The shark mouth!!!

[Lisa_VA]

Our beautiful Alessandra is 10.5 weeks old and the girl turns into the worst alligator/shark mouth ever! I mean, I expected to deal with it as she is a puppy, but I cannot get her to chill. I worry because she’s not getting any smaller and I need to gain control of the situation. My husband can stop her and we had a trainer come over last weekend for 2 hours and she listened to her wonderfully. I try to implement the tactics she taught us but the girl will not listen to me! Is it too early to be expecting so much or do I need to work harder at nipping her nipping ()? Thanks!

 

[kingmark]

Our beautiful Alessandra is 10.5 weeks old and the girl turns into the worst alligator/shark mouth ever! I mean, I expected to deal with it as she is a puppy, but I cannot get her to chill. I worry because she’s not getting any smaller and I need to gain control of the situation. My husband can stop her and we had a trainer come over last weekend for 2 hours and she listened to her wonderfully. I try to implement the tactics she taught us but the girl will not listen to me! Is it too early to be expecting so much or do I need to work harder at nipping her nipping ()? Thanks!View attachment 62680

Welcome to forum alessandra and her people Well i know exactly about aligator period my girl was also like that for some straight 3-4 months especially when her teeth were growing she went so wild that only peace and time for myself i had was when she was sleeping so my advice would be a lot of patience redirection and correction and she will grow out of it you dont have to worry but prepare the worst is yet to come when her teeth start falling and growing take care of your cute alessandra with patience and all that will be rewarding. Btw you could post some more pics of little aligator

 

[Boxergirl]

No way! No way that beautiful, sweet little girl is doing these things you're saying. Or is that her innocent face?

The worst nipper I had was my boxer Al. He was a singleton whose mom had complications and he was away from her for a period of time. He learned zero bite inhibition and he ended up coming to me early. One of his nicknames was Al E. Gator. I worked very hard teaching him bite inhibition. The goal isn't to teach puppy to never put teeth on you. They're a dog. Eventually something could happen where they will put teeth on someone. The goal is to teach them to have a soft mouth/bite inhibition. That way if it does happen that the dog inadvertently puts their mouth on someone, they don't bite down and cause injury. Here are a couple of links for the techniques I used. There are also some really good books. Puppy Start Right and Control Unleashed: Puppy Program are just a couple. Oh! Social, Civil, and Savvy. That's a good one too.

**Remember, alternate behaviors are your friend and it's always easier to teach the few things you DO want rather than stop all the things you don't want. Most of those "don't" behaviors can't be practiced if the dog has an alternate behavior.**

https://www.clickertraining.com/bite-inhibition-training

https://www.clickertraining.com/puppy-nipping

 

[Lisa_VA]

Thanks for the encouragement and assurance! I will check out those links as well. We’ve had to just put everyone in timeout sometimes because she gets too bitey and overstimulated. Good to know there is a light at the end of the tunnel for sure!!! Lol

 

[Doc]

Don’t you just wish they made knives as sharp as puppy teeth. She’s beautiful enjoy her. You got good advice in the prior posts. Everyone forgets that the puppy stuff eventually stops when repetitive training is applied.

 

[Francesca]

As I reply I'm looking at marks on my hand that puppy teeth created!

Patience and more patience.

My girl is almost 4 months and everything is tested with her mouth! I trained her to sit while spoon feeding her canned puppy food so that when I catch her in the act doing what I don't approve of, I give the sit command , she stops to sit then she gets lots of praise. But even just playing fetch if her little puppy teeth catch you they cut like razors!

She has time out (crate her until she's calm) when she gets crazy and when I say crazy I mean it. She seems to get a kick out attack mode and will get puppy crazy attack mode if I don't keep her in check. The key to mine is catching her before she gets to that point and making her settle down. I don't show her praise or attention until she's in the calm mode. when you go to pet her and she mouths tell her no! Get up and stop paying attention to her. Make sure she realizes that when she bites , she will not get your attention. Mine has never done it with my husband, I guess he looks to dominate. But she did it with me and still does it with anyone she thinks she can take advantage of.

Now that she's older she knows I don't like her biting and if I growl "AT" in a mean voice she immediately stops. Naturally she'll start back again if she thinks she can get away with it so I have to be consistent without fail. Also keep her at a lower level than you. don't put her on your lap , up in your face or in a high position teaching her she's your equal. Its also not a good idea to play tug of war with her because when you drop the toy she thinks she won and puts you in a lower status in her mind. Try fetch or taking a little walk sniffing out things for play time.With Dominate nature dogs it's important that they know you are top dog. You know the saying, give an inch and they'll take a mile! It's great to praise and love her but stay consistent with what you allow and don't allow her to do or she'll get mixed signals and not know what you expect.

Patience, patience, patience. It will get better with consistency so don't throw the towel in yet.

 

[Nik]

My boy Diesel was a crocodile /shark as a puppy. He was taken from his mom too early and never learned bite inhibition. We tried all the things with him. But, what finally worked was when we ran into another puppy in his puppy preschool that was just as much a crocodile as he was. Somehow it connected in his mind that he didn't like it when that other puppy nipped him and from that moment on he had the softest mouth ever. I know that probably isn't very useful advise for you at the moment. But luckily there was a lot of other good advice up there.

Oh and your puppy is sooo soo adorable.

 

[Francesca]

My boy Diesel was a crocodile /shark as a puppy. He was taken from his mom too early and never learned bite inhibition. We tried all the things with him. But, what finally worked was when we ran into another puppy in his puppy preschool that was just as much a crocodile as he was. Somehow it connected in his mind that he didn't like it when that other puppy nipped him and from that moment on he had the softest mouth ever. I know that probably isn't very useful advise for you at the moment. But luckily there was a lot of other good advice up there.

Oh and your puppy is sooo soo adorable.

That is a good point. Maybe a play date to teach her manners. LOL!

 

[Lisa_VA]

Hi all I haven’t posted since asking advice on this thread. Just an update now. She has definitely grown out of biting and boy am I glad that is over!!! She’s now on to just trying to eat everything just like a toddler lol. I can deal with this and honestly it feels like nothing compared to feeling like shark bait! We did put her in day care a few days a week due to a myriad of scheduling issues but that seemed to have helped tremendously! She got in trouble a few times for playing too rough but she’s learning great life skills and socializing so much. Here are some updated photos. The girl is now 7 months and 67 lbs as of Sept 8. She thinks she’s 5 lbs

 

[Nik]

Aww she is still just so adorable and sweet. I am glad to hear that you are no longer shark bait!

 

[timmy59]

She looks awesome, always was a sucker for fawn.. She also looks very sweet while she's sleeping lol..Our pup is about 15 weeks now and going thru the same stage.. There was 1 day when I wasn't home from work for 2 minutes before I was bleeding lol.. I found that always having a toy of sorts would keep the teeth from me.. And a toy is about anything..