Corrections!

My Pup, Finny, is still play biting...on us...at age 5 monthes! is this normal? any how, when he does bite, we give him a good, firm scruff shaking. He is very willfull and needs a very frim hand. the scruffing is just not cutting it, although he will stop after a couple of scruffs. He start biting on my pants or arm, I'll scruff him, and he just come back harder. Ive literally had to do it 5 times for him to get the picture. Dont get me wrong, hes aa very smart dog, too smart for his own good. But I love him to pieces. Question is this: If he keeps biting me and wont stop, do you think its ok to give him a little whck on the nose to stop him? Finny was biting my mom, and was growing, so her first reaction was to give the dog a little whack on the nose. She did it, and the dog stopped, walked away, and cameback licking her hand. So is this good?

Finny sounds like a typical puppy. The "scruffing" as you call it is not teaching him how to behave.And neither will the smack on the nose. You need to redirect him to a more appropriate behavior. Try sticking a toy in his mouth when he starts biting. And when he starts playing with or biting on the toy praise him. This will help teach him to bite or chew his toys rather than you. If he will not bite/play with the toy ignore him until he has stopped biting.Walk away or whatever it takes to ignore his bad behavior. Then when he does stop biting praise and or give him a treat.To correct a behavior you have to show the behavior you expect rather than what you don't expect of him.This will take some time to teach. Please be patient and consistent.
Also training classes would be great. This will help you teach your dog commands (among other things) which will help you tremendously with correcting unappropriate behavior.

Angie

if you want a physical correction, i've found that a swat on the butt works better then a scruff shake. that can even be dangerous. and i always tell people to never hit them on the nose. this can be dangerous, as well as the fact that it usually only makes them more determined to bite whatever hit them on the nose.

though i have found that ignorring them works just fine too. it depends on the individual dog.

This post is going to be more brief than I'd like. But I am VERY tired and have had way too much caffeine at the same time. The result is not pretty. Ask Staci how many typos I am making on AIM, hehe.

I really really really really really greatly discourage any sort of physical punishment. Swatting and scruffing are just going to lead to so many problems for you. Your dog will learn that human touch can be a bad thing and you don't want that!

You need to teach your dog bite inhibition. It is normal puppy behavior to bite and grab with their mouths, but you need to show your puppy that is not acceptable to us humans. Many people think it is cute when puppies mouth while they are small, but if they don't teach bite inhibition, they could have an 80 lb dog munching on their arm!! :eek: Since the dog was never taught otherwise, he will think what he is doing is just play and very acceptable.

Sometimes adult dogs will bite from reflex. They might do this at a vet or if a child falls on them. It is just out of reflex, but if taught how to properly bite, they won't hurt the vet or child. If not taught, things could get ugly.

Every time your pup mouths you, say "OUCH!!!!" in a high pitched tone of voice. The puppy *should* back off realizing they hurt you (really dominant ones won't back off). When they come back again, it should be a softer bite. After a little while, your puppy will learn that he needs to be careful with humans. You can keep up the OUCH routine until the mouthing is as soft as you desire.

You can also teach a command like 'Off', 'Leave it', or 'Ah-Ah!'. Do this if you notice the puppy is about to bite but hasn't made contact yet.

Along with bite inhibition, you should do some basic dominance exercises with Finny. Pulling on your pant leg may be just puppy play but it also might be a very dominant move. Make sure he knows you're top dog. You eat before Finny does. Even if its just a cracker, it will help. Also go through doorways first and be sure to sleep at a higher level than him. If he's laying in a doorway, don't walk around him. Have him get up and move out of your way. I could be totally wrong and he's not dominant though.

Okay, was going to say something else too. Totally forgot.

Sorry if I'm telling you stuff you already know. And I don't mean to say that you *should* do this, but I just mean its what I would do. I'm not trying to force my methods on anyone.

(Oh yeah, was going to add redirecting with a toy as previously mentioned)

[ November 15, 2001: Message edited by: aly ]