puppy is biting/ snapping.

[gemgem]

Hi everyone.

Rufus is a lovely puppy (15 weeks old today) & he seems to be a clever boy. He can do sit, lie down, leave his food when tell him, roll over & paw
But we are having problems with him snapping biting at us & its only when we decipline him, for example when hes chewing the sofa we say 'AH' & take him away but he snaps his jaw at us trying to bite us or warning us off. You can actually here his jaw clapping together & gets quite scary because you can tell he wants to bite us & not playing. He doesnt do any mouthing now on our hands, he hasnt done that for 5-6 weeks.
We have pinned him down to the floor & closed his jaws together so he stops snapping, & only release him when hes got a relaxed body. We have sort of growled at him to warn him but he doesnt care as soon as we release him he does it again. So we have to pick him up & take him into another room but also holding his jaw together because if we guide him by his collar he will try & do anything to bite us.
I get upset because i dont know if i need to be harsher with him, or upset because i feel like ive been to harsh on him. 

Can anyone give us advise for him to stop this, we have also tried walking out the room & leaving him but he follows trying to bite our legs. He seems to a stubborn puppy when being told off.
Ive tried looking on the internet but they only seem to talk about mouting & being agressive with food or toys but rufus is not, its only when we tell him 'AH'

Can anyone help please.

Thankyou

Gem xxxxx

[Bluebell]

Hi everyone.I get upset because i dont know if i need to be harsher with him, or upset because i feel like ive been to harsh on him. 

Can anyone give us advise for him to stop this, we have also tried walking out the room & leaving him but he follows trying to bite our legs. He seems to a stubborn puppy when being told off.

There are loads of threads on puppy biting/mouthing on this site, all of them will recommend the non confrontational route of walking away, together with  teaching him what is appropriate for him to chew/bite, that isn't you! By losing your temper and being aggressive with such a little puppy (or any dog) is a receipe for disaster. You will only succeed in teaching him that humans are unkind and not to be trusted, which is not great news for you or you dog.

Is he your first dog? Do you take him to puppy classes, where the trainers will only use reward based positive training methods?

Your little puppy did not exist on this planet until a mere 15weeks ago, you have to be patient and kind, have a brilliant sense of humor, and do not expect him to behave like an 'adult' when he is a 'child'.

Please read this link   http://www.scallywagsdogs.com/biting.html

[tiamaria]

Try giving this thread a read

http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discuss/index.php?topic=45678.0

There are a few threads about the same thing at the moment!  I believe the method you mentioned about pinning him down isnt recommended, but stick around and everyone will explain the best way to handle the whole biting stage!

Maria 

[KellyS]

It does sounds like normal puppy playful biting & snapping sounds like he thinks it's all a big game. Have you tried yelping really loudly whenever his teeth come into contact with your skin or he bites your legs and I mean a loud high pitched yelp and walking away ignoring him?

[PennyB]

I know how much hard work some pups can be --- Ruby was a little demon biter at the same age plus I recenlty fostered a pup who was similar as well.

There are other ways to calm your pup than the methods you are using --- all you are doing is confronting him by doing this and mishandling a pup can lead to disaster if you're not careful.

On occasion why not distract him sometimes and get him to do something else --- even sometimes stick a chew/toy in his mouth may work when they're going through this demonlike phase they don't really listen either.

I recently fostered a very confident cocker pup who was a little demon --- but in some instances there was an easier way to do things and less of a struggle. He would bite my hands to shreds if I tried to put his harness on and the best thing that worked there was I 1st got him to sit then when he sat down I gave him a gravy bone (as he was also calm) and so while he was concentrating on that I put part fo the harness on then got him to sit again and gave him another treat so I could finish off putting the harness on --- job done without a scratch or overexcited puppy (and faster as I was less stressed doing it). Eons ago a dog trainer taught me if some things like this were hard work, as the puppy kept wriggling and biting and getter more excited, that I was to do a little bit at a time and reward for allowing to do that little bit so basically each procedure would be broken down into bits and rewarded as such unitl eventually you only neded a treat for completing the whole thing in one go and eventually they didn't get a treat at all.

[spanielcrazy]

Believe me, if he wanted to bite you it would happen. Dogs, even puppies have deadly serious aim.

It's hard to say without seeing one of these incidents, without seeing the body language of both you and Rufus. If it is only when you are disciplining him, it sounds like it could be a fear/defense mechanism from the pinning, or perhaps guarding the object he is shewing on.  

What you have on your hands is the equivalent of a 2 year old child who has learned to say no to it's parents, and is going through the bratty, independance developing stage. I would not pin him, that is a very severe punishment only for very severe "crimes". You have to deal with him as you would a 2 year old child, stay totally calm, don't show any anger, just calmly persist in what you were trying to do as though the snapping weren't happening (like I said, if he really meant to bite you he would), like you would with a child who is trying to hit you. If you respond in anger or severe punishment, you won't get through to the child/dog, you will only raise the tension level that much more, and increase the likliehood that he will make teeth contact one day.

Distraction with a suitable chew or toy (I say "ah-ah, not for puppies--even to my "adult" dogs   and take the thing away or, in the case of a sofa that can't be taken away, give the dog an appropriate substitute, or throw a ball or something if I have one that likes to retrieve and praise when they play with or chase that toy. In other words, I never tell them what they can't do without immediately showing them what they can do.

I would recommend two books for you, both by Jean Donaldson; "The Culture Clash" and "Mine!" If you are concerned about potential aggression, and like I said, it is hard to know what is really happening here without seeing it, then you might want to seek out a really good qualified behaviourist to help keep you and Rufus on the right track  

[Helen]

it looks like you've been watching a lot of episodes of the dog whisperer - my advice would be not to follow this at all, in the long run you will be damaging your dog.  He is not relaxing when you pin him down, he is 'shutting down'  and in the long run this can be incredibly detrimental to your dog.  You don't need to fill your dog with fear to respect you, you can train your dog positively with far better results

You've been given some good advice on the thread already 

[PennyB]

As your pup is quite bright it might be worth trying to do something like clicker training with him to may be focus/engage his brain more and it will help later on with other things

[tiamaria]

As your pup is quite bright it might be worth trying to do something like clicker training with him to may be focus/engage his brain more and it will help later on with other things

Can i just say that clicker training is fantastic! Throughly recommend it! 

[Karma]

I don't have much to add to what has already been said, but you did say that this often occurs when you have to physically remove him from somewhere you don't want him to be?
Are you trying to teach the "off" command?? You can use a treat to lure him away from where he shouldn't be - he will be more than happy to move then!!! Once he has the hang of this, introduce the command "off" as you lure - then you can gradually reduce the need to treat.
If you need a little more control as he is learning this, you can use a house line (a very long light lead) to guide him off whereever he is without physically moving him.  From his point of view it must be very scary to have these big hands (which he will associate with being pinned down) come towards him when he is feeling nice a warm and comfy... 

[Kegzy]

My puppy is only 11 weeks. He is still play biting. Which takes away alot of the enjoyment of having him. My youngest daughter gets afraid at times of his play biting. What we done was put water into a squish type bottle and anytime he bites just squish it behind his ear. It will hopefully stop him play biting.
Hope I could help x

[Cob-Web]

My puppy is only 11 weeks. He is still play biting. Which takes away alot of the enjoyment of having him. My youngest daughter gets afraid at times of his play biting. What we done was put water into a squish type bottle and anytime he bites just squish it behind his ear. It will hopefully stop him play biting.
Hope I could help x

This really is an extreme method of training for normal dog behaviour - aversives are not necessary, especially when training young dogs/puppies 

He may begin to associate hands near his ears/head with an unpleasant experience and avoid your hands when you are grooming/fussing him, and try and warn you off with a growl or snap 

[Kegzy]

The water is sprayed from 12inches away. Do you think we should stop this? 

[Cob-Web]

The water is sprayed from 12inches away. Do you think we should stop this? 

IMO, yes 

[Kegzy]

Thank-you for the advice. We will try this and get back to you