Nipping and biting

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Miniredlion
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Nipping and biting

Post by Miniredlion »

Bella is 10 weeks old. We have been training her every day and she can now come when called, sit and stay. We are at the moment working on lying down.
Unfortunately she goes through stages throughout the day where all she does is jump up at us and try and bite us.

Originally we tried making a yelping noise but she didn't even seem to acknowledge this and just kept nipping and jumping up

we tried the technique where you ignore her for a bit and reward her for calming down but this just seemed to increase the amount of time she does it.

We tried getting her to redirect the biting onto a toy but she just comes straight back to us.

Now I'm trying to get her to sit after saying no which she does for all of about 2 seconds. As soon as I try to reward her she goes straight back to it

I don't think it's aggression I think she thinks it's a game because she is so calm with strangers and the only time she barks is when she needs to go outside to the loo.

I guess I'm just concerned that the biting will get worse and I'm training her badly. The last thing I want to do is fail her because she is the sweetest dog apart from this.

And she sits and waits patiently for food which is on a strict schedule. As well as when she goes outside and when the majority of training is. And she can't be bored because she has so many toys and I try to play with her as best I can before she gets to nippy and I can't anymore.
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Brisco
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Re: Nipping and biting

Post by Brisco »

Is she biting or chewing of hands and fingers ? If she is big enough, you can gently lift your knee up as she jumps which will push her over off balance and take the fun out of it for her. This works really well and if you do it every time it works quickly, a day or two and she should stop jumping up. If she is chewing or biting your hand then let her but instead of scolding her just use your thumb or finger to roll the back of her lips over her teeth at the back of her mouth so that she chews or bites her own lip. This stops them pretty quickly and you are not the bad guy. She just simply stops thinking it's fun chewing on a hand.
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The Mighty Bonzo
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Re: Nipping and biting

Post by The Mighty Bonzo »

Hi

The ignore method worked well with our chow but we never gave him a reward once he calmed down so maybe this is where your situation can be rectified, you did say she calmed down but once rewarded started going crazy again, so she basically now biting for a reward if that makes sense. Try no reward but after 5 seconds or so off ignoring her and her being calm, so that’s 5 seconds once she’s totally calmed down with your back to her, once she does this instead of a reward just give her some attention, speak to her and clap her. She will likely start biting again straight away so keep at it for a few days and hopefully problem will be solved. Although I must say it took a couple months for our boy to stop it and honestly does still do it when super excited

Also should be noted that if she’s biting when having what we call zoomies in the uk, (google it if you don’t use that term where your from) Then you have to allow this to pass but can put her in a separate room on the other side of a baby gate to keep an eye on her or in the garden but again watch her in case she hurts herself
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