bite incident which can be difficult and also if you lure her out of the room she feels tricked and her recall then goes to pot as she doesn't trust you.

Something else which we're trying is timing a training session for the time that she often goes mental (8pm seems to be murder hour for some reason) to redirect her energy.

As i say, any thoughts on these methods would be gratefully received.

I did a couple of things. Initially time out when mouthing but now my puppy has his adult teeth he gets a No as a warning then if he bites again I hold him and say No again more firmly and if he persists he gets put in a timeout. I have also started saying No if mouthing when playing and then offer a stretched out hand which he will lick and he gets a good boy.