Springer/standard poodle cross really bites!

Hello everyone,
I have an eight week old "sproodle" that I have had since she was 5 1/2 weeks old. She bites and draws blood. I have "yelped" and ignored as well as tryed to redirect the teeth to a chew toy. She gets lots of exercise and is on leash in the house and on walks outside with a limited off leash play. She comes when called and sits, but still bites hard enough to draw blood more times than not. We are starting puppy kindergarden in early December. My other two dogs which are 9 and 7 put her in her place about her manners all the time. Will it get better? Please tell me it will. My other two never had this amount of biting.

I have always been told that pups learn manners from their mother and siblings between 4 and 8 weeks ..
So you need to take there place i suppose .
Why did you have the pup so young???

Long story-had to take the puppy that young--breeder was in a car accident and broke her femar and had to be hospitalized. My little girl, Muna and her brother had to go to their new parents sooner than is ideal. She seems to be a little better today, only 2 new lacerations lol. I do the hand over the snout with a lowpitched no biting to mimic the mother's behaviour, but it does get frustrating at times.

Hand over the snout is likely to make matters worse to be honest. She probably thinks you're playing. You could try screeching when she puts her teeth on you and stopping play the way other puppies would. That works with some but makes others more excited and bitey. I simply removed myself from the room for 10-30 seconds with Rupert every single time his teeth touched me. Some people say just stand there and ignore them but that didn't work with any of mine unless they were well on their way to learning not to bite but had just forgotten themselves.

Will she redirect onto a toy when she gets bitey? She needs to know what she CAN bite as well as what she can't.

Unless you have a tail, furry ears and nipples I doubt the puppy will think you`re her mother.
This is normal behaviour - and the memory is a very strange thing. We forget the bad bits and remember the good, so I expect your previous pups mouthed as well.
Offering a toy would be a good idea. You have a cross of two retrieving breeds who are both pre-programmed to carry stuff. This cross will also tend to be very driven and worky, so the sooner you start directing these drives the better.
Play carrying / finding / giving games. If the nipping persists, try walking away. Nothing is worse for a dog than to be ignored.

Hi, one of the reasons this behaviour is perhaps more pronounced in this dog than your others is because it has not learned bite inhibition from its dam or siblings which is what normally happens in a litter because it was removed too young (this often happens with singletons too).

So the techniques remain the same, but you may have to be prolong the training.

Here are a few links to help you

http://www.clickersolutions.com/arti...c/mouthing.htm
http://www.clickersolutions.com/arti...PT_Puppies.htm
http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/te...inhibition.pdf
http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/bi...nfuzzyterm.pdf
http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discu...c=64170.0;wap2

HTH

I dont know much about puppies but I believe the answer is time out or redirecting her attentions to her toys it is very natural for young pups to bite and I imagine it takes time for them to learn and it wont just get better overnight.

Our dog was 9 months old when we adopted him, and he'd never been taught not to bite. He puppy mouthed constantly in play. Even now, *eight* months after we adopted him, it's still an issue we're working on! It's a lot better now, but when highly excited he will still nip.

We taught him the command "get a toy" for when he was playing. If he had a toy in his mouth he couldn't get overexcited and bite. It worked perfectly. When he did actually bite, we calmly said "no biting", and ended the game and ignored him.

Good luck!

Red