Puppy biting help!

[Sausagerollfiend]

Hi everyone. We have an almost 4 month old Cockapoo puppy. She is toilet trained, can follow some simple commands, walks beautifully on the lead....but at home she is a biting machine!

Even with lots of chew toys, rawhide bones, using our voices to show it is wrong, she still keeps biting us. When we go to fuss her, unless she's sleepy, she will try to bite our fingers, hands, feet etc. She is crate trained and so we are ending up putting her in there for lots of time outs just to give us a chance to sit without being mauled!

She doesn't bite when she's in the car or on walks, so I think it could be linked to boredom or habit in the house. I've tried tiring her out on walks, playing some games, training her...but as soon as I stop giving her attention, she jumps up biting. It's not just mouthing, she is drawing blood at times.

Anyone got any ideas on how to distract a bitey puppy? If I can work out how to do it on the app, I'll try to add a cute pic.

Here she is! Hope this works.

Replace your hand with a chew toy every single time. Advice I also had when my puppy was going through this was to walk out of the room for a minute and remove yourself from the area.

She will grow out of it but it's a horrible puppy stage.

Thank you. Yes, she doesn't like it when we ignore her! I'm hoping the penny will drop soon.

How much sleep is she getting?

She sleeps all night, so 10.30pm til 7am. Then during the day I'd say she has about 3 or 4 naps usually at least an hour long. She definitely doesn't sleep as much as she did a few weeks ago.

If she is biting your feet / ankles when you walk , I found having a dangly toy on a rope to hand at all times invaluable during this time ! Mine was AWFUL and I thought it would never get better as when you are in the middle of it, it is so overwhelming. It does though..

She needs more sleep. Puppies should be getting around 18-20 hours sleep per day.

@Didiplanthis Thanks, you've given me hope!! She's adorable in every other way, I just wish she'd stop biting!

@mountainsunsets Thank you. I will endeavour to put her in her cage more so that she can have longer periods of uninterrupted sleep. I think it's easy to forget that they're still babies really. Thank you.

This.

Also with ours it was often a sign that she needed a nap - they need far more sleep than they realise.

If she was bored and doing it we'd often do a bit of training instead which would distract her and also knacker her.

they do grow out of it.

Thank you @BarrelOfOtters I'm beginning to realise that she bites more at the weekend when everyone's home and she naps less....so I'm thinking it could definitely be linked to sleep.

@Sausagerollfiend it's such an easy mistake to make! They're a bit like toddlers and don't realise they're tired 🙈

@mountainsunsets Thank you for being kind and supportive. I am 100% going to get her to sleep more xx

I made that mistake too... I thought she was bored and needed more stimulation, I was kindly put right by someone on here that actually she was overstimulated and tired, ... we started popping her in her crate and leaving the room when she got really silly and she eventually learnt to nap when she was tired. It really helped..

Anytime! Mine was a nightmare as a puppy for biting so I know what it's like! I literally had to have him on a nap schedule like a toddler even now as an adult I make sure he gets plenty of sleep and he's so much happier for it.

Don't worry they grow out of it! Mine was the same

River pup is definitely more bitey in the evening.

Well, she is a completely different puppy today! I have persisted in making her nap, and I can honestly say the biting has calmed down!! I have also bought her a cuddly dog toy that squeaks and this distracts her when she gets a little bit excited. But, with the confidence gained from this thread, by putting her in her cage regularly she has really calmed the biting. Thank you everyone, long may it continue

That's fab news, well done to you and puppy!

Good to hear, I was going to suggest the same…. More sleep! Every time our puppy went crazy with us or our other pets, we treated it as time for a nap and took him out of the situation. Friends would often wonder where he was and he’d be in his crate, napping. It was like having a baby again.

Awesome news OP. Mine is only 8 months so the memory of how hard the biting stage is is still very fresh in my mind!

Oh god the biting, our puppy was awful, the kids used to be terrified of him, he got a lot of times out to rest and calm down. He got the name the land shark!

He's 10 months old now and very rarely does it, only now and then if he gets over excited whilst playing. It will get better lol

Thanks everyone. @Losinghope9 Land shark brilliant!!

Definitely more sleep is key.

I wouldn’t give her rawhide. Google it and you’ll see it’s quite dangerous for dogs and a choking risk. Really they shouldn’t be allowed to sell it. Look at natural chews instead - try cow ears, split antlers, beef tracheas, ostrich bones etc. We have a big plastic tub in the garage (with a lid!) that is full of horrible bits of animals. They love them though and chewing calms them down. Lots of sellers online who do sample packs to see what she likes the best.

We didn’t know about rawhide at first. Shame - kept RiverPup occupied for ages.

I've yet to find a chew that my puppy doesn't demolish in about 3 minutes! Would love to find something which will keep him occupied.