Gundog Training Forum

Hi All,

Buster, ESS, is 11 weeks on 27th. We brought him home on Friday and was as good as gold, eating well and peeing and pooing.

He's got into this habit today of biting me. It's getting annoying. I know he wants to play and we have all sorts of puppy chew toys for him but he's becoming less interested in them and more interested in biting me.

How can I stop this before it becomes normal behaviour?

Many thanks

It will not become normal behaviour - it is normal behaviour in an 11 week old puppy - it is a key way of communicating with you ... like holding your hand.

See this thread - and in particular Vicky's recommendation in the second post ... viewtopic.php?f=6&t=16645&p=190349&hili ... on#p190349

Cathy

puppies explore the world with their mouths. its what puppies do because they dont have hands ..........

Talk doggy talk to him.

Growl at him with your bestest gruff voice.
Don't give him a toy when he bites you or you have just taught him that the nip gets him an award.
Gently shake him by the scruff of the neck.

This is how litter mates interact in the whelping pen.

It does stop. Eric, my daughters GWP used to bite when he was a young pup and, although it took a while, he did stop. Remember pups will also bite when they're teething.

I had one that took till nearly 4 months old to stop it. She was dreadful. I was frustrated but not concerned by it because I knew it would stop eventually, and eventually I realised it had just stopped because nobody in the house was doing anything to encourage or reinforce it. No need to do anything else really...

Oddly enough we had another one that was nearly as bad a few years ago, neither had had a huge amount of humanisation prior to us collecting them at 7-8 weeks old. I have wondered if that's the key but the cocker I currently have was ok. He hadn't had much handling either and was 9 weeks old when I got him so maybe there's nothing in that theory.

My sprocker is 5 months now and until reading this I had forgotten that he did bite, but it just got less and less then disappeared , I have a 15 month old son and a 2 1/2 year old daughter and he is more likely to lick them now