hi all, not been on for a while. We have been moving house etc. So took a while to get internet back up n running.

Anyway...the pup is now home with us and has been for two weeks now. We have a problem with him biting us. We start to play fetch with him, throwing him a rope type toy or a little ball we have. This will last for maybe 2 or 3 goes. Then the nipping starts. He just goes mad. He seems to lose total control, like he goes into a bit of a frenzy, growling and barking and biting whatever he can get his teeth into, ie, one of us. We have tried stuffing toys into his mouth, whch works for 5 seconds or so. We have tried the yelping tactic, we have also tried the getting up and ignoring him tactic, at which point he will carry on attacking the carpet or my partner. I'm at a bit of a loss because he doesn't seem to respond to anything at all now. I'm worried it might be getting out of hand. He bit my foot and made it bleed this evening, not good!

He is now 10 weeks old. Had his second injection today and has had regular flea treatment.

Other point to mention is when at the vet today, the vet said he had a heart murmour. He will hopefully grow out of it

Any ideas on this really greatly appreciated

sorry to hear its all a bit stressful... first place to look might be diet... what do you feed him? Many people report certain types of behaviour as being linked to certain makes of food...

Hopefully when you are able to walk him, that will burn off a bit of the energy and make playing/training more productive -

as for a heart murmur, happy to say i was told the same about Stellar, and she grew out of hers by the next vet visit

- sorry i can't be more use

Pol

http://springthing.3.forumer.com/index.php...bite+stops+here

Hi
Have a look at this link its from a while ago. Most of us who have had puppies have been where you are.
Scroll down and you will see a link to the bite stops here.

More advice will come when all of the exp members are back from the the fling

Jill x

All puppies do it, you're not alone (think how wise you were to only get one puppy ) I would go "ouch" get up and walk away. As you are already doing try to redirect onto a toy or a chew or a kong..... I think puppies grow out of it whatever "methods" are used ( although I am aware of a few dogs still mouthing as adults, not having learned bite inhibition.)

funnily enough, we never had this problem with our two... it was as if they didn't feel the need to treat us as surrogate litter mates - if they wanted to puppy fight they largely did it with each other - just the odd little skirmish with a human, and they responded instantly to a yelp.

You are doing all the right things by the sounds of it, stick with it, you should get there.
Our 2 seldom bite us now, we got on top of it quite quickly as we have an 18mnth old grandaughter who visits daily, we didn't want them taking chunks out of her!

Alfie is 16 weeks, and has pretty much stopped his nipping now, so you haven't got much longer to go.

The earlier post about diet was correct for us. He used to be on Bakers, we have swapped it and he is now a much calmer dog, apart from the evening when he got hold of some Bakers by mistake he went bonkers!!!

many thanks for your replies. I think I was just looking for someone to tell me we are doing the right thing and to just persevere, which is really what you folks have done, thanks

Just for your info, we have him on Hills science plan puppy food. There are sooo many to chose from aren't there?

I shall post some new pup pics asap...

Puppies are great aren't they?

Firstly, look at how much you're feeding him. Hungry puppies get VERY bitey.

Wtih my puppy, if I do a high pitched, loud yelp he stops immediately and starts licking, and then I'll grab a toy and we'll play with that instead.

When he's really over the top and manically biting, I firstly remove him or myself from the situation. As he's very small, this is literally just calmly putting him on the floor and removing myself from his reach. Then I ask him to 'sit'. If he does, I praise well and give him a toy, and then look at the reasons for the manic biting. It's either that he's hungry (in which case I feed him) or over tired (in which case I pop him in his crate with something to chew and he quickly falls asleep).

If he were bigger, I would have him on a house line (sprayed with bitter spray if he chewed it) so I could calmly put some distance between me and his teeth, or I would get up and quietly leave the room.

The most important thing is that you stay calm. Screaming, running away, moving your feet and hands around etc is VERY exciting and rewarding for puppies!

We had the same thing on both fronts..heart murmer and biting.

The heart murmer is apparantly common in small pups and the vet told us that it was due to lots of blood pumping quickly round the body. At Ghillie's 6 mth check up he got the all clear.

I was very worried about the biting but by being consistent and walking away whenever he bit or mouthed he soon got the message. He also used to love swinging off the bottom of my dressing gown..

Hi, when my Ollie was young he was a nighmare with nipping and we have lots of clothes with holes in to prove this. The kids were in tears and i wondered what on earth have i done. Believe me it is just a phrase, and in a few weeks it will be a distant memory. just keep doing what you are doing.

George is just coming up for 6 months old (25 weeks) and believe me I know this seems a huge amount of time away right now! but I just want to let you know there is some light at the end of the tunnel!

George was MENTAL! he would do laps of the living room, wall of death on the sofas I had so many bites and scratches on my arms and legs from his 'mental puppy moments' as we called them - one day both we were both stood on chairs refusing to get down until he calmed down becasue we had gotten bitten so much! and those puppy teeth are sooo sharp! he's drawn blood only once soo far?! you lucky thing!
(as you can see from the name feet were a particular problem for a while there!)
yelping just made him more excited, ignoring him and turning your back on him just meant you got your ankles and bum bitten a lot! we didn't know what to do at all!
I know this doesn't sound encouraging so far but don't worry this story has a happy ending
In the past month or so he has calmed down sooo much!
It does just seem to be a phase (thank god! I thought we were doing something sooo wrong and were going to have a viscous grown up dog that would attack someone and have to be put down! or "oh Christ! I don't think I can handle this for the next 15 years!")
things that did help us though....
when we came home, or even just had left the room for a minute - whenever we came back into contact with him we ignored him for a couple of mins - he would go mental for attention, start him biting for attention - BUT!! after a couple of minutes he would go off in a sulk and once he'd left us alone we called him to us and stroked his head and neck - he would just melt into submissive on the floor! I think it was showing him who was boss from the beginning and would set us up on a good note for the rest of the evening...
and when he's already mental (I know people are going to shout at me for this one - but if you'd been there you would have done the same thing!) - if he bit too hard we grabbed him by the scruff and plonked him in his crate for a 10 minute ignore him and time out! (& recovery time for us!)
nothing worked like magic but these couple of things really helped us!
sorry! super long post but I really wanted to give some encouragment because for a while there we were really not enjoying having a puppy at all! and we had expected mental! but its soooo much better now... he's at least manageable mental
Good luck! & Keep the faith!
laura x

I am so glad i came across this thread as dusty is crazy just now, he is losing teeth left right and centre seems to want to be chewing us constantly exchanging for toys generally means he uses it to get us unawares wee sneaky nips then darts round the livingroom, and my poor house coat is always getting it! Im so glad they all do this and am looking forward to the day he has grown out it!!

aw bless him - his gums are probably quite sore - i gave mine large frozen carrots to gnaw on - they really seemed to help

Pol

Hi Snowman - u have my sympathy!! as everyone else has said, its a normal part of the development but it is upsetting and can be hard to manage.

I've been there with Pops, but shes past it now (touch wood!) shes 6mths and grown out of it or learnt better. As has been said, consistency is key here and rest assured that it will get better - tackling it now rather than ignoring it is key as a lot of the techniques just wont work or take much longer to take affect with an adult dog.

We did the 'yelp and turn your back on them with arms crossed' technique (it seems to work better when she was younger and was more afraid of loud sounds) and that worked very well the difficult part is getting your friends and family to buy into it and do the same as a lot of so called 'doggy peope' will poo poo you and let them chew their fingers/legs/clothes and say 'ahhh they are only a puppy'....not helpful!! grrrrrr!

Also did the 'time out/naughty step' style technique and put her in kitchen with door closed for 5 mins to let her cool down, as they love being with you at that age that stopped her.

Once or twice (when my 9yr old god daughter was over) i did tap her on the nose (i know its not ideal) with a loud NO and that snapped her out of it quickly.

One thing i have done is make sure i dont show any fear or back off, and continue to put my hand (clenched fist if fingers feel a bit vulnerable!!) in her mouth, even when shes biting, as this has really showed her that she can't 'hurt' even if it can be a bit sharp and it does teach her bite inhibition.

So i used most techniques accept the aversion stuff.

Sorry for the long one!!! - hope you feel better with everyones advice and find one or two techniques you feel happy with GOOD LUCK (especially with getting the friends and family to buy into it!)