Foot Biting

Hi guys.

As this is my first puppy guys i really want to gut this right so i am asking if any of you guys can help.

My pup is really funny and playful and outgoing, he came from a loving family pet and his Dad is well renowned for being a cheeky and loving Dog. I bought a book called the Perfect puppy, it is a really good book and seems to be working on every issue so far except the biting one.

As he is a Rottwieller i would like to get him out of the habit of biting for fun ASAP.

The Book says if he is biting your hand trying to play..make a fist and distract him with a Toy, This sort of works when we are talking about hands, but as i am not a chimpanzee i cant make my foot into a fist and distract him with a toy, i tried spraying my foot with this Foul tasting stuff you get from the petshop to stop chewing of anything but he just licked it off!!!

the thing with this book i bought is that in the pictures all the pups look around 3 months old that they are training , is this anything to do with it as he is 7wks and 4 days??

Any suggestions guys??

Thx

When your puppy is engaging in behavior you don't like, don't reinforce him for it. In other words, his reinforcement is you playing with him and giving him attention. Get up and end all playtime abruptly when he bites you. Get up and walk away. If he follows you and bites while you're walking, you'll have to distract him and give him something else to chew on. If this doesn't work and he walks behind you biting, you'll need to socially isolate him (gently and calmly put him in his crate, not as punishment, not with anger, just matter of factly...."Ok...time for a time out" for 2 or 3 minutes and then try again.) You have to let him know that when he bites, you won't play....the fun ends. When he mouths your hand gently, I'd go ahead and continue patting him. This is because I believe in teaching bite inhibition....teaching him to have a soft mouth. Later, you can eliminate the mouthing unless you invite him to play that way. But at the slightest sign of pressure, anything close to hurting your skin, abruptly end all attention.

thanks Doberluv i will give that a go, sounds good.

i think i may be asking a little too much from a 7 week old dog, its just that he is going to grow up a big dog and i would rather try and get his bad mouth habits out of him ASAP

Anyways thx

It won't happen overnight. Like you say, he's very young and this is how they explore since they don't opposable thumbs. LOL. They also get into that teething stage. And in addition, it's all part of the practice for the "hunt and kill." LOL. It takes time and consistancy from everyone who interacts with him. He'll be fine. It is good indeed to start now. It helps too, to give him enough romping outside and some lessons on sit, come, down etc. Do a search for that. When he learns some skills, you can use them as an alternative to undesireable behavior. Like say, he's jumping up on you. When he learns "sit," you can cue that before he's about to jump up and he'll learn that he gets goodies and attention for sitting nicely for greetings and patting. And that jumping up will get him none of those things. You don't need to use aversives, (that just gets in the way of training, IMO) just make sure he doesn't get a payoff for stuff you don't like and give him an alternative thing to do which he can be rewarded for.

What breed is he? Any pictures? I bet he's cute.

Good luck.

he is a Rottwieller and yes he is really Cute.

I have pictures but no way of hosting them as a URL

when i get a little time i will try and find a freehot site

You should be able to put them straight onto here. If you have them in your computer (my pictures) or whatever, you can go to the top of this page to Pictures and upload them into your gallery which you create. I don't post my pictures from photo bucket or anywhere. I just upload them into my gallery and then copy the url onto a post. If you need more help, let us know.

A Rotti. How cute. They really are little fluff balls. My vet tech had a litter and she brought one in the office when Lyric was just about 3 months old. We were exclaiming how her Rotti had that cute, fluffy, pudgy puppy look and Lyric looked just like an adult Doberman (almost) but smaller. He was lean, nothing fluff ball about him. LOL. Of course, they're both adorable. But I'd love to see some pictures.

Well...best of luck with him.