Bitey little bugger

[CharlieBoff]

Dear god please help!

we’ve recently got the most beautiful collie cross, and the first two weeks were actual bliss. She was so good, so sweet, brilliant at sleeping etc etc.

however, over the past week and a half she has turned into a psychotic bite monster literally WHENEVER WE MOVE AROUND THE HOUSE. I have been given so much contradictory advice on what to do about it, I feel like my head is spinning, and literally none of it is working. I’ve been enforcing naps so she’s not overtired, made a billion chew toys as well as buying another million and showing them in her gob, tried ignoring her (which is really fucking difficult when she has a grip on your ankle), praising her to high heaven with treats when she doesn’t try and eat us, all to no avail.

its got to the stage now where my children don’t want to be anywhere near her cos they know she’ll just attack them the second she moves. I honestly feel at the end of my rope, and just want to cry.

any suggestions I haven’t tried? Please?!

Yes, bitey puppies are murder. Distract. Direct to a tug/chew toy. Tug was our best approach with this.

If it's too much, have you got a part of the house you can put her in so you get a break? It will pass.

You don’t have a ‘bitey little bugger’, you have a puppy. They are land sharks at the best of times. Get a good trainer on board but in the meantime a sharp ‘no’ or stomp of your feet when she goes to bite should be enough to shock her out of it.

Is she getting enough stimulation, training time etc?

VERY normal for a pup. But double that with a collie who wants to herd and they do this via nipping i would get some specialist advice. Any other dog i'd say redirect and theyll grow out of it.

Honestly, if you're doing everything else, wellies are your friend, for everyone, the bigger the better so you can move your toes away from the end!

I resorted to oven gloves at one point with our golden retriever puppy 🙈

With my rough collie, she went through two weeks of this particularly with me. We had a puppy pen so if she got bitey a sharp no followed by banishment to the pen worked. Didn't take her long to cotton on.

Can I ask is this a puppy from a working line? If so they are going to need tired out basically all day, that energy they need to get out might be manifesting in the biting - the whole family needs to get on board with training though. Try puppy class?

Yes we had a land shark. Lots of toys/chews/kongs. We had a snuffle mat, antlers. Frozen carrots.

When he goes to bite offer an alternative. It gets easier over time. Continue with training, teaching stop/sit helps.

I remember these days with our lab! It definitely improved once he got his adult teeth. He was in pain teething and used to bite to relieve it.

Be patient and don’t give too much attention when he bites or let the children shriek and make a fuss. Pup will think it’s a game and do it more.

The only thing I'd add to the great advice you have received is to reset your expectation about how quickly you will see a change when something works.

1.5 weeks is not enough time - at all. It feels like forever when you're on the other end of it, but it's a blink of an eye.

Distract, divert and hope that by about 5-6 months old she's grown out of it. Mostly. With the odd revert when she's tired.

Is she a puppy? Is she teething? That's not going to help.
My now elderly collie who came from a farm tried this. The farmer's advice was to anticipate her about to attack and get the boot in first....not humane advice I'm sure but it's what I did back then. It was the last time she tried to ambush me with her teeth.

I think it's a bit different with a collie as they as they are bred to herd and nipping is part of their job if stock really isnt doing what it's told. You and your family aren't stock and its more than puppyish behaviour they grow out of.

Our Pup was the same for the first few Weeks I went into total panic and thought we had made a terrible decision! But the distraction tactic worked for us, we all walked around with toys in our pockets for weeks, every time he wanted to nip (playing) we gave him a toy to play with every time, it eventually stopped and he is a very well behaved non nippy Chap now!

Wellies!

I think so? We’re doing lots of tug, and lots of games, playing in the garden, and she’s been really good at learning “sit”. We are booked in with a trainer, but not until mid September 😬

yes, we’ve got the utility, and she has her crate which she pops in on her own a few times a day. Thank you! X x

This is what I’m thinking of trying, but I really don’t want her crate to become a punishment area, as she’s so good going in there? Although, I think I’d rather she hated her crate and I still had two working feet tbh

No, she’s not from a working collie, her mum and dad were both pets. We are booked in for puppy training, and I CANNOT bloody wait, but it’s not til mid September? I think a bit of my prob may be consistency, as my kids jump to shouting (understandably, cos she bloody hurts) while I try and keep a calm voice and ignore as best I can x x

What’s an antler?!

Yup, it’s been VERY hard trying to get the kids to not scream, which I can understand as her teeth are sharp! Thank you x

Yeah 😞 I do understand that it’s consistency and time. It’s so frustrating though! But you are right, thank you for replying x x

What age is she? At 8-10 weeks they need to be sleeping about 20hours a day so the enforced naps are v important.

The trainer we’re going with is a collie specialist, so I’m hoping she’ll be able to give us some useful tools to help 🤞

might actually come in handy when school starts back up again…🤔

I’ve been out to buy some for us all today 😂

We have finally cracked it with our 10 month pup - we tried everything, like you. The main thing that made the difference was whenever he got bites we picked him up and removed him. Gave him time out in the kitchen with a firm ‘no!’