Have a litter of mouthy puppies. They chew on me and each other.
I'm curious how others deal with mouthy puppies-what are your favorite ways.
Some ways I've used include: "OUCH"; ignore the pup, tire the pups out, redirect the behavior i.e. give the puppy something it can chew on; hold their mouth shut, gently but firmly, while saying "no teeth" then let go. Use a sharp, loud "AHT" sound, adding that to the above action of holding mouth and saying no teeth. Stick my thumb in their lower mouth and gently pushing, or put my fingers over their muzzle and on their teeth a bit.
Not sure if I should be using only positive methods or a combination.
How old are the pups? Mine were very mouthy at 6 weeks and got much better by 8 weeks. I mostly used the 'aht,aht' sound and a really loud 'ouch'. Also, always had a toy/bone in my hand for them to chew on instead.
Don't physically inflict pain on the puppies. I'd just let them continue, supervised with their mouthing. Also let mom in there.
No physical corrections. The whole point of leaving them together until 8 weeks is so that they learn bite inhibition from each other. And they are much more equipped to teach each other than you.
Yes,always keep in hand something for them to chew on!You can also try the Yelping sound of a puppy ,thats what i learned in my dog behaviour classes,you become one of them since that's what the're learning between them!Good luck!!
Yelping as if in pain when they bite too hard is barbaric? Come on! I do that, and if they persist, I use Mama's technique, but use my hand instead of my mouth. I just encircle their mouth with my hand, apply gentle pressure and say "Gentle". Their littermates will teach them not to bite each other, perhaps, but I question whether that translates to people. Dogs aren't good at generalizing.
Im beginning to think that all the positive only dog training crap is merely a branch of the animal rights movement. All I do is hold the scruff for a second freezing the puppy with some eye contact. Then ignore them. As they get bigger you can just use a vocal correcttion. you cant tell me how to train my dogs. if they haven;'t started learning bite inhibition from the dam or the rest of the litter its your oblication as a breeder to start them out to make it easier on the families youa re selling them to.
Thank you, traditional dog trainer, for saying what I was thinking.
So you all are going to send these puppies to pet homes when they have not been taught that people are not chew toys? You can bet that my puppies are taught early on that they are not allowed to put teeth on me. If you look at what they are taught from their fellow siblings, you will see that a quick, vocal, to the point correction does the trick AND it sometimes hurts. Some litters are much more mouthy than others and some dam's could care less about disciplining. Here, here to common sense.
I have yet to have a litter of puppies that cares if they are hurting each other with biting. I've seen them grab a sibs ear and clamp down and hang on for dear life while the poor sib screams. They don't care. Maybe if I yell--"hey!!! knock it off!!!" They might stop....only to do it again in 5 min.