4chins said:
First a big thank you to all who advised me....we now have a gorgeous 9 1/2 week old Staffie called Bailey. Hes brown brindle and white. Has 4 little white socks!
We are all besotted with him already.
Having a few teething problems...literally! He keeps biting...really hard too..not just nips, my arms are covered in teeth marks, bruises, and cuts! Trying the time out method at the moment cos the kids are geting scared.
Hallo.My name is Ariana and we had the same problem a week ago, when we get our pup.Now he is really good with this.He is still biting, but not like a week ago.The first day I was soooo upset with him, he was uncotrolable :shock: . I bought very good book and it's some tecnics wich is really working.
I send to you some stuff from this book.Hope it would help :wink:
Nipping is quite a common complaint that is particularly prevalent in, but not limited to, puppies. I believe the best thing that you can do is to encourage acceptable behavior and discourage the unacceptable behavior. The following bullet points outline some techniques that you can use.
□ Take the focus away from your hands when you pet him. Do this by offering him a chew bone or similar when you go to pet him. Pet your dog behind the ears with one hand while offering the treat with the other. Pet him for short periods of time at the beginning, as you do not want to overexcite him. This technique will help him form a positive association with petting.
□ Try wearing gloves coated with a foul tasting substance. You should be able to buy some specific puppy “aversion” substances from your vet or pet store. The drawback with this method is that you must have the gloves on every time he tries to bite and he may form the negative association with the gloves rather than the hands.
□ If you are sure that he will not bite you too hard then you can discourage the biting by loosely holding your puppy’s lower jaw between your thumb and forefinger after he has taken your hand in his mouth. Do not hurt him by squeezing too hard, just gently hang on so that wherever his mouth goes your hand goes too. I hope that this will quickly become tiresome for him and he will try to pull away. After ten seconds of him trying to pull away, release his jaw and continue to offer your hand. If your puppy licks it or ignores it then praise him immediately. If he tries to bite your hand again then repeat the exercise.
□ It is important to teach your puppy that biting turns off any social interaction and attention that you may be giving him. When he nips you, look him in the eye and yell “Ouch” or “Arghh”, then ignore him. Leave your puppy until he has calmed down.
□ Make sure that you do not slap or hit your puppy in the face for nipping as this action is almost guaranteed to backfire. He may think that you are playing and get more excited, he might respond in a defensive manner or he may just become afraid of you.
□ Also, never play tug of war games with your puppy if you are having nipping problems. This will just encourage out of control behavior.
□ A word of warning: Be careful with young children practicing this kind of behavior modification. A child’s first reaction to being bitten is to push the puppy away with their hands. Your puppy is likely to interpret that action as being play, which in turn causes the puppy to nip more.
