My Uninhibited biter puppy

[crazycrayonmom]

You may remember my earlier posts about how young my pup, Max (yes we've finally settled on a name) was just over 5 weeks when we got him. We've been battling his uninhibited biting for the last three weeks and are finally making headway.

I tried the "yip" technique and he couldn't have cared less. I could have yipped until my throat was sore and my hands and clothes nibbled to death by those sharp, puppy teeth. What finally seems to be working is a combination of 3 things. I talked to my local trainer and she suggested setting him up with no-bite lessons by covering my hands/arms in something really foul like hot sauce, lemon juice or bitters. Being a spicy food lover I had plenty of hot sauce available to soak myself in. I then sat on the floor and when he jumped over to start biting he took a couple of different nibbles while I said No firmly. He stopped biting and sat down at my side looking confused. I've done the hot sauce trick twice in the last week. Seems like I won't have to do it anymore.

The next time he bit I said a firm no and left him alone in the play area we have fenced in our living room. He was much calmer when I came back in.

The last thing I did was keeping a squirt bottle handy when my 3 year old is with us in the play area. Max likes to bite at my son's legs and shirt. I say no and squirt him. All this has made a huge difference. He's much calmer and the biting has dropped to much lower levels. That's the good experience that I wanted to share with you.

[kjd]

Congratulations! Sometimes the obvious answer just doesn't work. Max probably read the forum behind your back and decided you couldn't trick him! Wonder what went thru his head when he first got that hot sauce -- "Wow! Mom is burning up!"
Thanks for letting us know what finally worked.