How do i stop biting? Immediately?

[ThisIsGospel]

Absolutely had enough. Pup is 5 months old and a spaniel mix. He will not stop mouthing, grabbing clothing, nipping hands, biting skirts. Constantly.

Have tried firm no. Putting him on floor. Yelping. Ignoring it (bloody hard with needle teeth knawing)
I even squirted him with water and he just rejoiced in trying to bite the stream of water

I have kids and it was dealable when he was 8 weeks old. 20 months bot so much and it's getting unbearable.

[EllenCarver]

Yes positive interruptors can be useful but I’m guessing the clue that the “firm no” ISNT being used as a positive interruptor is in the word “firm”.

What generally happens with the “firm no”ers is that when it doesn’t work to PREVENT the behaviour, they escalate to shouting and worse.

So I stand by my opinion that the OP needs to find a decent trainer who can show her how to teach a POSITIVE interruptor for management, while at the same time teaching her how to stop the behaviour happening by giving the puppy something else to do instead.

[adaline]

You don't need a trainer or behaviourist for what is normal puppy behaviour.

I think whatever technique you use will work because it's a phase they grow out of. Mine responded to toys being shoved in his mouth but he still tried to nip and bite until his adult teeth grew in. The toy-shoving was just something we did to save our clothes for a few months!

He's ten months now and doesn't nip unless he's very over-excited. And now an "ah-ah" interrupter stops him and he goes and gets a toy instead. But you could easily replace "ah-ah" with "no" or "toy" or "egg" - the word itself is irrelevant, what matters is consistency!

Our trainer always tells the tale of a collie who was trained to do agility with the words salt and vinegar meaning left and right! In other words, dogs don't speak English so the actual words used are irrelevant to successful training.

[Vallahalagonebutnotforgotten]

Ok the word "NO"!

Training a sit or a down is completely different from training "No"

Teaching sit or down is asking the dog to do a behaviour eg sit.

Saying No is not asking the dog to NOT do anything - it is asking the dog to stop doing something. Dogs are amazing and very clever but to ask them to do nothing is quite hard for them to understand!

A positive interrupter will ask the dog to look at you,come towards you or focus on you so again very different from the No.

ALLdogs learn by repeating rewarded behaviour (science no dispute on this at all!) so training the dog to stop any behaviour eg sniffing, pulling, biting, barking is an impossible concept to do. However teaching a dog to DO something is dead easy.

So back to the original thread saying No will take the puppy years and years to understand what is expected of them eg stop biting, it might mean stop standing because that is what they are doing at the time, it might mean stop feeling happy etc.

But to teach the dog to bite on a toy is really easy to do and the game stops if you do not bite on the toy.


No or anything that is teaching nothing is a waste of time for dogs-they may pause because of your tone of voice but they will not Learn anything hence the need for more no and in a louder voice.

[BiteyShark]

I have no idea why some people can't accept that others do it differently. I did timeouts and didn't use a 'no' but equally if others find an interrupter works for them great.

[EllenCarver]

Well said Valhalla.