I love my pup but her biting is getting out of hand!
I have yet to actually be able to be truely calm and affectionate with her because she is never calm and affectionate.

I am trying not to be frustrated but she bites constantly and sometimes refuses to let go of your arm growling etc.

I know this is just how huskies play but it is to the point where I can't pet her without being xhomped down on and if I ever get down to her level she lunges at my face.

It is not an exercise issue she is 10 weeks and gets a 15 minute walk in the morning and between 5-6 we are playing in the park togerher. Even alone she will run around a good 45 minutes on her own. And we have structured play time as well as 2-3 obedience.

I have tried lots of bite inhibition training. Yelping ,time outs and nothing seems to work.,

I am not expecting a miracle at 10 weeks of age but some progress would be nice.

At my wit's end and any advice would be loved!

Is this normal for sibe Puppies or do I just have a specially rough case?

Mountain, you probably do have a slightly more expressive pup than most, I did too. This type of pup needs a lot of structure, and I mean a lot. None of the typical tips worked for Miya, and she was go, go, go all the time. I mentioned in your structured thread that I trained every hour, at 2-3 months it was a 15 minute training session. Learning proper leash walking, command training, and then just plain old walks to allow her to sniff and be a doggy. Play time was also structured. I played tugs, only a bit different, as in she had to keep a toy in her mouth and we played tugs, and also push, she held the toy I pushed her around, either works, when she dropped the toy she had to do a command in order to resume play, if she went for my hand or me it was a uh uh "get an appropriate toy", yes Miya knows what that means. If she did not get a toy game ends, I walked away and she had a time out. If she picked the toy back up game continues. Mouthing was not acceptable, and a toy in her mouth was. I started and finished the games, she did not. I also taught her enough, when I was done with the game, "enough Miya" that was it.

I think hyper dogs like this need to expend that energy, yes they can have a lot of it. But that game was the only way to stop her biting on me, and still give her what she needed.

may I ask how old she was when you brought her home? Typically pups 7 weeks and under leaving their siblings tend to be this way. They never learn bite inhibition, I got Miya at 5.5 weeks old, and she was horrible until I figured out what she needed. My GSD puppy I brought home at 10 weeks and never has had a biting issue.

Another thing that is helpful is hand feeding meals, may take months, but this forms a bond, and trust, but also it has the pup understand your hand brings yummy things, teach "gentle" verbally praise when your pup takes food from your hand gently. The best way to hand feed is by sitting at equal level, take a couple of pieces of kibble, have palm flat and give a command I use get it, but take works, if they take it gently praise "good girl, yes be gentle", talk in a soothing, calm voice, to get a calm response. Never high pitched, never with enthusiasm.

Many people talk in high pitch or with too much excitement for this type of pup, always remain calm sounding, firm. Teach calmness at doors, always have her sit to go in and outside, if she starts to jump, uh uh sit and wait, if she sits and waits praise. Everything you do must be in a calm firm manner. I lived it, Miya was horrible, I cried I can't tell you how many times, I got frustrated (you can't shpw them this), I didn't want her. Today she is a very calm dog, unless I instigate the crazies. She is very well mannered around people, she knows a ton of commands. The local sheriff stopped by one evening, and Miya just chilled, laying down watching the world go by. the sheriff asked if she is always this way, what does she know....we went through her long list of commands, and he was blown away. Took her to my gsd breeder, he is a trainer, again blown away at how calm she is. It takes time and patience, and consistency, but it can be done. Feel free to ask any questions or any suggestions, happy to help.

MiyasMomma wrote:

Mountain, you probably do have a slightly more expressive pup than most, I did too. This type of pup needs a lot of structure, and I mean a lot. None of the typical tips worked for Miya, and she was go, go, go all the time. I mentioned in your structured thread that I trained every hour, at 2-3 months it was a 15 minute training session. Learning proper leash walking, command training, and then just plain old walks to allow her to sniff and be a doggy. Play time was also structured. I played tugs, only a bit different, as in she had to keep a toy in her mouth and we played tugs, and also push, she held the toy I pushed her around, either works, when she dropped the toy she had to do a command in order to resume play, if she went for my hand or me it was a uh uh "get an appropriate toy", yes Miya knows what that means. If she did not get a toy game ends, I walked away and she had a time out. If she picked the toy back up game continues. Mouthing was not acceptable, and a toy in her mouth was. I started and finished the games, she did not. I also taught her enough, when I was done with the game, "enough Miya" that was it.

I think hyper dogs like this need to expend that energy, yes they can have a lot of it. But that game was the only way to stop her biting on me, and still give her what she needed.

may I ask how old she was when you brought her home? Typically pups 7 weeks and under leaving their siblings tend to be this way. They never learn bite inhibition, I got Miya at 5.5 weeks old, and she was horrible until I figured out what she needed. My GSD puppy I brought home at 10 weeks and never has had a biting issue.

Another thing that is helpful is hand feeding meals, may take months, but this forms a bond, and trust, but also it has the pup understand your hand brings yummy things, teach "gentle" verbally praise when your pup takes food from your hand gently. The best way to hand feed is by sitting at equal level, take a couple of pieces of kibble, have palm flat and give a command I use get it, but take works, if they take it gently praise "good girl, yes be gentle", talk in a soothing, calm voice, to get a calm response. Never high pitched, never with enthusiasm.

Many people talk in high pitch or with too much excitement for this type of pup, always remain calm sounding, firm. Teach calmness at doors, always have her sit to go in and outside, if she starts to jump, uh uh sit and wait, if she sits and waits praise. Everything you do must be in a calm firm manner. I lived it, Miya was horrible, I cried I can't tell you how many times, I got frustrated (you can't shpw them this), I didn't want her. Today she is a very calm dog, unless I instigate the crazies. She is very well mannered around people, she knows a ton of commands. The local sheriff stopped by one evening, and Miya just chilled, laying down watching the world go by. the sheriff asked if she is always this way, what does she know....we went through her long list of commands, and he was blown away. Took her to my gsd breeder, he is a trainer, again blown away at how calm she is. It takes time and patience, and consistency, but it can be done. Feel free to ask any questions or any suggestions, happy to help.

Yeah I got her at just a couple of days shy at 8 weeks, I have started hand feeding the last few days and it gives us a good bonding time.

May I ask how long your time outs for miya were? Few seconds? Few minutes? I am thinking I might have to give her more sleep time I am suspecting she might be getting over tired and having tantrums like a todler.

She is alone for 3-4 hours in the day and I have her nap in her crate around dinner time but I might have her sleep more, how much did mya sleep as a young pup?

If my training sessions of 15 minutes did what it was supposed to do, she napped for a half hour. Then back up to do it all over again. At 8 weeks, she should understand bite inhibition, but, like Miya she had 2 strikes to your girls one, in that they both were super hyper. I found that mind games, command training, and command training plus playing tired her far more than just a walk for instance. So indeed she may get over tired, so yes the time outs for her to relax and calm down was important, and needed. Some of her time outs, when she got out of hand, were 10 minutes, if she was awake and calm we did some calm things, like me holding a chewy while she chewed on it. If she fell asleep I let her sleep until she was ready to do it again. So dependent on a few things. Reward calmness, is I think key. She may also be starting to have gum issues and teething, so I did the holding of a chewy or bone, so we could spend some quiet time. Miya is a velcro dog, and as a pup she would fall asleep in my lap and as an adult she still does, but it was all about the calmness. I think, getting her calm is important in order for you to get the puppy pets, I know it's hard. Try the chewy idea, after a good training session, where she is more calm, and a little sleepy and see if that will help in her being more apt to not be crazy and you can get a part time lap pup, haha.

I would start with the suggestions Renee stated but just in case here was our solution.

We tried all the usual - Saying owe/yelping when she would bite us, getting up and walking away, getting her toys to bite but by the time Gabby was about 5 months old, None of that worked for us. We had to resort to using a bitter apple spray (we diluted it (about 1/2 bitter apple, 1/2 water). When she would bite us we would spray it in her mouth. after about a week she realized that that was not an acceptable thing to do. It really worked wonders.

Again, I would use this as a last resort. We are normally all about only rewarding good behavior and not reprimanding the bad but this was the only solution that we got to work.