Sushi will not stop biting!

[Staceyvd]

Hey guys,

Just wondering if your puppies did the same thing? All of my other chow babies were a breeze to train as puppies and Sushi will not listen! He is getting worse if anything! When he bites us, we "yelp", then give him one of his toys to bite on and if he continues, we put him in his crate to show him that it is not acceptable. We also have an issue with him biting/chewing on EVERYTHING. We have tried the trick with the pennies in a can, clapping, saying no, moving him away from the object and giving him a toy and if he continues, we put him in his crate. None of this is working and it's beginning to get frustrating. He runs up to you, jumps and bites your legs or your hands or really anything that he can get a hold of. He even jumps on Mia's back and bites her! (7 lbs chihuahua). She is now terrified and never leaves the couch unless he is in his crate. Any advice guys?!

[Cocoa]

Oh that sounds familiar, Cocoa was a real nipper as a puppy and just terrorized my son's little dog , who escaped by staying up on the couch too (I'm pretty sure she thought he was a squeaky toy ). Once Cocoa got big enough to jump on the couch it was trouble, they get along okay now though. Seriously though it sounds like you are doing everything right, it is just going to take time. One thing that I would do when she got too crazy was to hold her by the scruff and make her sit and look at me til she calmed down. I know it is frustrating and seems like it will never end but it you stay consistent he will get past this crazy puppy stage. Now that it is well behind us I actually miss some of the silly puppy antics (not the sharp puppy teeth though).

[Pinoy51]

Agree with Cocoa, luckily Simba was not as persistent as Sushi and his nipping stayed at acceptable level most of the time. But he didn't stop with what he was doing no matter how much we tried to redirect his attention. Only way to stop him was exactly how Cocoa described it, got a hold of him make him sit, make him look at me and give the "bad boy" command and hold him in this position until he calmed down. Once he was a "good boy" praise, a treat and full attention were given back to him. This didn't solve anything, but kept things under control until he grew out of his puppy age. Very rarely I have to do it now, ususally the "bad boy" command and sometimes blocking him is enough to make him stop chasing the other guys or change whatever other inapproriate plan is in his mind

[Staceyvd]

Thanks guys!! I will try that too. He is such a sweetheart otherwise! We love him so much. Lexi never let us brush her (luckily her hair was super silky so she always looked pretty) or cut her nails and Sushi already lets us and doesn't panic. He also is great at night, we put him in his crate and he goes to sleep until morning. <3

[kitten1426]

what we did was teach them NO BITE...either we would take our thumb and hold her mouth/tongue and say no bite...or give them a little tap on the nose NO bite ...it worked for us...

[Cindy J]

I am sitting in my office chair with me feet pulled up at the moment. I think Sushi is about a week or two older than Chance. It is a fun age, but very trying at times. So far our biting sessions are mainly when he is in full "zoomie" mode. I am playing a game of letting him chase me. When he gets to me we play a quick game of tug. Then I take off and let him chase me again. There have been a few times when he preferred to go for me over the toy I am shaking. I have found that holding his scruff and giving a quick "auch" sound makes him pause. I reward the pause.

Now when he begins to go for me I just give the "auch" (just a weird sound that makes him pause and take notice) and he will most often sit up and look at me. This doesn't work all the time... but we are making some progress.

Our other option is wearing leather boots and gloves at all times. Good luck and keep us posted.

[Me & Tess]

I agree about holding your chow by the scruff. I did that with Tess several times. A reminder for me to use it on Lilly. Good luck with the "no bite!"

[Victory]

Folks, two things here. First chows havew extremly high prey drives, when you play chase with them, when you are running from them, you quickly become prey. You can chase them, but you shouldn't allow them to chase you. Getting them to run and jump you can chase them, and then clap your hands and toss a toy to get them to move.

The other thing is exercise. A lot of people think that chows don't need exercise, but a lot of nipping especially in puppies is from lack of exercise. Puppies need to run and jump and play and they need to do it until they are exhausted several times a day, it helps build strong muscle, solid joints and more importantly aides in training. A tired puppy is actually ready to pay attention and learn.

[Cindy J]

I prefer to always have them moving towards me. It makes recall come a lot faster. I call their name and then move back quickly and let him catch me. If I reverse the game and begin chasing him, I am telling him that it is OK to run away from me. On that basis if he gets out of the yard and I run after him, he will think it is a game and I will have to chase him down the street.

With my method; if he gets out of the yard I call his name and move away from him and he comes to chase me. This has worked for me for years and years. I also have rottweilers. One has prey drive that is off the charts. At this age we are also working on other basic commands. Their beautiful little minds can be distracted by letting them know what I want rather than what I don't want.

I keep a pocket full of treats and have short sessions of training in the form of games to stimulate him mentally as well as physically.

[Rory's Dad]

Nice to see you Victory. I agree with your thinking on the chasing thing. I am also not a fan of any tug of war type of play with Chows, it discourages a release instinct.

Cindy J makes a lot of sense for the recall basics. I have a male that wouldnt recall if you held a live turkey at the door. My female is afraid to miss anything and wont leave your hip.

[Cindy J]

My husband read my post this morning and chided me for my wording. He said I probably come across as a "know it all"

Not my intentions, just tossing out ideas to bat around. I am very open to better suggestions... always hoping to grow in my understanding.

This morning I am taking a more calm approach to the nipping. Each and every time Chance grabs my pant leg I calmly put a couple fingers under his chin and lift, while uttering a firm uh-uh. He is young, but seems to get it. At least for now, this simple act is working.

I will chill on the tugging with him. I need to remember that he is not a rottweiler pup and I will not be working him in schutzhund.

[Rory's Dad]

FYI Cindy, i didnt feel that came off with any sort of attitude. Seemed to be just what you are experiencing and how you deal with it. Personal experiences are the best responses. Truly, none of us are experts and i dont think we have a ton of training professionals responding to posts, so we can only relate what we have dealt with and how it went.

[TyChowgirl]

Very familiar territory. Ty was a very persistent nipper. It took a couple of the tricks already mentioned, but I think what did it was the time outs. I put him in another room ,gated, where he could hear me but not see me. He hated not being able to be with me. It was a very quick thing too. Bite, then removal. He sometimes still gets nippy now as an adult when he zoomies, though he more just pushes our feet with his nose.(still gets reprimanded). We never played tug either. That was only something he was allowed to do with other dogs. To this day if you try, he'll give the toy to you because he was taught all his things belong to us first. What Victory said was absolutely true. While chows are much easier than most, I wore out my puppy first thing in the morning and again in the afternoon/evenings. Sometimes 3 times a day, but it kept behavioral issues at bay and learning very easy. He still gets antsy at what my husband and I like to call bad puppy o'clock which is anywhere from 6 to 8pm. He would always get ramped up, wanting to play and be a nuisance

[kuma_chan]

TyChowGirl~ my chow usually has his zoomies at around 6-8 pm. might as well call it bad puppy o'clock. he hasn't attempted to nip us for the past few weeks. he probably gets tired from his early evening walk/run. but hopefully me saying that wont jinx it.

[JammyJoy]

Our Lebron is being like that also when he was at a young age. He tends to bite his sister who is closer towards me. I think he's just jeaous and to show it, biting his sister is the solution. But he's okay now. No more biting.

[Thomas]

On biting, we'd grab Teddie by the snout, say No Bites, giver her head a little shake and let her go. If she tried it again, grab her snout firmly, No Bites, hold her snout until she started whining, then let her go. It took just a few times and she stopped trying that.

On running, we've always chased Teddie, never the other way around. She loves to dance around as we chase her and spin away when we go for her. But when play time is over she knows it is over. I say, "OK", clap my hands twice and she comes over to me for scratches. She also likes to play hide and seek, as in, she likes to hid behind walls and poke her head out just as we go by to try and catch us by surprise. I started doing that to her when she was four months old and she learned to turn the tables on me in just a couple of weeks.