Pure Parents

Question:

David, Yes, it is normal, but no, you should not allow it to continue, and no, it isn’t something that will stop overnight. You are doing the right thing by saying NO BITE, but you have to do a little more.  This pup is very, very young, so you can only do so much right now… Accompany the NO BITE (in a loud, deep, very forceful "I mean business" voice) with 1-removing your hand from the puppy’s mouth and 2-sticking an acceptable chew toy in the dog’s mouth, such as a nylabone or hard rubber ring.  And **praise** when the dog stops biting.  Say "good puppy, good no bite" in a happy, lovey voice.  As soon as he goes for your hand again, get out your "I’m not happy" voice and pull your hand away and say "Ah-Ah-Ah! NO BITE!"  Insert toy. Puppies play together by biting and chewing, so it will take a little while for him to learn that people don’t play that way.  You (everyone in the household) must be consistent and do this every time.  If puppy gets really out of control or is being corrected over and over and over, put him in his crate for 15 minutes.  When he is a little older, if he continues to chew your hands, a light tap under the chin with the flat of your thumb (not hard enough to hurt, just startle him a little) can be used.  The key is consistency (biting your hands *always* makes you unhappy, use the grouchy voice, and results in no playing), patience, and praise when he is being good.  In about another month he will be old enough for puppy obedience, and I always suggest this for pets, especially when it is going to be a large dog and there is a small child.  BTW, any playtime with a dog and child should **always*** be closely supervised.  A good book you might find useful is "Dogs & Kids…Parenting Tips" by Bardi McLennan. Good luck, Lori Ripley’s Retrieve-It-Or-Not http://www.geocities.com/~goldendog – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > My new yellow lab pup (9  wks old) thinks that everyone in the family is > a chew toy.  We have tried holding its nose and saying "no bite" so much > she thinks that is her name.  She chews us when we sit and try to hold > her.  She chews our feet when we try to walk with her.  She chews our 2 > year old child until he squeeks like her teddy bear. > help?  anyone? > If it’s normal behavior we will work through it, but we have only had > Jack Russell Terriors before and don’t know what lab pups are like. > thanks > david

Response:

On May 29th you write: >My new yellow lab pup (9  wks old) thinks that everyone in the family isa chew

toy. Think retriever and you have your answer – she just needs something in her mouth. Everytime she grabs something inappropriate, offer her one of HER chew toys and tell her how wonderful she is when she takes it. An added benefit  is if you use the name of the toy as you give it to her, she will eventually learn it’s name and get it herself when you ask her to. Enjoy her Monica

Response:

We also have a LabX puppy who does the same thing and we are having the same problems getting him to stop. We’ve found that distracting him with his Dino dog or a rawhide bone while telling him "no..chew your bone (toy, ect) works as long as you dont seem to be excited about the biting…   our daughter rolls around on the floor yelling "AHH!! puppy eat me!!" which he thinks is the greatest fun in the world  (probably coz she does the same thing when her daddy tickles her  so getting him to leave her alone is a little harder..   by putting him out on the patio, he is getting the idea of "how much is too much" when playing with the baby… he is always trying to test the limits and see if we are paying attention, just like Bethy does…sometimes I feel like we have twins. hope this gives you some more ideas and Ill def be checking replies to get some more ideas of my own – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> My new yellow lab pup (9  wks old) thinks that everyone in the family is > a chew toy.  We have tried holding its nose and saying "no bite" so much > she thinks that is her name.  She chews us when we sit and try to hold > her.  She chews our feet when we try to walk with her.  She chews our 2 > year old child until he squeeks like her teddy bear. > help?  anyone? > If it’s normal behavior we will work through it, but we have only had > Jack Russell Terriors before and don’t know what lab pups are like. > thanks > david

Response:

My new yellow lab pup (9  wks old) thinks that everyone in the family is a chew toy.  We have tried holding its nose and saying "no bite" so much she thinks that is her name.  She chews us when we sit and try to hold her.  She chews our feet when we try to walk with her.  She chews our 2 year old child until he squeeks like her teddy bear. help?  anyone? If it’s normal behavior we will work through it, but we have only had Jack Russell Terriors before and don’t know what lab pups are like. thanks david

Response:

> My new yellow lab pup (9  wks old) thinks that everyone in the family is > a chew toy.  We have tried holding its nose and saying "no bite" so much > she thinks that is her name.  She chews us when we sit and try to hold > her.  She chews our feet when we try to walk with her.  She chews our 2 > year old child until he squeeks like her teddy bear. > help?  anyone? > If it’s normal behavior we will work through it, but we have only had > Jack Russell Terriors before and don’t know what lab pups are like. > thanks > david

Hi.  I hope you have a nice crate for her and that she’s already getting used to it, since you feed her in it and give her treats in it and let her stay in it not only when you have to leave her alone but also when you will be right by her (so she doesn’t think that crate time is bad since it always means you leave her alone.)  And I hope that she gets to sleep in her crate in your bedroom at night so that she feels secure and so that her survival instinct doesn’t have to kick in and she doesn’t have to cry all night.  :-)  Now, since you’re doing all that already, I’ll go on to tell you about her biting you… There have been posts here almost every week on what to do about puppy biting.  You can use DejaNews and find a bunch of them, I’m sure.  In short, she needs to learn to stop doing it.  Some pups are responsive to a "no bite", but some just get more riled up, and some, espeically retrievers, have such a high drive to have your body parts in their mouth that you need to find something else to give her the idea that it’s not OK…  Holding the muzzle closed and saying "no bite" is good, but if the pup does it again (and of course she will!) then she needs more.  After she does it again, she’ll need a time out.  Time outs with pups work well if the pup is in a safe place (like the kitchen) and if you can step over a baby gate and walk away from her.  Less preferred but still OK is to give her a time out in her crate.  As long as the crate is also used for feeding and sleeping in the "pack’s den" and for treats, I don’t think time outs in the crate will make the crate too aversive for her.   When you give the "no bite" command and when you give a time out, it’s important to use a low voice and not to get excited or loud.  That sort of stuff just riles the pup up more and makes her think you are really excited about her game — she gets a little rough with you, you get a little rough with her, fun is had by all (at least in her mind!)  She has to learn that’s not the case, that whenever her teeth touch you all the fun stops.   You might also try, maybe when she’s older and not such a baby, putting your finger down her throat a tiny bit, enough to make her uncomfortable, when you give the "no bite" command.  Holding the muzzle closed just doesn’t do it for some dogs.  With my pup, who was so so so assertive with me that for a while I was getting kind of worried, I would hold her out away from my body, off the floor, in a manner so that she could not get her mouth around to me to bite me, and give the "no bite" command.  She really didn’t like being held like that; she’s very dominant and at that age was not into humans at all, and thus being held up unable to move by a yucky human really seemed to give her the message that biting was not OK. At 8 and 9 weeks I’d only hold her for a few seconds, and then if she did it again she’d get a time out.  When she got a bit older I’d hold her until she stopped struggling and started acting a little submissive.  At that point she would be rewarded by being let down.  Now, at 6 months, she’s fine, and she never ever puts her teeth on me.  And frankly I’m rather amazed after how incredibly driven she was when she was younger to bite the crap out of me or completely ignore me but nothing else… I mean, she would snarl, growl, and basically try to take my hand off.  Now she’s great.  :-) You can also work on teaching your pup that you are extremely pleased with her when she has a toy in her mouth.  And of course, basic obedience and working on her attention span will help a lot — right now she’s pretty much clueless about what being a dog owned by humans is all about.  But thru obedience she’ll learn that you have things to tell her and that she has certain behaviors she can execute that make you happy and others that don’t make you happy.  In the meantime you just have to live thru her babyhood! take care, Daisy

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