Need advice with biting

Hi all,

Poppy is settling in brilliantly. All sign are very positive that shes relaxing at home now.

My next bit of advice I need is with regards to biting.

I know puppies play and bite and nip as they are learning. Ive had puppies in the past and friends and family have puppies and Im ok with that. My concern is that when my partner plays with her and she starts nipping, its just that, nipping. I can spot when the playful biting and nipping is taking place and we do all the distraction tactics, like replacing our hands and toes with toys. We encourage her to only bite her toys and play with her toy rabbit.

However with myself it becomes really aggressive. I get growling, teeth baring and being lunged at. Last night she seemed to go for me and bit my face. At one point we couldn't calm her down and had to put her in her crate just to calm the whole situation down. Its making me really upset when she acts like that, its not making me like her and I cant interact with her in anyway. It happened twice yesterday, and the one thing I dont want to happen is for me to become afraid of her as she gets older.

Is this normal? What can we do to discourage the attacks?

When she behaves in a way you do not like then that should be the end of the game cuddle time or whatever . Just put her on the floor and ignore her .

Do you know that some foods can make puppies hyper just as some e numbers can have an adverse effect on children ?

Not sure if this is normal behaviour or not but it probably is and I would expect it in some breeds of dogs more than others .

Looking at diet is one potential, but what really needs to happen is to look at what happens in the moments before she does this.

I wouldn't recommend replacing toes and fingers with toys, I'd recommend everybody (and I do mean everybody) getting into the habit of the very first tooth used to nip being a reason to squeal like you've been wounded, stand up, turn your back on Poppy and fold your arms so she can't make any sort of attempt to get your fingers. No eye contact, no telling off, no interaction at all. You are hurt that she's done this and now you don't want to play with her and talk to her. A clever puppy will get that one in only a couple of days.

Once she's calm and lost focus on the game you can then thank her for being a good girl and go back to paying her lots of attention. The withdrawal of attention is quite often the most valuable negative training method in the training manual because it's not a negative in traditional terms, but your puppy will want your attention full time if they have the opportunity so denying that is very much a punishment to them.

As for what she does when she's 'playing' with you, does this come during a game or just when she's interacting with you when she's calm? There must be something that she's doing that is a preamble from being a friendly and calm puppy to launching, and you should be able once you identify this to finish the game then, rather than allowing the getting out of hand to continue.

Without being able to see you I'd hazard a guess that she's extra super duper excited to see you because you're 'Mum' and that means that you're good fun with play fighting games and she can be rougher with you than with everybody else because pups do rag their mum in holes on a regular basis but because she's mum she let's them. Squealing and turning your back should soon show her that you don't approve- but with a bit of luck you won't need to because you'll be able to recognise when she's getting OTT in her play.

The only thing that seems to cause the biting is if I stop the play because shes getting too rough. As soon as I say its enough, she bites. Im going to try the hurt and ignoring tactic. At the moment, we simply have to put her away as she keeps going for me, so maybe this is a new one to try. I will let you know.

Thanks for the advice!

So this is likely to be a continuation of all of the worked up feelings she has from playing? That makes a lot more sense than launching from being calm, and should allow you to predict, pre-empt and prevent her getting out of hand in this way. I know that she thinks she's playing right now, but it's still inappropriate and you need to channel her into other things before she gets there. I don't think she's being aggressive at all- this is all play and she's just too worked up to stop, so the answer is to stop this occurring by focusing her in some other direction.

The next thing to try is going to be intervening much earlier in the play to redirect her to a rope toy or a tough fleece tug toy like the ones made by our very own chelynnah which should allow the toy to be her focus rather than you. The overall aim is not that she learns to control herself once she's already worked up, but that you can teach her to play without getting so engaged that she can't then come down again before being dragged off out of the room.

you say the dog bites your face. this suggests you are on the same level as he dog. try leaving some distance between yourselves ie. stay on your feet and let the dog stay on the floor. also worth a look at diet as mentioned. perhaps a barf diet.

good luck