Biting of my hand when excited to see me

[Tammy]

My 11 month old has a real habbit of biting my hand in excitment (I think, I hope) when I come in, he jumps up and cries with excitment but bites our hand at the same time.

Does anyone else have a problem with this and if so how can I stop him?, he has got better as he's got older but he still seems to do it, my only concern is with children really.                    

[suzysu]

Hi Tammy

My 11 month old girl also does this - only when I come in and she is excited.  I don't remember my other girl (now two) continuing to do this at 11 months, only when she was a puppy.

I too would welcome advice from one of the more experienced members.                    

[PennyB]

It might be worth ignoring your dog completely when you come in as if you don't know they are there (I basically walk through the house without any eye contact rather than stand still and ignore them). I know a welcome is fantastic but if it also involves bad behaviour you have to break this cycle. Its hard I know but its worth trying. Biting your hand like this is attention seeking. After about 5 min they hopefully will have calmed down and then you can welcome them on your terms. Its a bit like when they were pups and constantly biting you and won't listen and the only thing to do is to walk away from them avoiding eye contact.

If Wilf does the biting hand thing its usually under other circumstances and then I usally give him a firm 'no'. But if any of mine go through a phase of misbehaving as I go through the door then I ignore them.

Sometimes its better to ignore some bad behaviour and only praise the good behaviour and other times only chastise them with the word 'no'                    

[DIANNE32]

:? Im having the same problem with my 6 month old Bailey, its not just the hand biting though, he tends to snap at your face when you bend down to greet him.  Im worried about the snapping at peoples faces because he did it to me friends daughter at the weekend, he didn't draw blood but he did mark her face.  Have you got any suggestions as to how i can stop him doing this to people.  I know he only does it because he's excited and pleased to see people, but i would like to discourage him from doing it.  :oops:                    

[Jan/Billy]

Billy at 7 months is exactly the same, i usually give a very firm "no" as soon as he has done it so he is absolutley certain why he is being told "No". Then if he persists i lock him out ofthe room for a couple of minutes. It usually does the trick, he hates being ignored