Speaking of dogs....

R

red_mct

Cathlete
I have a five-month old Pug who is absolutely adorable. We are crate-training and using positive reinforcement for training and he is doing really well for the most part... however, he is BITING everything and everyone, and this makes it very difficult to be around him. After he comes out of the crate, I immediately walk him. (I walk him several times a day, actually.) We also play with him and talk to him regularly so he is getting attention. We give him chew toys... but he just seems inclined to bite the crap out of me. I use the "No Bite" command and give him something else to chew on, but this seems to be getting worse.

Does anyone have advice about how to get him to stop? How do you know if it is just teething or aggressive behavior?

Feedback appreciated!

Thanks,
Marie
 
http://www.dogpatch.org/training/biting.html

This might be helpful to you. I have no idea what a Biter Apple is, or whatever that was.

In the past, usually just giving them something else to chew on worked well enough. I like the idea of yelping and then refusing to play with them for a while. That sounds like it is worth a try!

Good luck!

Missy
 
All I can suggest is to tell him no and stop him when he bites. That's what we did with our dog over and over and over until he got the point...and eventually he did.

Sounds like it's just normal puppy behavior to me, not aggression. Puppies LOOOOVE to bite and chew on EVERYTHING!!!

HTH. :)
 
Bitter Apple is a liquid you can put on things you don't want your dog to chew. It supposedly tastes bad to them but it didn't seem to bother my dog (a lab). I agree that it is probably normal puppy behavior and you can use the training process to let him know it's not acceptable. I also think he will outgrow it. He is probably losing his baby teeth right about now. When he bites, say no and immediately offer him a chew or something else he is allowed to bite.

--Lois


"If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning" - Mahatma Ghandi
 
Something quick to try. When he bites you "yelp" - high pitched! It works like a miracle for some pups but it works best when they are very young - he may be too old already. When young pups are play fighting that is how they learn their strength - when one of them yelps they know enough is enough. Most pups will stop and either move away or begin to lick. Try it a time or two, if on the other hand he attacks harder you may have a dominance issue that needs addressing when he's young. Let me know what he does.

Trish

http://www.dogshow.ca/images/running-dog.gif
 
A couple of sugestions:

1. Lower the tone of your voice and in a very deep voice, say "nnoooooo" when she bites. Stop speaking immediately when she lets go.

2. When my dog was a pup, she did a lot of nipping. We would very lightly & quickly tap her nose and say "Noooo" in a deep voice. It was the kind of tap that she never saw coming but it would stop her dead in her tracks and make her think for a second. I have had several people tell me that they didn't think that this was a good method but it worked wonders for her and stopped her completely in a couple of weeks.

3. Another thing that I did with my male dog that everyone thinks is the greatest thing since sliced bread...when he used to come up and stick his nose in my face (like if I were laying on the couch and he was eye level with me) is to lightly blow on his nose. I didn't use my voice at all, didn't touch him, just blew on his nose. He would back off and lay down (and scratch his nose hee hee!) and then I would tell him "good boy." This might work for your little guy b/c it will break his attention and stop the bite. It still works like a charm with my boy and its the greatest method b/c there is no yelling, no contact, nothing but he does exactly what I wanted.

good Luck:)
Christine
 
Oh Marie you are so in for a treat! I can't give you much advice on the teething thing except give him plenty of rawhide. But I have a 4 year old pug & I won't lie to you & tell you they're calm, nonaggressive dogs, but they are so affectionate & full of personality it doesn't matter.

I'm kind of jealous of you--I remember when Max was a baby & boy do I miss those times! He was such a cute little thing.
 
Definitely dogs love to bite!! Pugs are very excited dogs too. I have one she is 4. The older she gets the more calm. She still loves to play and gets very excited. But she is so darn ugly she's cute!
 
That's what puppies do. He'll outgrow it, but make sure he has lots of things that it's OK for him to chew. Rawhides, etc. I had the same fear with my dog when he was a puppy, mostly because he's a German Shepherd/pit bull, so I was very nervous about aggressiveness. He grew up to be extremely unaggressive.
 
I'd do one of two things. Probably #2 since he is older and should be way beyond this biting stage.

1. YELP and FREEZE. No interaction when he bites.

2. Give him an unemotional time out when he bites. If he bites, he "wins" a trip to the crate. No yelling, no screaming, no noise, no bad feelings. Just off to the crate you go for 30 seconds.

Also at what age was he brought home? Often times when a pup leaves the litter too soon, they do not learn bite inhibition. Mother and other pups teach pups many important life lessons through weeks 8 and 9 at least.

Colleen
 
Marie -

I love that you're using positive reinforcement to train your dog. It's by far the best way to have a happy, well adjusted dog. Please be assured that biting at 5 months is very common, and you can train your dog not to bite pretty easily. The thing to remember about dogs, is that they do what works for them. If a behavior gets him food, attention (even the wrong kind of attention - such as "Hey, don't do that - that hurts! - you're getting all excited and you are unintentionally rewarding him) you are reinforcing it. When he bites, yelp - just as many have already suggested - then immediately turn away from him and ignore him for a few minutes. The yelp tells him in "dog language" that he bit too hard. Ignoring him tells him that he is not going to get rewarded for biting too hard. Believe me, this worked wonders for my mouthy 5 month old Australian Shepherd. He's now 3 years old, is a certified search dog, and is one of the gentlest animals I know. Even if you put your hand in his mouth, he does not bite.

Just FYI - this is the best way to train a dog not to jump on your when you get home, too. If you push him off, he thinks you're playing (you're rewarding the behavior). If you turn your back and ignore him until he sits quietly, you're telling him that you will greet him only when he's calm.

And yes, I've done a lot of dog training. I love dogs - they are so much smarter than we give them credit for. My Aussie is smarter than I am (at least I don't lick myself in public!)
 
>Marie -
>
>
>Just FYI - this is the best way to train a dog not to jump on
>your when you get home, too. If you push him off, he thinks
>you're playing (you're rewarding the behavior). If you turn
>your back and ignore him until he sits quietly, you're telling
>him that you will greet him only when he's calm.
>
>
Hello out there from another positive clicker trainer :)

Just as added info, ignoring behaviors like jumping, nipping work pretty well most of the time. The only time it fails is if the behavior itself is self-rewarding. I've seen this occasionally with jumping, and personally with a barker that I have. Igorning the self-rewarding barking doesn't work because she's already rewarding herself.

Colleen
 
Self-rewarding barking, hmmm, I should do that in the office. LOL

Sorry, it is a BAD DAY!

Anyway, thanks for all of your advice, I am going to try some of this out tonight. The thing is, he is such a CUTE bugger! :7

Cheers,
Marie
 
Oh those pugs! I have a puggle (a pug/beagle mix) and she has so much personality it's crazy. We did the yelp thing and that worked pretty well. We also did the "time-out" with her. She is so sociable that she hated being seperated from us. She still plays with us and she puts her mouth around our hands, but she never bites down and if she does start to get a little rough, all I have to do is say OUCH, and she lets go and rolls over on her back (I don't know why she does that, but it is really funny!) Anyway, I agree with the others, give her lots of chew toys and chew bones.
Be careful with leaving your little one home alone too long too. I've read that pugs are very social dogs and when left alone they get distructive. Our little one chewed a hole in our couch one day (she was about 7 months old). Now we lock her in the kitchen when we leave so she can't destroy anything! Good Luck!!
 
Wow, did the yelping work like a charm!! I only had to do it a couple of times and Leo was so startled he backed right off. Ok, well, the first time sounded more like an "ow" than a yelp, lol. Anyway, he spent the night lying on the couch next to me happily chewing his rawhide and NOT my hands! It felt so good!

Thanks to all for your terrific advice and help. I suspect we will have to do this for a while but it definitely seemed to work!

Thanks again,
Marie
 
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