Biting - will she grow out of it?

Sahara91 · Post by **Sahara91** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:00 pm

Hi all,

Novice question but here goes: my Chow pup bites - a lot. She's now a little over 9wks old, and has a lot of power behind those needle-like teeth. She's never intentionally nasty, but does love to play rough - the more you yell "ouch" or push her away, the more she likes it and the more she sinks her teeth in. She is lovely, and I know that to her it is just a game, but do I need to teach her that this is unacceptable now or will she simply grow out of it? I've tried the high pitched "ouch" (spurred her on more), have tried telling her "no" in a stern voice (no response), have tried getting on the settee and ignoring her for a couple of minutes each time she bites (she jumps up against the settee and still tries to bite - if I sit higher she will whine and repeatedly jump against the settee, then when I get down the biting normally continues), and I'm not sure what to do?

So - let her carry on? Try another way of stopping the biting? Continue with what I've tried previously? Any ideas? This is my first Chow, so I'd rather find out the best way of going about it from those more experienced than me than guess, get it wrong, and pay for it later!

Thanks.

Laura · Post by **Laura** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:39 pm

Well I'm not sure how much help I can be but my Shug was a major nipper during play too so I'll give it a shot. First don't push her away. They are like springs...push and they bounce right back. That is a fun game to them. Secondly I do think they grow out of it to a large extent but others may disagree. Shug loved tug and fetch so I tried to always keep a toy between us so he could bite the toy til his heart was content. When he did nip me I said ouch-no bite and play stopped. He didn't follow me to the sofa or wherever to continue biting though so other then 100% ignoring her when she does that I'm not sure what to tell you. I remember the days of thinking 'am I ever going to be able to play with him for more then 1 minute at a time' but somehow he just stopped. I'm not sure how much credit if any to give myself for that but he does have great bite inhibition now. I brought in a new pup and was worried he would bite her too hard during play but he is apparently very gentle with her because there is only a very rare 'yip that hurts' out of her even though they look like they are killing eachother all the time. Puppies use their mouths during play so no toy meant nothing to bite but me so that is why toys between his mouth and my hand were huge around here. I am sure I didn't do things the 'proper training' way but he doesn't bite me now ever.

TJordan · Post by **TJordan** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:41 pm

She will probably grow out of it Yes. I went through this with Butters, I thought he was a devil dog for a while, the more you said OUch the harder he would bite, if he saw blood he came back for more. What a little Monster. Anyway, I kept using the Ouch and I would also walk away from him and not play anymore until he calmed down. Same thing over and over, I really thought he will never get it and he is evil!! But one day he just got it. I think it was about 5-6 months old. I said Ouch he started licking instead of biting and we all sat there looking stunned!!! Now he is pretty gentle boy. So hang in there!!

Rowlee · Post by **Rowlee** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:57 pm

We went through this with Wilbur. He was really bad with the biting for about the first 3/4 weeks we had him. I mean REALLY BAD. I still have the scars on my feet and legs to prove it. Ouch, no, growling at him, high pitched yelps etc, DID NOT WORK with him either, IT SPURRED HIM ON EVEN MORE

Apparently 90% of puppies will stop when you do a high pitched yelp or growl at them etc, obviously we have puppies in the 10% that don't respond to this. I even pretended to cry one day and he did stop,look at me and then licked me and now I think about it, it wasn't long after that that he stopped biting. We had to do what TJ suggested, walk away and stop the play immediately until he calmed down (although this is hard to do when you have a dog latched onto your leg

). We would put him outside for time out. Eventually it stopped when he was about 14 weeks old - Thank God. I was getting quite upset and frustrated

with it because it was me more than my husband who Wilbur would "attack".

We used to trying distracting him with his toys, but he wasn't interested. I walked around in thick tracksuit pants for the first couple of weeks and socks! He'd just constantly go for my feet and ankles and he'd draw blood at times. He bit my breasts a few times - PAIN, OMG

, it was agony. DH says it was my fault because of their size, they do tend to get in the way of things

Wilbur now does little "gentle" bites sometimes when we play but he finally knows what "no biting" means.

Now, he steals any items of clothing he can get his jaws aroundinstead, we regularly find items of our clothing out on the back lawn, but I'd much rather this though than the biting any day..........

Layla · Post by **Layla** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:51 pm

Check out the sticky at the top of this section by Victory. I think it's called teaching bite inhibition???

coleywoley · Post by **coleywoley** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:19 pm

The bite inhibition thread has good info. With Ginger we tried the bite inhibition but it doesn't work when she chews on soph because soph tells her no and starts waving her arms and that just eggs ginger on. We still tried to no her and stop play immediately but we also would do the toy replacement thing when it wasn't possible.

Sahara91 · Post by **Sahara91** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:32 am

Thanks all - very informative, this is just a Chow thing then?

She does bite hard and has broken skin on several occasions, but *touch wood* she hasn't drawn blood as of yet.

She chews our other dog in the same way, sinking her teeth into his tail and rear end, she takes no notice of his growling, snarling, barking, snapping, biting, etc - she takes it all as a game. She doesn't have a preferance as to who to bite, providing it is a living creature rather than a toy

I've tried distracting with toys and she takes no notice 75% of the time, it's so much better to have real flesh that reacts and fights back

I will continue to ignore her and get out of her way when she does bite, see if it makes any difference after a couple of weeks.

You wouldn't think an angel face like this could be such a monster would you?

Chow Chow Mama · Post by **Chow Chow Mama** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:13 am

What an adorable picture/chowling

Coco Chow · Post by **Coco Chow** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:29 am

OMG she's just too cute!

Sometimes Coco bites the sofa, but it's an invitation to play from her: she knows it makes me jump after her!
I'm grateful she never tried to bite anyone!

Laura · Post by **Laura** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 1:13 pm

Awwww that lil angel face couldn't possibly be any trouble. See how sad she looks...she doesn't want anyone to believe mean ole mommy stories....hehe j/k

Rowlee · Post by **Rowlee** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 2:25 pm

Oh, that's the face of an angel. Keep ignoring her and stop the play when she starts biting and she will get the message!

gaznzimfan74 · Post by **gaznzimfan74** » Mon Feb 11, 2008 12:16 am

Meimei definately loves to nip, espcialy when I'm ignorning her. Pushing her away or making a noise at her when she pecks really does just get her all exited and makes more nipping

So mostly, as long as she's just nipping because she wants to play (or think she IS playing) I give her a toy to take it out on, or play fetch with her for a while. It normaly gets her to calm down and take out her hyperness, and helps us bond

$\:D/$
So far, she's calmed down with age. Now when she gets playful, instead of nipping she's starting to get toys and drop them by me so we'll play fetch

Hugos~ · Post by **Hugos~** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:40 am

Hugo definately grew out of it.But he still bites when he is too excited...he runs around the living room,bacony...everywhere in the house.My mom thought he was crazy.its so funny when he runs with his tail twirling around behind him

gaznzimfan74 · Post by **gaznzimfan74** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:18 am

Hugos~ wrote:Hugo definately grew out of it.But he still bites when he is too excited...he runs around the living room,bacony...everywhere in the house.My mom thought he was crazy.its so funny when he runs with his tail twirling around behind him

Wow, I'm glad someone else's dog does that lol

We call it Meimei's crazy run. When she get's all worked up, she just bolts all over the house, inside, outside, at top chowchow speed. Sometimes she'll stop, look around for just a split second, then charge around again. It's pretty cute and tells me she needs a walk or some fetch or somethin $;\$

Hugos~ · Post by **Hugos~** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 10:12 pm

Yep,my parents' friends thought he was mad,cause he suddenly run all over the house...when he passes us,he nips our legs,and starts running again,its really cute,other than the nipping

coleywoley · Post by **coleywoley** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 12:00 am

Gaznzimfan what your chow is doing sounds like what everyone on here calls a zoomie. If you read through some of the general section maybe you'll see that word pop up a lot. We all get excited the first time our pups do them.

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Biting - will she grow out of it?

Biting - will she grow out of it?

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