Another puppy biting thread SOS!

[Retrievemysanity]

Feeling so low and worn down today. We have an 18 week old golden retriever pup who we’ve had since 8 weeks old. First week was fab but then the biting started. It ramped up from 10 weeks but we did see some improvement a couple of weeks ago although things have gone backwards and now it feels worse than ever. She bites all of us and other people so it’s not restricted to just me or DH. Bloke at the park even commented that her teeth were a lot sharper than his 5 month old pup’s!

We’ve been using the Easy peasy Puppy Squeezy book which says to say ‘too bad’ and remove yourself from the situation for a bit but it doesn’t seem to be making much impact. A dog trainer also advised that we do this and said it’s probably teething related so we’ve carried on but it just feels like we are getting nowhere.

We’re on the dog training and advice support group on FB but the unit on there says it’s not teething, it’s attention seeking and not to ignore but redirect the biting with a toy. I always try and redirect with a toy before the bite happens but sometimes I’m not quick enough or she will move her head around the toy to get me.

We wear wellies in the house now to protect our ankles. So far this doesn’t deter her but at least it doesn’t hurt.

She has frozen carrots, fridge carrots, yak chews, pizzles, ears, lickimat, snufflemats. You name it, she’s got it! Spoke to the breeder who says it’s not normal and needs sorting before something bad happens. This has really stressed me out. I can’t think of anything else I can do. It doesn’t help that we are open plan and she has the run of the kitchen/diner although there is a pen she can go in but she barks continually in there unless she’s being fed.

I know she is teething as she’s lost a few already and if someone could assure me that in a few weeks this’ll resolve itself then that’d be great but I’ve heard lots of conflicting things from people on this point. All other things (house training, basic commands, eating etc) seem to be ok.

I’m so worried. I have 2 DD’s one has SEN, I got a retriever with her in mind because all I read said what lovely natures they have but this has terrified my DD I don’t think the other pups from the litter are like this and met the mum a few times and she’s lovely. Dog trainer thinks our pup is a lovely, soft, calm pup from what she’s seen (outside only) and to be fair, she is quite a calm girl on the whole it’s just like she can’t help herself with the biting. Can anyone help/reassure me?

A 10 week old puppy will have sharper teeth than a 5 month old puppy - the are like knives!

This will pass and is perfectly normal. You have not got a dog that is aggressive you have have got a perfectly normal puppy.

Is there a time that your puppy tends to be more bitey?

Puppies do need to chew as teething is really really painful for them. They have 42 teeth to come through is a few months and it hurts them.

It sounds like you do have lots of things for them to chew on and that is great. Encourage her to chew on them.

If she is just over wrought and over stimulated tired etc biting is often worse so if you can prempt the situation that can help eg before she is too tired stop play and have a calm activity.

This will pass honestly - hang on in there

@PollyRoulson she’s 18 weeks now so 4 months old. Thanks for this though, appreciate your message. When do you think I should see an improvement? No, there isn’t a time that she bites, it can be any time of day, in any situation. Even if she’s lying calmly on the rug having a stroke she will turn her head and bite. She will come over and try and sit on my lap which I interpret as being affectionate but then will bite. If I put a yak chew in her mouth at those times she’ll chew once, spit it out and go for my arms again. She’s huge now-on her hind legs she’s nearly as big as DD and about 16kg so it does worry me. The other day I honestly thought she was going to crush my hand.

Hi there,

This was me 4 months ago with our golden retriever pup!

I promise you, it gets better. Ours never bites now.

Is she crate trained? In the end (after exhausting all other avenues) if he bit us we would calmly put him in his crate and leave the room. He did eventually get the idea that biting was not allowed.

It's horrible but she will stop once she's finished teething.

We have similar with our lab, 20 weeks now and the worst time was 10 to 12 weeks then 15 to 19. A slight improvement this week but still bitey when tired or bored and he definitely does it for attention.
We also use time out in his crate. Redirection doesn't work so at least this diffuses the situation and gives us all a break. He is so loving in-between so I think it's just a matter of getting through the next month or two when his adult teeth come in.

We don't have a retriever but our dog was exactly the same! Was bloody painful too.
He wasn't so keen on ankles but would go for legs/thighs/fingers etc. Ripped quite a few items of clothing!
We redirected as much as we could too.
I would see if you can see any kind of pattern. Ours was definitely worse when he got too tired or too excited.
Please don't worry though as although it's a nightmare it is perfectly normal and she will grow out of it.
Your doing all the right things and sound like wonderful doggy parents.

Hang in there. Our GR is 6 now and (mostly) brilliant.

The biting was the hardest stage for me (we have 4 children and our youngest was 4 even we got her). You are doing all the right things, but we also did the 'put in crate or behind gate and completely ignore' every time she bit. It will improve but you have to be consistent with the message.

'Always or Never' was one of the best things my gundog trainer taught me....shame the rest of my family allow her to do things I don't, so it got a bit lost in translation 😉

When you redirect to a toy, it's not a case of popping the toy in her mouth and she switches object, situation over. It's a constant pushing the toy between you and her. She'll try and get past the toy to chew on you, and you have to gently get the toy/chew in the way all the time.

Watch her, she'll probably be giving some signal that she may be about to chew. Keep a toy at hand and pop it in before she does.

Think of it as chewing rather than biting- it's less scary. Re your dd, make a silly 'No! My arm's not chewing gum!' type yelp, so she knows that while it hurts it isn't intentional or scary. Imagine being sat in front of a cold ice lolly on a hot day, it's hard not to reach out and have a lick! That's how the puppy feels.

Thanks everyone, reassuring to know it won’t last forever. I have seen some comments on GR forums where the pup is still biting at 8, 10 and even 14 months. It’s stressing me because I can’t have a 14 month old massive GR biting. @picklemewalnuts yelping excites pup and to be honest because she’s so big when she’s leaping up (biting my boob the other day!) it is scary! DD stays well away from her now though so it’s not so much of an issue, it’s just a real shame.

You mght find she prefers a soft toy rather than a hard toy (antler) . Try with a sock stuffed with odd sock for example or an old t towel tied into knots or even a plaited fleece.

My GR is 18 weeks too, has his too front tip and bottom teeth and is the same although he doesn’t bite out and about but he ‘mugs’ the kids one also with Sen so he struggles to cope with it it’s horrible.
We have a pen in the kitchen and currently that is time out if he’s getting too much.

But found a decent walk later in the afternoon, plenty play (mostly ‘training’ play) see absolute dogs well worth it. Helps focus his mind along with yak, nyla and other chew toys. Frozen carrots/flannel to help his gums it’s hard work, and if I can’t replace mouthing/biting with a toy we stand/turn our backs don’t speak and remove him. But see a lot of improvement recently and it will pass. I would be inclined to speak to a dog trainer/behaviourist though I am lucky as I have family who work with dogs so a good help.

Yelping didn’t work either my sister advised against it.
Also praising good behaviour helped when he’s quiet and settled Chuck a treat (we take some from food allowance) ‘nice’ is our key word that’s it few times whilst he’s being good. He’s learned that very well, they are really clever dogs so working the mind is important. My wee lad knows loads of commands and you can see his little face when he’s learning he loves it. Lastly make sure he’s getting enough sleep. Ours has a morning big nap and then cat naps the rest of the afternoon it’s bed time at 10 he’s usually sound by then for the night.
Pm if you want to as our pups are same age it’s nice to find out what other pups are doing - same age & breed
Take care op

Yes, I was thinking of how you communicate with your DD rather than with the dog! You want to reassure her that the dog isn't being nasty, just silly.

I had to check the OP name to check this wasn’t a post I had written a few months ago! It sounds exactly like me back in the summer! My GR is now 10 months old and the loveliest thing but at the same age as yours she was a little horror. My kids were so wary of her as she was so bitey which made me so sad. The thing that I genuinely believe turned the corner for us was walking away and closing a door in between me and her when she did it. No amount of commands, swapping toys etc seemed to help but teaching her that any biting completely stopped play really worked. We only left her for a few seconds before going back in but perseverance really did work. Putting her in a pen didn’t help as she would bite us while we were trying to do it! She had a thing for pulling on clothes so that too made us walk away. If she bought a toy to us we would play with her, even if only briefly, just to show that we would play with a toy but any other mouthing stopped the fun. She also did the turning her head and biting when she was fussed, so again we stopped every time. Carried on when she stopped. Now she’s so affectionate so it really does get better!
Teaching the kids that it was just her way of exploring helped a bit but I don’t think they really bonded until she had grown out of it.
Sorry that was long but like the other posters, I just wanted to add some more reassurance that it does get better before too long as I know how hard I found it when I was going through it!

Pup (lab) is 5.5 months now and we seem to be over the worst. So I'm sure you'll get there! It was awful, we were black and blue but we did give her toys and now she has learned and gets a toy herself at key bitey or exciting moments (such as waking up and getting out of the crate). Yelping/ignoring/'too bad' or other methods didn't work at all for us, but having chewy toys constantly on hand was the key. Hard chews like antlers were not good for us. I'll try to find links of her favourite things. I e found about 5 teeth over the last 2 weeks and since then she's been brilliant, so there's hope!

Her favourite when teething was the worst - Gum Gum Bone Shaped Dog Chew Toy https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00393UUBO/ref=cmswwrcppapifabcc_4To5Fb62FAX8Y

Her current favourite with/without biscuits in - KONG - Goodie Bone - Durable Rubber Chew Bone, Treat Dispensing Dog Toy - For Medium Dogs https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0002AQPA2/ref=cmswwrcppapifabcc_BUo5FbS4RQVS2

Is she crate trained? Generally a bitey pup is an overtired/over stimulated pup and needs time out. Puppy's need lots of rest so if she gets bitey the best thing to do is put her in her crate for some time out or a snooze.

I remember googling ‘when will my Springer stop biting?’ It’s a bloody nightmare. But it will pass. We were told to shriek every time he bit.

My first dog was like this also a retriever breed. It sounds strange but we change his food and gave him more and it really helped. Our dog was definitely really mouthy for months and I nearly gave up, so glad I didn’t he turned into the sweetest good natured dog.
Pippa Mattison books/ website are a great resource for training aspects for bite inhibition. Good luck.

We’ve reached 6 months and Dpup is less small and cute looking but my goodness he’s so much easier. Biting now means he’s hungry or needs a poo. His teeth have all come out and adult teeth are less sharp.

Latterly when he was bitey I’d actually massage his gums a bit. If he bit ankles I’d say no, and remove myself/ignore him briefly, then engage him in an activity.

Hello! We have a 12 week old GR and are at our wits end with the biting. She mainly goes for my son who is 13, but really any clothes, bare skin, furniture will do. It seems to happen mostly in the evenings, but also when she is excited/scared by something. Please tell me it will get better? That, and the broken sleep is taking its toll.

I am also on the Facebook DTAS and am finding distracting with toys doesn't really work and it is hard to remove yourself when she is hanging from your thigh by her teeth! We are hoping it will improve when she can go out for walks next week. She is ok snoozing in the daytime in the crate, but doesn't want to sleep in it at night and we haven't dared close the door yet, so am hesitant to make it into a 'time-out' place. It is so good to hear we are not the only ones (but sorry you are having a similar experience).

@Princessmardybum that is so good to know! What worries me though is that we do remove ourselves and have been doing for weeks and the biting is still going on. How old was yours when they stopped? I don’t think my eldest DD will bond with her until it stops either.

@puppygalore oooh thanks, just ordered those to come tomorrow!

@Ingleduh she has a crate although we don’t shut the door on it but the biting happens all the time even straight after a nap so it’s not always tiredness I don’t think.

@FeelinglikeEeyore uurgh it’s awful isn’t it. I know it does seem to be a common issue but it feels so awful like it can’t be ‘normal’ if you know what I mean?! What’s your sleep like? Ours was ok by about 10 weeks.

I dont know if you have any opportunity to see other youngish puppies.the right.size, playing with other dogs.off lead helped our pup learn apprpropriate biting.
Also the very big crate was in constant use for long daytime naps and he slept.through in it (door closed).12 to 7am or longer. We sat next to him whilst he slept in crate fir the first weeks (12 weeks when we got him, poodle cross)

The biting was also worse when he needed a pee!!

Not appropriate biting but non biting!

Soak an old tea towel, tie it in a knot and freeze it - perfect teething toy.

I also would.discourage stroking a sleeping puppy, I think they find it interrupts theirbsleep.hence the biting. A cosy soft matted crate they can stretch out in works wonders. By the time they are six eight months you may find crate no longer needed but it is really worth itto.at this stage to create a calm.haven and sleep routine.

I think they.are initiating play when they bite as well as sometimes relieving tension.as well as needing relief from sore gums. Dogs use their mouths to express so many things not all the same. But puppies play through biting and.chasing.so it isnt surprising they think this.is the wsy to get interaction. They need interaction.so you have to find another wsy to give them that stimulation, whwther by fetch or going for an interesting short walk, or bursts of sit or wait or find it. Then sleep sleep sleep most of time