Puppy biting really getting me down

[HandSeaSky]

And he's only nine weeks old so teething has so long to go! He has toys in different textures and plenty of sleep - he goes in the crate for naps and isn't up more than an hour at a time then sleeps all through the night from 9ish til 6.30. He's making really good progress with training and I can see his development and responsiveness get better every day. He's such a sweet dog.

But the biting feels relentless! He wants to play with us, and redirecting him to toys doesn't work. He finds it far more exciting to tug on clothes than tug toys. He loves to bite legs - it must be the movement as we walk. It hurts and I hate it so much, especially when he gets frantic. We freeze, step away, turn our backs and end play. Step back in and he just starts again immediately. I feel pretty bleak at the prospect of weeks and weeks more of it! In my head, I feel worried it will never stop even though I know it's a stage and I know it isn't aggressive. I am just so, so sick of it already. If you have been through this, how did you survive it? I love him and I am dedicating a lot of time and effort into training. I'm committed and obviously I knew this would be part of it. I just want to know when it will get better.

We used to use snacks hidden in paper or toilet roll tubes and then hidden in a box - tired her out. Or a snuffle mat - she still likes that. Frozen carrots, non salted stock frozen in a tub as an ice lolly, frozen wet tea towels with treats in them.....

The biting is the worst! I wore wellies all the time in the house - and literally bought wellies for my husband and daughter too. I also wore the same two sweatshirts (increasingly holey as time went on) on rotation. I tried all the things, but I think I think the main thing that worked most for my pup is growing up a little (sorry!). Time outs, ignoring, yelping, etc. didn't. Things that kind of worked was picking her up (interrupted her biting rampage... seemed to reset her somehow) and gently pushing back with my (covered) arm/hand - as it was mainly her playing trying to tug at sleeves etc.

Our puppy is 7 months old now teething does all seem like a distant memory, although even over Christmas my hands and arms were covered in scratches and grazes. It’s really hard while it’s happening, but it does suddenly get better. When it is bad, try to put your puppy in a pen of crate and give them and you a little time out. We also made sure our puppy had plenty of sleep and gave him chews to help with this.

Our pup is 10 weeks and goes into crazy bite/chew mode an hour before bedtime. She is very fond of chewing down on an old t shirt so the wet T towel is a great suggestion from a PP. Ours is also a crazy biter, reminds me of the crocodile from the Punch and Judy shows 🤣 but she is starting to learn….we don’t do the shout/cry we do the uh huh noise and redirect or stand up and be boring so she knows play is over if she does that.

It’s a phase, but a horrible one, and one I didn’t really know about or was prepared for. Pup also seem to attack me more than others in the household, and it brought me to tears,

Wear old clothes is another tip. I had a couple of jumpers ruined.

There’s an excellent puppy blues thread running which will help you get through this stage and others.

I never did anything training wise with biting, just ignoring and / or removing myself.
It stopped almost overnight when my dog hit 16 weeks old.