How can I get my puppy to stop chewing on me?

yeah i don’t know if you can get a puppy to stop, its what they were hard wired to do. Kind of like getting them to stop chasing cats, if it likes to chase cats its going to chase cats, same with your feet.

That’s called mouthiness and they do it with their littermates. Their siblings will teach them to stop when it gets to be stronger or habitual. When puppies are separated too early they don’t learn good manners. The earlier you can start training the easier. You don’t want a 1 yo dog that is slobbering, nipping and chewing everything and everybody

Stop showering for a while!

I have this image of you typing this one handed while trying to shake your puppy off your forearm.

Consistently redirecting her to mouth an appropriate toy each and every time. Then rewarding her with praise, ”What a good pup!” Over time, your dog will figure it out. Just don’t give it mixed messages, like by playing tug of war or teasing her face.

She’s 8 weeks old so I hope it’s not too late to get her out of the habit.

No, not at all actually… this is the ideal stage of development to teach her how to socialize with humans because it is when dogs typically are not as attached to their mother emotionally as they are usually weaned by then.

This will probably inflame all those who don’t believe in punishing a dog, but a biting dog is going to end up getting its owner sued and maybe get itself put down if it bites the wrong person. So when they latch onto me, I grasp their muzzle and squeeze its lips against its pointy little canine teeth until it yelps. You only have to do it once or twice and most pups get the point.

I am not saying this is the only way to do it, it is just my opinion based on my experience.

I believe that good training probably has to include a quantum of punishment from time to time. As long as the training isn’t punishment based.

It’s completely natural for a puppy to go through a mouthy phase. What you have to do is redirect that action to an acceptable (non human) item (it’s called displacement).

When you interact with your puppy, have a favorite toy in your hand. As the puppy approaches you, encourage her to chew on the toy – praise her any time she chews on it rather than you.

When she does chew on you, give her a sharp, loud “No!”, immediately stop playing with her and get up and walk away. Don’t look at her or talk to her – she’s being shunned.

The key is consistency – if you let her occasionally get away with chewing on you, she’s unable to understand the training. But if you work with her, you’ll have a puppy who is able to exhibit natural puppy exhilaration without becoming head shy or hand fearful.

@rooeytoo That’s exactly what I was about to suggest. We have two puppies who are almost a year old and it took a couple of times of me catching their lips against their teeth got them to stop biting. Chewing, however, still happens from time to time because they’re puppies, when they get over excited. The difference is that if they chew they do it lightly and its very, very rarely that it hurts. Its more absentminded going from licking my fingers to see what I’ve been doing to chewing on my fingers lightly because they taste good. The only problem we’re still having is getting overexcited when I come into the yard and jumping and nipping at fingers when they jump. With this particular breed, this is pure hunting instinct that’s being misdirected, so I have to stop (because I can’t catch them immediately) and yell “NO.” They have learned that word (because “no” means not being allowed in the house, not getting cookies, getting kicked out of somewhere they want to be, getting their lips pinched if they bite, and so on) and know that if I’m yelling at them, they need to stop that.

Immediacy is probably even more important than anything that you choose to do. You can’t punish a dog later for a behavior, you have to punish them right then so that they know what behavior is unacceptable and make the right association. This happens and then that happens. Its important that they know what you think is wrong so that they can stop doing that and stop getting punished for it without getting confused.

One of the pups kept diving into my crotch when I was sitting on steps. Similar to the lip method, when he went straight for my crotch I grabbed his ears and let him pull forward and yank his ears. He didn’t like the sensation and shortly stopped going for my crotch as an interesting place to sniff or whatever (promise I wash! :D) and started respecting a little personal space. It only took two or three times for this behavior to stop because there were unpleasant, but not harmful, consequences. Smart puppy.

Ack! I am not of the school of punishing. It is better to use natural dog methods.

First. as others have said, ignore the cute and determine never to let your pup chew or bite on people.

Then add this to the redirect technique. Each time your puppy bites or mouths on you, whether it hurts or not, say “Ow, ow, ow” loudly (high pitched is good too). You will see that the puppy stops right away (it does not mean to hurt you).

Then give it an alternative to chew on.

Also, set up a toy box for the pup that it can reach into with chew toys, balls, etc.

@Marina “Natural” dog methods are inaccurately named. They’re things made up by humans to try and train dogs. The real “natutal” methods are the mother or other pack members teaching the pup by punishment when they do something wrong. We’re not talking about hurting the dog, but merely an “ouch” moment that suggests that its not smart to do that again. Kind of like banging your elbow on something and probably remembering not to do that again in the near future. There’s no lasting damage, no damage at all really other than a moment of being not happy with your elbow, but odds are that you’ll remember that whatever you banged your elbow on is there and won’t do it again for a while. After you avoid doing the thing that produced the “ouch” moment for a while, it becomes second nature and you don’t have to think about it, you just do it. Doing this kind of action-consequence sequence with dogs is not cruel, its how learning would occur for them in nature. The true “natural” method.

@avvooooooo The training methods that are endorsing, in inexperienced hands, will often result in animals that are, at the very least, “head shy”. Yes, physical punishment can be appropriate under certain circumstances and when handled properly. But you cannot assume that most pet owners are experienced, knowledgeable, or caring. It is much more responsible to educate new owners on methods that are proven, effective, and mild.

@syz As two of us have said, this is something that you generally have to do once or twice. We’re not advocating doing anything harmful or anything that an inexperienced person can do wrong. When I learned this method, I was inexperienced. I had a verbal explination of what to do and I learned to do it. Its not something that will traumatize dogs for life nor is is cruel and unusual nor is it so complicated that someone who is inexperienced or lacks knowledge can do it wrong or will have to do it many times. You cannot assume that new dog owners are experienced, knowledgable, or caring. Which is probably why we have so many shelter dogs who never learned because their owners, using the more “mild” methods that are only proven and effective if continually applied, got bored or frustrated or gave up because they weren’t “doing it right” and were unable to stop undesirable behaviors.

Everything I was going to say has already been said by @syz

In my experience, whenever a dog is doing something wrong, redirecting their attention is always effective as most things that pups/dogs do is down to habit. Sometimes we just need to break that habit.

I rarely punish my dogs as such (although I have had to “shun” them on the odd occassion!) but I don’t see any harm with tapping the dog on the rear end (NOWHERE NEAR THE HEAD OR FACE!). It shouldn’t hurt but should get their attention enough to take their mind away from whatever it is they are doing.

@avvooooooo Mother dogs do not bite or nip their pups for correction. They snap their teeth closed to produce a sound near the pup’s head.

I will persevere. Physical punishment is not required and not all that helpful unless you want your dog to fear you.

The reasons dogs end up in shelters are myriad and what your suggesting is not a solution to that problem. Hit your doh more does not equal a better trained dog.

@Marina Excuse me, but no one said “hit your dog.” No one. Trying to invalidate someone’s point works better when you’re attributing something to them that they actually said.

You don’t seem to have seen many mother dogs with puppies. They nip at puppies as well as jumping on them, knocking them over, doing various things to stop the behavior. Some of these actions give the puppy the “ouch” sensation, some just startle them out of the behavior.

There are various ways to train dogs. Yours is not the only effective method nor the only proven or humane one. In addition, you seem to be equating a simple correction that probably won’t happen more than twice with the kind of animal abuse that occurs with dog fighting and actual abuse situations. There’s correction and then there’s abuse. There’s a difference and disciplining a dog with something that will dissuade and not damage them will not automatically make your dog fear you. Beating the crap out of them will. You seem a little hazy on distinctions.

If they go up against a porcupine, a bee, a wasp and get stung they learn not to mess with these things. The kind of pinch that was suggested here is less harmful than any of these three things and just as effective. It doesn’t hurt for more than a second, it doesn’t make a dog fear you, it doesn’t make them head shy, it just makes them think twice about biting just as they would think twice about messing with a wasp after they got stung. None of my dogs are head shy and the only one who is anything near high strung/skittish/fearful is the one who has been that way since she was born. Its a personality thing with her and she’s actually calmed down a lot from where she used to be. Hard and fast rules about dogs fearing you for discipline, be it a rare occurrence or not, are stupid.

@avvooooooo I would say that is you who does not seem to be open to other methods. You attacked my first post offering an alternative that works and does not involve any pain for the puppy.

Where did I use the words animal abuse or dog fighting? Answer: Nowhere. I am not hazy at all on the distinction. (Another unprovoked attack on you part.)

All I said was that I am not of the school of punishing dogs physically for correction. It is you who seems a little defensive here.

Until you’ve had your ears pulled or your lips ground against your teeth, I am not sure you should be so positive those are not very painful. I am also certain you would not use those methods on a human infant.

I’m not so sure I’d trust a human infant around your dogs, @Marina.

@Marina I just did these things to myself. It hurt for a second. If I hadn’t been expecting it, I would have yelped in surprise just as I would if someone came up behind me and pulled my hair. Its similar to the startle factor that occurred with me when I caught my sleeve on someone yesterday and it jerked me back. When that happened I stopped, looked around to see what I was doing and why that happened, and resolved to walk further away from the object that caught my sleeve the next time that I was in that area.

You are implying that all physical discipline is a bad thing. Its not a big leap to link your ideas as presented into a “pain is abuse” idea.

Human children have been having their ears pulled for many, many years. One of my uncles used to tell me when I was little that was why his were so big, because his mother always had him by the ear.

@pdworkin Mackie, my half English Setter half Dalmatian mix is totally trustworthy. He will never bite anyone. I would trust him with a baby although excessive licking might be a problem. He was very mouthy as a pup (as most Dalmatians are). I trained him using the method I described above.

My other dog is a retired racing greyhound. he loves children, but I would nevber trust him with an infant. His prey drive is very high. If it is lying down and squeals (no matter what it is) he is on it.

Actually, I would never leave an infant alone with any dog or cat. I know few people who would.

@avvooooooo Look, I am not looking for a fight here. I just said I use another method.

I never even said don’t use your method. If you’re comfortable with it, do it. I don’t need to agree. And I won’t.

By the way, I don’t think much of adults who pull children’s ears or pinch their cheeks either.

This discussion is always interesting. I am going to make some “I” statements here.
I learned to train dogs from some very highly respected and successful trainers, police, military and show obedience oriented trainers. They used the Kohler Method and that is what I learned and what I use successfully. Over those years this method has fallen out of favor for softer methods such as clicker and positive reinforcement. A soft method works okay on a soft dog but it doesn’t work for all whereas Kohler did. And over these 30+ years that I have been making my living and studying and handling dogs I have seen so many sadly disadvantaged in society because of this shift. “I” don’t want to have to try to handle a 100pound + dog who has no boundaries or idea of socially acceptable behavior because it has never been shown what is not acceptable. When a rottweiller is chewing on my arm I may not have a toy handy to divert its attention. I want that dog to be taught from an early age that this is not allowed, end of story, DOGS DO NOT CHEW ON HUMANS or they die and people end up in hospitals with lots of stitches.

If the occasional dog ends up head shy because someone smacks it for biting, that is preferable to dead for biting someone’s kid. “I” think a dog has to be seriously abused to become head shy and there is a DIFFERENCE between ABUSE AND DISCIPLINE.

This is my experience and opinion. I have studied and applied clicker and similar methods, they work on some dogs but not on all. It is the ones it doesn’t work on who are attacking humans, mauling children and ending up dead. All because some well meaning person says you are going to make your dog head shy so the dog never learns where it fits in the big picture.

@rooeytoo Your argument is flawed.

To suggest that anyone would recommend trying to divert an attacking adult rottie with a toy is ridiculous.

To suggest that a dog will be destroyed for being aggressive because of gentler training methods used at eight weeks of age is ridiculous.

What we have been talking about in this thread is training techniques for a baby, an eight week old puppy. Using this training method does not create a “dog who has no boundaries or idea of socially acceptable behavior”.

Will it work for every dog? Of course not. Is there anything wrong with starting with a program that in many if not most cases works exceedingly well? No. If an inappropriate behavior continues or is insufficiently eliminated, then alternate methods have to be integrated into the training regimen. As with everything in life, there is no “hard and fast” rule – which is why I always recommend that pet owners and expecially new puppy owners seek out qualified trainers and attend at least basic obedience training.

As I said earlier in this thread, I have no hesitation using corporal punishment when it is warranted. And some dogs will require physical reprimands, there’s no doubt about that. As a matter of fact, I’m considered quite the disciplinarian at the veterinary clinic where I work because of my firm enforcement of what I consider appropriate behavior.

Personally, I would not counsel a new pet owner who has just begun to work with a particular behavior problem to begin in the method that you suggest. Since the majority of the problem dogs that I have worked with over the last 30 years have resulted primarily from no training at all, I’m thrilled at the opportunity to encourage a pet owner to begin a lifelong commitment to training.

I started that whole thing making “I” statements because I knew this would happen. I don’t care if you agree or disagree, I am not arguing with you I am simply giving my opinion based on my experience. I think people should know that there is more than one school of thought on how to train a dog. By all means, preach your theory but I will continue to preach mine. I feel a lot of people don’t have the necessary time to devote to dog training so I say pinch his muzzle a couple of times and he will learn the lesson quickly and the available time won’t be an issue because the lesson is learned. In the real world, lifelong commitments just don’t always happen.

I hate dogs ending up in shelters or abandoned because they never fit into the family. But it’s not all bad that is how I acquired my last bouv and my current akita, at almost 3 years, he had been in 5 homes and was on death row before he came home with me where I insisted he learn manners, he had no choice. He was as hard headed and smart as any dog I ever met, he laughed at soft. Unfortunately millions of dogs like him are put down, abandoned because folks are never advised to do anything except click the clicker and give him a toy to distract. So you preach your sermon and I will preach mine and let people know there are choices.

having gone through the puppy biting stage a few times with different pups the best method is when they bite you go “ow” or yelp in a high pitched voice. enough to startle them into stopping. young puppies don’t understand their puppy teeth are sharp and hurt. they are used to using teeth to play. the yelp lets them know this is not acceptable. if they continue to do it fold your arms across your chest and look up at the sky, completely ignoring the dog until it settles down. if it attempts to jump on you use your leg to gently push it away. when it sees it can’t play with you in that manner they will stop.