biting!?!?

Malone has started this "thing" when he wants attention of nipping/biting. It is very aggravating, and I am wondering if someone can tell me what an effective discipline for this kind of thing. He does it to try and tell us that he has to go out and when he is hungry. He gets rewarded with neither when he acts like this. Tonight, Mark was pointing at something and he ran and jumped and nipped at his finger, and then about 15 minutes later he jumped and bit at my sweatshirt/hair. He knows that he did wrong because right away he slumps away and hides under the table. I find this behaviour very unacceptable, and we really haven't had a problem with it up until the last few days. I really want to "nip" this in the bud, but nothing we have done has seemed to phase him a bit. Up until now, we have always grabbed his neck, looked him in the eye and very firmly with a low voice said "NO BITE!" But now he is doing this with increased frequency. So please please please can you give us some hints/tips on discipline??? Thanks so much!!

Hi CookieB!

I'll be interested in the advice you get on this too. Oz just
started recently doing this too. Mainly when we're playing,
he'll jump up and bite at my clothes or my hand to get the
toy. Never bites down, but he's snagged his tooth on my
clothes a couple of times. I've been making an "Ouch" sound
and stopping play. And I've started making him sit before I'll
throw the toy. He's getting better. He'll bite at air, while
he's going into the sit, but then will wait patiently until I
throw the toy. The behavior hasn't stopped completely
though. So I've been wondering if there's anything else I
should be doing or is it just a case of being consistent with
what I'm doing and eventually he'll get the message.

Par...

Hi Par,

We have been doing a lot of the same things, even though I forgot to mention them...such as stopping play as soon as his teeth touch our skin, and making him sit/lay down before we throw anything for him to retrieve. I'm glad to know (in a way) that we aren't the only ones that are having this problem. Thanks for the support!!

Anna

Abbey does the same thing, especially if she is wound up from playing. I find it annoying also, but don't know exactly what to do either. We say "no bite" too, but she'll go and try to bite Kito instead (she grabs him by the collar). One thing that works also is to ignore her--sometimes she'll just quit. But I'm sure there is a better way--someone has to know:)

When ROcky gets excited he would lightly
put his teeth on my arm/hand. I too, found this
extremely annoying.
I would tell him NO and also ignore him.
Kind of hard to teach a command when your
dog is excited and happy. lol

He seemed to grow out of it, and grabs his toy instead.
But sometimes he still gets carried away.

Thankgoodness he is gentle.

Nebo is a biter too (not nearly as bad as he was when he was smaller though! Devil dog!). He's not bad, except when he gets playing. He's never really used it to get my attention. But when he's hyper...watch out.....especially when he's rolled over playing, or if you are on the floor, he seems to really like to bite. He's getting bad at jumping too. My family is not helping, they keep getting him all riled up and having him jump for toys. A while ago my brother was having him jump at his green lizard toy. Well, a few minutes later my mom came up the stairs holding a green shirt. Nebo jumped at her for the shirt and ended up biting her arm instead....she was not very happy about this.

I've been working on getting them to stop letting him jump up, not get him as excited...and I tell them, when he starts biting just get up and WALK AWAY. Most of the time they don't listen to me, sometimes they say "no bite" but continue to play with him.

What I have been doing with him is if he starts to bite me, first I say "no bite" and if he doesn't stop....I (lightly) grab his muzzle and say "No Bite!" And if he still doesn't stop, I'll walk away and ignore him. This didn't work with him as a pup, he'd start fighting and bite me harder.......but it works now....when I let go of his muzzle, he seems to calm down. Sometimes he'll start licking my hand after this too.

He is...slooooowly...getting the hint. But I have to realize, he's still a pup, and he just gets overly excited. I think the method of "punishment" really depends on the dog....Holding his muzzle or saying "Ouch!" did NOT work for him at ALL when he was smaller. He'd just bite harder! Stuffing a toy in the mouth still works pretty good.

Our trainers taught us a great little trick for this very problem. As soon as he bites or nips take his face in your hand and with the other hand put your thumb in his mouth (sounds crazy!)and press down LIGHTLY under his tounge. (kind of a light squeeze of the lower jaw) At the same time say "NO BITE!" in a firm (not loud) voice. Then just stop playing with him and walk away. This worked for us better than anything we had tried. If you're unsure about how much pressure to use, do it to yourself. Obviously you don't want or need to hurt him, that's not the intention, just to make him feel a bit uncomfortable. Also make sure to reward good behavior.:cool:

Our trainers taught us a great little trick for this very problem. As soon as he bites or nips take his face in your hand and with the other hand put your thumb in his mouth (sounds crazy!)and press down LIGHTLY under his tounge. (kind of a light squeeze of the lower jaw) At the same time say "NO BITE!" in a firm (not loud) voice. Then just stop playing with him and walk away. This worked for us better than anything we had tried. If you're unsure about how much pressure to use, do it to yourself. Obviously you don't want or need to hurt him, that's not the intention, just to make him feel a bit uncomfortable. Also make sure to reward good behavior.:cool:

We have this problem with 2-year-old Murphy, too. He'll often jump up and nip at our hands or the sleeves of our shirt. Usually we say "no bite" and immediately walk away, ignoring him. He stops and looks confused. :) I do think walking away is the best remedy. But I'm going to try Micki's idea, too!

I once read that you can lift your knee up, which keeps the dog from jumping on you, but you have to be careful not to knock your dog onto his back...

Like Wolf Q with Nebo - Smokey gets going during play sessions, especially when he's on his back. I usually hold his muzzle closed and say "No Biting." Most of the time he comes back at me with his mouth open, will "mouth" my hand/arm and then licks instead of biting. (Praise)
But if he keeps going I ignore him and stop playing. He usually gets the message.
(By the way, Smokey is about 10 and a half months old)