Help! Puppy training tips needed please!

My puppy, Elric, has a serious problem with nipping/chewing on people. I've read a few other posts and the suggestions there, but none of it has worked on my pup. I refuse to spank him because I dont want him to fear me, I want him to respect me. He's quite a smart puppy, he knows to sit and wait quietly before I will give him his food, but I am having no luck with this I want to make sure he gets trained early because I don't want people to prematurely judge him based on his breed(GSD/ Pit Bull mix). Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Things I have tried: yelping, distracting him with another toy, giving him treats when he licks and doesnt bite, gently holding his bottom jaw when he bites, and holding his mouth closed after a bite while telling him "no bite".

http://www.apbc.org.uk/system/files/...ng_low_res.pdf

http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discu...c=64170.0;wap2

http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/te...inhibition.pdf

http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/bi...nfuzzyterm.pdf

I find time outs work quite well. Yelpingcan often make the dog more excited. Personally I just stand stock still and ignore the dog, no looking, no speaking, normally it's no fun so the dog stops. I had a problem with my dog leaping on my head when I lay on the sofa . Every time he did it either he got put out of the room for a minute, or I got up and left the room shutting the door behind me. You could also use a crate or play pen but be careful not to make the crate a punishment. Then I came in calmly ignoring the dog then would quietly reward and praise him if he came over nicely. I imagine a similar method might work for puppy mouthing.

I use a very simple method based on how an adult dog reacts to a puppy.

Any new puppy I have gets absolutely no reaction from me if they start mouthing me. I don't say or do anything, the result is that it is not rewarding for the puppy so they stop doing it.

This has working on a whole host of dogs from Cavaliers to GSDs.

It can be combined with clicker training, rewarding the dog as soonas it stops the mouthing. Never taken more than a few days to work IMHE

It is not unusual for a pup to nip. I was tearing my hair out with one of mine when I first got them (brother littermates). Yelping made him more excited etc etc. What did work was getting up and leaving the room for a minute. On returning if he did it again I would repeat this time and time again. It did work and also I think it was partly because he grew out of it. Puppy teeth really hurt!!
Good luck and keep us informed.

Thank you all for the advice! Ignoring him does seem to be working a bit, except now he tends to bite a little harder whenever I do come back. I also think my husband is partly to blame though, he likes to play rough with him so now whenever my husband isnt here, the pup tries to play rough with me. We'll definitely be having a talk tonite lol

I cut out any rough play with Ellie (21 weeks), and found that, as suggested, time out was the only thing that would work.
She is a lot better these days, but those few weeks of nipping seemed never ending lol!

I'm really glad that you are having so progress with your pup. I would definitely try and persuade your husband not to play rough-house with him certainly until he has lost his baby teeth and has learnt self-control (the pup that is, not your husband ). If your OH insists on playing 'rough' with the pup, then ask him to stop the play immediately if the pup uses his teeth. Otherwise the pup is getting very mixed messages.
Good luck and have fun.