Biting puppy

[Rohan]

So I have a bitey puppy when he gets the zoomies and I understand this is completely normal puppy behaviour. we are working on it by redirecting him to toys and getting him to use a gentle mouth. but I get really frustrated when strangers or family friend come to him and get him fired up and then get mad when he nips and then they try to give him a swat or hold his mouth shut to which he always responds by escalating his biting. He seems to make great progress with our techniques and then takes a step backward when they do this. I try to explain that that doesn't work for our dog and that's not how we are training him but they seem to think its no big deal, Anyone else have this issue with friends? How did you address it? Besides holding their mouth shut

 

[CaneRocco]

How old is your puppy? I am essentially in the same position that you are. There are certain people that I have decided simply not to bring my puppy around until he is better trained. Rocco is about 14 weeks and I no longer allow him around my brothers family because they always smack him when he gets mouthy. They also have a household full of poorly behaved and downright mean cats and dogs (yes, even their cats are mean).

What methods are you working with to prevent the bitey behavior?

 

[Rohan]

He's 15 weeks old. We've been redirecting him to toys or when playing with him and he bites to hard we stand up and give him a firm no while using the look at me command. He is really catching on well when it's just us but struggles when others come over because when he gives a nip they try to give him a little swat and then for the next day he doesn't trust any hands coming near his face. I think I'll just have to avoid those people I guess, but it's frustrating because I'd like to be able to socialize him with the people he'll see the most.

 

[keeley&donna]

We just tell people how we want them to behave around dog and what to do if he does something wrong. Our family and friends go along with what we ask as we have explained that if they dont and he bites them when his fully grown they wont find it so cute:scared2:
As for how we approach the biting, which theres a fair bit of...we tried yelping, he bit harder, tried yelping, geting up and walking away...he would attach himself to your trousers, tried telling him a firm NO and leavin room for 15 secs and also another time we left it til he cried for us...didnt happen..instead he pulled tablecloth off table or got up to other mischief!
Soooo now what is working slowly but surely is doggie timeout. As soon as he bites we say Ah Ah No bite...an he removes teeth...this is happens now mainly when he gets over excited or over tired. If he ignores us we say timeout and take him to kitchen with gate up an wait for a bit then go greet him with Hi Cas come on lets play and fun carries on. However at 1st as soon as he bit we said ah ah no bite then took him to timeout so he new it was the biting that got him sent to timeout.
Hope this helps

 

[Rugers-Kris]

Personally, I do not allow anyone else to correct my dogs or even give them basic commands and if anyone attempted to grab my dog, swat him or hold his mouth shut they would be "grabbed" as well. However, you are the owner and responsible for his behavior around guests so I would not allow them to interact with him if they refuse to follow your directives. I am a bit harsher as I would not allow anyone into my home that would go against my training techniques especially with a puppy that is young and easily confused.

If it is necessary to have these people in your home, leash your pup and use it as a good training tool to teach how to greet appropriately and stay calm.

 

[Rohan]

Great advise as always Kris!! I never thought to turn it into a training tool! that way he'll know how to properly greet all people and they won't get a chance to rile him up!! Thank you I'll try that for sure!

 

[DennasMom]

We've never run into this - I guess we're lucky!
I would have a toy handy and hand that to the person upfront, telling them to "stuff this in his mouth if he gets too mouthy". So they don't have the option of using any unapproved techniques.

And, I would also intervene if things got overly excited... that is a good time to reinforce the 'safe' word... we use "gentle" or "careful" around here to indicate that Denna is 'out of bounds' and needs to calm down. She's pretty good at listening to that, now, but it does take lots of consistent application of the word.

Using the situation as a time to work on calm greetings is a GREAT idea.

Of course, some people just can't help but rile up a puppy... they're SO CUTE!

 

[Rohan]

He does well with gentle most of the time so that should work too and we will hang a toy right by the door that they can stuff into his mouth. This is our first mastiff and I would be lost without the advise on this site. It was shocking to see the difference in raising a mastiff as compared to other dogs.

 

[HecatesKeeper]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but can someone explain why holding their mouth shut is bad?