How to correct a nippy bitey puppy and establish a pack heiarchy in your home.

[Pitts]

1) What if they continue to try and nip and bite you while you grab them??

2) Also what if you let them go, and they immediately go to try and bite you again??
.

What I have been doing in these situations is 1) to basically try and move may hand to a point where she cant get me (she will try). I wont full pick her up, but I will lift up more and more until it gets harder for her to try and turn her head and nip at me. 2) I will grab her as many times as she tries to go after me. We will do it 50x in a row if need be.

good questions,
well first if they continue to try and bite you when you grab them, then you arent being forceful enough unfortunatley, you must grab them and make them "uncomfortable", and force them still and say NO firmly, then redirect them with a toy or object that you allow them to bite and chew. This will teach them that biting and chewing is ok, but ONLY when directed to the proper items that they are allowed to bite and chew.

---------- Post added at 12:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:27 PM ----------

You could also head alot of that naughty behavior off at the pass by noting what time of day she is most bitey and take her out and channel it into a bitey game before she starts getting fixated. I use a longe whip for horses with a wooley toy tied to the tassle as a lure. Then I drag it across the ground and let my boy pounce bite and kill the toy until properly tired. Once back home I can give him a bully stick or a cow hoof and get some peace everytime. By scheduling regular activities my boy (now 5 months) has a very active and reliable life that aims to provide for all of his primal needs as well as training for good doggie citizenship. He is not a bitey guy... despite my recent thread meant to be very tongue in cheek. Teufel has a very soft mouth for a five month old and much prefers his toys to my hands anyday. I think in many ways Doberman puppies are like kids with ADHD, sometimes they are just fine with negative or positive interactions as long as they get your attention. Like von C says: a tired dobe is a happy dobe... oh, and Train em up! There is a tremendous amount of truth and wisdom to those few words.
below is a picture of the Flirt pole (horse whip with toy attached) game we play

Edit to add: To the OP everyone is giving great advice. Pitts is a very experienced trainer with a great deal of insight. My post is intended as a supplemental idea for further management not a subsitute for a fair correction.

Thanks so much for the kind words, they are appreciated,
and I LOVE the flirt pole, we use them all the time in training, they are an excellent way to work a puppy, and to build prey/toy drive in a young dog. or even an adult dog without much toy drive.
great work on your part, and keep it up.

 

[Sammi's Dad]

good questions,
well first if they continue to try and bite you when you grab them, then you arent being forceful enough unfortunatley, you must grab them and make them "uncomfortable", and force them still and say NO firmly, then redirect them with a toy or object that you allow them to bite and chew. This will teach them that biting and chewing is ok, but ONLY when directed to the proper items that they are allowed to bite and chew.

Thanks for the response Pitt, but could you go more into depth on the second question?? What should I do when she get on these little tantrums where she will bite me, and I pull her away over and over and over?? Sometime she just seems like she is hell bent on biting me, and no matter how stern I am, or how many times I pull her away she goes for me again.

 

[Pitts]

Thanks for the response Pitt, but could you go more into depth on the second question?? What should I do when she get on these little tantrums where she will bite me, and I pull her away over and over and over?? Sometime she just seems like she is hell bent on biting me, and no matter how stern I am, or how many times I pull her away she goes for me again.

Well, you correct her by grabbing her and stopping her ability to bite you while saying NO sternly, then grab a toy and redirect the biting to the toy and praise her for the play. This should help.

 

[Sammi's Dad]

Well, you correct her by grabbing her and stopping her ability to bite you while saying NO sternly, then grab a toy and redirect the biting to the toy and praise her for the play. This should help.

Thanks for all of your replies. That is pretty much what I do. I am just as persistent about it as she is. I will usually end up redirecting her, and win out.

There is an update to this situation tho. When she has gets on one of her tantrums where she is just trying to bite me. She will ignore her toys and everything, and just come at me. I have been grabbing her by the scruff, telling her no, and she will eventually get the point. Over the past two days when she has done this and I start to grab her, instead of acting submissive and whining like usual, it seems like it is pissing her off. I kept grabbing her over and over, because she kept coming at me, and finally she jumped back, lowered her head, and gave me a mean growl. It didnt seem like she was playing anymore, it seemed different. Is this normal? what should I do?

 

[Zeus]

great post,thanks for sharing it!

 

[Pitts]

I am very glad you like the post Zeus, I hope that it helps you in the coming months for you and your pup.
If you ever have questions then please feel free to ask, we are here to help.

 

[Lostris]

Thank you so much for this post, Pitts. I got a 9 week old doberman pup (named Lostris). She is really smart. I got her just a week back and she has already learnt 'Sit'. I am having problems with her nipping and biting and reading all the posts here, really helped! Am glad I found this Forum.

 

[MyBuddy]

We're glad you joined, Lostris! with you pup!

 

[Lostris]

I am still having problems with my pup(she is 11 weeks old now) biting a LOT. I am doing almost everything mentioned here.( Saying a firm NO and redirecting by offering a chew toy, Taking her outside when she is most 'bitey' and i have my own version of the 'Flirt pole' described above by Teufelhund. The problem is if I don't 'watch out' I can be sure that I will get bitten. Will this stop?! (At this point of time it looks so impossible with the amounts of bites I have had to endure)
She has learnt 'Sit' and 'Shake paw' (a handshake) and also comes when called. She is indeed very affectionate.
But when will the biting stop?! Please help!

 

[Apollo]

Believe me, they will grow out of it. Apollo was very bitie and nippy as a pup, i was looking like, like i had a Tiger at home, hahahaha, But then it stopped. Aesa on the other Hand never was very nippy or Bitie towards Humans, but for sure she a has a big drive.

 

[Lostris]

Thank you so much Apollo! That is exactly how it feels like! Feels like she is one tigress! I do hope you're right! How old is Apollo now and do you remember at what age the biting stopped?

 

[Apollo]

Thank you so much Apollo! That is exactly how it feels like! Feels like she is one tigress! I do hope you're right! How old is Apollo now and do you remember at what age the biting stopped?

Apollo is 2 years now and i think it stopped around 5- 6 month ( when the adult teeths came in ), but for sure was over when we did his first Obedience class.
I know those little pyrania teeth are terrible, just keep telling her no and oush a toy in her mouth and wear long sleeves and pants LOL
I don't know how many times someone had a little pup hanging on the jeans legs, i was permanently limping, because i had a dog hanging on my pants

 

[micsten]

Thanks for this post Pitts. Our 3 month old boy is pretty active at around 6pm and really get's his 'bite-on' during that period. We've been trying lots of different techniques to get the message across but for the most part he just keeps on coming.

Techniques we've tried so far...

1. Yelping and walking away
2. Deep growl and diversion with a chew toy
3. Deep 'No!' and diversion with a chew toy
4. Time-out for a couple of minutes in another room
5. Squirt of water to his face and diversion with a chew toy
6. Nipping the scruff of the neck with a deep 'No' command
7. Distracting him by starting a training session (This really does seem to work as he loves our training sessions, and oddly he seems much more focussed during the sessions I have started with him during his biting phases).

We always try to remain as calm as possible - Not always easy when he is hanging off your leg and relentlessly pulling and spiking your legs with those little needle like teeth! Of course I know he is not being aggression, he's exhibiting normal puppy behaviour and enjoying himself. Wagging his tail etc.

The techniques above seem to work for a while and then he seems to get wise to them. I will certainly follow your advice and see how we get on with this technique.

Thanks

 

[Canuck42]

It has been 17 years since our last Dobe and the info provided here is much appreciated. Our Dode is a female and 8 months old.

 

[melanieh1975]

Dale,

I had to giggle when I read this. For the most part this will work UNLESS you have the one that learns very quickly that if they do the nip you and then run like hell, they will not get corrected. We had one like this and it was a daily battle with her for 9 years.

She was extremely well behaved in 'close quarters' but when you got outside with her where she had room to run, you better be ever careful with her or she would get you. She was not mean, she just knew when she had the advantage and had fun with it. Fun to her usually meant nasty bruises for me. Capt. Max would have enjoyed her.

Nellie

My 16 wk old baby is the exact same way. We have completely stopped her from biting and nipping in the house or any close quarters but when she gets outside she will run by us at full speed and try to grab a chunk of skin on the way by. There is no way to stop her, she is so fast and comes out of nowhere like a bullet. How did you get yours to stop? Everyone in my family have matching wounds on our legs and torn clothing. I have been crossing my fingers and hoping that this is a puppy thing and she will grow out of it.

 

[Rits]

My 16 wk old baby is the exact same way. We have completely stopped her from biting and nipping in the house or any close quarters but when she gets outside she will run by us at full speed and try to grab a chunk of skin on the way by. There is no way to stop her, she is so fast and comes out of nowhere like a bullet. How did you get yours to stop? Everyone in my family have matching wounds on our legs and torn clothing. I have been crossing my fingers and hoping that this is a puppy thing and she will grow out of it.

You probably won't get a reply as I don't think that member comes on here anymore. But, when she nips you like that...I would have fun time be over and bring her back inside for a time out. Or, remove yourself and take yourself inside so the "fun thing" is gone. Basically teach her as soon as she does something like that, fun is over.

 

[Nixie]

Great article and timing. We follow the scruff of the neck technique in our house.

 

[Sosthenes]

My Cato thinks he has to lick every hand he sees and at times it is adnausim. It seemed like forever had past when he stopped the puppy play-bite thing, but now he licks, licks and licks again. I need help or a padded room

 

[A12]

What would your advice be if your points number 6 & 7 were to happen? Thanks

 

[PCarter]

I answered a post on another forum that was from a guy with a doberman puppy that was exhibiting dominate bitey nipping behavior and I thought Id share it here as well as it might could help some out there with the same issues.
I hope this helps......

You have to start out understanding that dobermans are first and foremost a protection breed, and they wont be a soft mouthed dog like a lab is. Therefore their biting and nipping can really cause pain and damage. Redirecting is good to help to teach the dog self confidence and allow them to play and tug with you. But with a pup like this you have to teach it its place in the heiarchy, You see pups learn from their mom how to pick their place in the pack and to respect the mom as the pack leader, this is done with the mouth as this is pretty much all they have to work with, when pups are young the mom will begin to growl or warn the pups away when they come near her food, this is how an alpha presents itself to the pack as leader and how the mom tells the pups she is the leader, she even sometimes nips the pups to get her message across, this teaches them to respect her and again their place under her in the pack. now the pups will also do this to each other, nipping and biting during play, this establishes their rank in the pack as the stronger higher ranking members bite and fight harder than the lower ranking members.

Therefore you have to realize that when a pup comes into your home this is all it knows and it will apply this behavior to you and its new human family, and this is why they will bite and nip you, grab your pants legs and pull, etc. this is how they play and how they test their rank in the new pack. You will hear them bark and growl when they do this, just like they would with their littermates.

Now that being said, the pup will accept you as the pack leader once you correct this biting behavior. this puts you as the leader and then shows the pup where its place in the pack is.
Now you need to remember that as the pup grows he will continually test his place and when this is done you have to correct him and put him in his place, this can be easily done by, when he bites or nips, you quickly give a NO correction simply grab the pup by the scruff of the neck or sides of the cheeks and firmly say NO, do this everytime he tries this and he will learn you are the leader and what you say goes. Now dont shake the dog or slam it to the ground or alpha roll it or any of this silly stuff, that can hurt your pup physically and mentally, just firmly grasp the neck and cheek scruff and say NO, this is like the mom grabbing em by the neck and growling, and it will get your point across.

I will give a few examples of pack behavior for you to look for, this might help especially since you have another dog in the house.

1- When a dog jumps up and/or humps your leg, that’s a pack behavior.
2- When a dog charges past you to get out the door, that’s a pack behavior. Pack leader go through doors and gates first.
3- When a dog barks like crazy at another dog that’s a pack behavior.
4- When a dog drags his owner down the street on a walk, that’s pack behavior. Pack leaders always go first.
5- When a dog tries to fight with another dog, that’s a pack behavior. Pack leaders say when and who to fight.
6- When a dog growls for moving it aside when you get in your bed or on your furniture. That’s pack behavior and needs to be dealt with.
7- When a dog growls at you for disturbing it as you walk by as it sleeps that’s a problem with rank behavior in the pack.


Hope this helps.

I answered a post on another forum that was from a guy with a doberman puppy that was exhibiting dominate bitey nipping behavior and I thought Id share it here as well as it might could help some out there with the same issues.
I hope this helps......

You have to start out understanding that dobermans are first and foremost a protection breed, and they wont be a soft mouthed dog like a lab is. Therefore their biting and nipping can really cause pain and damage. Redirecting is good to help to teach the dog self confidence and allow them to play and tug with you. But with a pup like this you have to teach it its place in the heiarchy, You see pups learn from their mom how to pick their place in the pack and to respect the mom as the pack leader, this is done with the mouth as this is pretty much all they have to work with, when pups are young the mom will begin to growl or warn the pups away when they come near her food, this is how an alpha presents itself to the pack as leader and how the mom tells the pups she is the leader, she even sometimes nips the pups to get her message across, this teaches them to respect her and again their place under her in the pack. now the pups will also do this to each other, nipping and biting during play, this establishes their rank in the pack as the stronger higher ranking members bite and fight harder than the lower ranking members.

Therefore you have to realize that when a pup comes into your home this is all it knows and it will apply this behavior to you and its new human family, and this is why they will bite and nip you, grab your pants legs and pull, etc. this is how they play and how they test their rank in the new pack. You will hear them bark and growl when they do this, just like they would with their littermates.

Now that being said, the pup will accept you as the pack leader once you correct this biting behavior. this puts you as the leader and then shows the pup where its place in the pack is.
Now you need to remember that as the pup grows he will continually test his place and when this is done you have to correct him and put him in his place, this can be easily done by, when he bites or nips, you quickly give a NO correction simply grab the pup by the scruff of the neck or sides of the cheeks and firmly say NO, do this everytime he tries this and he will learn you are the leader and what you say goes. Now dont shake the dog or slam it to the ground or alpha roll it or any of this silly stuff, that can hurt your pup physically and mentally, just firmly grasp the neck and cheek scruff and say NO, this is like the mom grabbing em by the neck and growling, and it will get your point across.

I will give a few examples of pack behavior for you to look for, this might help especially since you have another dog in the house.

1- When a dog jumps up and/or humps your leg, that’s a pack behavior.
2- When a dog charges past you to get out the door, that’s a pack behavior. Pack leader go through doors and gates first.
3- When a dog barks like crazy at another dog that’s a pack behavior.
4- When a dog drags his owner down the street on a walk, that’s pack behavior. Pack leaders always go first.
5- When a dog tries to fight with another dog, that’s a pack behavior. Pack leaders say when and who to fight.
6- When a dog growls for moving it aside when you get in your bed or on your furniture. That’s pack behavior and needs to be dealt with.
7- When a dog growls at you for disturbing it as you walk by as it sleeps that’s a problem with rank behavior in the pack.


Hope this helps.