mouthing

[chermes]

I have a labradoodle now 9 months that still mouths alot. As many times as I have corrected her for this she still insists on doing it. I've tried giving her something else to do by saying "kisses" which to her means licking and she does it right away but I get as much mouthing as I do licks. It is gentle mouthing but it is still mouthing. Do they outgrow this? How concerned should I be about this?

[Dixieland Dancer]

You should be concerned with this since it is an unwanted behavior no matter what the age. I start teaching puppies at 8 weeks that mouthing is not acceptable. I would personally do away with the kisses thing too since that is also a display of mouth contact. If you want the dog to kiss you that's fine but do it at a time when the dog has either learned not to mouth or is not mouthing.

When mouthing occurs you need to stop all interaction with the dog. Just simply turn your back and ignore the dog for up to 30 seconds. You can say "NO BITE" or some other command if you want but it is really not necessary. The dog will not like that you turned away and after repeated times of this will eventually put two and two together that when I do this, They do that and I don't like when they do that so I'm not gonna do it!!! The dog basically will realize that play ends when I open my mouth.

Realize that at 9 months the dog is going through a chewing stage. Make sure you have plenty of chewies, toys and whatever else you think appropriate around. I give my dogs lots of ice cubes during this period too!

You should see results pretty quickly if you are consistent!

[aly]

When your puppy mouths you, saw "OUCH!" in a high-pitched squeaky voice. The puppy should back off immediately. She may come back and mouth but it should be softer when she does. If she does come back softer, reward and praise her. Continue doing "OUCH!" until either she doesn't mouth you anymore or she does it as soft as you want it. It is important to teach her to mouth softly for many reasons. Sometimes dogs will bite as a reaction to something like a child tripping and falling on them with the child's hand in the dog's face. It is sometimes just their natural reaction. If the dog has learned to bite softly, it will save you, the child, and your dog a lot of pain and hassle.

You can also try to divert her to toys or just get up and leave her alone. After she knows she's not supposed to bite and she still does it, her punishment will be ending the play session.

You may want to teach a command like "back" or "off" that you can use when you see your dog about to mouth.

If your dog isn't backing off on the "OUCH!", then you got a dominant little sucker on your hands and there'll be a lot more training for you to do.

I hope I explained this okay. I just woke up and am not coherent yet

GOOD LUCK!!!

I AGREE WITH ALY. IF YOU SAY "OUCH" THEN THEY WILL SIMPLEY STOP. WELL THAT'S WHAT MY DOG DID. SHE DOESN'T DO IT ANYMORE . JUST KEEP ON GIVING HER LOTS OF LOVE AND KISSES AND SOONER OR LATER YOUR DOG WILL STOP. THEN YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING OF THAT SORT AND SIT BACK AND RELAXE !