Excessive biting/mouthing
 

Hi this is my first post so forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong area etc. My baby boy Jax :yorkieboy: is just 3 months old and of course he is teething & chewing on everything he can. :( He has many appropriate toys to chew and he seems to love them all. The problem is, I can't even touch him without him trying to bite my hands.:thumbdown Which means everything I need to do for him is a fight. I can't brush him without him trying to bite the brush although this is a tiny bit better now. Washing his face is out, petting nope. I'm sure he will out grow this & I always tell him "no bite" in a firm voice and praise him when he stops. I also do time out when he refuses to stop to show that if he bites he gets no attention but this doesn't seem to bother him, he just starts chewing something else. It's becoming very frustrating as well as sad as I can't love on him like I want to. I have been able to teach him not to bite hard, his bite inhibition is good. I'm thinking this may be because he left the litter too early, he was 6 weeks old when I got him, which I thought was too young. Anyone have any suggestions to teach my little guy that biting hands is a big no no!

I'm having the same problem with my girl that is just over 4 months. I had finally gotten her to stop biting and now it seems her mouth is really bothering her and she just wants to bite everything. Did you find a way to stop this behavior? Or relief for your puppy?

Some will gently grab and hold the muzzle of a very young pup for a short while after every hard bite. Or you can gently push your hand back into the mouth as the puppy is biting the hand and take away his control after every hard bite. Others immediately stop playing with the dog and leave the room, no exceptions. Eventually you can add the words "No" or "No bite" as you deter the dog and before long, just the words are all that are necessary.

Thank you for the advice!! I've been holding her muzzle and telling her "no bite" and that seems to be working...at least for a little while. My 6 year old son is kind of scared of her right now. I need to stop this biting immediately. :)

It's pretty normal for puppies to bite and for it to take a while to train them out of it. Patient persistence is the key. It's instinctual for dogs to use their teeth in much of what they do, when eating, chewing bones/chewies, as a form of scratching something that itches, when playing with each other and with toys and things and it's difficult at first for them to go against instinct and learn not to bite humans.

Just like it's instinctive for us to automatically wipe our nose when it runs - it's instinctive for most of us. (Bad analogy, I know but it's all I could think of quickly) What if suddenly we weren't allowed to do it? It would take a while to unlearn doing what comes naturally and even after we'd learned, we'd occasionally relapse into the old habit.

Thank you for your suggestions, seems I have been doing the right things after all and I have good news!! Jax is doing much better!!! He has learned bite inhibition very well & is no longer biting hard nor nearly as much!!!! :thumbup: Yay! I can actually touch my baby which is great but its far from complete which I expected I'm just glad we are on the right track!

Wonderful progress. You've got it down, he just needs repetition and he'll eventually get it for good though being an animal, we all forget at times to do what we know and need a reminder.

It's so important with puppies to stay with moms and litters mates for 12 weeks. Since you didn't have the luxury of mom and siblings to teach him, it's a whole lot harder for you now. I would make sure whenever he puts his mouth on you, no matter how gentle he is say "YIKES" it sounds a little like a puppy yelp and teaches them to be gentle. Will he ever settle down for you or does he always bite and struggle to get away? Puppies are active and they do like to chew on everything but give him plenty of things to chew on and you might want to think about getting him into puppy classes as soon as you can (after shots). Good luck. Puppies grow fast and this stage will soon be behind you….