Help with my brother's (HEY!) adorable (OWWW!) little puppy (GEEZ!!)

Factual Questions
1

Brotherbel and Galpalbel just got a puppy, a smallish hound/shephard mix. She’s adorable and very happy and affectionate, and naturally at three months she jumps on everybody, which is OK, but then she starts nipping. And nipping. And then biting your ankles outright after playing with your shoelaces for a second. She’s been doing this for about a month and they thought that she’d grow out of it fast, but she shows no signs of stopping.

She understands SIT and STAY but only does it for a second before she’s up on her feet again. They’re teaching her DOWN and have a bitter apple spray that works as a last resort. Any suggestions from canine-inclined Dopers? The term ‘ankle-biter’ is taking on a new meaning, but frankly I’m starting to get nervous coming over–it gets painful! They’re thinking of obedience school but they don’t know how it will take for her to outgrow this–she’s also teething.

HELP!! yowch

2

The local community college where I live has dog obedience courses, including puppy courses. The tuition fee is QUITE reasonable. I’d ask a vet for recommendations, too. Vets usually know quite a bit about behavior problems and how to solve them.

3

Well, what I do (we have seven dogs) is make sure there’s plenty of toys around for the puppy to play with and the old handy rolled up newspaper. When she goes to biting, smack her behind once with a rolled up newspaper. It won’t hurt her but the sound of it will scare her. Worked for me.

Grem

4

There is good advice here http://www.ddfl.org/behavior/pupnip.htm and here http://www.sspca.org/Dogs_PuppyNipping.html and here http://www.hsus.org/ace/14554?pg=2 (see both pages).

Save your rolled up newspaper for the fireplace. With many dogs, violent training begets fear aggression. Nonviolent training is effective, humane, and (IMO) psychologically healthier for both pet and humans.

5

Right on Grem … and it won’t take long either. I just love dogs. My pup (4yrs. old :smiley: ) is spoiled rotten but he minds better than the kids. :wink:

6

What’s cute in a little puppy is not cute, dangerous and hard to fix in an adult dog. On the whole, puppies don’t outgrow bad habits unless they’re taught that they are bad habits. A major reason why a lot of young dogs end up in shelters is because owners didn’t realise that puppies need training and attention, so the dogs get to a year or so old, mostly their adult size, but with little or no training. Not the dog’s fault.

There are lots of ways of fixing this, but what worked for me was that the minute I felt teeth, I’d stop the game and say, “no biting”. Nipping meant the immediate withdrawal of attention and fun, just stop and ignore the dog. If my pup kept going I’d hold his mouth and repeat, “no biting”. He was, and is, a very independent-minded dog, and it took a lot of repititions, but he got the point eventually. For really nippy puppies the key is to be absolutely persistent and consistent, once you’ve made the rule you have to keep it.

And teach the pup to sit, so that the sit is absolutely reliable…one sit and that little bottom hits the ground. I found that getting a good, reliable sit could circumvent any number of problems. A puppy at three months has a short attention span, but is perfectly capable of being trained.

Although puppies do need to learn self-control, they are still puppies with lots of energy, so rather than letting them get irritating asking you to play, volunteer. Throw a ball, or give them a toy they can chew on without doing damage, or give them a little training session, something short and simple for them to think about.

I’ve had this guy recommended to me: http://www.siriuspup.com/ and one of his books has a whole section on teaching bite inhibition to puppies.

I also liked “The Other End of the Leash” by Patricia McConnell a lot, a very sensible book with a lot of intelligent training tips.

7

I’m not sure how this’d apply but to get mine from licking stuff. You know how they’ll get carried away and just want to lick whatever, asses, elbows, pillows, purses…etc. Try a dab of ora-gel on the spot where they are obsessed.

It’ll take the lick right out of 'em. After a couple of doses, they’ll stop and/or find something else.

It might work on the ankle biting as well, wouldn’t have to swat your bro’s pup either. In time, I bet he’d figure out that your ankles just ain’t too tastey. :smiley:

8

I’m with blackhobyah on this one. Puppies are very easy to train, if you’re prepared to put in a little time. And really, training a puppy is lots of fun!

My dog would attempt to chew inappropriate things (eg fingers, hands, whatever) when he was young, particularly when his adult teeth were coming in. A stern “NO!”, which got his attention, followed by “No biting!” did the trick.

I combined this with a complete cessation of activity and he got the hint pretty quick. It’s important to reward good behaviour. After you’ve told your doggie no, and he stops, wait a second or so. If he stays behaved, give him a treat and resume play.

Basically what you want to put in the dog’s mind is the understanding that biting results in a situation that is simply no fun.

Have fun with your puppy! You’ve got a friend for life! :smiley:

Max.

9

Fear aggression? Not in my experience. The dog mainly just doesn’t like the sound of the paper, it isn’t injured in any way unless of course you roll it tight and bludgeon the hell out of it which I totally doubt Meh would do.

10

I suppose it’s possible…if that’s all the pup gets.
Violent please :rolleyes: I’m not talking about beating. Not even hitting for that matter. And with mine it didn’t take once or twice.

Of course I taught him to sit when he was barely weaned. After that most things were simple repeated commands and modifing behavior through praise and reward.

But punishment has its place in certain circumstances. It has to be immediate and consistent. There is no place or occasion to allow your pet to bite someone. Playful nips after the lesson of BITING is learned is a different thing all together. If it takes a noisy but harmless swat to STOP the behavior in its act then do that. Training comes later. A buzzer or other noisy device will probably work also but may not be handy. A loud clap may suffice as well…that depends on the pup.

I can tell mine “no bite” if he is getting to aggressive when we are playing. He immediately begins to kiss and make up.

The SIT command is a must. IMO of course. :slight_smile:

11

Thanks for the stuff so far! Yes, they are saying NO BITING to her as soon as she starts, but it doesn’t seem to stop her for long. She’ll stop, look repentent, and then start up again about a minute or so later. They actually pay a lot of attention to her and have plenty of manuals and all, and always keep toys around that she can play with (which she does, but usually she likes to be right around people, like underfoot). I suppose they’re doing the right thing but wonder how long it’ll take for HER to. Like I said, she understands SIT but will sit only for a few seconds–what can they do, repeat SIT for a while?

Of course, she loves me and anybody else besides Mommy and Daddy walking into the house gets a huge excited jumping and nipping treatment, so I’m like a walking Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. I’m told she’s very good in the mornings when she wakes up, but when she’s psyched it’s not pretty.

Brotherbel will whack the ground next to her with a paper but I’ll show him the thread and see what he thinks.

12

I’m no expert, but it sure sounds like if she doesn’t stay sitting for more than a few seconds, she needs to learn “stay” as well. Then you can combine that with “sit” or “down.”

How to teach stay? Well, the way I’D do it is to get her sitting and tell her “stay” and only expect a few seconds at first, and then start expecting longer stays over time. And praise/treats after she stays for the required time.

I’ve found getting dogs to go down and stay down is very helpful, unless they’re entirely underfoot. At least if they’re staying down and underfoot, you know where they are so you can get around them without somebody moving into your path…

13

Most dogs (and cats that I’ve seen) hate The Can. Get a soda pop can. Empty it, clean it. Drop a few dimes or pennies in it, and tape the hole shut. When the dog is bad, shake the can. The noise frightens them. Then you’re also not hurting them no matter what, and they’ll react repentant towards any similar soda pop can being shown to them. Of course this combined with obedience training and lots of substitute toys. If dog bites, shake can, wait a few moments, praise for not immediately biting again, and offer a chew toy (not rawhide or hooves or snouts or ears, please, that’s gross and can be unhealthy for some dogs, plus they may not accept if they want to bite and not eat; use a rubber or soft toy).

The Can is a wonder, I hope it works.

14

My grandmother had success with training her dog not to nip by using a spray-bottle filled with water. She kept it by her side, and when the dog bit, she would spray him in the face with it. He HATED it and quickly stopped.

She also got water pistols, and “shot” the dog whenever he misbehaved. If she caught him chewing on a shoe, she’d stealthily squirt him, not letting him see where the water was coming from. Since he never figured out that it was Grandma punishing him, he quickly came to associate shoe-chewing (or any other bad behavior) with an unpleasant shock of a stream of water.

If you’re going to try this, make sure it’s just plain water in the spray bottle or squirt gun. Anything else may burn the dog’s eyes.

15

I trained all of my dogs not to nip by letting them nip at my hands, then grabbing them by the nose/upper mouth, kind of playfully, not painfully. I would hold them for about 10 or 15 seconds, then let go. It didn’t hurt them any, however, they didn’t care for it much, and they quickly stopped nipping. If they tried to nip somewhere else (like ankles) then I’d reach down and make sure my hand was between them and my ankle, and do it again. I like this method better since it doesn’t involve negative reinforcement (like whapping them with a newspaper). I’m no expert, and I’ve only done it with 4 dogs, but it worked all 4 times, and I only had to do it a few times for each dog.