Hi guys!

My little pup Ghost is just 3 months old, and I'm having a hard time getting any sort of effective play time in with her penchant for biting my hands. It seem as though I can't play with her at all right now without taking some bites, and for someone who is trying to train the biting out of her, it's a constant struggle between 'I want to play with her so we can bond / she can get her energy out' and 'I want her to learn that she can't bite me'.

When she bites, I try to replace with a toy, that works for a few seconds until she gets bored and goes after me instead. She bombs into me mouth open, grabs my legs, arms, whatever she can get her mouth on. I try to nicely push her down, she thinks we're playing still and comes back! I try to turn my back and avoid her, and while that does stop her occasionally, as soon as go back to re-engage play, she starts the cycle again. It's start stop start stop start stop. Until she gets frustrated with me and starts barking / growling, and then I disengage entirely.

I'm TRYING to have a no-bite policy. One bite = avoidance, is that too strict? Should I let her bite until the pressure gets too hard? I'm not strict on this all the time, mind you, she gets a few bites in here and there without 'punishment' but needless to say, it's been a struggle.

Or maybe I'm just playing with her wrong? What kind of little games have you / do you play with your puppy? Maybe we can find a different playtime strategy that doesn't involve her mouth!

I can tell you what worked for me for my 2 pups. I have a 7 month old American Eskimo and a 6 month old Husky. With my eskie, we got her at 2 months and she would bite hands and chase after our feet. What I started doing while playing is when she would lick my hand, I would say "kisses" and praise her up. If she started to bite my hands, play time would instantly be over. After a few weeks, she stopped biting our hands. When we got our husky a month later, we did the same thing right off the bat. He didn't try to bite our hands very long. A week maybe and then he stopped. They preferred being praised for giving kisses versus no more play time.

HuskyLife wrote:

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I'm TRYING to have a no-bite policy. One bite = avoidance, is that too strict? Should I let her bite until the pressure gets too hard? I'm not strict on this all the time, mind you, she gets a few bites in here and there without 'punishment' but needless to say, it's been a struggle.

I picked this out because dogs don't really understand "sometimes", they can learn - in time - that what's okay here isn't okay there but it's not really dependable.

That said, if you don't want her biting then you don't want to let her bite at all! As Melissa said, one bite means No Play! and that should be an absolute.

It's sometimes 'cute' when a puppy play bites - but one of my lines here is that you want to teach the puppy to be the dog you want her to become. A nipping 6 month old can do damage, even if they don't intend to, but our skin's thinner than theirs is and you don't want a nippy Husky!

It's been a couple of years since my girl was a puppy but I distinctly remember the phase you describe -- to a tee! I totally agree that you have to communicate no bite/ever and this exact stage of your puppy's life is your golden moment! Stay consistent, firm, loving, and consistent! It will pay off in the long run! I remember thinking that I was losing out on fun puppy play time because all of our play time turned into toy re-direction or me having to disengage, but in the context of your dog's whole life, this is just such a short time and a great opportunity for you to make sure you get the behavior you expect from your dog!