Still biting at a year old

[thedurbs]

Well our lovely Jasper is now a year old.  He is the loveliest dog and the most affectionate dog I have every had.  Of course we all love him as  a family BUT  the play biting is now getting a bit more serious.  We went on holiday and my parents looked after him for two weeks.  Again, he was well behaved except for the play biting.  My mum said that she actually go scared at one point that he was really going to go for her.    It is mostly my two teenagers who get it.  He still bites their ankles, clothes etc and he has hurt them both.  Not deep bites (drawing blood) but can still leave a mark.  The only way to stop him is by my intervention, my husband or crating him.    ( really thought he would have grown out of this by now and I really do not know where to go from here.  Any advice would be gratefully received.  By the way he is still 'intact'.

[Charliewells]

Hi, I can fully sympathise with you, Charlie is 14 months old and my parents had him while we went abroad for 10 days and she messaged me to say that she had to resort to a spray bottle to stop him terrorising her.  He does it at home with our teenager boys  and me, but never my husband.  I was told to 'scruff' him as his mother would have done when he was a pup and keep hold of him firmly until he stops, immediately giving loads of praise when he does stop.  The problem that I have though is that no one follows this through - despite it working - which means we're not always singing from the same song sheet!  I know it's for attention, but that doesn't make it any easier.
I'd love to hear others views on the subject though, as I could do with some help too!
Wendy x

[Markr64]

Oh dear, I started a thread in puppies because our Dexter was biting more than I thought he should be. It sounds like you have a real problem and I hope it soon stops. My little terror is still having the odd nip mostly when he is tired or over stimulated. We are controlling these situations as best we can and my hope is he will top shortly as he is starting to get his big boy teeth.

There are some wonderful people on here who I am sure will give sound advice. I do like the "scruff" idea and it is one I have never heard of.

[julie1]

I'm not sure if this will work for you, but it worked for us;  Kez is a very gentle girl (bitch) maybe with a dog (male) who is more forceful it will be different.

I used to say " ah" in a growl in the throat & say gentle, she twigged on to it very quickly.

[JeffD]

Teal was still biting at a year, in fact she is now 3 and still loves to bite my hands in play, the difference now is her bite inhabitation is very good, some times she forgets and it can hurt  a bit so she gets a loud ow from me and I turn my back on her.

Your pup does this because he is bored and demanding attention I bet the biting stops as soon as you offer an alternative game and he has probably learnt this over the last year.
 Try letting the pup bite during biting play but you decide when biting play is allowed. I would get on the floor and let Teal chase my hands and get up and leave the room if she caused me to give out a loud ow any other biting out side play biting was not tolerated and I would leave the room

Some dogs are just plain mouthy the art is to teach good bite inhibition and biting is only allowed when you say it is during play. I did this mostly by letting her mouth my hand in play and stopping the play when it became painful. she has learnt the gentle and no clothes command.  I am sure she thinks I am a wimp as I will not play rough like she can with other dogs.

Its a bit like teaching a dog to bark on command so the you can teach not to bark on command

Please do not scruff the dog chances are a mouthy dog will respond with a harder bite and things can go down hill from there and serious problems may set in

this is just my opinion and is what worked for me with the pup from hell who at 3 years is a joy to own and work with

Edited to add having him castrated will most likely make no difference at all and possibly make him less likely to mature and grow out of this stage

[Ben's mum]

It's a long time since I had a pup with mine at 12 and 6 now, so no advice there sorry, but I just wanted to echo Jeff and say please don't use the 'scruff' method, it was fashionable when Ben was a pup 12 years ago, along with dominance theory etc. we used it with Ben  on advise from a 'Behaviourist' and the biting escalated very very quickly from play biting and general teenage stropiness to a fear based aggression, which has impacted on Bens whole life and his reaction to being handled around his head and neck area.

There will be lots of good advice I am sure from others with more recent puppy experience 

[EmmaRose]

I'd try and anticipate the biting behaviour and then distract Jasper with a toy.  Rory (7 months) will mouth if he gets over exciting during play or when I return to him so I always aim to keep playtime calm (but fun for him) and channel his biting onto a toy.  If he does bite me then I too make a "ow" sound get up walk away and end the game.  I then return when he is calm.

As others have said I wouldn't scruff any dog as this could potentially escalate the problem from play biting to fear aggression - you don't want him to become fearful of you hands. 

[Pearly]

I'd try and anticipate the biting behaviour and then distract Jasper with a toy.  Rory (7 months) will mouth if he gets over exciting during play or when I return to him so I always aim to keep playtime calm (but fun for him) and channel his biting onto a toy.  If he does bite me then I too make a "ow" sound get up walk away and end the game.  I then return when he is calm.

As others have said I wouldn't scruff any dog as this could potentially escalate the problem from play biting to fear aggression - you don't want him to become fearful of you hands.

I agree - Coral is now 7 months old and doesn't bite at all....she does insist on washing my feet though   

Using any form of aversive training is not recommended unless you are a dog behaviourist and even then it's all about timing and if you (or the behaviourist) get it wrong you end up with a ruined dog - this includes such techniques as water sprays......

I would consider when Jasper does the biting thing - is it when he's tired? Over excited? Just after he's been sleeping etc.  if it's mainly aimed at your children, have they ever teased him as a pup? I'm sure it would have been in innocence but puppy play is never really just that, it's training a dog for the future - if they ran around with him following then that's all he's doing now, he thinks he's playing still 

Get to know his trigger points if you can, then either avoid them which may mean asking your children to be calm around him, or find a good distraction as Emma has suggested.  Failing that I would suggest contacting a behaviourist (positive reward only) to evaluate Japsers behaviour and gain some coping strategies.

I'm sure others will be along with more advice,

Jayne

[karenl]

Been through the biting stage with our dog Amber , it seemed like it was going to last for ever, we had many problems with her as a pup but she gradually got over them all , the biting was probably the worst thing ,she would bite my ankles when I pegged washing out or even if I walked passed her and it was a bad time .
The only thing I can remember that began to work with her was distracting her by throwing her ball !
We also used to shout a firm no !!    She gradually grew out of it .
She is now six years old and a lovely dog   

[Charliewells]

Thank you for the advice about  avoiding 'scruffing', I'll go back to averting the situation instead!  Some great tips to use.
Wendy x

[thedurbs]

Hi everyone and thank you so much for all your replies and advice.  We had a Cavalier for 15 years who was a very laid back dog and grew up with my children. She was a beautifully behaved dog and not once did I have an issue with her with the children.  When I say they grew up together we had her for a year before my twins came along and she put up with baby/toddler behaviour.  She never reacted to anything.       

Jasper as I say is such a lovely dog but the play biting really does send him into a frenzy and obviously the children are not used to this.  Yes they play with him but I haven't seen them tease him as such.  I just wondered if it had anything to do with him being a boy and still intact?   I am sure he will grow out of it but after nearly a year of having him I thought he would have calmed down a bit by now.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to reply to my message

[PennyB]

Often at this age its mouthing and yes it does hurt as they now have adult teeth (I've had lots of bruising from lurchers or staffies that do this as their mouths are harder)- overexcitement can be a trigger at this age. Sometimes they will just grab at clothes as part of the game they think they're in. Once he gets overexcited and begins this then its best to distract him and may be remove him from the excitement - he's actually a teenager now so often I go back to basics - even tasks they've done before (often you need to bond again with them - just like our human counterparts they listen less and think they know everything)

[pinkmarshmallow]

Benji's still biting at times and he'll be 1 next week.  We can see when he's getting carried away with playing and my family say 'no bite' in a deep voice or 'ow' and ignore him.  Other people like my mum don't see it coming and that's what I'm worried about.  It's just perseverance I think 

[cockerlover1]

Have you told hm no and removed your hand away from him? Offer a rope toy instead and when chewing/playing reward him.