My Major Is Teething Badly And I Need Some Advice!
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MajorsMommy
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My Major Is Teething Badly And I Need Some Advice!
Our New Puppy Major, Is Teething Very Badly, And I Could Use Some Advice Please, He Chews On EVERYTHING Including US!! It Gets To The Point That He Actually Tears Open Our Skin. He's 9 Weeks Old, Black/Silver German Shephard, I Tried The Clicker Method, I've Tried Telling Him No..Now Am On The Time Out Where If He Doesnt Listen To Us, He Gets Baby Gated In The Kitchen Area For 5 Minutes To Show Him That His Behaviour Has To Stop And Then He's Let Back Into The Room With Everyone, If He Repeats The Chewing On Us, Or The Furniture Etc. He Is Then Yet Again Put Back Into The Kitchen, This Seems To Work For Awhile, But Then When You Get Up To Walk, He Will Try and Bite At Your Legs, If Anyone Has Any Suggestions How I Can Help Him As I Know He Is Truly Hurting, I would Appreciate It, I do give him Ice, And He Has his teething Keys, And Toys etc...I Dont Want Him to have to much rawhide or anything, But if there is something else I Can give him, I would greatly appreciate any suggestions...Thank you all so very much, He will be starting obedience school after the first of the year so we are trying our best until then. God Bless...Tam!
Live each day to it's fullest, Love All Creatures, Judge not, and Count each blessing no matter how big or small..In His Love, Tam
Ahh. Not only do you have a PUPPY but a GSD puppy! They are VERY oral. You have to puppy proof your house as much as possible! Remember that pups explore the world with their mouths, just like human babies.
Puppy teeth are sharp and short for a reason..so they can cause pain without too much damage. When two puppies play together and one bites too hard it causes the other pup to yelp and play stops momentarily. This is how they learn bite inhibition. Sometimes, if they are particularly oral or if they are taken from their littermates too early (before 8 weeks or so) they may have not learned proper bite inhibition.
When he chews on something he shouldn't (say furniture for example) say "uhuh" or "no" (not too harshly...) and give him the RIGHT thing to chew. Keep his mouth busy that way, time outs are fine but five minutes is too long for a pup of his age. Literally seconds is better. He nips you, yelp or say "OW" in a relatively sharp and high voice and then remove yourself from the pup for a few seconds..then go back and try again. You will have to do this about a million zillion times lol.
Even better, if you know any other pups his age in your neighbourhood that are healthy get together for a puppy play date and let them learn a bit more about healthy play.
Otherwise..just keep working on it. If you are consistent and don't allow him to play with your hands etc too much you should make progress. Please keep in mind this is all normal puppy behaviour. If you don't want to wait for puppy classes you can always get a personal visit from a good positive reinforcement trainer to show you how to get a good head start with him.
Puppy teeth are sharp and short for a reason..so they can cause pain without too much damage. When two puppies play together and one bites too hard it causes the other pup to yelp and play stops momentarily. This is how they learn bite inhibition. Sometimes, if they are particularly oral or if they are taken from their littermates too early (before 8 weeks or so) they may have not learned proper bite inhibition.
When he chews on something he shouldn't (say furniture for example) say "uhuh" or "no" (not too harshly...) and give him the RIGHT thing to chew. Keep his mouth busy that way, time outs are fine but five minutes is too long for a pup of his age. Literally seconds is better. He nips you, yelp or say "OW" in a relatively sharp and high voice and then remove yourself from the pup for a few seconds..then go back and try again. You will have to do this about a million zillion times lol.
Even better, if you know any other pups his age in your neighbourhood that are healthy get together for a puppy play date and let them learn a bit more about healthy play.
Otherwise..just keep working on it. If you are consistent and don't allow him to play with your hands etc too much you should make progress. Please keep in mind this is all normal puppy behaviour. If you don't want to wait for puppy classes you can always get a personal visit from a good positive reinforcement trainer to show you how to get a good head start with him.
Maggi Burtt
Tailspin Petworx
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Tailspin Petworx
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In addition to the other great replies you have already had...
You cannot eliminate a natural, instinctive behaviour like this (ie something the puppy NEEDS to do) completely, to try and do so would result in some seriously bad side effects..
I say this because although it may seem obvious, it really helps if you can first clarify in your mind (and everyone who will handle the pup) exactly what you wish to achieve.
This is one reason why just providing an unrewarding consequence such as a time out is not going to work..... not on its own.
The other reason nothing is currently working is because as each thing has 'failed' (in your perception) to work... you have tried something else.. so theres no consistencey here.
If a/ your pup has a ton of encouragement to chew really fun, rewarding, appropriate things (kongs with food in them, raw meaty bones, a variety of dog toys [get loads and rotate them so they remain 'novel' and interesting] so not only does he have the outlet to chew but in eating he HAS to chew (very natural and necessary even for adult humans, its really hard to live on a liquid diet!)...
AND b/ his attempts to chew on inappropriate items are firstly prevented (put things away, deny him access to them), thwarted (learn the signs that he is about to find something to chew and distract him with something better) and FINALLY, (least 'useful' as a learning/teaching method) he is given a short, quick time out (where he is removed from the room for 30 seconds, 1 minute, without any verbal communication or body language from you to confuse the issue)..
and c/ you and everyone he spends time ith sticks to this regime as religiously as possible (so everyone is consistent)..for as long as it takes (and it will take weeks, probably months for him to totally stop)..
Then he will quit doing it.
For things like going for trousers/feet/flappy socks/sleeves - tuck trousers into socks in the house and wear shoes, meaning when he goes for your feet/ankles you CAN stand stock still, stare at the ceiling, effectively making his action (which is normal and usually results in you leaping around and yelling OW and generally being TOP fun for puppies) the opposite of what he expected (so now its not an ON switch for the dancey bitey yelly game... its an OFF switch for any kind of interaction/attention/fun).
Again providing plenty of suitable chewing/biting games will reduce his need to do this.
It is also at this age where you need to teach him which kinds of touching with his mouth are appropriate and acceptable, and which are not, so play raggy with him.. if teeth bite onto skin, game instantly ends. If teeth merely touch skin game can continue - a dog who has a soft mouth and understands that a gentle touch is fine but a hard uncontrolled bite is not... is a much safer dog (because teaching him to NEVER use his mouth is like teaching a kid to NEVER use his hands... not possible!).
Hth...
Em
You cannot eliminate a natural, instinctive behaviour like this (ie something the puppy NEEDS to do) completely, to try and do so would result in some seriously bad side effects..
I say this because although it may seem obvious, it really helps if you can first clarify in your mind (and everyone who will handle the pup) exactly what you wish to achieve.
This is one reason why just providing an unrewarding consequence such as a time out is not going to work..... not on its own.
The other reason nothing is currently working is because as each thing has 'failed' (in your perception) to work... you have tried something else.. so theres no consistencey here.
If a/ your pup has a ton of encouragement to chew really fun, rewarding, appropriate things (kongs with food in them, raw meaty bones, a variety of dog toys [get loads and rotate them so they remain 'novel' and interesting] so not only does he have the outlet to chew but in eating he HAS to chew (very natural and necessary even for adult humans, its really hard to live on a liquid diet!)...
AND b/ his attempts to chew on inappropriate items are firstly prevented (put things away, deny him access to them), thwarted (learn the signs that he is about to find something to chew and distract him with something better) and FINALLY, (least 'useful' as a learning/teaching method) he is given a short, quick time out (where he is removed from the room for 30 seconds, 1 minute, without any verbal communication or body language from you to confuse the issue)..
and c/ you and everyone he spends time ith sticks to this regime as religiously as possible (so everyone is consistent)..for as long as it takes (and it will take weeks, probably months for him to totally stop)..
Then he will quit doing it.
For things like going for trousers/feet/flappy socks/sleeves - tuck trousers into socks in the house and wear shoes, meaning when he goes for your feet/ankles you CAN stand stock still, stare at the ceiling, effectively making his action (which is normal and usually results in you leaping around and yelling OW and generally being TOP fun for puppies) the opposite of what he expected (so now its not an ON switch for the dancey bitey yelly game... its an OFF switch for any kind of interaction/attention/fun).
Again providing plenty of suitable chewing/biting games will reduce his need to do this.
It is also at this age where you need to teach him which kinds of touching with his mouth are appropriate and acceptable, and which are not, so play raggy with him.. if teeth bite onto skin, game instantly ends. If teeth merely touch skin game can continue - a dog who has a soft mouth and understands that a gentle touch is fine but a hard uncontrolled bite is not... is a much safer dog (because teaching him to NEVER use his mouth is like teaching a kid to NEVER use his hands... not possible!).
Hth...
Em
