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Originally Posted by valeriejsmyth  Yeah that is how I raised my other two babies. Pips is hyper because of teething right now. I would love to have him with me every moment of the day if wasn't nipping, biting and just being hyper guy. I try to wear him out by playing with him, but he has boundless energy. What am I doing wrong? |
Nothing! Sounds like a totally normal puppy! If he bites too hard, grab his little body so you can get to his muzzle and hold onto his little muzzle for longer than he would like and he'll eventually get the message that he's being disciplined for hard biting. When first training him not to bite hard during play, I tried squealing out in pain to show him he was hurting me and that only highly excited him more than ever but squealing or making a pain-sound does teach some dogs not to bite hard. Others say hard biting ends all play - they just stand up and walk out of the room without a backward look.
Either way, once the dog has this happen a few times in a row, they begin to understand hard biting
doesn't get them what they want - continuation of play and fun and they begin to try to restrain their impulse to bite hard during excited play. But young dogs are forgetful so you have to keep reinforcing what you want by always reacting the same way to hard biting - by stopping the fun he was having when he bit hard or screaming, etc.
But bear in mind, playful, fun-loving, high-energy dogs have no hands or arms to hold, pat and squeeze with or hug good and hard to show their passion for us - all they have is their mouths and they often bite out of that passion and energy-overload - biting just for the joy of playing and to show intense feelings. I still play with Tibbe with my hands and allow him to bite on them out of passion as a show of his intense feelings as long as he doesn't hurt, which he never does as I taught him that biting hard will get his little muzzle held onto. He never liked that and quickly began to bite only softly when he wanted to show his strong emotions during playtime.
Do you have him on some type of very short and frequent obedience training lessons so that he can begin to learn how to control his puppy-ish impulses and work for positive reinforcement, learning in the process that obeying your commands brings great positive rewards and teaching him to always do what you say? He'll enjoy the work and training and will make you a lovely pet for that training. Obedience-trained dog are almost always far easier to live with than an untrained dog is and usually develop few behavior problems - all things being equal. And training is such fun for both the dog and the owner! Tibbe demands his training sessions almost every day and sometimes more than once per day he still loves them so much.