My Daughters Puppy Bites So Hard

[kimf1963]

would be so grateful if anyone could give me any advice as neither my daughter or I have ever had a puppy before.
My daughter recently got an English Bull Terrier puppy who is very friendly, confident and can sit and stay and is almost toilet trained. He is 10 weeks old next week, but bites all the time when he’s playing ,hard enough to draw blood. There seems to be no aggression when he does it, he’s wagging his tail and not snarling or growling, he shares his toys with you and lets you touch his food whilst eating.
My daughter was in floods of tears last night as she feels like a failure, he really hurts when he bites and would not be safe near children at the moment.
She tries to stop play and remove him to another room when he gets too excited to he will learn that play will stop if he’s biting too hard but nothing is working so far.
I know he’s still very young, could anyone tell me if this this normal behaviour and if it will get better as I am so worried he could turn into a dangerous dog.
Thank you for any help anyone can give as we have had no experience with puppies before and don’t want to let him down.

He’s tiny, he still needs a lot of training and socialisation, it’s normal for puppies to nip, until you reach him not to he knows no different

Keep chew toys to hand at all times, when he nips give him the toy.

He should always be supervised around kids anyway, all dogs should and you can’t expect a 10 week old puppy to be perfectly behaved around children at all.

It is really normal. Puppies bite, they break the skin and it hurts. I would advise joining the DTAS FB group ‘Dog Training Advice & Support’. The replies are from trainers who use positive methods and there are loads of advice guides too. They ask you to read the advice guides first and then ask questions if you haven’t had success with the advice in the guides. www.facebook.com/groups/374160792599484

They often bite children because children are often excitable around puppies. However you act around the dog, there will be nipping and biting you can greatly reduce it by encouraging everyone to stay calm around the puppy and recognising the frenzied biting attacks as a sign of exhaustion in your puppy (like a bedtime tantrum from an overtired preschooler). Watch for his triggers and you can learn to avoid them and help him manage his behaviour.

Puppies bite - it's what they do and it could last until six months or more - generally they stop once they've finished teething. You need to teach a gentle mouth - there's lots of techniques, from squealing and stopping play, to turning round, folding arms and avoiding eye contact. Some advocate time out in another room. You just need to find what works for yours, but it is a work in progress :)

Often when they become really bitey, it means they need a nap as well, so it's worth making sure they get enough sleep - they should be sleeping 18-20 hours a day at that age.

Puppies and young children are rarely a good combination for precisely this reason - children are exciting, noisy and clumsy and wind puppies up. There's a reason most rescues advocate waiting until children are 8 or so before being around dogs!

But your puppy will be fine. Just be consistent and stick with it. It might be worth enrolling him in puppy class once things open up again and he's had all his jabs. Our local puppy school re-starts classes on April 12th.

Thank you so much for this, he sleeps most of the time and maybe they are keeping him awake and playing for too long, I will pass this on to her

@BalladOfBarryAndFreda
Thanks so much for great tips and advice, she doesn’t have children but has loads of friends with children and knows he wouldn’t be safe around toddlers, so is really worried about friends coming round after lockdown.

Not what you are asking but wanted to add that it is important to socialize carefully with other well-chosen dogs as these are notorious for dog-dog aggression.

@sunflowersandbuttercups
What brilliant advice, thank you so much, they are probably playing with him for too long, I will pass all your tips on to her, I think he’s going to puppy classes in mid April so hopefully like you say, that will help too.

[quote kimf1963]@sunflowersandbuttercups
What brilliant advice, thank you so much, they are probably playing with him for too long, I will pass all your tips on to her, I think he’s going to puppy classes in mid April so hopefully like you say, that will help too.[/quote]
You're so welcome - I hope it helps!

Mine is three now and I barely remember the bitey puppy days, they do pass very quickly, even though it doesn't feel like it at the time

Get her to watch puppies behaving badly, which was on channel 5 on Tuesday - there was a bitey staffie puppy on there which was ‘fixed’ - I currently have a 13 week old sprocker asleep on my lap, who has puppy zoomies (mad charging around with teeth into everything!) regularly!

The programme (whole series) has been really useful to me with training. And rest assured the teething will stop soonish - usually 5-6 months old apparently.

How old was he when your daughter got him @kimf1963? As I mentioned on the other thread, I would tell your daughter to leave him alone whilst he's eating. Touching his food could make him food guard.

@PicpoulDeMeNay
Oh brilliant thank you for that, I didn’t know that had started again, will definitely watch that, you have made me feel much better now, good to know he will get better

@Happenchance,
He was 8 weeks old when she got him, really good point about touching his food too, I will pass that on to her, don’t think she normally touches it but she said he is happy to let her top up water etc

This was on the dog trainer programme this week.

The woman had to hold still the hand the dog was biting (so no waving about or shrieking) and push the dog away with her other hand whilst telling the dog NO, in a low voice. With persistence it worked.

Completely normal. There is brilliant advice on dog training advice and Support on fb about puppy biting.
If I pushed my dog away he’d think it was a game and come back for more so that definitely wouldn’t have worked. Please be careful about following advice from those Tv shows - not particularly well regarded by a lot of qualified behaviourists. It’s not particularly nice reading when you realise what is actually going on to make them suddenly behave in such a short space of time.
We used long tug toys and made the toy more fun than us. And made sure got plenty of sleep and stopped the game before he got over threshold.

Very very normal, putting the dog in another room is not the right thing to do though. Redirect to a long tug you. Have them all over so you can grab one wherever you're being savaged, pop him in a play pen with you in the same room and play with toy over fence, if over tired encourage a nap (crate if trained) again don't put in another room for that. Also the best thing I found for dpup was finding a suitable puppy playmate (similar age/confidence levels and not too much of a size difference) this is how they really learn to control their bite inhibition and also get to exercise their need to bite in play.

@villainousbroodmare

Not what you are asking but wanted to add that it is important to socialize carefully with other well-chosen dogs as these are notorious for dog-dog aggression.

Quite.

Many years ago my family's puppy was killed by two EBTs in an unprovoked attack in the park.

One of Princess Anne's EBTs attacked one of the Queen's corgis so bad it had to be put down, and Princess Anne also has a conviction under the DDA after the same EBTs bit two children in a park.

This is a breed that needs careful socialisation.

It's the one breed I will cross the road to avoid, and avoid in the park, largely due to the family history.

@Claudia84

Completely normal. There is brilliant advice on dog training advice and Support on fb about puppy biting. If I pushed my dog away he’d think it was a game and come back for more so that definitely wouldn’t have worked. Please be careful about following advice from those Tv shows - not particularly well regarded by a lot of qualified behaviourists. It’s not particularly nice reading when you realise what is actually going on to make them suddenly behave in such a short space of time. We used long tug toys and made the toy more fun than us. And made sure got plenty of sleep and stopped the game before he got over threshold.

Yes! Bear in mind that these TV shows aren’t put on for educational or animal welfare purposes. They are put on for entertainment and ratings purposes, unfortunately controversial training methods garner more attention and ratings than kind and positive ones. There’s lots of good quality info there but it isn’t to be found on Ch5.