Puppy nipping...

My youngest Lab is 4 1/2 months old. He weighs 54 lbs. There is no way that I'm going to scruff him or slam a door in his face. He may look like a big boy, but he's still a pup and learning. He still nips...it's a puppy thing. He gets excited and will bite further up the toy than he's supposed to and may nip a finger or part of my hand. He's told, "Gunner! No bite." I look at him with my eyebrows drawn down and my head turned sideways so I'm looking at him "angrily". He will stop what he's doing, look at me and (sometimes) offer a paw. We stop playing for a minute and then I pick up the toy and offer it to him so he can continue playing.
You don't need to do anything "physical" to prove you are dominant. Stern voice and look, a gesture, redirect attention, walk out of the room for a minute or turn your back on him and ignore him for a minute.

[Zephyrpower]

I've heard a lot of people say to hold their mouth shut and say "NO Bite" or "Bad Dog" then redirect their attention to something else like a toy that they like.


But Like a lot of people, my experience started out as a puppy that just came back trying to bite harder. I'm still using that method but it seems to have limited effectiveness, sometimes he'll submit and lay flat on his belly and barely make an effort to bite me when I pull my hand away....other times he dodges me and seems to think it's still a game, either way he usually ingores me saying "No"!
I've also been combing that exercise with waving around a Kong on a rope or some other distraction and playing tug of war with it. I was almost afraid that would cause him to continue playing rough but I just found this article

http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/archives/bite.txt

I think I might trying doing this instead of holding his mouth shut. I'm not sure is this is a good method and I hope I haven't caused any permanent potential problems but I think I'm going to start using the above mentioned idea on the link and the other ideas in this thread.

Also, just out of curiousity, I have a German/Lab mix and I'm wondering how long it usually takes them to respond to this training and stop biting on a regular basis?

[colliewog]

Can you let the littermates play together daily? There are things they learn from litter mates that you cannot duplicate. If you bite too hard or too much, the other pup will do one of two things: (1) stop playing or (2) bite you back!