A little background... My little guy is almost 10 weeks now. As I have read most huskys are, he is very "mouthy" -- loves to use his mouth to "talk" and play. I have been training against use of his teeth on me and the kids with positive reinforcement (when he doesn't use teeth) -- and and the 'uh-oh' markers when he does. He never bites out of aggression or what I think is trying to cause pain, but his little puppy teeth hurt! I would really like to minimize the amount of teeth interactions, especially on the kids & strangers.

A little different twist... he has not been a very affectionate puppy. Don't get me wrong, he loves to play and eats up all of the attention that he gets from everyone. But he is in no way a "cuddler" or lap dog. If you try to sit next to him when he's sleeping, he will get up and move away to lie down on his own. He won't go far, but always seeks out the coolest place to lie -- and body-heat doesn't seem to settle well with him.

This weekend, I slept in my office to allow him a little more free room to roam around during the night. He prefers to sleep on the hardwoods and goes all night without a potty break if he has the cool floor to rest on. Otherwise, he wants to get up every 2 hours in his crate. I slept on the couch in my office and he would stay a few feet away at the base. All went well and he had no accidents or destruction!

The interesting part... I have never been able to get him to fall asleep laying next to me on the couch. Last night, I picked him up right as I was laying down and he settled in. As soon as I started petting his belly, he went for my hand with his mouth and I decided to see what he was going to do. He didn't bite down or start to play, but instead started to use my hand almost as a pacifier. I've read where other dogs do their mouthing where it is almost like holding hands -- that's how I would describe what he did last night. I let him do it and he went right to sleep and laid next to me for over an hour (body-heat and all)! Once I pulled my hand out of his mouth, he jumped off the couch and laid back on the floor.

So the question is... how do I balance both of these "mouthing" scenarios together? I certainly want to nix the hard biting during play, etc. but I also don't mind what he did last night as a comfort tool -- if it meets his needs for affection.

Has anyone else dealt with anything similar? Any advice?

TIA!

Sounds like my pup when she was that young, it is only play, no worries. We would play and she was "mouthy" biting my hands and arms when we played on the ground. I think the yelping method (yelping in fake pain to get them to stop-makes you look ridiculous when company is over lol) seems to encourage it but through a series of a few "No's" and "Hey's" suppressed the behavior. Also her learning my body language when she is doing something wrong took the behavior away. Playing with neighbor dogs helps because they learn how hard to play, etc. It is the same kind of learning they would get if they were to remain with their litter-mates.

As for cuddliness...Mine never cuddles. Ever. However, she does like to be in the same room and pretty close when she is sleeping or relaxing. She has a fear of missing out and follows me in every room and sleeps at my feet or by wherever I am but never cuddles. If I try to make her she will stay for awhile but as soon as she gets the chance she will bail. Mine also likes hard floors because usually that means a colder surface to sleep on.

Kodi is the same way... he always likes to be wehere he can see & hear us. But he seems to get hot when too close and moves away to the cool floors. This is where he camps out during normal down time...



This one is a little blurry...

When maya and Sophie were pups and got mouthy with me I immediately stopped play and ignored them. Now they don't mouth unless we play rough which doesn't happen much and they're gentle with their mouthing. We've only had Kay for a couple weeks so we're still working on it with her. She'll bite, bark and jump on us when we don't give her attention while she's asking for it.
Maya is not a cuddly dog but she has her moments. When I was petsitting for a friend and she wasn't allowed in the room ( my friends dogs were puppies and she doesn't play nice with small dogs) she got real jealous. So when the pups went home she jumped on my lap and snuggled with me. Kay is a very snuggly dog though, and sophie snuggles too. They all follow me EVERYWHERE, they'll even try to go into the bathroom with me.