How to stop puppy from nipping & biting?

[QueenofCA]

I have a 10-week-old Italian Greyhound puppy. He has a habit of nipping at my hands and my face. I'm trying to say "No Bite" very sternly when he does this, but he doesn't really listen. I also remove him from my lap and ignore him for a minute when he nips/bites, but when I start to play with him again he'll start doing it again.

I'm concerned that if I don't stop this now, he may try to nip at a child's face some day and hurt someone. This is my very first dog, so maybe this is normal, but I'm worried. How can I get a handle on it and stop him from doing this?

TIA!

[mb1197]

My puppy was a nipping maniac when we first got her. We got her at 5 weeks and later learned that she might have been nipping a lot due to being seperated from her litter so young. She didn't have that early growth experience with her littermates where she would get nipped in return for her bahavior. It took a lot of consistent effort on our part to tap her on the nose and tell her "no" when she nipped. Of course then she took to chewing since she was teething so much. She's 6 months old and just now starting to understand that it's unacceptable.

[Emilie]

Whenever our dog gets too mouthy with us we grab his snout (gently bit still firmly) look him straight in the eye and tell him no. Then we let him go and return to what we were doing, if he is good we immediately give him love and scratches and pets on the ears and coo at him in the "good boy" voice. If he continues to mouth we repeat grabbing his snout.

It calms him down and asserts that you are in charge, not him.

[carrie9142]

I have heard that you should act like a dog! If the pup had stayed with his mom/siblings they would have stopped him from biting. When the puppy bites too hard they will whine and not play with him for awhile. So when your pup bites just make sad noises and then ignore him.

We have been doing this to our puppy and its really funny. If he accidentally bites too hard I make sad, whiney noises and turn away from him. He will always crawl into my lap and try to lick my face :)

[fuzzy]

We had to end up using an alpha roll with my very head strong little dog.

When she'd nip, we'd say "NO!" very sternly and then ignore her. When she continued to bite us (usually it was my husband), we'd get down on the ground with her, roll her on her side, and pin her to the ground (firmly, but gently). She'd squirm and squirm and squirm and when she stopped squirming and would finally submit, then she could get up. By then, she'd be so humiliated that she'd go sulk in a corner.

[mb1197]

We had to end up using an alpha roll with my very head strong little dog.
We do this as well and it really does work. I'm pretty sure someone on here (maybe even you:) ) suggested it when we first got Sasha. She relates to it as though she were with her "pack" and it makes a world of difference in her behavior.

[ejs]

We say "ow" really loudly and put her on the floor. She also likes to chew on our other dog, but he rarely, if ever, puts her in her place. So she hasn't learned from him that it's not a good thing to do.

We also make sure that she has lots of things to chew on: the hardest Nylabones, stuffed femur bones, ice cubes.

eta: If you do a Google search on "alpha roll," you'll see that most groups consider it to be an unsafe, outdated method of training.

[bunny nose]

Whenever our dog gets too mouthy with us we grab his snout (gently bit still firmly) look him straight in the eye and tell him no.

This is good to do. They have to learn that it is wrong. I have also learned that you should give them a little hit under their chin when they are nipping. Not hard, but just enough, KWIM? This causes them to catch their own toungue, at the same time say sternly, "no bites!" They will learn it hurts and is wrong.

Good luck, it will pass, just needs a lot of patience.

Karen

[katiadarling]

I've always heard that the alpha roll-over is in fact not an effective way to train your dog. You'll notice if you watch dogs play that the dominant dog doesn't actually roll the other dog over (unless it's really pushy and inappropriate), rather, the submissive dog rolls over for the dominant dog.

Likewise, I've heard that grabbing a dog by the muzzle is more confusing than useful. It distracts the dog and may actually cause more mouthing.

With my puppy I've been using a high pitch "ow!" and then stopping play for a few minutes. If when I return to play she mouths again, then I stop play for a good while. I've noticed with my older dog, when the puppy is too much for him and mouths him too much, he'll make a high pitch squeak, give calming signs and walk away. If she's irritating the crap out of him (ie. he's trying to do something and she's bouncing on his head, poking him...) I've seen him give her a sharp nip and then he'll sulk away. It's a sharp correction that's given dog to dog and I really don't think it's something that human's can duplicate.

Anyway my .02

[jbenny75]

I wouldn't worry too much about this meaning she will bite in the future. In my experience, it's just a normal puppy stage. I remember walking around for a few weeks with band-aids all over my hands when my older dog went through this. I always just reprimanded him and gave him an appropriate toy or chewie to show him what he should be chewing on instead of me. He grew out of it. My female wasn't too bad that I remember, but I've had foster pups do the same thing. They just need to learn what the right things are to chew on and not to chew on you.

[CityGirl]

Are you going to do puppy training?

Our new little one is a biter too. I remember when we started puppy classes with our first dog, the main reason to go was so the dogs could socialize with each other. They do all the biting on each other, and learn quickly what is OK and what hurts. We noticed the biting decreased really quickly.

Also, our trainer pointed out that you actually want the puppy to bite on you in the beginning. By giving a little yelp when it hurts, you help the puppy develop a soft mouth. This is necessary in case your dog is startled, or stepped on, etc, by someone later in life. Instead of biting hard and causing injury a dog with a soft mouth will make contact, but will have the control to keep from biting down.

[Chimichanga]

We tried a few things to get our lab to stop nipping when he was a puppy: alpha male role, "Ow" when he nipped, ignoring him, biting him back (okay, not that I chomped on him, but when puppies play there is that one point when they go too far and they back off, I was trying to show him he went too far)

What helped was bitter apple spray. You can get it any almost any pet store. It's not harmful to the dog (DH and I tried it on us before we used it on him - not too bad but bad enough).

When he nipped, we would tell him "No!" in a very stern voice - sort of as a warning. When he nipped again we'd squirt him in between his teeth and gums with the spray. He did NOT like it at all.

We used a few different spray bottles with the bitter apple - so he wouldn't get used to just one. He definitely stopped nipping.

Also to consider - puppies are teething. When they get their adult teeth, they stop nipping/mouthing so much.

[QueenofCA]

Thanks for all the advice, everyone! It's good to know that this is somewhat normal. Like I said, this is my first puppy so this is all new to me!

Yes, we are planning on taking him to puppy kindergarten. It starts Feb 7! I can't wait for him to go and socialize with other dogs, I'm hoping that will really help! :)