Biting
 

My yorkie and I are having a problem with biting (she does the biting) :). She mainly does it when she is in my lap. She will nip at my hands. I tell her no, and then give her another toy to play with but she wants my hands. I am looking for a good training method to kick this habit of hers. She doesn't bite hard or with agression, just nibbles. But I don't want her nibbling our guests! Any help would be wonderful. I am open to anything! She is currently 12 weeks.

Mines is around the same age as yours and also nips. On TV they said when they nip to right-away take your hand away and stop playing. If they continue than they should be given a "time-out" or even put in their crate.

Yup be strict and give them a stern NO! when they bite you and maybe ignore them for a little bit as punishment. Also, you can give them a chew toy to chew on while they are in your lap, thus removing your hand as an option. :)

ALL puppies "play-bite" and you do need to discourage it. When Higgins would do it, I would say "NO BITING! Just kisses..." and when he would stop, I would praise him. If he didn't stop, all play stopped and I would put him down. He caught on after a few weeks.

Don likes to "play rough" with him and lets him do it now when they are playing. :mad: But it's funny, Higgins NEVER uses his teeth with me! He doesn't do it with anyone else now either. Just Don, and ONLY when Don "gives him permission."

Speaking of giving permission, the best thing Higgins has ever learned is what a friend, who trains her dogs in obedience, taught him (us). We make sure he knows that all his toys are really "ours" by keeping one that he brings to us and very slowly waving it around in the air just out of reach and telling him to "STAY." We praise him while he is staying and we are "teasing" him by keeping the toy in motion just out of reach, but bringing it ever closer to him. Then, after a few seconds, say "OKAY" and letting him grab it. We have gradually stretched out the time to where he will not grab that toy unless we "give him permission", even though it may only be an inch from his nose.
He LOVES this game! And it has taught him not to do anything without our permission. It has really helped with "stay" commands.

Now if I could just teach him to poop outside 100% of the time..... :rolleyes:

Thanks for that great tip about teaching them to stay! I will try that. I tried the NO! and stopping play but that leads to barking which I need to work on as well. I am going to continuing working on getting in to stop but in the meantime I will just have to have patience that she will grow out of it. I did read somewhere to yelp like you were one of her puppy siblings when she bit, but that only got her more excited. She must have been mean to her little brothers and sisters.

Great tip, Higgin's Mom! Yoda will have some work to do today! :)

Does Higgins stay when you command him to at all times now? Even when the doorbell rings?

Since we live in the country, we don't have a doorbell ringing very often....mostly we go out and greet people in the driveway. But Higgins will "stay" in the car or in the house when we leave if we tell him "stay." This is good because he won't bound out of the car into traffic. And he doesn't fight to get out the door when we leave. Usually thats all we use "stay" for.
Overall, it has tended to let him know that, while we love him, WE are the alpha dogs, and he needs our permission to do certain things.

This week I am teaching him to bark on command so that I can teach him NOT to bark on command. I'll let ya know if it works. One thing it has started is lots of "talking" between us, which is really cute. He even "sings" with me now! It is so funny. We are trying to get him to do it every time on command, but so far it's only about 70%. We like "Stupid Pet Tricks." :o

Wow! What does Higgins sing? I tried the stay command last night, I guess he's pretty good, just need to keep working on it. He had too many toys out laying around on the ground last night, so the training might have lost some of its effect.

I think that is neat. Charlie is always wanting his belly scratch so he taps my hand. He only gives love nips when we play hand only when I allow it.

Higgins sings wild tunes in the key of Q ;)

Thanks for the tips. My mom came up this weekend and what she was doing seemed to work. When Maggie would try to bite at her fingers while scratching her, she would make a fist with her hands. That way, Maggie couldnt bite at them. I was concerned she would think it was a game, but she didn't. What happened was she got so frustrated that she stopped trying to go after them. Hopefully this will continue to work!

My Yorki used to bite when he was little too. I didn't ever get mad at him, sometimes I'd tell him no or put him down if he bit too hard. I kept telling him to be gentle every time he did it and he finally grew out of it. He now knows the words be gentle which I tell him when he gets carried away licking my face, sometimes he'll kinda nip me. I'll tell him to be gentle and he does, he gets real careful to be gentle with me, it's so sweet. He also now is very very gentle when taking anything out of my hand. I just wish he was gentle to my other dog. I'm still working on that one.