Dutch Shepherd Forum

My family just got our new pup, she is 8 weeks (on Friday) and fabulous. We hope to title her, and maybe do a little regional competition. We are located in Beaverton, OR.

She has settled right in, and is doing really great. Our only issue right now is the biting on us instead of her toys. This was expected, but it is still not fun LOL...especially for our kids. We are doing a lot of redirection, but will need to do something more I think, or my kids may never get off the couch again

I would love to hear ideas on how to curb improper biting without curbing her biting drive in other areas.

Welcome and congrats on your new addition.

She's so young, with much to learn, so the redirection will likely work--you just got her!

There's other posts on the forum about this...use words like mouthy and mouthiness and I'm sure you'll find a some. I can't say that there are threads devoted to it, but there are posts within non-related threads. (We don't slways stay on topic in threads.)

Raven wrote:(We don't slways stay on topic in threads.)

HA! Truer words were never spoken!

And WELCOME!

Welcome!

My guy didn't respond at all to "no" then redirecting, so I would yelp in the highest pitched voice I could manage and redirect. Worked like a charm. If you watch puppies playing, the second one yelps like this the other lets go. It's an innate signal. As he got older I would use a gentle no, teaching him what no meant. She'll get it!

Thanks so much, I appreciate the feedback...and welcome!

Welcome to the board!

We had the same problem with Mobil as a pup. Our solution was to adopt his sister.

While their shenanigans with each other greatly reduced their mouthiness with family members, I do not recommend this. At all. LOL

Hahaha there is NO way we can add another pup...Kitsune is quite enough
You are brave.

Welcome. Everything will be ok. The biting is crazy when they are 8 9 10 12 16 weeks. I thought I had bought the spawn of Satan at first. I bled, people looked at me funny with all the cuts, scratches, teeth marks. It will get better. Redirection works, it takes a lot of repetition but it will work. Good luck, and pictures would be great. I love puppy pics.

Thor was terribly mouthy when we adopted him. Had to employ various techniques. All went well.

Thing is, these guys want to use their mouths. So...when the husband wanted to rumble, poor Thor couldn't use his mouth. I told the husband that wasn't playing fair...what was the poor guy supposed to do?

Also when we first got him, he used to muzzle-punch as well as punch you with a toy if he had a toy in his mouth. It was rude, and I fixed that, too. But, again, it left the boy between a rock and a hard place IF the husband or I wanted to rumble.

So here's the poor guy. Can't use his mouth on us. AND his mean mom didn't allow toys on the bed once he was invited on the bed. Bummer. After he's invited on the bed, we rumble. He replaced mouthiness with strange vocals and flopping around like a fish on the beach....and then....

After he knew all the rules, there was a night when he had a couple days' worth of unspent energy because of the weather-----he flew off the bed when we were wrestling, got a KONG, jumped back up on the bed, and threw himself down on his back while he gnawed the KONG in the back of his jaws like a maniac. Best rumble in the bed ever!

He broke the rule, but he figured out a good reason why to do it. I was fine with it. And he didn't punch me with it...he just used it as a tool.

Since it was okay on the bed, now that's what he does with his father. If Dad's ready to rumble, Thor zooms for a KONG to gnaw.

Hahaha they are so smart!