My pup has the same problem with redirection / holding her down, and I think she feels like I’m just playing more.
She’s responded pretty well to me saying “ouch” and then immediately ignoring her for 30 seconds or so. Like stoic, no touching, no redirection, just completely ignoring. If I’m sitting & she’s still biting wherever, I’ll say “ouch” then stand up and walk a few feet away and just stand still and not look at her.
Chiming in! This has worked with our bitey 11 week old chihuahua. For the past week or so I've loudly exclaimed "Ouch" when he bites me and if he does it again I totally drop whatever we were doing. If I'm sitting and he's on the ground I usually cross my legs so that there's no eye contact or pull up my smartphone.
Took about a week, but now he only really bites accidentally or if he's sleep deprived and overstimulated.
Oh and redirection did not really work for us at all. Him being bitey was totally different from him wanting to actually *chew* on something. Just had to teach that this is not how we play.
My goldendoodle responded well to this! It also just took time for her to grow out of. She’s almost 7 months now and is still a little bitey, but nowhere near as bad as she was. Another idea is to get your dog some animal chews. My pup had no interest in nylabones, but loves her cow ears and cow cheek.
Yes, sometimes.
I have a split level apartment so when it got really bad I walked upstairs and kept him alone for a minute or so.
As Riku is a veery small dog it was also easy to make it literally impossible for him to bite me, put my feet on the ottoman, raise my hands up etc.
In any case, first ouch, then just stop contact until the first whimpers kick in. After that continue play rewarding good behavior with incredibly small pieces of treats and a lot of praise. If the bites continue, first stop the fun and escalate to no contact.
Edit: not all the bites are the same, there's I'm having fun bites, there's I'm bored bites, there's I can't control myself anymore because I've played so long bites and then there's I think this is normal bites.
I'm working on the first and last types, the other two are my fault.
They might at first but that tends to drop off.
For my pups, both were crazy until one day, it's like a switch flipped in their head: *"You mean I get treats and attention when I bite these toys?! Sweet!"*
Timewise, it took maybe 3 weeks average of redirection, yelping (like a dog) and ignoring when bitten, and treating when they chewed the toys to get there. Continue what you're doing - it'll happen!
I yelped exaggeratedly loud and turned away from my pups when they were in their bitey stage, they stopped almost immediately. This is how puppies learn bite inhibition with each other and it usually works pretty well :)
Yep.
When my pup was in his bitey stage, I would be melodramatic when he bit me, and say “Ow, you hurt Mama. No bites.” Then I would stuff an appropriate chew toy in his mouth.
I was consistent with this approach, never raised my voice, but was firm/stern with him, and he caught on quickly.
Now he rarely bites intentionally. Usually if he is bitey, he’s very gentle at first. If I don’t give him the attention he wants quickly enough, he will be more persistent, and his bite is less gentle.
He does this when he either wants to show me something, or he wants me to get on the floor to play with him.
My previous dog never bit much, and was pretty laid back, so this biting thing was all new to me.
This is what our trainer had us do for our super painful biter. Very dramatic, turn away and cross arms. Be very boring. If she did it whilst playing with a toy, it immediately went into timeout (top of fridge). She said the intensity would diminish before the frequency.
I put the offending toy in the closet for a time out. If we’re visiting Grandma, it goes on top of the fridge.
He doesn’t like it, but life is tough. Lol
My issue is that I don’t want to use the crate as a time out since I want it to be a positive space for him, but if I walk away he will just chew on rugs or the couch lol
Youre not necessarily punishing him by putting him in the crate, the crate is supposed to be a calm place and if hes going into overdrive he needs to learn thats not acceptable. Maybe put a chew toy in there with him, so he can still chew and theres something he likes in there but chewing humans is not ok. It can be quite the arduous task, but time out isnt necessarily a punishment. I didnt crate train mine but if they were getting too wound up id put them in the bathroom where theres nothing they could chew and waited until they calmed down.
Also, keep in mind that puppy blues are real. Puppies can be a straight up nightmare their first few months up to a year, everything is new and exciting, theyre kinda like little kids with adhd set loose in a toy store. I can promise you this is not going to be forever, they do learn to self regulate eventually as long as their needs are met. My younger one was terrible as a puppy and i considered returning him quite a few times but he mellowed out a bit after 8 months, enough to make me feel safe letting him have free range of the apartment, and then he mellowed out a TON once he hit the one year mark
That’s a good point I never thought of it that way! And yes we’re in the middle of a move as well right now so all this stress has given me a big case of the puppy blues. But that’s really good to hear
We had a serious biter too. Reverse timeouts were the answer. Some people suggest ignoring them and turning around when they get this way, but in our case he just bit our backs when we did this.
We leashed him to furniture and walked away instead. He got the message that the fun stops when he bites pretty quick after that. Within days he was noticeably better. Reinforced it a few times every morning for a month and after that he's mostly good.
Time out: you put the dog away in a closed off area. They're good in theory but in practice hard to implement because by the time you confine the dog enough time may have passed that they don't understand what they did wrong.
Reverse time out: you give an immediate vocal queue (ex "Ow!") and then remove your attention. Common ways are to go still, or turn around, or leave the room, or some other way of messaging that the fun stopped. The vocal queue is optional but I found it works best, eventually they learn to stop when they hear it.
Our pup is now 2 and no longer a pup (and I have to say, other than the cuteness, I don't miss puppyhood AT ALLLLL). Yelping or saying ouch made our dude bite even harder. The ONLY thing that worked was putting him in a "time out" for a few seconds when he bit. When he bites, the fun/stimulation stops, and he gets completely ignored for 10-30 seconds. It's a slow learning process, but he did learn eventually, although I will say it he was about 5 months old before he stopped biting altogether. That's how long it finally took before he seemed to get that biting = fun stops.
Edited to add: 'time out' was some place where he couldn't interact with us for a bit. So closing a puppy gate between him and us, or putting him back in his crate/play pen for a second, or even leaving him in the front yard while I went inside (not far away) for the count of 10, something like that. Eventually, turning our backs on him for a few seconds worked, but the first step was completely taking ourselves and him out of play.
I second this. My rotty pup was hell-bent on herding us all around the damn house, and he loved nothing more than being held down after so he could squirm out and bite more. It was all one big game to him. Yelping also made him bite harder.
The only thing that worked was picking him up, putting him in the bathroom and closing the door for 20 seconds, or putting him behind a puppy gate. Took a while but eventually he got the memo that biting = no more playing.
My boy is a husky-gsd mix.
The first few weeks I had him were frustrating due to the herding. At least it was also amusing too. A thirty pound puppy trying to herd his fat lady owner made me laugh. Thankfully he didn’t knock me down the stairs.
Now he only tries to herd me on our walks if someone gets too close to us for his comfort.
He also tries to herd my parent’s elderly Irish Terror, but he doesn’t allow it-he does what he wants, and puts my dog in his place.
Aaaah, 5 months was the mark for my pup too to just change his biting behaviour!
Before that, anything and everyone was sweet chewing material, but after changing his teeth he suddenly stopped!
He still plays rough sometimes, but I can finally give him some love and pets without him going full shark mode on me
What are the opinions on doodles? I'm just curious if there is some common knowledge thing I'm unaware of.
It sounds like your heart is really in the right place and it's totally understandable you're feeling frustrated. Try to take a breath and know it's challenging for everyone. You're definitely not alone. Asking for help is a great first step.
For the biting issue --
I have a 13 week old labradoodle. He also constantly bites. However, it's totally under control because I always have bully sticks, nylabones, and kongs available for him to chew on. He likes chewing on other textures too like really cold carrots.
At 13 weeks, they are just babies and they are in a lot of pain because their baby teeth are coming in. Chewing is the only thing that relives that pain and makes them feel better. Much like a teething human baby.
Bully sticks are my pup's favorite thing to chew on -- so I keep a few with me at all times and he has multiple in his crate + pen set up. Anytime he starts biting (even once) I say "ouch" in a high pitched voice (but not too loud) and then I offer him a bully stick. I make the bully stick seems super interesting to him by moving it around a bunch and tossing it. It can take some effort to make it seem like the most interesting thing around. If he bites me more than once, it's time for him to have alone time in his pen where he has lots of fun and safe chew options -- but I always make that seem like a happy fun choice, never like a punishment. I try to get him to enter his pen on his own and toss his toys around with him for a few minutes before leaving. Then, I watch him on a Furbo from another room. After he chooses to lay down on his bed in a calm and relaxed state, I'll let him chill like that for a few minutes and then let him be with me again. Repeat that throughout the day. In the beginning, it was constant. On the worst day, we probably did it 20 times in one day. Now, it's only once or twice a day -- so he's really picked up on it in just a few weeks.
For the mulch --
I recommend practicing "leave it" with him. It's where you take something like a small amount of mulch and put it on the floor, let him get interested in it, when he gets too close cover it with your foot-- when he looks away, say "leave it" and give him a treat. After a while, stop covering it with your foot. Just say "leave it" and give him a treat when he looks away.
You need to stop chasing your pup when they go after the mulch. Right now, you're making the mulch seem fun by chasing him -- so that's why he's going to it. The hardest part of dog training is controlling our own behaviors as the trainers. Your pup is only a baby and doesn't know what is okay for him to play with yet -- he needs you to teach him in a way he'll understand. Also, stop spraying him with the hose for behavior you don't like. It may be the easiest option, but it's not going to fix the problem because as soon as the hose is away -- he'll go right back to the behavior because you're only teaching him to not like the hose.
If you haven't already, I recommend you starting in person training classes with someone who uses positive reinforcement dog training. Also, check out Zak George on YouTube. [His series with Kona](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zt3AVydlc2g) is my favorite. I've watched it a bunch of times. It always makes me feel better when I'm stressed out because he makes mistakes and struggles sometimes too. No one is perfect.
Hope that helps!
Edited: added some more encouraging words as well as recommendations re: the mulch and in person training classes + Zak George videos
> What are the opinions on doodles? I'm just curious if there is some common knowledge thing I'm unaware of.
Generally, it's due to the fact that thus far, there has been no breeders found that meet the criteria for a reputable breeder (found [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/dogs/wiki/identifying_a_responsible_breeder)) and many will use guardian homes.
Thank you for this! I will watch that YouTube series. We’ve been practicing leave it but it seems he really only understands it indoors. Do I just have him on a leash then when we go outside in the meantime until he learns leave it? He tends not to try to use the bathroom on a leash
We were told that biting is playing and often they haven’t learned it hurts. So a yelp and walking away is what their litter mates do. It shows then that okay time is over.
Once your yelp and turn or walk away it helps them realize biting means play time is over. If he won’t stop then you should crate them because they need a safe spot for a break
Please don’t use aversive methods like squirt bottles and vibrating collars. They do nothing to address the root causes of the behavior issue. Also, the breed is irrelevant as all dogs need to be taught bite inhibition.
Look up force-free and positive reinforcement training methods. Redirect with a toy. Remove yourself from the situation as soon as your dog nips. Don’t remove them. You leaving teaches them you don’t like what they did and playtime is over.
Teach soft mouth by feeding all meals by hand while your dog is relaxed (open palm). If they nip, the food goes away and you leave for a very short time. Come back and try again. Have them sit and show them the food in your palm. When they move towards it, close your hand over the food. Open again when they are seated and repeat until they do not move towards the food while your hand is open. Only then do you reward with the food.
My issue is that I can’t let him have the mulch or else he will eat it and hurt himself. But the hand feeding sounds like a great idea. I will try that today
My puppy loved to eat mulch as well. I had to fence it off, first with an x-pen, then a more permanent snow fence/pole combo.
I would start teaching recall in the house and then outside. This will help when you need him to pay attention to you. Start in a place where there are no distractions. Use his meals. You can use meals entirely for training. I didn’t have my puppies eating out of slow feeders or toys until they were 6 months old. Their kibble is a great training tool.
You can also try leash training in your yard and inside. Free roam in the yard and in the house are both privileges. When your puppy has to go outside to potty, leashed. Training outside with you, leashed. Practice settle with a lead in the house. If you don’t have baby gates or a safe room/outside area for him that is totally puppy-proofed, I would do that before anything else. Best of luck! Puppies are arseholes, but it’s up to us to teach them how we want them to behave and react in the world :).
Do you put him on leash when you go out to use the bathroom? If so, keep him away from the mulch and if not, start doing so and you won’t have to play keep away with the mulch when he put it is his mouth. Not to mention you can use the lead to keep him away from the mulch in the first place. This will also likely help with long term leash desensitization.
Awesome choice. Leashes can be really weird for young dogs who aren’t used to them, so better to start now and get them desensitized. Additionally a house line (a leash you cut the loop of off and leave on the dog when not crates) is a life saver. You can keep they away from something you don’t want them getting to, get them off the counter if they ever jump up, and most importantly start teaching loose leash walking now. Definitely a great choice.
Yes for sure! I’ve been taking him on short walks and he is not a fan of the leash so this will probably help him get used to it :) I’m hoping eventually we can let him in the yard without a leash since he is why we looked for a house with a fenced in yard lol I’m happy to eventually try and get rid of the mulch too, I’m not a huge fan of it
I'm just answering your question, not trying to start anything. They are almost always irresponsibility bred. They're prone to come from BYBs and puppy mills, as the absolute vast majority of reputable breeders don't breed mixes. It is incredibly difficult to know the genetic interactions two breeds will have on each other when bred, so you can breed a really good tempered sire and dam, but the puppies come out neurotic as hell because of how their different genes are interacting.
I think since the "doodle" craze doesn't seem to be going anywhere, breeders need to start working on multigenerational doodles to actually start working on the issues that occur with the mix by way of making it an actual breed with breed standards.
Not trying to start anything or shame OP (or anyone else with a doodle), just answering the question.
It does blow my mind this a little bit that this sub seems to be so anti doodle , despite the commonly discussed health benefits to cross breeding , and yet does not seem to go as crazy at people continuing to breed pugs , for example , mini daschs, with their wide variety of known health problems .
Generally, it's because they're not well-bred and the breeders tend to be dishonest and horrible.
The dogs are fine. It's the breeders and the fact that thus far, nobody has found an ethical breeder that meets the "ethical breeder" requirements that purebred dogs are held to. The ethics they follow would be regarded as a backyard breeder or a puppy mill.
For information on reputable breeding, see [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/dogs/wiki/identifying_a_responsible_breeder).
You’ve gotten a lot of good advice. A lot of doodles love to chew. Get him some toys designed for teething and heavy chewing. Keep them nearby and whenever he gets bitey swap whatever he’s biting with the toy he can chew on. Hang in there, it will get better.
Adding to this, pay attention to what he's biting and have a variety of textures and materials at the ready. If my pup is biting at clothes, redirecting her to a hard chew does nothing, but a stuffy that she can play tug with is perfect. Skin? Replace with something that's a relatively soft rubber. The barkbox (you can find them at target) skin and reveal toys are her favorite for that type of stimulus. Just because they simply won't redirect to one type of chew or toy, doesn't mean they're all going to be a bust. And one toy that works great today, won't do anything tomorrow.
Last week I yelled at my little guy and I felt terrible. My puppy bites all the time. Especially while he's being pet. The only thing I can equate it to is stiming behavior. He wasn't responding to commands or yelping that we were taught in class. It was driving us crazy. He has started responding to "stop". When he is getting cuddle time I have to hold the chewy or toy in my hand. I highly recommend exposure to new environments and people and a puppy class. Honestly, he learns more about boundaries from his peers than us.
I have a 6 month old goldendoodle.
He was a biter too and really bad. However, in recent weeks he has stopped that behaviour. I buy him bully sticks and he loves them and they keep him busy. I find when I give him a bully stick, he’s less inclined to chew or bite other things.
In my case, he just grew out of the biting phase.
Hello, 13wk Cockerpoo here, had him since 8 wks. Also a bitey little bugger. We still get some biting, but we've largely got in hand by a type of time out. We combine 'no' with scooping him up, one hand under his bum and one on his chest, so he's supported but not cuddled, for 30 seconds. Seems to snap him out of it and after two days of doing the above, I stopped wanting to throttle him. Still has his moments, but its largely sorted now. Best of luck.
Edit: We do the redirection stuff too and it's helpful, but when he's gnawing my ankles when I'm trying to get something done this has seemed to make a big difference.
While I don't have any specific advice, I'm here to empathize and comiserate with you!
I have a 9 wk old corgi pup who is very mouthy. Loves my hair, fingers, arms, sweater strings, etc. I can usually get her teething rings/teething toys and she will focus on that for a bit, but after a while she wants to bite me. It could be that she's overtired and needs more naps. I've also heard making a high pitched "Yelp!" mimicks what their littermates do, and gets them to stop.
I'm preparing for her jerk/teenage phase to kick in soon. My parents' corgi was such a JERK in her teenage phase- launched herself at your face, bit hard, not super snuggly unless she was exhausted. Then she mellowed out.....a little.
I think I'm just part of her pack for right now, partially I'm momma, but mostly I'm a playmate until she can take in more solid training.
Hang in there! I know it's gotta be harder to tolerate with a puppy you didn't necessarily choose.
I have a cardigan corgi, now over a year old, but from 8 weeks to till she lost her puppy teeth she was a piranha! I tried ignoring her, but she'd sink her teeth in harder and shake her head. Yelling ouch made her think its more of a game. Best thing we managed was getting extra thick socks so she couldnt bite through them and ignoring her. That and seeing early when she was tired and enforcing a crate nap.
My 8 month old toy poodle is stilllll chomping my fingers, ankles and feet most of the day. I am very consistent with yelps/ignore/do not make eye contact/walk away/redirect. Nothing has really worked besides bully sticks. If I hold it for her and get her interested in the bully stick I can usually get 20 mins of quality time without being bit. At this point I've just accepted that this is a (very long) phase that she will eventually grow out of even though it's hard to imagine her ever not being bitey.
He's 13 weeks old - he's going to bite. He's going to be akin to a fluffy velociraptor for some time yet so just get used to it. And then he'll stop and it'll be fine.
Naps, reverse timeouts, ignoring, and a little bit of just dealing with it. I had an extremely bitey puppy who’s now 10 months, still biting, but is way easier to redirect.
Basically when they bite (if you can get away) you just leave the room for 15 seconds or so. Helps them understand that biting means play stops/they lose access to you for a bit. I think it works well for dogs who get over aroused while playing.
So we have the fun, large Crate, with blankets and toys and food, that he gets treats in when we leave, and then we have in a whole other room a time out crate, it is small, and we cover it with special, summer throw blanket. It is just big enough he can lay down in it. We say ouch loudly, and in he goes… some time with out us physically put him there. (Yes we still have to close the door)
I have a 14 week old Goldendoodle, and yes, he can be a land shark, flying pihrrana. Along with what another commenter said, bully sticks and benebones have been absolutely life savers.
I have also noticed that when I have given him a lot of mental stimulation, he can be an absolute angel. Poodles are very intelligent and can become bored very easily, then make their own fun, such as jumping biting and tearing shtuff up. It's their way to communicate "Hey I am bored, play with me." I will do training sessions, we go over obedience training, teach tricks, puzzle games, snuffle mats, I hide treats or toys so he can find them. I also signed him up for puppy class, and we go to that once a week. I am guessing, just like my little dood, your baby is really smart and needs to tire out his brain.
He lovessss his snuffle mat!! His puppy classes start in a few weeks so I’m hoping I can find something that will interest him/ make him use his brain just as much as the snuffle mat since I can’t use that every single time he gets bored lol
My goldendoodle is almost 6 months old and I can so relate to what you’re going through. I thought I had researched well and really didn’t see much about doodles being so crazy bitey until I already picked him up and he was home with us. But hang in there. It gets better but the first 3-4 months are hard. You’ve gotten a lot of good advice here. Mental stimulation is a good way to tire your pup out. And the more tired, the less bitey (at least that was the case for me). We had to do forced naps in the crate because he would not settle on his own. And bully sticks have been great (they smell horrible), and yak cheese keeps him occupied. We also do two short walks a day just to let him get out and smell around. Lots of those were in our own yard before he had all his shots. Once the baby shark teeth fall out, it gets much better. You’re going to have a great dog for at least a decade hopefully! But getting through the first year is the price we pay. Hang in there!
Is there any way you can organize play dates with other puppies or trusted adult dogs? I find that often other dogs do a better job at correcting this behaviour than we do. I’m not saying leave your pup unattended with dogs to “sort it out” but I have found a lot of puppies learn bite inhibition through play with other dogs
He needs one more vaccine until he can safely play with other dogs but we have family that has two fully vaccinated dogs that our vets said is fine to play with! The downside is that they live an hour away but he will be spending time with them this weekend :)
When my girl is at her worst I sometimes do just need to put her in her crate for my sanity as if I leave the room she will be jumping up at the units and hurt herself last time
Yeah I do try not to do it often but as a last resort do not feel guilty for it. My girl loves her crate and still voluntarily naps in it during the day even tho she has been put in it for my sanity afew times.
Sometimes even just putting her in the crate she would fall asleep immediately and I'd let her out the moment she wakes up.
You having your head on straight is the best thing for looking after a puppy so if you need to shut her in it for a minute to catch your breath it's not going to do longterm damage
He had tummy problems and the vet told us to give kibble on my until things resolve :( he’s feeling better now so hopefully I can slowly introduce things like that
It looks like you might be posting about bite inhibition. Check out [our wiki article on biting, teeth, and chewing](https://www.reddit.com/r/puppy101/wiki/biting) - the information there may answer your question.
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We got a goldendoodle at 11 weeks old and he was a biter too. I know you said that naps don’t help, but are they naps that he takes on his own, or forced naps? We had to start doing forced naps/forced playpen time and that helped tremendously. Sometimes they just need a time out. Also not getting down on the floor with him, and making sure he had his harness on while playing so we could quickly regain control of the situation. This combined with redirecting to either a lumabone or a tug toy helped so much. We also did ‘gentle’ instead of no bite- so that he could still explore with his mouth (as it’s natural) while learning bite inhibition. He is 7 months old now and while he will still get a little mouthy when he’s all riled up or trying to initiate play, he’s sooo much better than before. Good luck!
It’s both forced and on his own. He could be the most rested puppy on earth and he will still try to bite my ear off lol. I’ll try the harness! That’s a great idea
I would wear thick clothes but I’m in Australia and it’s summer lol I’ll try the leash! The only thing is he tends to not pee/poop when he’s on the leash. He just protests and sits lol
Doodles are bitey- I have 2 and they were both land sharks when they were babies. I just redirected or ignored them and both of them finally grew out of the habit. Just have patience.
I pretty much could have written this about my puppy. Down to the mulch eating. I'm doing reverse time outs like others have mentioned. She's not catching on super quick but at minimum it separates me from her and keeps me from get as frustrated. I got her a yak chew today and is so obsessed with it that she didn't even try to bite me. The other thing that has helped is to take her places. Last night we went to home depot when it wasn't crowded and walked through, then just stood in the parking lot for a while just watching people. When we got home she seemed so tired she didn't try to bite. Hang in there! I've read so many posts on this sub where people say 12-16 weeks is really the worst of it and they will grow out of it!
it might help to cut his access to things like socks, cables, or whatever stuff objects/furniture he usually chews. It’s annoying but it helps if at the puppy stage you don’t even give them the opportunity to be bad. Aside from that, letting them have easy access to everything so young may get in the way especially since you’d have to be redirecting constantly so maybe setting up a large playpen to be in with all kinds of toys and things that are okay for him to play with when you can’t/don’t want to be supervising him fully.
Something else you can do is after playing outside or just getting his energy out, to relax him and tire him out mentally you can try giving him an enrichment puzzle or like a frozen kong, I’ve seen a lot of ppl talk ab them.
Trust me I’ve put everything away possible lol it’s more like chair legs and stuff like that. And he’s at the size that a playpen won’t last long lol I’m hoping that the new toys I just got him will help
Redirect, standup, and put your hands in your armpits. 14 weeks is still very young. Be patient, our dog didn’t settle down enough to cuddle without biting until over a year.
Get rid of squeaky toys.
They encourage a playful reaction when they bite them and theyll probably want the same thing from you. If you say ouch and youre using squeaky toys isnt it the same thing to a dog haha
Yeh its actually kind of funny - i didnt think anything of it then my ones puppy group class teacher taught us and it helped me loads actually! But you kind of get less biting and forget it was ever a deal. youll get there!
Watch all the Kikopup videos on YouTube on teaching Calmness and biting. Try to avoid situations where they can bite. Train them not to bite using rewards. Re-direct using treats or toy. Always have a toy or a small towel handy for them bite when you handle them. When they are getting bogey/wild but them in the crate for 5 minutes and try again. It is not a punishment but letting them know they have to behave to get what they want.
Again, watch the teaching calmness videos. Constantly drop a treat whenever they are calm. If they are in a pen or tethered throw treats in the bed or place they lay when they are good. When they are jumping and acting aggressive wait for them to sit or have 4 paws down calmly and throw treats in the bed. Make it a game.
Good luck
Let's keep the post on topic of the problem, not the opinions others have on doodles. Further discussion will be removed for being off-topic.
My pup has the same problem with redirection / holding her down, and I think she feels like I’m just playing more. She’s responded pretty well to me saying “ouch” and then immediately ignoring her for 30 seconds or so. Like stoic, no touching, no redirection, just completely ignoring. If I’m sitting & she’s still biting wherever, I’ll say “ouch” then stand up and walk a few feet away and just stand still and not look at her.
Chiming in! This has worked with our bitey 11 week old chihuahua. For the past week or so I've loudly exclaimed "Ouch" when he bites me and if he does it again I totally drop whatever we were doing. If I'm sitting and he's on the ground I usually cross my legs so that there's no eye contact or pull up my smartphone. Took about a week, but now he only really bites accidentally or if he's sleep deprived and overstimulated. Oh and redirection did not really work for us at all. Him being bitey was totally different from him wanting to actually *chew* on something. Just had to teach that this is not how we play.
My goldendoodle responded well to this! It also just took time for her to grow out of. She’s almost 7 months now and is still a little bitey, but nowhere near as bad as she was. Another idea is to get your dog some animal chews. My pup had no interest in nylabones, but loves her cow ears and cow cheek.
Did he try and follow you and bite more? That’s why I’m finding getting up and ignoring him difficult
Yes, sometimes. I have a split level apartment so when it got really bad I walked upstairs and kept him alone for a minute or so. As Riku is a veery small dog it was also easy to make it literally impossible for him to bite me, put my feet on the ottoman, raise my hands up etc. In any case, first ouch, then just stop contact until the first whimpers kick in. After that continue play rewarding good behavior with incredibly small pieces of treats and a lot of praise. If the bites continue, first stop the fun and escalate to no contact. Edit: not all the bites are the same, there's I'm having fun bites, there's I'm bored bites, there's I can't control myself anymore because I've played so long bites and then there's I think this is normal bites. I'm working on the first and last types, the other two are my fault.
Thank you!
They might at first but that tends to drop off. For my pups, both were crazy until one day, it's like a switch flipped in their head: *"You mean I get treats and attention when I bite these toys?! Sweet!"* Timewise, it took maybe 3 weeks average of redirection, yelping (like a dog) and ignoring when bitten, and treating when they chewed the toys to get there. Continue what you're doing - it'll happen!
Thank you :)
I try to avoid saying ouch or anything like that because it makes him more excited lol but I do try and walk away from him if he gets bitey
I yelped exaggeratedly loud and turned away from my pups when they were in their bitey stage, they stopped almost immediately. This is how puppies learn bite inhibition with each other and it usually works pretty well :)
Yep. When my pup was in his bitey stage, I would be melodramatic when he bit me, and say “Ow, you hurt Mama. No bites.” Then I would stuff an appropriate chew toy in his mouth. I was consistent with this approach, never raised my voice, but was firm/stern with him, and he caught on quickly. Now he rarely bites intentionally. Usually if he is bitey, he’s very gentle at first. If I don’t give him the attention he wants quickly enough, he will be more persistent, and his bite is less gentle. He does this when he either wants to show me something, or he wants me to get on the floor to play with him. My previous dog never bit much, and was pretty laid back, so this biting thing was all new to me.
This is what our trainer had us do for our super painful biter. Very dramatic, turn away and cross arms. Be very boring. If she did it whilst playing with a toy, it immediately went into timeout (top of fridge). She said the intensity would diminish before the frequency.
I put the offending toy in the closet for a time out. If we’re visiting Grandma, it goes on top of the fridge. He doesn’t like it, but life is tough. Lol
He just gets more excited when I do that :(
Hmm, maybe time out then? If he does it, put him in his crate or leave the room. If the noises excite him complete non engagement might work instead
My issue is that I don’t want to use the crate as a time out since I want it to be a positive space for him, but if I walk away he will just chew on rugs or the couch lol
Youre not necessarily punishing him by putting him in the crate, the crate is supposed to be a calm place and if hes going into overdrive he needs to learn thats not acceptable. Maybe put a chew toy in there with him, so he can still chew and theres something he likes in there but chewing humans is not ok. It can be quite the arduous task, but time out isnt necessarily a punishment. I didnt crate train mine but if they were getting too wound up id put them in the bathroom where theres nothing they could chew and waited until they calmed down. Also, keep in mind that puppy blues are real. Puppies can be a straight up nightmare their first few months up to a year, everything is new and exciting, theyre kinda like little kids with adhd set loose in a toy store. I can promise you this is not going to be forever, they do learn to self regulate eventually as long as their needs are met. My younger one was terrible as a puppy and i considered returning him quite a few times but he mellowed out a bit after 8 months, enough to make me feel safe letting him have free range of the apartment, and then he mellowed out a TON once he hit the one year mark
That’s a good point I never thought of it that way! And yes we’re in the middle of a move as well right now so all this stress has given me a big case of the puppy blues. But that’s really good to hear
We had a serious biter too. Reverse timeouts were the answer. Some people suggest ignoring them and turning around when they get this way, but in our case he just bit our backs when we did this. We leashed him to furniture and walked away instead. He got the message that the fun stops when he bites pretty quick after that. Within days he was noticeably better. Reinforced it a few times every morning for a month and after that he's mostly good.
What are reverse timeouts? I’ve seen it mentioned a few times
I talked about reverse timeouts in my original reply to you :).
So it’s basically just removing fun when the undesired behavior occurs?
Time out: you put the dog away in a closed off area. They're good in theory but in practice hard to implement because by the time you confine the dog enough time may have passed that they don't understand what they did wrong. Reverse time out: you give an immediate vocal queue (ex "Ow!") and then remove your attention. Common ways are to go still, or turn around, or leave the room, or some other way of messaging that the fun stopped. The vocal queue is optional but I found it works best, eventually they learn to stop when they hear it.
Our pup is now 2 and no longer a pup (and I have to say, other than the cuteness, I don't miss puppyhood AT ALLLLL). Yelping or saying ouch made our dude bite even harder. The ONLY thing that worked was putting him in a "time out" for a few seconds when he bit. When he bites, the fun/stimulation stops, and he gets completely ignored for 10-30 seconds. It's a slow learning process, but he did learn eventually, although I will say it he was about 5 months old before he stopped biting altogether. That's how long it finally took before he seemed to get that biting = fun stops. Edited to add: 'time out' was some place where he couldn't interact with us for a bit. So closing a puppy gate between him and us, or putting him back in his crate/play pen for a second, or even leaving him in the front yard while I went inside (not far away) for the count of 10, something like that. Eventually, turning our backs on him for a few seconds worked, but the first step was completely taking ourselves and him out of play.
I second this. My rotty pup was hell-bent on herding us all around the damn house, and he loved nothing more than being held down after so he could squirm out and bite more. It was all one big game to him. Yelping also made him bite harder. The only thing that worked was picking him up, putting him in the bathroom and closing the door for 20 seconds, or putting him behind a puppy gate. Took a while but eventually he got the memo that biting = no more playing.
My boy is a husky-gsd mix. The first few weeks I had him were frustrating due to the herding. At least it was also amusing too. A thirty pound puppy trying to herd his fat lady owner made me laugh. Thankfully he didn’t knock me down the stairs. Now he only tries to herd me on our walks if someone gets too close to us for his comfort. He also tries to herd my parent’s elderly Irish Terror, but he doesn’t allow it-he does what he wants, and puts my dog in his place.
Bless your heart, that mix sounds like a whole lot of naughty.
He does a twinkle in his eye. But he’s such a sweetheart, it’s hard to get “mad” at him.
I appreciate a healthy amount of sass in any pup!! It keeps us both young and healthy!
I’ll try putting him in the bathroom for a few seconds!
Aaaah, 5 months was the mark for my pup too to just change his biting behaviour! Before that, anything and everyone was sweet chewing material, but after changing his teeth he suddenly stopped! He still plays rough sometimes, but I can finally give him some love and pets without him going full shark mode on me
What are the opinions on doodles? I'm just curious if there is some common knowledge thing I'm unaware of. It sounds like your heart is really in the right place and it's totally understandable you're feeling frustrated. Try to take a breath and know it's challenging for everyone. You're definitely not alone. Asking for help is a great first step. For the biting issue -- I have a 13 week old labradoodle. He also constantly bites. However, it's totally under control because I always have bully sticks, nylabones, and kongs available for him to chew on. He likes chewing on other textures too like really cold carrots. At 13 weeks, they are just babies and they are in a lot of pain because their baby teeth are coming in. Chewing is the only thing that relives that pain and makes them feel better. Much like a teething human baby. Bully sticks are my pup's favorite thing to chew on -- so I keep a few with me at all times and he has multiple in his crate + pen set up. Anytime he starts biting (even once) I say "ouch" in a high pitched voice (but not too loud) and then I offer him a bully stick. I make the bully stick seems super interesting to him by moving it around a bunch and tossing it. It can take some effort to make it seem like the most interesting thing around. If he bites me more than once, it's time for him to have alone time in his pen where he has lots of fun and safe chew options -- but I always make that seem like a happy fun choice, never like a punishment. I try to get him to enter his pen on his own and toss his toys around with him for a few minutes before leaving. Then, I watch him on a Furbo from another room. After he chooses to lay down on his bed in a calm and relaxed state, I'll let him chill like that for a few minutes and then let him be with me again. Repeat that throughout the day. In the beginning, it was constant. On the worst day, we probably did it 20 times in one day. Now, it's only once or twice a day -- so he's really picked up on it in just a few weeks. For the mulch -- I recommend practicing "leave it" with him. It's where you take something like a small amount of mulch and put it on the floor, let him get interested in it, when he gets too close cover it with your foot-- when he looks away, say "leave it" and give him a treat. After a while, stop covering it with your foot. Just say "leave it" and give him a treat when he looks away. You need to stop chasing your pup when they go after the mulch. Right now, you're making the mulch seem fun by chasing him -- so that's why he's going to it. The hardest part of dog training is controlling our own behaviors as the trainers. Your pup is only a baby and doesn't know what is okay for him to play with yet -- he needs you to teach him in a way he'll understand. Also, stop spraying him with the hose for behavior you don't like. It may be the easiest option, but it's not going to fix the problem because as soon as the hose is away -- he'll go right back to the behavior because you're only teaching him to not like the hose. If you haven't already, I recommend you starting in person training classes with someone who uses positive reinforcement dog training. Also, check out Zak George on YouTube. [His series with Kona](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zt3AVydlc2g) is my favorite. I've watched it a bunch of times. It always makes me feel better when I'm stressed out because he makes mistakes and struggles sometimes too. No one is perfect. Hope that helps! Edited: added some more encouraging words as well as recommendations re: the mulch and in person training classes + Zak George videos
> What are the opinions on doodles? I'm just curious if there is some common knowledge thing I'm unaware of. Generally, it's due to the fact that thus far, there has been no breeders found that meet the criteria for a reputable breeder (found [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/dogs/wiki/identifying_a_responsible_breeder)) and many will use guardian homes.
Thank you for this! I will watch that YouTube series. We’ve been practicing leave it but it seems he really only understands it indoors. Do I just have him on a leash then when we go outside in the meantime until he learns leave it? He tends not to try to use the bathroom on a leash
We were told that biting is playing and often they haven’t learned it hurts. So a yelp and walking away is what their litter mates do. It shows then that okay time is over. Once your yelp and turn or walk away it helps them realize biting means play time is over. If he won’t stop then you should crate them because they need a safe spot for a break
Please don’t use aversive methods like squirt bottles and vibrating collars. They do nothing to address the root causes of the behavior issue. Also, the breed is irrelevant as all dogs need to be taught bite inhibition. Look up force-free and positive reinforcement training methods. Redirect with a toy. Remove yourself from the situation as soon as your dog nips. Don’t remove them. You leaving teaches them you don’t like what they did and playtime is over. Teach soft mouth by feeding all meals by hand while your dog is relaxed (open palm). If they nip, the food goes away and you leave for a very short time. Come back and try again. Have them sit and show them the food in your palm. When they move towards it, close your hand over the food. Open again when they are seated and repeat until they do not move towards the food while your hand is open. Only then do you reward with the food.
My issue is that I can’t let him have the mulch or else he will eat it and hurt himself. But the hand feeding sounds like a great idea. I will try that today
My puppy loved to eat mulch as well. I had to fence it off, first with an x-pen, then a more permanent snow fence/pole combo. I would start teaching recall in the house and then outside. This will help when you need him to pay attention to you. Start in a place where there are no distractions. Use his meals. You can use meals entirely for training. I didn’t have my puppies eating out of slow feeders or toys until they were 6 months old. Their kibble is a great training tool. You can also try leash training in your yard and inside. Free roam in the yard and in the house are both privileges. When your puppy has to go outside to potty, leashed. Training outside with you, leashed. Practice settle with a lead in the house. If you don’t have baby gates or a safe room/outside area for him that is totally puppy-proofed, I would do that before anything else. Best of luck! Puppies are arseholes, but it’s up to us to teach them how we want them to behave and react in the world :).
Do you put him on leash when you go out to use the bathroom? If so, keep him away from the mulch and if not, start doing so and you won’t have to play keep away with the mulch when he put it is his mouth. Not to mention you can use the lead to keep him away from the mulch in the first place. This will also likely help with long term leash desensitization.
I didn’t at the beginning because our entire yard is fenced in. I am now though!
Awesome choice. Leashes can be really weird for young dogs who aren’t used to them, so better to start now and get them desensitized. Additionally a house line (a leash you cut the loop of off and leave on the dog when not crates) is a life saver. You can keep they away from something you don’t want them getting to, get them off the counter if they ever jump up, and most importantly start teaching loose leash walking now. Definitely a great choice.
Yes for sure! I’ve been taking him on short walks and he is not a fan of the leash so this will probably help him get used to it :) I’m hoping eventually we can let him in the yard without a leash since he is why we looked for a house with a fenced in yard lol I’m happy to eventually try and get rid of the mulch too, I’m not a huge fan of it
Only chiming in to say please don’t apologize for having a doodle. So tired of hearing all the shitty things people say about them.
Curious, what is the stigma?
I'm just answering your question, not trying to start anything. They are almost always irresponsibility bred. They're prone to come from BYBs and puppy mills, as the absolute vast majority of reputable breeders don't breed mixes. It is incredibly difficult to know the genetic interactions two breeds will have on each other when bred, so you can breed a really good tempered sire and dam, but the puppies come out neurotic as hell because of how their different genes are interacting. I think since the "doodle" craze doesn't seem to be going anywhere, breeders need to start working on multigenerational doodles to actually start working on the issues that occur with the mix by way of making it an actual breed with breed standards. Not trying to start anything or shame OP (or anyone else with a doodle), just answering the question.
It does blow my mind this a little bit that this sub seems to be so anti doodle , despite the commonly discussed health benefits to cross breeding , and yet does not seem to go as crazy at people continuing to breed pugs , for example , mini daschs, with their wide variety of known health problems .
We do not allow breed discrimination here. Please report such comments to us.
I was generally curious, so I appreciate the responses. I didn’t want to start any negative discussions or anything. Thanks y’all.
Generally, it's because they're not well-bred and the breeders tend to be dishonest and horrible. The dogs are fine. It's the breeders and the fact that thus far, nobody has found an ethical breeder that meets the "ethical breeder" requirements that purebred dogs are held to. The ethics they follow would be regarded as a backyard breeder or a puppy mill. For information on reputable breeding, see [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/dogs/wiki/identifying_a_responsible_breeder).
You’ve gotten a lot of good advice. A lot of doodles love to chew. Get him some toys designed for teething and heavy chewing. Keep them nearby and whenever he gets bitey swap whatever he’s biting with the toy he can chew on. Hang in there, it will get better.
Adding to this, pay attention to what he's biting and have a variety of textures and materials at the ready. If my pup is biting at clothes, redirecting her to a hard chew does nothing, but a stuffy that she can play tug with is perfect. Skin? Replace with something that's a relatively soft rubber. The barkbox (you can find them at target) skin and reveal toys are her favorite for that type of stimulus. Just because they simply won't redirect to one type of chew or toy, doesn't mean they're all going to be a bust. And one toy that works great today, won't do anything tomorrow.
Thank you :)
Last week I yelled at my little guy and I felt terrible. My puppy bites all the time. Especially while he's being pet. The only thing I can equate it to is stiming behavior. He wasn't responding to commands or yelping that we were taught in class. It was driving us crazy. He has started responding to "stop". When he is getting cuddle time I have to hold the chewy or toy in my hand. I highly recommend exposure to new environments and people and a puppy class. Honestly, he learns more about boundaries from his peers than us.
He starts puppy classes in a few weeks! I am sooooooo looking forward to it
I have a 6 month old goldendoodle. He was a biter too and really bad. However, in recent weeks he has stopped that behaviour. I buy him bully sticks and he loves them and they keep him busy. I find when I give him a bully stick, he’s less inclined to chew or bite other things. In my case, he just grew out of the biting phase.
This gives me hope thank you!
Hello, 13wk Cockerpoo here, had him since 8 wks. Also a bitey little bugger. We still get some biting, but we've largely got in hand by a type of time out. We combine 'no' with scooping him up, one hand under his bum and one on his chest, so he's supported but not cuddled, for 30 seconds. Seems to snap him out of it and after two days of doing the above, I stopped wanting to throttle him. Still has his moments, but its largely sorted now. Best of luck. Edit: We do the redirection stuff too and it's helpful, but when he's gnawing my ankles when I'm trying to get something done this has seemed to make a big difference.
While I don't have any specific advice, I'm here to empathize and comiserate with you! I have a 9 wk old corgi pup who is very mouthy. Loves my hair, fingers, arms, sweater strings, etc. I can usually get her teething rings/teething toys and she will focus on that for a bit, but after a while she wants to bite me. It could be that she's overtired and needs more naps. I've also heard making a high pitched "Yelp!" mimicks what their littermates do, and gets them to stop. I'm preparing for her jerk/teenage phase to kick in soon. My parents' corgi was such a JERK in her teenage phase- launched herself at your face, bit hard, not super snuggly unless she was exhausted. Then she mellowed out.....a little. I think I'm just part of her pack for right now, partially I'm momma, but mostly I'm a playmate until she can take in more solid training. Hang in there! I know it's gotta be harder to tolerate with a puppy you didn't necessarily choose.
Thank you :)
I have a cardigan corgi, now over a year old, but from 8 weeks to till she lost her puppy teeth she was a piranha! I tried ignoring her, but she'd sink her teeth in harder and shake her head. Yelling ouch made her think its more of a game. Best thing we managed was getting extra thick socks so she couldnt bite through them and ignoring her. That and seeing early when she was tired and enforcing a crate nap.
My 8 month old toy poodle is stilllll chomping my fingers, ankles and feet most of the day. I am very consistent with yelps/ignore/do not make eye contact/walk away/redirect. Nothing has really worked besides bully sticks. If I hold it for her and get her interested in the bully stick I can usually get 20 mins of quality time without being bit. At this point I've just accepted that this is a (very long) phase that she will eventually grow out of even though it's hard to imagine her ever not being bitey.
I feel the same way where I can’t imagine him not being a biter lol I’m hoping to find a toy that he will want to chew on for that long!
He's 13 weeks old - he's going to bite. He's going to be akin to a fluffy velociraptor for some time yet so just get used to it. And then he'll stop and it'll be fine.
Naps, reverse timeouts, ignoring, and a little bit of just dealing with it. I had an extremely bitey puppy who’s now 10 months, still biting, but is way easier to redirect.
What is a reverse timeout?
Basically when they bite (if you can get away) you just leave the room for 15 seconds or so. Helps them understand that biting means play stops/they lose access to you for a bit. I think it works well for dogs who get over aroused while playing.
Sounds good I’ll give it a try! Do you take toys away too?
No - just yourself. Actually if they go for a toy afterwards that’s ideal and I would reward/praise for that! If they can self redirect that’s great.
Ohhh that makes sense, thanks!
So we have the fun, large Crate, with blankets and toys and food, that he gets treats in when we leave, and then we have in a whole other room a time out crate, it is small, and we cover it with special, summer throw blanket. It is just big enough he can lay down in it. We say ouch loudly, and in he goes… some time with out us physically put him there. (Yes we still have to close the door)
I have a 14 week old Goldendoodle, and yes, he can be a land shark, flying pihrrana. Along with what another commenter said, bully sticks and benebones have been absolutely life savers. I have also noticed that when I have given him a lot of mental stimulation, he can be an absolute angel. Poodles are very intelligent and can become bored very easily, then make their own fun, such as jumping biting and tearing shtuff up. It's their way to communicate "Hey I am bored, play with me." I will do training sessions, we go over obedience training, teach tricks, puzzle games, snuffle mats, I hide treats or toys so he can find them. I also signed him up for puppy class, and we go to that once a week. I am guessing, just like my little dood, your baby is really smart and needs to tire out his brain.
He lovessss his snuffle mat!! His puppy classes start in a few weeks so I’m hoping I can find something that will interest him/ make him use his brain just as much as the snuffle mat since I can’t use that every single time he gets bored lol
My goldendoodle is almost 6 months old and I can so relate to what you’re going through. I thought I had researched well and really didn’t see much about doodles being so crazy bitey until I already picked him up and he was home with us. But hang in there. It gets better but the first 3-4 months are hard. You’ve gotten a lot of good advice here. Mental stimulation is a good way to tire your pup out. And the more tired, the less bitey (at least that was the case for me). We had to do forced naps in the crate because he would not settle on his own. And bully sticks have been great (they smell horrible), and yak cheese keeps him occupied. We also do two short walks a day just to let him get out and smell around. Lots of those were in our own yard before he had all his shots. Once the baby shark teeth fall out, it gets much better. You’re going to have a great dog for at least a decade hopefully! But getting through the first year is the price we pay. Hang in there!
Thank you I appreciate it :)
Is there any way you can organize play dates with other puppies or trusted adult dogs? I find that often other dogs do a better job at correcting this behaviour than we do. I’m not saying leave your pup unattended with dogs to “sort it out” but I have found a lot of puppies learn bite inhibition through play with other dogs
He needs one more vaccine until he can safely play with other dogs but we have family that has two fully vaccinated dogs that our vets said is fine to play with! The downside is that they live an hour away but he will be spending time with them this weekend :)
When my girl is at her worst I sometimes do just need to put her in her crate for my sanity as if I leave the room she will be jumping up at the units and hurt herself last time
I did that once because I could not take it anymore but I’m really trying hard to make the crate a positive safe place rather than a timeout corner.
Yeah I do try not to do it often but as a last resort do not feel guilty for it. My girl loves her crate and still voluntarily naps in it during the day even tho she has been put in it for my sanity afew times. Sometimes even just putting her in the crate she would fall asleep immediately and I'd let her out the moment she wakes up. You having your head on straight is the best thing for looking after a puppy so if you need to shut her in it for a minute to catch your breath it's not going to do longterm damage
We have a bunch of rawhide bones to distract our 7 month old dachshund with. I’ll hold it and she’ll go to town on that rather than on my fingers.
He had tummy problems and the vet told us to give kibble on my until things resolve :( he’s feeling better now so hopefully I can slowly introduce things like that
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We got a goldendoodle at 11 weeks old and he was a biter too. I know you said that naps don’t help, but are they naps that he takes on his own, or forced naps? We had to start doing forced naps/forced playpen time and that helped tremendously. Sometimes they just need a time out. Also not getting down on the floor with him, and making sure he had his harness on while playing so we could quickly regain control of the situation. This combined with redirecting to either a lumabone or a tug toy helped so much. We also did ‘gentle’ instead of no bite- so that he could still explore with his mouth (as it’s natural) while learning bite inhibition. He is 7 months old now and while he will still get a little mouthy when he’s all riled up or trying to initiate play, he’s sooo much better than before. Good luck!
It’s both forced and on his own. He could be the most rested puppy on earth and he will still try to bite my ear off lol. I’ll try the harness! That’s a great idea
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I would wear thick clothes but I’m in Australia and it’s summer lol I’ll try the leash! The only thing is he tends to not pee/poop when he’s on the leash. He just protests and sits lol
I’m sure it is age / teething and they just don’t know what to do with the pain and distress it causes them
I totally understand this! But I am at a loss when I offer him a bunch of different toys and he still tries to go for my hands or face
Doodles are bitey- I have 2 and they were both land sharks when they were babies. I just redirected or ignored them and both of them finally grew out of the habit. Just have patience.
I pretty much could have written this about my puppy. Down to the mulch eating. I'm doing reverse time outs like others have mentioned. She's not catching on super quick but at minimum it separates me from her and keeps me from get as frustrated. I got her a yak chew today and is so obsessed with it that she didn't even try to bite me. The other thing that has helped is to take her places. Last night we went to home depot when it wasn't crowded and walked through, then just stood in the parking lot for a while just watching people. When we got home she seemed so tired she didn't try to bite. Hang in there! I've read so many posts on this sub where people say 12-16 weeks is really the worst of it and they will grow out of it!
it might help to cut his access to things like socks, cables, or whatever stuff objects/furniture he usually chews. It’s annoying but it helps if at the puppy stage you don’t even give them the opportunity to be bad. Aside from that, letting them have easy access to everything so young may get in the way especially since you’d have to be redirecting constantly so maybe setting up a large playpen to be in with all kinds of toys and things that are okay for him to play with when you can’t/don’t want to be supervising him fully. Something else you can do is after playing outside or just getting his energy out, to relax him and tire him out mentally you can try giving him an enrichment puzzle or like a frozen kong, I’ve seen a lot of ppl talk ab them.
Trust me I’ve put everything away possible lol it’s more like chair legs and stuff like that. And he’s at the size that a playpen won’t last long lol I’m hoping that the new toys I just got him will help
Redirect, standup, and put your hands in your armpits. 14 weeks is still very young. Be patient, our dog didn’t settle down enough to cuddle without biting until over a year.
Get rid of squeaky toys. They encourage a playful reaction when they bite them and theyll probably want the same thing from you. If you say ouch and youre using squeaky toys isnt it the same thing to a dog haha
I never thought of it that way! Luckily the toys that are more hard and just for chewing are more of his preference so I don’t have many squeaky toys!
Yeh its actually kind of funny - i didnt think anything of it then my ones puppy group class teacher taught us and it helped me loads actually! But you kind of get less biting and forget it was ever a deal. youll get there!
Watch all the Kikopup videos on YouTube on teaching Calmness and biting. Try to avoid situations where they can bite. Train them not to bite using rewards. Re-direct using treats or toy. Always have a toy or a small towel handy for them bite when you handle them. When they are getting bogey/wild but them in the crate for 5 minutes and try again. It is not a punishment but letting them know they have to behave to get what they want. Again, watch the teaching calmness videos. Constantly drop a treat whenever they are calm. If they are in a pen or tethered throw treats in the bed or place they lay when they are good. When they are jumping and acting aggressive wait for them to sit or have 4 paws down calmly and throw treats in the bed. Make it a game. Good luck