Double Time: Puppies Bite

Is your Sheltie puppy nipping and play biting? enters your home and begins biting everything he can get his jaws around, it's time to impose some limits.
Table of contents

Owners report destructive chewing when the dog is anywhere between six and ten months of age. Different breeds and sizes of dogs hit this stage of development at different times. Unfortunately, many uninformed owners discontinue using the crate before this phase. This creates a perfect storm where too much freedom and irritated molars combine to leave a wake of destruction.

Resume using the crate if you cannot supervise the animal.

Tips To Ease The Pain Of Puppy Teething

It safeguards your possessions. More importantly, it keeps dogs from ingesting potentially dangerous objects. Puppy proof your home again, keeping valuables such as shoes and eyeglasses out of reach. Do encourage appropriate chewing. It helps relieves irritated gums. Calmly praise the dog when it is chewing appropriate items such as bones. Use food rewards to drive the point home. Stock up on taste deterrent spray such as Bitter Apple. Deterrents do need to be reapplied every couple of days. Prior to using the product, spot test on one item. Occasionally dogs like the taste.

If this happens, discontinue using the spray. Instead, up your level of supervision until this phase passes. Our Collie bites at our hands when we pet him. He uses his front teeth and nibbles. But I always worry that someone might take it the wrong way. Is this dangerous and what can we do to get him to stop? Dogs have a wide range of social skills. These skills help create social bonds. This particular behaviour is called social grooming. Although endearing, the behaviour is a nuisance.

Some dogs can be a bit rough. Their teeth can pinch delicate human skin. We have tried everything What can be done? Is this dog going to be aggressive? Will he outgrow these actions? How can we train him so we have a nice companion? We are getting desperate!

Teeth, Teething and Chewing in Puppies | VCA Animal Hospital

We are so tired of being bitten and charged when we discipline him. Do we need a professional to come to the house to help? I should like to do the same to this person. Your puppy is being a normal puppy, I don't have much time to post as I am supposed to be on holiday, not getting irate at aggressive owners so others will soon be here who have more time and patience to advise. I am trying to find two articles about recall and puppy biting which is normal.

Cant find at the mo. Last edited by runlikethewind on Mon Dec 19, The good news is that this is very much normal puppy behaviour and not a sign of aggression. But when you respond with 'aggression' pinning down, eye contact, fingers down throat then he's likely to become more worked up, not better behaved.

Think of an out-of-control toddler who's just had a whole tube of blue Smarties Early evening is the normal time for the puppy 'zoomies' when they go a little mental At that age, I think OH and I spent ages rolling balls back and forth between us to distract him from our appendages But I remember not being able to sleep because my hands hurt from incessant mouthing Check out this thread on biting in pups: For the biting, distract with a toy so he grabs that instead. Every time his teeth touch your skin, get up and leave the room, shutting the door behind you, and stay out for up to 10 seconds.

No telling-off, just go. For a while you'll be in and out the whole time, but you need to be absolutely consistent. For the digging, select an area where he is allowed to dig - maybe construct a sandpit for him covered, so it doesn't attract the neighbourhood cats. Redirect him there when he tries to dig elsewhere. To be honest, your best bet is to avoid the styrofoam cones for now, and if he digs up plants or empties plant pots, aim for a 'minimalist' garden for a year until he settles down.

It's great that you say he's very good for most of the day - view these times as a glimpse of what he will be like when he grows out of the zoomies. Keep up the training and the games. There are some good impulse control games here: In general, don't think of any of his behaviour as 'bad', but 'normal for a puppy'.

Find a Local VCA

You don't need to tell him off or punish him, you need to distract him so he doesn't do what you don't want him to do, show him what you would like him to do, and praise him when he does it. Evening are always worst with pups, like over tired children, they just get hyper, I would walk him for 20 mins in the evening, feed a bit later and bed. No more smacking him, putting fingers down his throat, he doesn't understand it and you will make the problems worse.

When he kicks off, remove yourself from the room for 10 seconds or so each time, you will need to be consistant and do this endlessly but it will work in time.

Positively | Victoria Stilwell | Forum

Get him some RAW meaty bones to chew on as he is teething and NEEDS to knaw, do very short training sessions, 5 mins max, making him use his brain is more tiring than physical exercise for him. Be calm and patient, he is very much a baby still. I assume a Golden doodle is a Golden retriever x witha poodle? If so, both are working breeds and so will be more energetcic, need more stimulation etc.

First of all, I am not sure what you expected with a Golden Retriever x Poodle but its highly likely that what you HAVE is a sharp minded pup who is VERY intelligent and quick to learn, with the very mouth orientated nature ie, chewy, nippy, mouthy of a gundog a lot of retrievers are VERY chewy puppies and of course the poodle is really a gundog too! This is normal puppy behaviour, exacerbated by the methods you have been using and they probably seem much worse because it isn't what you were expecting. I second the advice to give him stuff to gnaw on - large raw meaty bones, stuff thats going to take real work to get into, kong toys and other food dispensing toys to give him his food each day rather than meals from a bowl.

If you can get him having a large raw bone that he really has to work at, plus two or three kongs that take him 20 minutes or so to eat each day you could have him chewing and gnawing appropriately for well over an hour in total. Feeding meals from food dispensing toys should also help with the evening 'zoomies' because his meals are mentally and physically satisfying as well as filling his tummy.

In addition - short walks, at his age you should be observing the 5 minutes per month of age rule for hard exercise ie chasing stuff, running around with other dogs, on lead walks so thats 20 minutes max each time and I would keep that shorter, ten minute walks, but do three or four of them per day. That means you WONT be pushing him beyond his ability to concentrate and work with you. You will also leave him happy and eager to work with you again. The same applies to training sessions - do several a day ideally four or five of just five minutes long.

Use a clicker, poodles and their x's are usually EXCELLENT clicker dogs, use part of his daily food portion as rewards, mixed in with higher value stuff to keep his interest up cheese, sausage, chicken etc. Keep training sessions FUN and short, again leave him wanting more not fed up and missing the point and switched off. The rules are simple - he stops when you ask, no matter how giddy he is; he does NOT contact human clothing or skin. If he does fall foul of the rules you use a time out. Time outs - you MUST follow these instructions to the letter.

This is an immediate and clear cut consequence of doing the wrong thing and it will only be clear cut and understood by the dog if you do it swiftly, without remonstration or argument with him, without chasing him round the room or giving him 'three strikes and you're out' etc etc. Get up, walk out of the room, shut the door, count ten, return and carry on with the game. His behaviour as far as he is concerned has worked for him ie it has earned interactiona nd some degree of reward for the last eight weeks - he would be a FOOL to stop trying the second it doesnt work - just as humans would be pretty abnormal if they DIDNT scribble harder when a pen stops working, or flick the switch a couple of times when the bulb blows, or turn the key in the ignition a few times when the car won't start straight away.

This is called an extinction burst, when an animal tries a little bit harder just in case persistance will pay off. If you give in now, if you can't be bothered or are watching something on tv or think 'oh it doesnt matter this time' you will teach him it IS worth trying harder, and he will get worse. It is important to note that a time out is a form of punishment - it is a negative punishment, you are removing the reward.

Use it wisely and effectively and use it only in conjunction with other things such as I have laid out here, giving him appropriate things to chew on, appropriate ways to play tuggy games, exercise and training that is mentally stimulating but not beyond his attention span. If you JUST used the time outs he will merely find another way to garner your attention, because his needs will not be being met. You do also need to be realistic, if you do ALL that I have laid out, from the minute you read this, within a couple of weeks you will have a MUCH nicer puppy to live with but you will have to continue, he is a growing developing animal.

The methods will not work overnight and if you are slack with them or chop and change you will not get the results you want. Do be prepared in the first few days for him to try harder and be a bit confused about the new regime, as I said, what he has been doing has worked for him for 8 weeks, half his life..


  • Teeth, Teething and Chewing in Puppies.
  • Riders In The Chariot (Vintage Classics).
  • Telltale Signs Of Puppy Teething.
  • GoldenDoodle with Behavioral Problems - Positively | Victoria Stilwell | Forum.
  • The Pinecone Problem.
  • Error (Forbidden)?

It wasn't my intention to upset anyone, but to get some help in handling my puppy. We knew that in getting a GoldenDoodle we would have an extremely smart animal. This is not our first dog, but our first puppy in many, many years. Our intent is to raise a happy, healthy, wonderful companion as part of our family. Gizmo has many rawhide chews available at all times, as well as other "chewing" toys.

He particularly likes a heavy bowl that used to belong to our granddog and an old tennis ball. The tennis ball seems to massage his gums AND it's fun to chase. We put ice cubes in the bowl for him to play with and eat. He loves this and looks forward to the game every day. Gizmo gets walks at least once a day.

It takes us about mins to walk our route.

Free First Exam

Sometimes we take a shorter walk min later in the day - weather and time permitting. Gizmo gets time-outs when he misbehaves and we can't control him.

Maybe we're waiting too long to enforce the time-out; it's not carried out immediately. We tell him to stop or "no" several times before we give a time-out. He usually gets them when he bites and lunges at us. We are trying to be patient with him. I'm not sure he knows we are the boss and that is part of our problem. We feel that if we don't get this under control, we'll have a large unruly dog when he gets older. He is almost 5 months old now.


  • What To Expect With Puppy Teething.
  • Understanding Puppy Teeth Stages | PetHelpful.
  • Macbeth: AN HISTORICAL NOVEL OF THE LAST CELTIC KING.
  • Victorious Christianity (Studies in the Book of Acts).

He has been to Puppy Kindergarten and a lot of what the trainer told us does not work with Gizmo. Her method of teaching is to be rough and forceful. Gizmo does not respond in a positive way with that kind of training. I'm not really sure what to do when he jumps up on me and bites at me.

I know he wants to play, but this action is unacceptable. We have been told to raise our knee and he will stop after a couple of times. It just makes him more wild. We are learning to distract him while playing and that seems to work for awhile. We try not to overreact when he reverts to the wrong behavior in play, but if it's not checked he gets worse.

I don't want to constantly put him in time-outs or scold him. My husband thinks I need to be stronger with him. Our groomer told us to get him by the nape of the neck and take him down because that is what the mother did.