Advice please - puppy using 13 yo as a chew toy

[RedRoss86]

Advice please experienced dog owners 🙏

We have a 12 week old Irish doodle (vaccinations up to date and chipped).

We’ve had him 2 weeks and he is using DS as a chew toy.
Constantly dragging at end of tracksuit bottoms, biting his socks, jumping and biting jumper.
If arm uncovered he is nipping arm and he has now cut DS twice.

I’ve told DS to be a tree (if nipping clothes) or say ‘cut it out’. For nips on skin to yelp.
He’s tried distracting pup with toys but it doesn’t last long before he’s back at him.
We tried time outs for the pup but I think now it’s better if son just leaves space if pup being nippy.

I have DD3 and DS8 and pup not anywhere nearly as nippy with them and I have eyes on pup at all times around them 2. If they want space, pup gate is up dividing kitchen from sitting room.

I now have DS13 in charge of feeding pup so he can see DS is to be respected as he’s in charge of food.

In terms of training pup will come for call ‘Come / Sit / Paw’
I’m working on drop it and this week I’ll be focusing on indoor leash training.

I think part of me just needs some moral support that this will get better.
I feel like I’m on alert at all times to make sure everyone safe from nipping, while also potty training (and training) a puppy and feeding and keeping 3 little humans alive 🙃😮‍💨

If there is any other advice for me to help DS13 with his pup, please do share.

I also think he is a bit slow to move away from dog when he starts being nippy, he lets it drag on too long and he’ll be back with dog after a few minutes and the cycle repeats again.

Also to note pup is crate trained. He sleeps 8pm-6am in crate and I’ve noticed he tends to be up 1 hr - 1 hr 30 before needing to go back in for a sleep.

Yelping may simply overexcite the dog. Puppies do this. Especially when overtired. Separate them when it occurs.

I wouldn’t yelp. It can get them excited. What worked with mine is folding arms and putting back to pup. No eye contact until she stopped. If she continued, she was put out the room for 1 min. If she continued when back in, out for a bit longer - maybe 2 mins. Never very long but enough to disrupt cycle. She also hated not being with us so stopped quite quickly. I read this in one of the many puppy guides I had and it really worked for us.

There was a study that looked at whether puppies stopped nipping when their litter mates yelped and squealed. 100% of puppies didn't stop 😂

Tell DS not to allow it! Say "No!" sharply and remove the pup's mouth from whatever he is chewing.
Currently the pup thinks that 13 yr old is playing with him.
Pretending to yelp certainly won't stop him, if his litter-mates yelped he would bite harder, not stop.
People are not his siblings but need to be more like his dam who would not have allowed nipping.
Once his mouth has been disengaged from what he isn't allowed to chew, distract him with a chew toy and tell him "Good boy".
You need to be very clear with pups what they are and are not allowed to do.
Commands should be short, preferably 1 word only.

Ah stop 🙈

And here we are yelping like fools 😅

Thanks for all the tips so far! Have told DS to say NO firmly and to ignore / stop moving and throw a distraction (toy).

It’s been working well so far - dog still nipping but stopping quicker.

Also told him to stop getting on the floor with dog. He’s constantly lying on floor / rolling around - you name it.
I’m surprised as he’s normally a chilled teen & quite smart - I think he thought the puppy would just be all cuddles and playtime and not all this actual work 😅

Oh the biting! I remember it well. Your new strategy should work well. I thought that stage would never end but it did.

I had this same scenario years ago and videoed it and showed my vet. The vet said that our puppy thought my child was a littermate and was carrying on exactly as he had with his puppy siblings. It was difficult but our child was told to ignore and not make any loud noises which is hard when you’re excited and want to play with your new puppy. We got lots of teething toys too. It sounds like you’re doing the above advice and hope it goes well. It’s quite cute they think your son is a human puppy.

I had a puppy that was like that - I ended up putting him on a lightweight longline for peak excitement times, for him that was getting ready for school and coming in from school.

Worked pretty well because I could remove him without it creating more excitement.