Mouthing, sometimes HARD

I have an 8 month old labradoodle that licks most of the time but sometimes it turns into mouthing. In rougher play, stepson horsing around with her, she bites harder. Too excited obviously, but there are times when she mouthes just putting her collar on. I put my hands around her mouth and say no biting, but as many times as I have done this she continues. Sometimes she does it in just greeting you and very lightly. The licking gets annoying, but I realize it is better than mouthing. Is this a puppy thing and how much should this be controlled We cry ouch if she bites hard. :confused:

First you need to realize that biting is a totally natural behavior for dogs, both wild and domestic. Dogs bite each other in play and in warning. Very rarely do they bite each other in order to do serious damage. As pups, they learn the importance of bite inhibition by playing with each other. When a pup bites a littermate too hard, the victim yelps loudly and may refuse to play for a while. Thus the biter learns that the fun of play ends when he bites too hard. Usually over the course of the first 5 months of his life he learns to control the strength of his bite. If he doesn't have this opportunity, it is much more difficult for him to learn to use his mouth gently later in life. This is even more common in pups who were not properly socialized during the first 5 months of their lives in addition to being taken from littermates to soon.

My suggestion is imitate the puppy's littermates. When a pup bites hard, say OUCH or NO BITE in a loud, high pitched tone and remove yourself from the pup's reach for a few minutes. Then return to puppy play. Each time the pup bites too hard, repeat the lesson. After several repetitions the pup's bite will begin to soften. You can then repeat the lesson at gradually decreasing levels of bite intensity until the pup learns not to bite at all.

At the same time that you are softening the puppy's bite, you can also direct the puppy's biting toward acceptable chew items.

Another thing to note: Unless you are trying to build self confidence in a shy, nonaggressive dog, avoid wrestling and tug of war games. They tend to incite competitive struggles that your dog needs to settle with his teeth and hard mouth!

On Good Dog U i once heard that if you say OW! really loud the dog will stop... another way.. egt the dog a bone ;) for it will chew on it instad of u

Hi, Labradoodle
I've the same problem, but my dog is just over three, he hasn't bit me hard just a little, but still does it when we play, hope you get some help with this

I have a twelve week old puppy who is Always biting! When My mom was with Finny ( thats my dogs name) one night, me and her were sitting outside one night, letting Finny run around a little, stuff like that, then he came overb and started playing with us, got to rowdy, and bit my Mom, and she almost needed a stich. Of course, Puppy's bite a lot! Right now when Finn bites, I give him a little pop on the nose, not hard at all, but just a little pop. It distracts him, and he doesn't like it, so he'll stop. When he get's a bit older, I'll start a more serious punishment like your doing right now, grabbing his mouth. Also, we have a deck and we were eating outside one night, and Finny was just alking around the deck play ing when he came under the table and starteed biting out feet. So I put Tabasco sauce on my feet. It works, and it'ssafe, my vet recommended it ! He didn't bite for at least two days strieght. One more thing, You can get something called Bitter apple spray, and when he bites, spray right in his mouth. My puppy is now scared of the bottle, and when he sees that Im taking it out, he stops biting right away. And it Can't hurt him! One last thing, if he get's to wild, put him in his crate (if you have one). It teaches him he can't play like that.