Kato has a nibbling problem that I would like to ask about. Will he grow out of it or will he continue to bite? I love my dog but hates the fact that he thinks biting is playing. Its getting to the point where im getting bite marks which is a no no...

I've been told that if I put my thumb and my pointer finger around his mouth he would stop that action but that just reinforce him to bite even harder. How do i get him to stop or just maybe not be nibbling so hard? He only does it to me... ...

Take at look at Puppy Biting topic on the forum under Training.

Hope this helps!

Thank you Claudia!!!...

He'll out grow the biting but never fast enough to suit humans. Adobo, who recently turned 5 yrs. rarely chews on me any more, maybe 2-3 times a year. Biko rapidly approaching 2 yrs loves nothing more then to latch on to my fore arm or biceps. I've found that pinching him in the rib area has him stop quicker then trying to hold onto his mouth.

The pinch collar is helping tho.. from what I am noticing.. but I dont want to rely on it much. With Kato.. just putting the collar on him will make him stop... I dont use it to enforce him to stop the biting.. he just knows.

KatoTA wrote:

The pinch collar is helping tho.. from what I am noticing.. but I dont want to rely on it much. With Kato.. just putting the collar on him will make him stop... I dont use it to enforce him to stop the biting.. he just knows.

Do you keep the pinch collar on all the time? Or have you just noticed that he doesn't bite when you are walking him with it?

NO.. not at all times.... The pinch collar is only used when we are training him.. and sometime i forget to take it off.. but i know that just leaviing the collar on him.. will make him behave. He'll play around in it and wont attack me. Once I take it off... he is a totally different puppy.. I just hope he grows out of it... so I dont have to turn to it much... It tears me up when i see or hear him YELP..

I think I would start working some positive reinforcement with the pinch collar to help with your biting issue. For a little while, go OVER THE TOP with the praise and treats when he wears the pinch collar. Try to reinforce that his behavior when he has the pinch collar ON is ideal. Maybe that will help

While I'm not against the proper use of pinch collars for training, I just thought I'd mention that pinch collars are not something I would advise using on a puppy. Negative reinforcers like pinch collars and check chains are best used in training adult dogs, not puppies. And it sounds like Kato has already learned that when wearing it he needs to behave and when not wearing it the rules are out the window which is not what you guys want. You want him to learn that certain behaviors are unacceptable at all times whether he's wearing the collar or not. Sounds like you may have to go back to square one on his bite inhibation without the pinch collar to actually get lasting results rather than the quick fix that the collar is providing.

Val also makes a very good point. I forgot that Kato was younger as Koda was much older when we were working on bite inhibition....

Ahh nice to know that some day they will grow out of it.. Dexter is biting quite a lot when he gets playfull, and I didnt know how to handle it... Nice topic to "acedently" trip over then!

Please be careful using a pinch collar on one so young! He should not be yelping just from having it around his neck. I would guess this is happening because he is too young to be psychologically ready for discomfort to be used in training. The beauty of a pinch collar is that the dog should not feel it unless you make a sharp correction with it while he is on a leash. My pinch collar stays attached to one of my leashes and I take the pair off as a unit. You should never let a dog wear the pinch when not on lead.

If you cannot get him to respond to you leaving him when he bites, you can remove him from the room. I do not propose using his crate as a place of punishment, I like to keep that as a special "den" for the dog, so I will remove all TP and rugs and trashcans from my half bathroom and put him in "time out" there. I leave him in there for only 2-3 minutes. After a week of this, all I had to say was "No biting! Do you want to go to time out?" and he would stop being so rough. He knows the words "time out" and so I often threaten him with time out but hardly ever have to use it any more. However, two nights ago he was lunging and barking at our food on the dinner table. I don't think so! Poor guy could not restrain himself and ended up in time out for a few minutes. He was a different dog after that.

It does get better! Just keep working with him.

KatoTA wrote:

Do they ever grow out of biting/nibbling?

I just wanted to address this specific question real quick. In short, YES if you train them appropriately. No, if you do not do any training whatsoever.

It's not something that they naturally grow out of, if they are not taught bite inhibition they will continue to do it throughout their lives.

My comments here are not directed at the OP or those offering advice, I just don't want someone else coming on and reading this thread and seeing that yeah, they do grow out of it when it's deeper than that. They do "grow out of it" through training, it's not a magical thing that just happens by doing nothing and bam! one day you wake up to a husky that no longer mouths and nips. Okay, that's all I wanted to clear up.

Huskyluv wrote:

KatoTA wrote:

Do they ever grow out of biting/nibbling?

I just wanted to address this specific question real quick. In short, YES if you train them appropriately. No, if you do not do any training whatsoever.

I believe that teaching a few basic verbal commants can make our lives with our dogs so much more enjoyable. For me and my 6 month old, "No biting", "Leave it" and "All done" are three of my favorite commands. Today I had to use the "no biting" command because he was nibbling on a rung of my chair at dinner. "Leave it" is used for everything from cats we see on our walk to the batteries that flew out of the remote I dropped today. My husband taught the "all done" to end what could easily be a never-ending playtime.

All of these commands can be taught using praise and treats and other rewards.

These huskies are SO smart! They want to learn and actually have fun doing it!

SabakaMom wrote:

I just wanted to address this specific question real quick. In short, YES if you train them appropriately. No, if you do not do any training whatsoever.

I believe that teaching a few basic verbal commants can make our lives with our dogs so much more enjoyable.
...

All of these commands can be taught using praise and treats and other rewards.

These huskies are SO smart! They want to learn and actually have fun doing it!

AGREED!

I do agree on them being smart.. It amazes me how fast Dexter learns (Although the no biting part is taking long! ).

I wouldnt use a pinch collar, but the thought of knowing he will stop it some day, because we keep training not to is nice...

My boyfriend said today "How come he is so easy to train to sit, lie down, high five ect... But teaching him to not pull my hair or bite me takes so long?".. I find it quite funny as well... Because in theory a 9 weeks old pup its very impressive he come when we call, he sits down, he lie down ect all when asked... But if my boyfriend (Whose got longer hair than me :p ) sits on the floor Dexter imediately attacks his hair

Shii wrote:

My boyfriend said today "How come he is so easy to train to sit, lie down, high five ect... But teaching him to not pull my hair or bite me takes so long?".. I find it quite funny as well... Because in theory a 9 weeks old pup its very impressive he come when we call, he sits down, he lie down ect all when asked... But if my boyfriend (Whose got longer hair than me :p ) sits on the floor Dexter imediately attacks his hair

Training to stop a behavior that is self-rewarding is a lot harder because quite frankly, it's fun to your pup so he doesn't want to stop. Pulling and play biting is a self rewarding behavior so they are very likely to do it which makes extinguishing the behavior that much harder because to your pup, you're telling him he can't do what he thinks is fun. Having a higher value reward for behaving can help immensely with that.

Training a pup to sit, lie down, etc is not self rewarding (how much fun is sitting and laying down?), your pup is doing it for the reward that you'll give him for it.

No bite training is surprisingly something I've never had a problem with when training any of my pups. When they bite, I place my thumb under their tongue, index finger under their chin, a stern AHAH followed by "No Bite!" There's no reason to be rough when you do it, they do not like the thumb under the tongue thing at all. This has worked with 6 pups for me thus far!

Autumn wrote:

No bite training is surprisingly something I've never had a problem with when training any of my pups. When they bite, I place my thumb under their tongue, index finger under their chin, a stern AHAH followed by "No Bite!" There's no reason to be rough when you do it, they do not like the thumb under the tongue thing at all. This has worked with 6 pups for me thus far!

I will have to try this... He bite me pretty hard yesterday and took some skin... "poor me". ... Ive tried everything i could.. took on the many advice as i did... but nothing seems to stop him...

Autumn wrote:

No bite training is surprisingly something I've never had a problem with when training any of my pups. When they bite, I place my thumb under their tongue, index finger under their chin, a stern AHAH followed by "No Bite!" There's no reason to be rough when you do it, they do not like the thumb under the tongue thing at all. This has worked with 6 pups for me thus far!

Holding onto their lower jaw is similar and works pretty well for me too. If my boy gets mouthy then I just wrap my hand around his lower jaw and that puts a stop to that right away.

Edited to add: I don't normally share techniques that involve placing hands in the dogs mouth because unless you know what you're doing and know the dog you're handling and how they typically react then there is a higher risk of injury than other less hands on methods. Just be cautious when dealing with mouthing and biting when you use a corrective technique that involves putting your hands in the bite zone.

Huskyluv wrote:

Edited to add: I don't normally share techniques that involve placing hands in the dogs mouth because unless you know what you're doing and know the dog you're handling and how they typically react then there is a higher risk of injury than other less hands on methods. Just be cautious when dealing with mouthing and biting when you use a corrective technique that involves putting your hands in the bite zone.

Agreed