Puppy biting help

[SurreyisSunny]

Our puppy (miniature poodle) is 10 weeks old. I’ll admit I didn’t know about the biting. I knew he’d want to bite but I didn’t know about the continuous ferocious (it honestly feels like that!) biting of my legs or any part of me he can get hold of. He’ll growl whilst doing it. I’ve read he wants to play but he hardly lets me.

I’ve bought every chew toy you can imagine, a kong and another feeder toy for kibble. He’s sleeping well in his crate but even after a 2 hour nap he’s like this. We play fetch and tug but he gets bored quickly unless I throw continuous treats across the floor which I’ve resorted to so as protect my legs.

My 3 year old DS sensibly keeps out of his way on the sofa but this isn’t ideal as he needs to play.

We start puppy classes next month after his second vaccine.

Any ideas? How long does this last? At least he looks cute!

There's a reason puppies are cute, it's because they can be massive arseholes.

The biting will go on for months yet, probably until all of the puppy teeth fall out. My pups teeth started to fall out at 5 months and she'd more or less stopped biting by 6.5 months.

Redirect the biting, every time he bites shove a toy in his mouth. Some people do a high pitch yelp but this didn't work with my pup it just got her more excited.

Wear his brain out so teach him commands, feed him using a snuffle mat or give him frozen food in kongs or lick mats. Now is a good time to teach "leave it" because as soon as he goes on walks he'll be wanting to pick random stuff up from the floor.

Have you been taking him out and about in your arms? I did this every single day until my pup could go out on walks. All the sights and smells will wear the pup out and also get him used to the outside world before his walks. I carried my pup in a sling and went on walks or took her to pets shops/garden centres.

Also make sure he gets enough sleep, they need around 18 hours a day. When they don't get enough sleep they become overstimulated and naughty.

My golden still want to put peoples hand in his mouth he’s 10 month. Some breeds are more prone to this than others. He’s getting better though. If you repeat a million times no / fold your arms and turn away from the puppy they are extremely good at reading your mood/ body languages. It will eventually get to them. Does it mean that they will never reoffend again? Nope. But for dog training is all about repeat repeat repeat. Instead of no don’t bite. What behaviour do you want him to do? Sit ? Down ? Just keep redirecting to another command and reward him when he’s doing that.

Keep redirecting to a toy and also enforced naps if they aren’t sleeping enough
landshark mode is activated by lack of sleep so enforced timeout in the crate if they get silly.

just in case it’s helpful good natural chews are yak bars, olive branch, coffee branch, buffaloes or cows horn, camel scalp (rotate so they don’t get bored!)

Dogs can’t learn to do a ‘no’. More useful to shove a toy in their gob (or more correctly waggle it at them so it becomes exciting) and then they learn to bring the toy to you for a game 🙂

The biting stage can last for months in many dogs - our beagle was mouthy up to about nine months of age, though it got significantly better from around 5-6 months.

Dogs primarily explore the world with their nose and mouth, so biting, while painful to us, is totally normal for them, you just need to teach them that it's not acceptable play. We found that redirecting onto a toy/chew or getting up and ignoring him completely were the only ways to get him to stop.

Also - sleep! Puppies need so much sleep. When they get into that manic, frenzied zooming around and biting stage, they're pretty much always overtired and in need of a nap, so a solid routine and lots of forced rest is vital.

Mine bit and nipped until about 5 months, he's 8 months now and still likes to mouth your hand but he's so gentle I don't mind. He totally knows the difference between fingers and a chew toy for example! But when he was small we didn't go near him without a toy to shove in his mouth! I also wore the same trainers for 3 months so he was bored of them and left my feet alone. No flappy clothes or dressing gowns, just a uniform of tracky bottoms and fleeces!

Wear wellies and reduce your anxiety.

EVERY time he even touches you with his teeth you shout owwww and turn away/move away from him. Ignore him.

Ahh the horrible land shark stage, our boy was awful. Used to make holes in our clothes, make the kid's cry lol. But lots of redirection, and actually we timed him out when he got too bitey. Just 30 seconds away from us to calm down and realise the game ends when he bites us. He's 15 months now and doesn't bite at all.

We've recently got a 15 month old bitch who will still gently bite on your hands if you allow her. So can be dog dependent.