I ordered a puppy but I think they sent a land shark :/ How to stop the constant biting??

[BabySharkDoDoDoDoDo]

She's only 9 weeks old but Christ, the biting.

Not just wanting to chew because of teeth but the giddy biting of the slippers/dressing gown/pj pants and the over excited face lunges. She just tries to bite us constantly. Hands, legs, face, boobs

It bloody hurts!

Everything else puppy related I can deal with and power through but I nwed this to stop asap

Any tips please??

I feel for you OP!! I looked like I’d been taking a knife to my arms until our puppy was about 4.5 months..

we gave toys to chew, chews to chew, sort of bones to chew... but no match for needle-sharp baby teeth.

Pup is now 5.5 months - almost no nipping & teeth feel blunt in comparison.

My advice? Gauntlets and time!

Yeah I second time being key here. There are a few things you can do to discourage it like teaching the 'No' command and rewarding with treats when they stop. There's a trainer on YouTube that I recommend you have a look at called Zak George. He has some videos on chewing. Anything like furniture I used a spray bottle of white vinegar and spritz the places they liked to chew, it's harmless to the dog but they don't like the taste, the smell goes in a day so you may have to keep doing it until the learn to stop chewing the particular object.

Mine was very bitey hence the username in his honour. I just had to keep removing myself which was easier said than done when he was hanging off my jeans leg.

Also watch out for periods where they are getting over stimulated as this can trigger excessive biting so maybe you need to think about whether you are inadvertently hyping your puppy up too much with play and they need an enforced downtime/sleep.

It's really just immaturity- they explore with their mouths, whether they are bored, happy, excited, whatever.

Consistent time outs and distraction unto the phase passes is the key, I think. And don't be afraid to be genuinely stern when they nip you.

*until

I always opted for the kennel mate response - a high pitched yelp and turn away. Worked brilliantly.

It feels like we couldn't walk past my boy without him latching onto a trouser leg/body part when he was a pup. Time-outs and consistency are what worked for us.

Don't yelp. It could actually make it worse.
Keep substituting what you don't want chewed for what you do.
Also consider teething. Frozen carrots or a stuffed Kong can help.
Puppies mouthe. It's how they explore the world. Shame it bloody hurts.

Family members had a terrier Iike this - nightmare! It was a lot to do with overexcitement I think. She wouldn't have registered a simple yelp or turning away. As someone else said, timeouts in a crate or on a house lead were part of the solution.

we used the ankle/trouser/close chasing to our advantage. You have a high value thing (treat or toy) and as you go to leave the room when the ankle biting starts you distract with the treat/toy and slow down to a very slow pace and repeat "heel" or "close" or "watch me"

the slowness reduces the giddyness and the treat distracts, you have to watch your timing with the command, but after a couple of days you should see a good deal of improvement providing you counter the over excitement

It's all about finding their currency, some thrive on attention and reward, some react well to a squawk of pain, others just get worse.

Our two GSDs hated being ignored so the best thing for them was a brief but complete shutdown. ....pup is frolicking on lap, mouthing, poking with paws... as soon as that nip hurts we would say a calm "NO!" or "ahhh" (low and deep) . turn away, fold arms, no chat, no eye contact, no touching at all UNTIL they stop the badness, then you calmly praise, touch, pat and engage
again with total consistency it will only take a couple of days to notice improvement and then you build on that, they grow out of things and everything is hunkydory!

Photo?

Sorry don't want to share as have family on here.

She's just biting so much. She jumped up and bit my 7 yr olds thigh this morning

I feel your pain OP. Mine is ten weeks old tomorrow and I'm her favourite chew toy.

She's booked in for puppy classes from next month (as soon as we could with jabs etc) and the lady assures me that will help. We are also being quite firm but it's like having a particularly bitey cute furry toddler dictator. It's a bloody good job they make them so cute.

Puppies are bitey and in our experience it lasted right up until he was six months. It got less over time but at six months he was still bitey when he was overtired and excited.

The only thing that worked with ours was to stop play immediately. If he jumped up at us, we stopped dead, arms crossed and turned away from him. No attention at all until he had all four paws on the floor. And that included negative attention - we didn't say "no" or "yelp" or do anything like that, we just completely ignored him.

It worked for other negative behaviour too, we just ignored him unless he was doing something dangerous. But we reward for good behaviour. If he's just sitting nicely while I cook, he gets a treat. If he's sat calmly on the sofa, he gets a treat. He then learns that calm, nice behaviour pays (in the form of food) and negative behaviour means he gets ignored. He likes a fuss so has learnt he needs to calm down to get it!

I feel for you OP.

Puppy teeth are needle sharp.

Our puppy is a lab.. up till around 18 - 20 weeks, she would nip / mouth at almost every opportunity - particularly keen on my daughter for some reason.

I found I couldn’t actually stop it, just reduce it. Having chew toys everywhere to hand so I could bat off with one, have frozen carrots & bananas..
Put peanut butter on a plastic toy to make it attractive.

Feed via a snuffle mat - especially good to tire them out when they can’t yet go out for walks.

Do what you can to tire - take out to a park, sit on the bench , go to the station, sit on a bench.

To be honest, these are all limited success.. puppies do mouth & their teeth do hurt. It’s a phase you have to get through (but it’s bloody awful!!!)

Puppies are very bouncy and bitey but they do grow out of it. Its usually a case of firm 'no!' and removing the puppy physically (put then in a different room if you can) until the calm down a bit.

Its a shame when they are like this as they can scare children.

Is she a lab?
Nothing stopped mine from biting and chewing everything and everyone. It started to get better when he was about 6 months.

Our dog is now 15 months but during the bite stage our trainer taught us the ‘tree’ method, we have to stop and stand still every time she did it. They love attention and when realise they are not getting it they stop, that was stage two and stage one was swapping the body part for a toy but it didn’t always work. The two combined worked a treat but she also grew out of it.

I do think all the "methods" used to stop them are just temporary measures until they calm down a bit....

My dog is an adult now but he was the most bitey pup I have ever come across. With the trouser hanging thing I would just stand stock still and ignore him until he let go. It really only happened first thing in the morning and he would wake up before the rest of the family so I was up in plenty of time to allow a few extra minutes to sort him out.

We made a rule that he was not allowed on the furniture and I think that hurt me more than him! I would sit on the floor to play with him - he loved to play fetch from the start - and I would only stroke him when he was calm. If he started to get nippy I would get up and move away until he was calm again.

When he was 6 months old we started to attend puppy class. I was going with a friend with her puppy and we had a 30 minute drive with him on my lap. I was dreading it but after the first class I realised that he had outgrown the nipping and sat happily on my knee for the journey.

They do grow up eventually!

We are trying to swop to a chew toy ASAP the biting starts I bought an antler and that seems to be able to take a lot of punishment!

I have a 15 week old pup and she doesn't really bite us just yet. Well she does try but every single time she tries I put a antler or a puppy bone a toy in her mouth and she seems to have got the message.

When she does "mouth" me a bit, it usually means she needs a poo, so I take her outside and when she comes back in she doesn't really mouth anymore.

They need masses of sleep as well and often instead of "tiring them out" they need to just calm down and have a sleep. I will often put mine to bed if she is overly bitey.

Second the antler - godsend

ours is 5 months old and I nick-named her the Carpet Piranha

She's mid-teething right now so its getting sloooowly better. I feel you though!!