You may remember my earlier posts about how young my pup, Max (yes we've finally settled on a name) was just over 5 weeks when we got him. We've been battling his uninhibited biting for the last three weeks and are finally making headway.
I tried the "yip" technique and he couldn't have cared less. I could have yipped until my throat was sore and my hands and clothes nibbled to death by those sharp, puppy teeth. What finally seems to be working is a combination of 3 things. I talked to my local trainer and she suggested setting him up with no-bite lessons by covering my hands/arms in something really foul like hot sauce, lemon juice or bitters. Being a spicy food lover I had plenty of hot sauce available to soak myself in. I then sat on the floor and when he jumped over to start biting he took a couple of different nibbles while I said No firmly. He stopped biting and sat down at my side looking confused. I've done the hot sauce trick twice in the last week. Seems like I won't have to do it anymore.
The next time he bit I said a firm no and left him alone in the play area we have fenced in our living room. He was much calmer when I came back in.
The last thing I did was keeping a squirt bottle handy when my 3 year old is with us in the play area. Max likes to bite at my son's legs and shirt. I say no and squirt him. All this has made a huge difference. He's much calmer and the biting has dropped to much lower levels. That's the good experience that I wanted to share with you.
