puppy training

[dv64]

i have a 10 week old rotweiler puppy who insists on biteing my feet and my husband and my son when we are walking and when we are sitting down, yesterday when there was a knock on the door soffie bite me trousers and feet and sent me flying resulting in 2 bashed up knees,when she bites i stop tell her no cross my arms and look away that is fine till i move again then whole process starts again but with snarling and barking please help i cant afford me knees bashed up again cant walk as it is

diane

[emmabeth]

I wouldnt even tell her no - find a way that tells her really clearly with just actions/body language, that this will NOT work.

The best method is usually a time out, either by you leaving the room and shutting the door for ten seconds or by putting her out of the room for ten seconds. Pick whichever one is easiest to implement (probably you leaving the room as she may find you trying to get hold of her to get her out quite amusing!).

You WILL need to repeat the time out over and over and over and over and over and over..... the first time. Dont get mad, dont talk dont look at her..... the second she gets bitey, out you go. Come back in... she gets bitey, out you go.

In between coming in and her getting bitey, behave normally - its tempting to get into debates or 'see what happens when you did that' or 'now dont do that again'.. but its pointless and confusing for her. The clarity is needed and its achieved by removing all eye contact and just silently stepping out of the room and shutting the door and hten coming in as if nothing happened.

You might need to find some inner 'zen' here - it extremely frustrating, you will miss your tv shows, burn your dinner (or let it go cold), have disrupted conversations with people.. but if you can be consistent with it, the first time you might time out 20 times. Second time ten times.. third time one time.

At first she WILL try harder because hey, it worked before! You try harder when something that always worked previously stopped working - its a rare human who doesnt flick the light switch a couple of times when the light bulb blows, or doesnt turn the key a few more times when the car doesnt start.. rare indeed! Dogs are no different. So you will need to ride out that 'extinction burst' the first fe times.

Thereafter she will make mistakes, shes a puppy and she does need to learn how to use her mouth and bite pressure, but you will find you only need to do one or two time outs, rather than 20.

If you ARE finding you are doing lots of time outs every day, and they are only ten seconds long, and you are doing them immediately she starts on the unwanted behaviour and you arent entering into debate with her... you then need to consider are you offering enough mental and physical exercise. Is she getting to do the things she needs to do in an appropriate acceptable way? If not you will need to increase training/exercise, change the toys she has access to, play games of tuggy with her, provide her with interesting and fun things to chew on.

If she doesnt have access to such things then all the time outs in the world will not stop her biting and chewing because she does need to do this.

You should also aim to pre-empt her behaivour and stuff a toy in her mouth before she gets to you, you will know when shes in that sort of mood so provide her with something else to do. Dont wait for her to mess up, as you will get frustrated and she will just get better and better at biting you!

[meggit]

i used the method emmabeth just suggested and yes it was a pain keep going out of the room and yes it was difficult keeping a stock of soft toys next to me to shove in his mouth but it worked we allso played tug games with the no mouth on my hands rule and now hes great (not saying he still dosnt have the odd oh rats im going to chew you moment still) it does take a lot of patience and consistancy but it does pay off big time

[kaz4t]

This happens to us too, usually only in the mornings and this is how it goes

I open the bedroom door, pups jump up at me in excitement and sometimes nip my feet

I go straight back behind the door, count to 10 and try again . . . . .

I open the bedroom door, step out, walk a few steps, pups nip my feet, I go straight behind the door to the garage, count to 10 and try again . . . . .

I open the door, walk a few steps more, sometimes I make it all the way to the kitchen, if they nip or jump again I go behind the back hall door, count to 10 and try again . . . .

Sometimes it takes one go behind a door and sometimes it takes four but they get the message.

I then go about my business, make tea, toast etc and when I am ready I call them to me one at a time, if they choose not to come to me after two tries I remove myself again, count to 10 and start again LOL

the joys of puppy training, good luck

Karen

[***Melissa***]

I used the same advice as Em gave to Meggit, and it worked...for the biting bit...

...for the jumping up bit...I'm just a sucker for punichment, b/c no matter how hard I try, I just CAN'T ignore (never mind time out) a pup for jumping up...mind you, not only pups, even adults So both my doggies know that jumping up on mommy = mommy bends down and gives hugs and kisses...yes, I AM AN IDIOT, but to be honest, I kind of like them coming up to me, and jump up on my legs. This may be humanizing them, but I like to think that's their way of saying they want kisses & hugs from mommy Also, daddy ignored the jumping and now they don't do it with him, they know it won't work with him.

And something Bibi figured out recently is that I am extremely ticklish under my feet, so a lick under my toe or foot will have me jumping up laughing. And that is a reflex, I can't stop it, even though I want to. I'm not really a "bare-foot person", but she's got me wearing socks to bed, even in warm weather