[yorkietalkjilly]

Biting out of aggression is how dogs protect themselves from attack and play rough. Aggression isn't bad in and of itself - most people love a feisty dog that thinks for himself and is quite forcefully playful and energetic, unshy. Aggression that becomes vicious is dangerous but with this baby of just over 2 1/2 months, you just likely have a playful little guy that is teething and expressing his passion for play and excitement with his teeth. And at his age, biting feels good to him. All you need to do is teach this dog to have a soft mouth. Since dogs don't have arms to hug and embrace, etc., they often use teeth to show passion and strong feelings. Just teach him that hard biting is not to be tolerated by you. As long as he's biting softly, that is usually okay. When it hurts you and is too hard, ALL ATTENTION AND PLAY STOPS. That's it. Say "uh oh" and get up and walk off. Go into the other room and do something else, do not look at the dog if he follows. After a while, play with him again and if he resumes a hard bite, all attention and play stops. Get up and leave the room, do something else. After a while, playing again, hard bite - yes, you know what to do - get up and go.

In time, you dog learns that a soft mouth means playing and fun, getting to use his mouth to express his passion, etc., but he will also know that a hard bite stops all of his fun and attention. Things suddenly get dull and mommie goes away and no more playing. In time, by the time he is a few weeks older, he should start to get the message and some of the time remember not to hard bite and when he does - when you see that he's pulled his bite - softens it on his own - say "Yes" and praise him.

This is key. He's a puppy and he will forget. Even at our age, when we are being taught something, we forget at times - forget to do something we know to do. Dogs do the same thing - especially months old puppies still being taught how to live with humans. When he does, get up and go, ignore him, do something else. It will immediately remind him of the consequences of hard biting and he'll do better next time probably. But even if he forgets again, just keep saying "uh oh" and leaving the room. By the time he is 7 or 8 months, he should have it down not to hard bite but he will - just like we do - still forget. By that time, after months of teaching, now you can say "No" as a form of discipline and stand up, walk toward him and back him off and make him leave the area. Now he's pays the price of having to leave and he knows mommie is unhappy. Just walk him from the room and don't allow him to return for a while until he has calmed down. That's how I discipline a hard-biter who has been trained for a few months but still forgets. There is a price to pay for hard play-biting but when an older dog that has been taught forgets or just needs to show some strong passion in the heat of play, he still gets the firm "no" and has to leave the room.

This type of biting done when playing is just a form of expression of excitement and strong passion and isn't vicious or mean. Just think - if you had no arms, hands and couldn't really hug or hit or use arms to play rough and tough, you might use your legs or something - some body part - teeth even - as a expression of strong feelings. Dogs don't have that ability and often use teeth to show those feelings - but unless they are growling low first to warn or bite suddenly and viciously out of the blue in anger or fear, they are not misbehaving.

Giving puppies of this age toys to chew on and things that help blunt those little sharp teeth as they chew some will help that strong desire they have to bite on things and will teeth until about 5 months of age.

Freeze a washcloth dipped in water and see if he will chew on that some. Give him some bits of ice cube to chew on, even drop some in his bowl as he's eating to help soothe his little gums. Rubbing a tiny bit of peanut butter or wet dog food on a rubber toy can encourage chewing on that toy. Rubbing his gums can feel good too and help soothe his desire to bite. Pet stores have any number of soothing toys for teething and young dogs to munch on.