Finley will not stop biting us, I feel like we've been trying everything in the book but no matter what we do she just gets worse. I know it takes time but theres been 0 progress the past few weeks. Its really frustrating because we would love to play with her and love on her but she wont let us without biting hard to the point both myself and my boyfriend are bleeding. I need help

Hey meg1995!

Echo was a bit of a biter when he was a puppy, maybe not as intense as Finley though...here's what I did...I'm sure you've tried all this, but for what it's worth...

• "OOOUUUCCCCHHH!!!" Loud, walk away and ignore for a couple of minutes...no looking, no interacting
  
• Play with something he loves chewing in hand. I used to always keep an antler on me at all times, the moment he would try to chew me...I would just shove the antler into his mouth
  
• How socialized is your pup? I live in the city so I have a lot of dog parks within a five minute walk. I took a chance and socialized him early...sometimes I find nothing teaches your dog as well as another dogs' interaction to set him in line. Most owners are pretty sympathetic and understanding of puppies and their learning curve.
  

Good luck!

Yelling ouch and giving him a time out is probably the best idea. If you keep playing with him, or let him keep running around and having fun there is literally no reason for him to stop. He'll learn pretty quickly that biting you means the end of fun time.

Husky911,
Sadly none of those things seem to be working. I've been trying to socialize her as much as possible but I dont have many friends with dogs and those that do are away for summer. I tried bringing her to Petco for puppy playtime but no other dogs showed up, and I can't bring her to a dog park because she hasn't completed her shots yet. Not sure how else to get her socialized with other dogs.

Kmanweiss, we've tried that too but she just cries and destroys things if we put her anywhere without us. Putting her in her crate only helps short-time because once we let her back out she's back to biting. I'm not sure what else to do at this point!

Hi Megan................First I will say is that if you do not have clear boundaries and discipline your pup will walk all over you. Do you crate the pup? If so you need to use the crate as down time. Typically puppies bite for basic reasons 1) teething, you need lots of chews for this. 2) over tired, giving clear and concise play time, eating time, go out and potty time, teach calmness. If the pup has been really busy and playing hard for say an hour, then down time is needed. Crates are not for punishment nor for time outs, but the crate is perfect for teaching calmness and down time. 3) Not enough play time and or structured obedience time. Some dogs like to play rough, huskies are notorious for this. One very easy way of tiring out the pup, and keeping it structured is to play a game of tugs. When ever your pup drops the toy make pup do a command like sit, she sits the reward is continued playing of tugs. She drops it again give a different command, she does it, game resumes and that is her reward. When you are done playing you stop it not her, then it is crate time for a bit. Working the mind and body uses up way more of their energy than just playing or just training. 4) lastly have rules, have you and your boyfriend on the same page for rules. Make puppy sit and wait at doors to go in and out. Have puppy sit and wait before eating. Giving clear and concise structure and rules go a long way. If you need to have pup leashed up to you when in the house and you do not want her in the crate, this way you can keep an eye on her. When going out for potty practice going out to potty, come back in and then go back out for play. Make everything structured.

Hi Renee! Yes I crate her, otherwise I think my apartment would be in ruins lol! I will definitely try that when I play tug with her, which we do often, tugging seems to be one of her favorites. Thank you! I'll make sure we're on the same page with all of that info

Hey meg1995,

How often do you exercise Finley? You may have a more active puppy on your hands, and may need to go for longer walks to hopefully tire him out? His biting could just be an outlet for his pent up energy?

I know the internet says something on the lines of five minutes per month of age. Personally I didn't really believe that or put that to practice with my husky. To me it just doesn't make sense that a 6 month husky only needs or can get 30 mins of exercise. I can tell you that at 7 months right now, if Echo doesn't get at least 2 hours of outside time a day, he's whiny, and starts being a menace indoors. I'm not telling you to run your husky for 2 hours, but just going out for slow walks, people watching, sniffing, etc. keeps him mentally stimulated and a much calmer indoor dog.

As for bringing your puppy to the park, to each their own. I don't know your area well or anything, but it was the dead of winter for me, and I live in the city so all dogs in the park are typically domesticated fully vaccinated dogs. I also live in a condo that is built on top of a dog park, so I didn't really have a choice but to take him there to pee/pooh him daily. I then regularly took him to a fenced-in dog park after his 2nd series of shots at around 12 weeks. Being able to interact earlier really set Echo in line, and taught him how to behave and seemed to calm him indoors probably because it tired him out easily. If you want to wait until 16 weeks, I totally understand. I remember constantly Googling every little cough or sneeze or itch Echo did constantly in fear of him catching something from the park The internet can be your friend or your worse enemy

Best of luck with your puppy and keep us updated!

Cheers!

We had that same problem with our boy. from when we got him up until he was about 3 months old he would lightly nip at us every time we put our hands on him.. yelling ouch or yelping didn't do anything for us.. i think he thought it was funny. when he got really worked up and bit down harder than normal we would either lightly grab his muzzle and yell "no" or give him a time out in the crate.. eventually he stopped. But for a couple months there i was worried we where raising a tiny monster.. I searched forums and watched youtube videos almost every day, but nothing anyone recommended worked for us. He still nips a little bit every once in a while but not nearly as much. My advise is to keep doing what you're doing.. eventually she will probably stop! (hopefully)

Comment from the peanut gallery time.

Unless your pup is willing to allow you to hold his muzzle - and very few dogs will - trying to restrain him from biting by holding his muzzle is much more apt to result in an excited dog - which is apt to result in a real bite.

The other bad piece of advice I will mention is "tapping on the muzzle" when a dog tries to bite. It has worked for me but since we try to stress positive methods of correction (object replacement, distraction, etc) I won't recommend it. Note that when I "tap" a dogs muzzle it's intended as much more of a distraction than as a correction - and it's definitely not a hurtful tap.

UGH........................I agree AL. OK for those posting. I hate making my Miya sound like a freaking horrible puppy, but she was. I called her my demon puppy from hell. For real she would jump at my pony tail and grab if I turned my back, grab and bite my pant legs if I tried to walk away. I posted up what worked for me, because what I did was a positive training methods that work. The crate should never be used as a time out. Grabbing the muzzle or smacking the muzzle will only amp up the pup. They do grow out of this at around 8-12 months of age, when their adult teeth are in and they learn bite inhibition. A tap on the snout like Al mentioned is fine for certain issues, don't recommend for teaching bite inhibition, it is the only way a puppy can communicate with you the human.