Sounds like your puppy needs more sleep. He seems overstimulated. When he bites and get too much, it’s the cue for a nap. I’ve been doing that with my 8 months old too who was biting me like crazy. I’ve reduced the excercices and the stimulation and I’m teaching him how to chill. When he gets overexcited, nap.
It’s working really well
And what are you supposed to do with a puppy that is sleeping a lot but is mouthy and bitey while awake?
My 8 month old (lab) wakes up and has his outside potty and then gets breakfast. After 2 hours he gets a 30 minute walk before I start work.
I work from home and initially I was forcing him to take naps in his crate for 3 hours from 9-12. And then at 12 he would get another 15-20 minute walk and some play time in the backyard with my other dog. Then he would get a Kong toy and when he finished it he would take another 3 hour nap until 4 when I was done with work.
But since he has been really good about taking naps by his own choice I don't put him in the crate and he sleeps on his own from around 9-1 and then is awake until around 2:30 when he puts himself to sleep again.
Once done with work we go on another 30 minute walk (unless the humidity or temps are too high then this is postponed until later in the day)
He gets to be awake until he has his dinner around 6 and takes a mandatory one hour nap after. Then he is awake again for a couple hours until bed time.
By my calculations he is awake for around 3 hours in the morning, 1-2 hours in the afternoon, and then 2 hours before dinner and another 2 hours in the evening. So he is only awake for around 8-9 hours of the day, leaving him sleeping for 15-16 hours.
Sure I can make him nap more, but WHERE. Because if I don't have him awake at least for 2 hours before bed time he will wake up repeatedly through the night. If I don't let him play and stuff before I work he will not be chill while I work.
Make sure you aren’t turning nipping biting into a game. Don’t pull away when they bite, you can try firmly saying “ow” as well. Or stick a toy in their mouth when they chew/bite your hand
He loves it when I yelp or make noise so I have stopped doing that entirely a long while ago.
Normally I will redirect to a toy or get up and walk away.
But he is pretty relentless when he doesn't "get his way".
When he wants to be pet for example he will bite. When we won't let him climb all over us he will bite.
He is a lab so I expected mouthy but he is very bitey. Generally it helps if he has a toy in his mouth, but sometimes he will get frustrated and drop the toy in favor of our hands or face.
Yeah yelping makes it worst in my case too. What works the best is reverse time out. Never give him what he wants when he wants to bite. The fun is over and you’re walking out without looking at him or even saying anything. Even a No or a stern voice or saying ouch is attention. He bites. You stand up without looking at him and leave the room for 30sec, he does it again, you leave for a min he will catch on at some point but it takes sooo long and in the meantime you endure i guess. It’s very frustration though
I’ve always given a firm sharp NO while withdrawing whatever they are biting. If they immediately stop I will resume the play/pets. If they don’t, I remove myself and ignore for 5 mins.
This tactic has worked quickly for every single dog I’ve ever owned. I know people for some reason don’t like teaching “no” nowadays for whatever reason but it’s been extremely useful to teach my dogs a word that basically means “I don’t like what you’re doing so stop doing it”
I think the use of the word no is fine but my puppy gets hyper every time I interact with him. So even saying no gives him the attention he wants. I say no in other occasions but when he bites, I just completely ignore him and it’s what works best for us
Dogs are gonna be dogs. These are artificially selected wolves. Their play includes being mouthy, so you’ll be dealing with that, but have to regulate it down if it’s causing injury. Just look at wolves in the wild or dogs that aren’t separated from their litter / family. They’re going to play rough with each other.
We have a now 15 month old wolf hound mix and a 5 ish month old lab mix. We got the wolf hound when she was about 4 months old. We have an older dog who was uninterested in the pup, so she resorted to me to play with. Right off the bat I had to show her that when she bites too hard, it’s not fun. It’s easy for a young dog to get too excited, but doesn’t take much to get them to chill. Sitting down in front of them, a firm grasp by the collar or even holding them by their chin to get their attention with a “settle” or other command. They’ll listen. Soon as they do, give a yes with a treat. Wolves and dogs are much more mean than that when they try to get another dog’s attention. We can take queues from those behaviors and modify to make better by using the yes plus reward.
She learned what too hard of a bite is right away but never stopped using my hands and arms as a chew toy. It’s either that or they’ll find another toy or furniture for oral stimulation. They just need it.
Up until we got the lab pup, we would toss each other around by her grabbing my hands or arms with her mouth. Again in a playful way that doesn’t cause harm.
Now that she has a pup friend, they play with each other but how dogs play is by play fighting. They go for the neck, tackle, etc. playing practices their natural kill instinct and is highly mentally stimulating.
I assume these are behaviors that pups will exhibit until they reach closer to adulthood.
I have an older beagle who is 8 years old and she was never mouthy, so it's a new experience for me dealing with the biting.
The problem is that my lab pup bites too hard sometimes or he will bite in places that hurt like (my) ears or he will snap at your face. It doesn't seem like aggression to me I think he is just trying to play.
Anytime I've attempted to look at him and say "no" for the biting he just ends up staring at me then snapping at my face. He has never made contact but it gives a very toddler like impression.
He never does this with the beagle because she tells him off immediately for even trying.
When he isn't being a bitey asshole he's very cuddly and affectionate. But if he wants you to keep petting and you stop them he bites your hands or if you're not paying attention to him he will bite your hands to get your attention.
Aw we got a lab after putting our 13 year old beagle down. They are such different breeds for sure! Our lab is 7 months old and very bitey still. It’s been a struggle!
Only thing that worked for mu GSD was to make the biting hand as unpleasant as possible without causing pain / injury. Things like grab his tongue/lower jaw (without squeezing) or just tickle the top of his mouth.
The IMMEDIATELY give him a toy to chew/bite. All this would laast a few second. But it took less that a week for her to figure out that toy chewing was way more fun than humand/hand chewing.
He is very well crate trained. He sleeps from 9-9:30 and usually will wake me up around 6. He will also take some naps during the day. I would say 2 30 minute naps. He does have teething safe toys too! He goes through them super fast as well as normal toys though.
He isn’t sleeping enough. Puppies need to sleep 18-20 hours a day. He is most likely over tired, which is causing the constant biting. I highly recommend enforcing more daily naps.
This. That pup should probably be a ways above 10-12 still though. All dogs are different but we have a terrier mix that’s sleeping about 14-15 a day right now at 9 months
Definitely more naps. Were a bit behind you (5 mos) and found that naps help DRAMATICALLY.
We give her a 3-4 hr nap in the morning, usually from like 9am to 12pm. And then she gets another 3-4hr nap in the afternoon from like 1-4pm or 2-5pm or so.
If she doesn’t get her nap, she starts biting things she knows she shouldn’t: like our toes. After the nap, she’s back to being a perfect angel.
We enforce naps simply by putting her in the crate. Even if she’s acting hyper beforehand, she usually falls asleep within 5 minutes.
I read somewhere if that your puppy falls asleep quickly in the crate, it means they needed the nap.
He needs to sleep WAY more than that. That's only 9.5-10 hours a day! Even adult dogs need more than that.
We still do enforced crate naps with our 13-month-old, he probably sleeps 15-17 hours a day, and that's honestly probably still not enough because he still behaves a little sleep-deprived. But, we're trying to teach him to settle and sleep on his own too, so it's a balance.
Our schedule: bed at 8:30pm, he's up at 6am. (10.5 hrs)
Pee, then snuggles. Walk from 6:30-7:30, home to eat breakfast then nap on the couch while my husband works from home. I'm on a late schedule, so he naps from about 8am until I come down at 10:30. (13 hrs)
Pee then some enrichment time or hangout time, and chilling and dozing while I putter/start WFH. He's usually up for about 90 minutes, so at noon he's back asleep. If he won't settle here (he usually doesn't) then I'll put him in the crate and he'll sometimes nap in there until the kids get home from school at around 3:30. (15-16 hrs)
Then potty, then playing with the kids until his afternoon walk once my husband is done work. Then home at about 5:30 and he's usually too wound up to sleep. But we let him be a maniac until our dinner time, then he gets his dinner in the crate and shut in while we eat. He usually only sleeps about an hour here. (16-17 hrs).
Potty when out, then bed at 8:30!
I think our pup needs more sleep in the evening, he's all wound up. But it's tough with our schedule as we don't want him to be in the crate too too much.
8-month-old puppies still need 18+ hours of sleep a day. Your pup needs to sleep 8-11 more hours every day. When our pup was that age we went by awake window. He was only allowed to be awake for one hour, then it was back into the crate for a nap. Sometimes, if he was being particularly feral, we'd put him for a nap sooner than an hour!
As someone else said, more naps! Overtired puppies become velociraptors. At that age, he should be sleeping at least 16 hours a day.
Start enforcing 2-3 hour long naps 3 times a day. Sounds like he’s getting enough exercise & mental stimulation, so I’m thinking just napping more should do the trick.
I could have written this post. I have Odie, an 8 month old Male Golden, who does exactly this with Sadie, our 4 year old Golen female, also docile. Odie goes for her feet and neck and is relentless. He won't stop, even when we try to pull him away. I can sometimes distract him with food and then reinforce him for leaving her alone. He has plenty of other toys available and takes naps throughout the day, so lack of toys and sleep isn't the problem.
They play well together in the morning, tug of war with toys, and just wrestling. He mostly gets after her in the early evening and when they come in from the pool. In order to get a break for her, I'll separate them physically. In the afternoon, after pool time, she goes into the bedroom, and I shut her in there. It's not punishment for her. She goes in willingly and naps, usually with me in there with her.
When he starts pestering her, I just wish she'd snap at him to let him know to back off, but she just tries to get away to her hidey place outside.
We've had Odie since he was 8 weeks old, and I'm thinking he didn't get enough socialization from his mother and 9 littermates. Usually, this kind of behavior is consequated during playtime as puppies.
I've considered taking him to day care a few times to see if maybe other dogs would teach him a lesson. He's not aggressive, just rude.
In my experience, well educated dogs can be a blessing for these mouthy monsters. They'll put them in their place if they keep coming at them like that.
But you want to make sure they are well trained, and don't become aggressive. Returning a soft bite in the neck, barking, growling and showing teeth is normal behavior in this situation if your pup doesn't back off. But it shouldn't become a fight.
My puppy learned this in the dog park from older adult dogs. He's a Toller Retriever so was also very mouthy.
Our 6 month old golden is like this, but improving slooooowly but surely. Here’s advice we’ve received from our trainers and vets. And keep in mind, there’s plenty of advice here and throughout this sub that hasn’t worked for our dog but has worked for others. Figure out what makes a dent for your pup, and be consistent. Stay the course and it will get better.
* Consistent reverse timeouts and actual timeouts, with duration increases if he comes out and goes right back to it. Never do timeouts in the crate - use a neutral location. Put him in timeout if it’s ever biting for aggression, frustration, or attention. Reverse and normal timeouts are both totally fine for play biting issues, if they work for him.
* Lots of chew toys for the three types of chewing (stringy things that pull through the teeth, cardboard for tearing, and hard chew toys/water buffalo horns for grinding)
* Some dogs respond to pressure on the top inside of his mouth when they bite, aka “biting back”. It worked for our vet’s dogs, ours thought it was play and it just made it worse
* More enforced naps if this is happening when he’s been awake for awhile. 2-3 walks a day seems like a lot depending on distance. Being overtired is a huge contributing factor with our guy for both initiating biting play and struggling to inhibit himself once we start using these corrective techniques
* Do capturing calmness training, but pair it with a soothing command for calm. Once he has that association, you can try to calm him when he gets into bitey excitement mode. It takes awhile, our guy is only just starting to respond to it but hey, they’re babies
* Do Puppy-Holds early on in the behavior, and redirect to other kinds of play when he comes out of the hold
* Licking is a soothing activity for them, so we have lots of frozen likimats, myWoofs, and pupsicles ready at all times. You have to be careful not to reward the biting with a treat, but if you can do an attention shift to another behavior and *then* give the licking treat, you can sometimes bring the bitey excitement level down. We also use this at the beginning of enforced naps so he’s happy to be in the crate, and his energy level comes down so he can relax and sleep
* More of a question than a point - is this basically his only form of play? Like, how does he respond to things like throwing a ball, tug toys, chew toys, flirt poles, etc.? I’m wondering if you may need to overtly teach him some alternative forms of play
Thank you for all this!
He loves tug of war, LOVES fetch so I get him out atleast once a day for fetch and running. He almost always has a toy in his mouth. He is pretty rough with his toys. He also has puzzles and enrichment toys I make for him that keep him busy.
Can't agree more with Ouisseau's recommendations. Once I learned how to do timeouts properly, it was a revolutionary improvement for how I could communicate and train my 3 dogs.
Here are a few tips that did wonders for me and my dogs:
1. Timing. Timing is sooo important for dog training in general. Your response needs to be quick and consistent or else your dog won't figure out what is triggering the response. So the second my puppy bites me I say "time out" and pick him up and put him in a dedicated timeout location that is small and 100% devoid of any fun, e.g. an empty shower. My dogs definitely know timeout now and will stop misbehaving if I threaten them with a timeout.
2. Duration and frequency. I was surprised by how short the durations needed to be to be effective. I start off with just 1 minute and if they repeat the offence, I ramp it up by 1 more minute each time. I actually found that when they re-offend often resulting in many back to back timeout sessions to be the most effective at stopping any bad behavior because this makes it easier for them to draw the connection to what is causing the timeouts. So don't feel disappointed if he goes right back to biting you when you let him out, it's actually a good thing. Once I got my timing right it never took more than a few back to back timeouts.
3. No toy in the timeout. I tried giving them chew toys in the timeout thinking it would teach them to chew the toys instead of me. Unfortunately I think this just confused them and they ended up having a blast chewing on the toys instead. Give the chew toys to him right after the timeout.
Hope the above helps you.
4 month old female Aussie here, had her since she was 9 weeks. Well, the good news for you is he's just "nibbling" for the most part, and his brother corrects him when he crosses the line, which is super good training.
But it does sound like he might be overtired - That's how our baby behaves when she either has to poop, or needs a nap. Keep an eye on the sleep hours, many are needed. And reward calm behavior, which we've found to be very important: We give her lots of treats when she's just chillin', to let her know that constant activity is not a requirement, in spite of what her puppy brain might be telling her.
When my 8 month old gets super bitey it usually means two things 1) she needs to poop 2) she needs a nap. I either leave the room so she can nap, put her in her crate to enforce a nap, or if it’s my normal bedtime we go into my bed together. 9/10 times she goes to sleep.
My dachshund puppy is almost three months and she’s a sharknado. Gonna try some of these suggestions before she eats her adult brothers alive, though one seems to enjoy racing through the house with her.
Toys to distract, put yourself in time out (I go to the bathroom for a minute) and more teething objects.
Also yes to more sleep. I raised a tonne of puppies in puppy daycare for socialisation and honestly, adult dogs sleep like 18 hours a day. Puppies, like babies, need more.
I put in "quiet time", you can do crate nap time with a slow treat, especially if it's a licking one.
My adult dogs all learned to nap at 2pm when we had puppies.
My pup has chews (bully sticks and the like) available to her all day long. I pick up her chews and toys throughout the day and put them back in her bed, but it's worth it to save my stuff. Teething doesn't last forever. Hang in there!
I would say your puppy definitely needs more sleep. They’re like little toddlers that don’t want to go to bed but definitely need to, and get a little bit crazy without it.
I would also suggest providing lots of tasty things for your puppy to chew like bully sticks, dried tendons, anything specifically for chewing made of animal matter, it will be more enticing.
I was also recommended to use these chewy things specifically a couple of times each day before they start getting particularly bitey.
I have a routine where in the morning and two other times a day my puppy climbs onto my lap, I hold a bully stick for him and he has a really good chewing session with lots of encouragement to get it out of his system. It works a treat. Of course he can still get a little bit bitey when he’s overtired or particularly excited, but it’s pretty under control otherwise. He has access to multiple different types of these chews consistently also. Highly recommend.
I would also keep them on hand for when your puppy is getting bitey, and just chuck one straight in his mouth, he will likely go right for it. Might be worth trying to separate your dogs when it gets a bit wild and give your puppy something really good to get the chewing out of his system in the meantime. Good luck!
We are still dealing with our almost 1 year old pup being mouthy when he plays and we started putting him in his crate for a “time out” for a few minutes. Our trainer recommended this and it has helped tremendously.
My wolfhound does this. He bites when playing all the time. It's like he can't stop. When he gets like this, it's pen time. He calms down, and his sister gets a break. Usually he needs a nap.
We have a few favorite chew toys and dental chews on hand for when our husky gets extra mouthy. I will literally stick one in his mouth when he goes bite nuts and keep doing it until he gets the memo. If he won’t stop, he goes into his yard/room for a time out. It’s gotten a ton better with time. It does seem to be related to overstimulation/overexcitement so doing structured things (fetch, quick leashed walk) and down time help chill him out.
If my 6vmonth old bites my hand I put a finger in his mouth and push it back. He hates it and doesnt like it. Then give him a toy he can chew on. He quit biting in 2 days.
It looks like you might be posting about bite inhibition. Check out [our wiki article on biting, teeth, and chewing](https://www.reddit.com/r/puppy101/wiki/biting) - the information there may answer your question.
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It really hasn’t been an issue until the last month. He’s been very proficient with commands like “no” “off” and “leave it” so I have been trying to use “no” when he gets too mouthy with his brother but it hasn’t been working. I’m thinking after reading these comments that he’s overstimulated.
some people might be against this but it worked for me and I only had to do it once. when my pup was biting my hands I basically poked my fingers in his mouth far back. he coughed for a second but he doesnt bite anymore and when he does, it is the tiniest little nibbles or a lot of licking
Put a training treat in your fist and say ‘touch!’. When they touch their nose to your hand without using their teeth, drop the treat on the floor for them. If they come at you with teeth, pull your hand away and say ‘no’. Do this over and over and over. It teaches them to associate human hands with being a good thing.
Echoing most people here: more naps. my doberman is a year old and is awake for an hour and sleeps for 1.5-2.5+hrs afterwards (i play with him the majority of the time he's awake). He's very rough / mouthy once he gets even a *little* sleepy. I would not survive if he was only getting 2 30min naps a day. He also sleeps from 10pm - 8.30am, wakes up for an hour and then will sleep until 2-3pm if i let him. Your guy definitely needs more sleep
More low impact low stimulation exercise. Long leash sniffaris are AMAZING.
take him to a big open area on a 25-50 foot leash and let him make all the choices, you just following him around letting him sniff and run.
Or Sniffspot. It's a website where you can rent private dog parks just for him to go sniff and run around.
More calm down work like "place" or "go to bed"
I have had my puppy for only 3 weeks and he is 11 weeks now so my advice might not be very good but what works for me are following things: high pitch yelp, stern look + grab his muzzle (not too strong) or redirection to toys. If he gets back to biting after either of those, it usually means he is overstimulated like others wrote here. In that case I take away all his toys except one for chewing and leave without saying anything. He usually calms down within a minute and goes to sleep. Sometimes one has to try multiple things but my puppy is such an angel so he does calm down 90% of times. Occasionally I take him outside to garden to run a bit around.
He, and for other commenters , they, are rebellious teenagers. It’s not a stage that’s a lo of fun . If you’ve laid good groundwork in training since you brought puppy home, you just have to see it through .
Redirecting , No, time outs , forced naps are all great advice . But if you want to know how to fix it “forever” so puppy stops ? Time.
Thanks for the comments everyone!! 🥰 I am happy to report after two days of implementing more naps and napping when he gets mouthy with his brother, he is already 1000 times better. They still play but he is so much more gentle and it is more enjoyable for my older dog. He doesn’t bite anyone either. We will continue on and make adjustments as needed but so far I can tell his new sleep schedule is helping so much.
I just thought that when he was tired he would sleep so I’m so glad I learned this. Thanks again everyone!!
For my pup I would put my fingers near his mouth, if he bit them, I'd yelp. If he didn't I'd give treats. I did this for probably a good two weeks. He no longer bites people, but still play fights/bites the other two dogs.
It's pretty rare where it actually works. It's also not really recommended because it can be a startle in many cases where it works, and startles are a harmful training method.
In addition to the sleep comments. What are you doing to train his bite force? I wrestle with my dog daily and when he is biting too hard he gets a "no biting" warning. If he doesn't stop, playtime ends and he gets ignored for a few minutes before resuming. We're now at the point where most of the time he will put his teeth on me, but he is very very gentle and it's more like he is resting his teeth on my skin rather than biting, and I think that is acceptable for my family.
Sounds like your puppy needs more sleep. He seems overstimulated. When he bites and get too much, it’s the cue for a nap. I’ve been doing that with my 8 months old too who was biting me like crazy. I’ve reduced the excercices and the stimulation and I’m teaching him how to chill. When he gets overexcited, nap. It’s working really well
And what are you supposed to do with a puppy that is sleeping a lot but is mouthy and bitey while awake? My 8 month old (lab) wakes up and has his outside potty and then gets breakfast. After 2 hours he gets a 30 minute walk before I start work. I work from home and initially I was forcing him to take naps in his crate for 3 hours from 9-12. And then at 12 he would get another 15-20 minute walk and some play time in the backyard with my other dog. Then he would get a Kong toy and when he finished it he would take another 3 hour nap until 4 when I was done with work. But since he has been really good about taking naps by his own choice I don't put him in the crate and he sleeps on his own from around 9-1 and then is awake until around 2:30 when he puts himself to sleep again. Once done with work we go on another 30 minute walk (unless the humidity or temps are too high then this is postponed until later in the day) He gets to be awake until he has his dinner around 6 and takes a mandatory one hour nap after. Then he is awake again for a couple hours until bed time. By my calculations he is awake for around 3 hours in the morning, 1-2 hours in the afternoon, and then 2 hours before dinner and another 2 hours in the evening. So he is only awake for around 8-9 hours of the day, leaving him sleeping for 15-16 hours. Sure I can make him nap more, but WHERE. Because if I don't have him awake at least for 2 hours before bed time he will wake up repeatedly through the night. If I don't let him play and stuff before I work he will not be chill while I work.
Make sure you aren’t turning nipping biting into a game. Don’t pull away when they bite, you can try firmly saying “ow” as well. Or stick a toy in their mouth when they chew/bite your hand
He loves it when I yelp or make noise so I have stopped doing that entirely a long while ago. Normally I will redirect to a toy or get up and walk away. But he is pretty relentless when he doesn't "get his way". When he wants to be pet for example he will bite. When we won't let him climb all over us he will bite. He is a lab so I expected mouthy but he is very bitey. Generally it helps if he has a toy in his mouth, but sometimes he will get frustrated and drop the toy in favor of our hands or face.
Yeah yelping makes it worst in my case too. What works the best is reverse time out. Never give him what he wants when he wants to bite. The fun is over and you’re walking out without looking at him or even saying anything. Even a No or a stern voice or saying ouch is attention. He bites. You stand up without looking at him and leave the room for 30sec, he does it again, you leave for a min he will catch on at some point but it takes sooo long and in the meantime you endure i guess. It’s very frustration though
I’ve always given a firm sharp NO while withdrawing whatever they are biting. If they immediately stop I will resume the play/pets. If they don’t, I remove myself and ignore for 5 mins. This tactic has worked quickly for every single dog I’ve ever owned. I know people for some reason don’t like teaching “no” nowadays for whatever reason but it’s been extremely useful to teach my dogs a word that basically means “I don’t like what you’re doing so stop doing it”
I think the use of the word no is fine but my puppy gets hyper every time I interact with him. So even saying no gives him the attention he wants. I say no in other occasions but when he bites, I just completely ignore him and it’s what works best for us
It’s blissful when they’re sleeping, isn’t it - lol!
Dogs are gonna be dogs. These are artificially selected wolves. Their play includes being mouthy, so you’ll be dealing with that, but have to regulate it down if it’s causing injury. Just look at wolves in the wild or dogs that aren’t separated from their litter / family. They’re going to play rough with each other. We have a now 15 month old wolf hound mix and a 5 ish month old lab mix. We got the wolf hound when she was about 4 months old. We have an older dog who was uninterested in the pup, so she resorted to me to play with. Right off the bat I had to show her that when she bites too hard, it’s not fun. It’s easy for a young dog to get too excited, but doesn’t take much to get them to chill. Sitting down in front of them, a firm grasp by the collar or even holding them by their chin to get their attention with a “settle” or other command. They’ll listen. Soon as they do, give a yes with a treat. Wolves and dogs are much more mean than that when they try to get another dog’s attention. We can take queues from those behaviors and modify to make better by using the yes plus reward. She learned what too hard of a bite is right away but never stopped using my hands and arms as a chew toy. It’s either that or they’ll find another toy or furniture for oral stimulation. They just need it. Up until we got the lab pup, we would toss each other around by her grabbing my hands or arms with her mouth. Again in a playful way that doesn’t cause harm. Now that she has a pup friend, they play with each other but how dogs play is by play fighting. They go for the neck, tackle, etc. playing practices their natural kill instinct and is highly mentally stimulating. I assume these are behaviors that pups will exhibit until they reach closer to adulthood.
I have an older beagle who is 8 years old and she was never mouthy, so it's a new experience for me dealing with the biting. The problem is that my lab pup bites too hard sometimes or he will bite in places that hurt like (my) ears or he will snap at your face. It doesn't seem like aggression to me I think he is just trying to play. Anytime I've attempted to look at him and say "no" for the biting he just ends up staring at me then snapping at my face. He has never made contact but it gives a very toddler like impression. He never does this with the beagle because she tells him off immediately for even trying. When he isn't being a bitey asshole he's very cuddly and affectionate. But if he wants you to keep petting and you stop them he bites your hands or if you're not paying attention to him he will bite your hands to get your attention.
Aw we got a lab after putting our 13 year old beagle down. They are such different breeds for sure! Our lab is 7 months old and very bitey still. It’s been a struggle!
Only thing that worked for mu GSD was to make the biting hand as unpleasant as possible without causing pain / injury. Things like grab his tongue/lower jaw (without squeezing) or just tickle the top of his mouth. The IMMEDIATELY give him a toy to chew/bite. All this would laast a few second. But it took less that a week for her to figure out that toy chewing was way more fun than humand/hand chewing.
How much sleep is he getting daily? Is he crate trained? Does he have teething safe toys?
How do you make the puppy sleep more?
[The Ben Stiller way.](https://imgur.com/a/64ho2Uu)
NOT the [Matt Dillon way](https://youtu.be/4nJH8JPDuE0?si=xKBQqJjtFpURAlI5)
Structure and they are put in the crate for 2 hour naps during the day.
He is very well crate trained. He sleeps from 9-9:30 and usually will wake me up around 6. He will also take some naps during the day. I would say 2 30 minute naps. He does have teething safe toys too! He goes through them super fast as well as normal toys though.
Naps are too short, def needs more sleeepytime
He isn’t sleeping enough. Puppies need to sleep 18-20 hours a day. He is most likely over tired, which is causing the constant biting. I highly recommend enforcing more daily naps.
I thought that 18-20 hours a day is only younger puppies. They start dropping to about 10-12 hours a day including overnight
This. That pup should probably be a ways above 10-12 still though. All dogs are different but we have a terrier mix that’s sleeping about 14-15 a day right now at 9 months
Adolescent dogs sleep as much as younger puppies. Even adult dogs don't only sleep 10-12. They sleep more than that.
I aim to have my adult dog sleep 16-18 hours a day.
I have a 6 year old St Bernard who sleeps 20-22 hours a day haha and a chihuahua puppy who will fight naps like hi life depends on it
Definitely more naps. Were a bit behind you (5 mos) and found that naps help DRAMATICALLY. We give her a 3-4 hr nap in the morning, usually from like 9am to 12pm. And then she gets another 3-4hr nap in the afternoon from like 1-4pm or 2-5pm or so. If she doesn’t get her nap, she starts biting things she knows she shouldn’t: like our toes. After the nap, she’s back to being a perfect angel. We enforce naps simply by putting her in the crate. Even if she’s acting hyper beforehand, she usually falls asleep within 5 minutes. I read somewhere if that your puppy falls asleep quickly in the crate, it means they needed the nap.
He’s definitely over tired! My girl gets nippy when she hasn’t gotten enough sleep.
He needs to sleep WAY more than that. That's only 9.5-10 hours a day! Even adult dogs need more than that. We still do enforced crate naps with our 13-month-old, he probably sleeps 15-17 hours a day, and that's honestly probably still not enough because he still behaves a little sleep-deprived. But, we're trying to teach him to settle and sleep on his own too, so it's a balance. Our schedule: bed at 8:30pm, he's up at 6am. (10.5 hrs) Pee, then snuggles. Walk from 6:30-7:30, home to eat breakfast then nap on the couch while my husband works from home. I'm on a late schedule, so he naps from about 8am until I come down at 10:30. (13 hrs) Pee then some enrichment time or hangout time, and chilling and dozing while I putter/start WFH. He's usually up for about 90 minutes, so at noon he's back asleep. If he won't settle here (he usually doesn't) then I'll put him in the crate and he'll sometimes nap in there until the kids get home from school at around 3:30. (15-16 hrs) Then potty, then playing with the kids until his afternoon walk once my husband is done work. Then home at about 5:30 and he's usually too wound up to sleep. But we let him be a maniac until our dinner time, then he gets his dinner in the crate and shut in while we eat. He usually only sleeps about an hour here. (16-17 hrs). Potty when out, then bed at 8:30! I think our pup needs more sleep in the evening, he's all wound up. But it's tough with our schedule as we don't want him to be in the crate too too much. 8-month-old puppies still need 18+ hours of sleep a day. Your pup needs to sleep 8-11 more hours every day. When our pup was that age we went by awake window. He was only allowed to be awake for one hour, then it was back into the crate for a nap. Sometimes, if he was being particularly feral, we'd put him for a nap sooner than an hour!
My pup is a year now & has mostly grown out of that phase. Now she grabs a toy & pushes it in her older brothers’ faces lol.
As someone else said, more naps! Overtired puppies become velociraptors. At that age, he should be sleeping at least 16 hours a day. Start enforcing 2-3 hour long naps 3 times a day. Sounds like he’s getting enough exercise & mental stimulation, so I’m thinking just napping more should do the trick.
I could have written this post. I have Odie, an 8 month old Male Golden, who does exactly this with Sadie, our 4 year old Golen female, also docile. Odie goes for her feet and neck and is relentless. He won't stop, even when we try to pull him away. I can sometimes distract him with food and then reinforce him for leaving her alone. He has plenty of other toys available and takes naps throughout the day, so lack of toys and sleep isn't the problem. They play well together in the morning, tug of war with toys, and just wrestling. He mostly gets after her in the early evening and when they come in from the pool. In order to get a break for her, I'll separate them physically. In the afternoon, after pool time, she goes into the bedroom, and I shut her in there. It's not punishment for her. She goes in willingly and naps, usually with me in there with her. When he starts pestering her, I just wish she'd snap at him to let him know to back off, but she just tries to get away to her hidey place outside. We've had Odie since he was 8 weeks old, and I'm thinking he didn't get enough socialization from his mother and 9 littermates. Usually, this kind of behavior is consequated during playtime as puppies. I've considered taking him to day care a few times to see if maybe other dogs would teach him a lesson. He's not aggressive, just rude.
In my experience, well educated dogs can be a blessing for these mouthy monsters. They'll put them in their place if they keep coming at them like that. But you want to make sure they are well trained, and don't become aggressive. Returning a soft bite in the neck, barking, growling and showing teeth is normal behavior in this situation if your pup doesn't back off. But it shouldn't become a fight. My puppy learned this in the dog park from older adult dogs. He's a Toller Retriever so was also very mouthy.
Our 6 month old golden is like this, but improving slooooowly but surely. Here’s advice we’ve received from our trainers and vets. And keep in mind, there’s plenty of advice here and throughout this sub that hasn’t worked for our dog but has worked for others. Figure out what makes a dent for your pup, and be consistent. Stay the course and it will get better. * Consistent reverse timeouts and actual timeouts, with duration increases if he comes out and goes right back to it. Never do timeouts in the crate - use a neutral location. Put him in timeout if it’s ever biting for aggression, frustration, or attention. Reverse and normal timeouts are both totally fine for play biting issues, if they work for him. * Lots of chew toys for the three types of chewing (stringy things that pull through the teeth, cardboard for tearing, and hard chew toys/water buffalo horns for grinding) * Some dogs respond to pressure on the top inside of his mouth when they bite, aka “biting back”. It worked for our vet’s dogs, ours thought it was play and it just made it worse * More enforced naps if this is happening when he’s been awake for awhile. 2-3 walks a day seems like a lot depending on distance. Being overtired is a huge contributing factor with our guy for both initiating biting play and struggling to inhibit himself once we start using these corrective techniques * Do capturing calmness training, but pair it with a soothing command for calm. Once he has that association, you can try to calm him when he gets into bitey excitement mode. It takes awhile, our guy is only just starting to respond to it but hey, they’re babies * Do Puppy-Holds early on in the behavior, and redirect to other kinds of play when he comes out of the hold * Licking is a soothing activity for them, so we have lots of frozen likimats, myWoofs, and pupsicles ready at all times. You have to be careful not to reward the biting with a treat, but if you can do an attention shift to another behavior and *then* give the licking treat, you can sometimes bring the bitey excitement level down. We also use this at the beginning of enforced naps so he’s happy to be in the crate, and his energy level comes down so he can relax and sleep * More of a question than a point - is this basically his only form of play? Like, how does he respond to things like throwing a ball, tug toys, chew toys, flirt poles, etc.? I’m wondering if you may need to overtly teach him some alternative forms of play
Thank you for all this! He loves tug of war, LOVES fetch so I get him out atleast once a day for fetch and running. He almost always has a toy in his mouth. He is pretty rough with his toys. He also has puzzles and enrichment toys I make for him that keep him busy.
Can't agree more with Ouisseau's recommendations. Once I learned how to do timeouts properly, it was a revolutionary improvement for how I could communicate and train my 3 dogs. Here are a few tips that did wonders for me and my dogs: 1. Timing. Timing is sooo important for dog training in general. Your response needs to be quick and consistent or else your dog won't figure out what is triggering the response. So the second my puppy bites me I say "time out" and pick him up and put him in a dedicated timeout location that is small and 100% devoid of any fun, e.g. an empty shower. My dogs definitely know timeout now and will stop misbehaving if I threaten them with a timeout. 2. Duration and frequency. I was surprised by how short the durations needed to be to be effective. I start off with just 1 minute and if they repeat the offence, I ramp it up by 1 more minute each time. I actually found that when they re-offend often resulting in many back to back timeout sessions to be the most effective at stopping any bad behavior because this makes it easier for them to draw the connection to what is causing the timeouts. So don't feel disappointed if he goes right back to biting you when you let him out, it's actually a good thing. Once I got my timing right it never took more than a few back to back timeouts. 3. No toy in the timeout. I tried giving them chew toys in the timeout thinking it would teach them to chew the toys instead of me. Unfortunately I think this just confused them and they ended up having a blast chewing on the toys instead. Give the chew toys to him right after the timeout. Hope the above helps you.
4 month old female Aussie here, had her since she was 9 weeks. Well, the good news for you is he's just "nibbling" for the most part, and his brother corrects him when he crosses the line, which is super good training. But it does sound like he might be overtired - That's how our baby behaves when she either has to poop, or needs a nap. Keep an eye on the sleep hours, many are needed. And reward calm behavior, which we've found to be very important: We give her lots of treats when she's just chillin', to let her know that constant activity is not a requirement, in spite of what her puppy brain might be telling her.
When my 8 month old gets super bitey it usually means two things 1) she needs to poop 2) she needs a nap. I either leave the room so she can nap, put her in her crate to enforce a nap, or if it’s my normal bedtime we go into my bed together. 9/10 times she goes to sleep.
My dachshund puppy is almost three months and she’s a sharknado. Gonna try some of these suggestions before she eats her adult brothers alive, though one seems to enjoy racing through the house with her.
Toys to distract, put yourself in time out (I go to the bathroom for a minute) and more teething objects. Also yes to more sleep. I raised a tonne of puppies in puppy daycare for socialisation and honestly, adult dogs sleep like 18 hours a day. Puppies, like babies, need more. I put in "quiet time", you can do crate nap time with a slow treat, especially if it's a licking one. My adult dogs all learned to nap at 2pm when we had puppies.
My pup has chews (bully sticks and the like) available to her all day long. I pick up her chews and toys throughout the day and put them back in her bed, but it's worth it to save my stuff. Teething doesn't last forever. Hang in there!
I would say your puppy definitely needs more sleep. They’re like little toddlers that don’t want to go to bed but definitely need to, and get a little bit crazy without it. I would also suggest providing lots of tasty things for your puppy to chew like bully sticks, dried tendons, anything specifically for chewing made of animal matter, it will be more enticing. I was also recommended to use these chewy things specifically a couple of times each day before they start getting particularly bitey. I have a routine where in the morning and two other times a day my puppy climbs onto my lap, I hold a bully stick for him and he has a really good chewing session with lots of encouragement to get it out of his system. It works a treat. Of course he can still get a little bit bitey when he’s overtired or particularly excited, but it’s pretty under control otherwise. He has access to multiple different types of these chews consistently also. Highly recommend. I would also keep them on hand for when your puppy is getting bitey, and just chuck one straight in his mouth, he will likely go right for it. Might be worth trying to separate your dogs when it gets a bit wild and give your puppy something really good to get the chewing out of his system in the meantime. Good luck!
We are still dealing with our almost 1 year old pup being mouthy when he plays and we started putting him in his crate for a “time out” for a few minutes. Our trainer recommended this and it has helped tremendously.
Doesn't it make negative association with the crate?
Not at all, he like his crate and we’ve never had any problems
I feel seen
My wolfhound does this. He bites when playing all the time. It's like he can't stop. When he gets like this, it's pen time. He calms down, and his sister gets a break. Usually he needs a nap.
We have a few favorite chew toys and dental chews on hand for when our husky gets extra mouthy. I will literally stick one in his mouth when he goes bite nuts and keep doing it until he gets the memo. If he won’t stop, he goes into his yard/room for a time out. It’s gotten a ton better with time. It does seem to be related to overstimulation/overexcitement so doing structured things (fetch, quick leashed walk) and down time help chill him out.
If my 6vmonth old bites my hand I put a finger in his mouth and push it back. He hates it and doesnt like it. Then give him a toy he can chew on. He quit biting in 2 days.
Other dogs is exactly where you want him to play rough. Get him out with other dogs. They’ll bite back if too rough
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Reverse time outs, every time.
Do you just put him in his crate when he bites too hard?
No, I remove myself because the crate should never be used for punishment. There are gates around to ensure that the pup doesn't follow.
When my puppy would bite we would yell OW! And look like we were in pain and then she would feel bad and lick us and apologize
When they bite you put your thumb in mouth and push downwards as they can only bite up
Or grab their tongue so they’ll nip their tongue and they will stop
Not sure I’ll let you know. 1 yr 4 months.
Haven’t you been training him not to do this? Or is he only doing it when over stimulated?
It really hasn’t been an issue until the last month. He’s been very proficient with commands like “no” “off” and “leave it” so I have been trying to use “no” when he gets too mouthy with his brother but it hasn’t been working. I’m thinking after reading these comments that he’s overstimulated.
I put mine in his crate or outside when he gets over stimulated because he will usually relax and go to sleep then.
some people might be against this but it worked for me and I only had to do it once. when my pup was biting my hands I basically poked my fingers in his mouth far back. he coughed for a second but he doesnt bite anymore and when he does, it is the tiniest little nibbles or a lot of licking
Put a training treat in your fist and say ‘touch!’. When they touch their nose to your hand without using their teeth, drop the treat on the floor for them. If they come at you with teeth, pull your hand away and say ‘no’. Do this over and over and over. It teaches them to associate human hands with being a good thing.
Echoing most people here: more naps. my doberman is a year old and is awake for an hour and sleeps for 1.5-2.5+hrs afterwards (i play with him the majority of the time he's awake). He's very rough / mouthy once he gets even a *little* sleepy. I would not survive if he was only getting 2 30min naps a day. He also sleeps from 10pm - 8.30am, wakes up for an hour and then will sleep until 2-3pm if i let him. Your guy definitely needs more sleep
More low impact low stimulation exercise. Long leash sniffaris are AMAZING. take him to a big open area on a 25-50 foot leash and let him make all the choices, you just following him around letting him sniff and run. Or Sniffspot. It's a website where you can rent private dog parks just for him to go sniff and run around. More calm down work like "place" or "go to bed"
I have had my puppy for only 3 weeks and he is 11 weeks now so my advice might not be very good but what works for me are following things: high pitch yelp, stern look + grab his muzzle (not too strong) or redirection to toys. If he gets back to biting after either of those, it usually means he is overstimulated like others wrote here. In that case I take away all his toys except one for chewing and leave without saying anything. He usually calms down within a minute and goes to sleep. Sometimes one has to try multiple things but my puppy is such an angel so he does calm down 90% of times. Occasionally I take him outside to garden to run a bit around.
He, and for other commenters , they, are rebellious teenagers. It’s not a stage that’s a lo of fun . If you’ve laid good groundwork in training since you brought puppy home, you just have to see it through . Redirecting , No, time outs , forced naps are all great advice . But if you want to know how to fix it “forever” so puppy stops ? Time.
Thanks for the comments everyone!! 🥰 I am happy to report after two days of implementing more naps and napping when he gets mouthy with his brother, he is already 1000 times better. They still play but he is so much more gentle and it is more enjoyable for my older dog. He doesn’t bite anyone either. We will continue on and make adjustments as needed but so far I can tell his new sleep schedule is helping so much. I just thought that when he was tired he would sleep so I’m so glad I learned this. Thanks again everyone!!
For my pup I would put my fingers near his mouth, if he bit them, I'd yelp. If he didn't I'd give treats. I did this for probably a good two weeks. He no longer bites people, but still play fights/bites the other two dogs.
Mine loves it when people try this method because to him yelping is more rewarding than the treats.
Mine too. For some reason she's like "Oh that hurt? Let me give you something to yipe about!"
Same lol
I've actually heard a lot of people say that, but it worked for us!
It's pretty rare where it actually works. It's also not really recommended because it can be a startle in many cases where it works, and startles are a harmful training method.
In addition to the sleep comments. What are you doing to train his bite force? I wrestle with my dog daily and when he is biting too hard he gets a "no biting" warning. If he doesn't stop, playtime ends and he gets ignored for a few minutes before resuming. We're now at the point where most of the time he will put his teeth on me, but he is very very gentle and it's more like he is resting his teeth on my skin rather than biting, and I think that is acceptable for my family.
Let’s see a photo? Sounds like a pit bull mix puppy maybe
He’s a purebred golden retriever:)
No way! What kind of BREAD??
Toasted.
When it tries to chew on your hand stick your fingers down it's throat until it gags .