Puppy biting and growling

Hi everyone,
As you all know, I have a eight week old lab x border collie pup called betsy. She is perfect in every way but there is just one tiny but rather painful thing we need to sort but i thought we had cracked.

I think its play biting, but it is rather painful as its more the needle sharp teeth not the pressure. I guess it could be teething of puppy teeth as well. She is very friendly, doesn't mind being handled, cuddled, examined etc but for about 20 minutes a day she turns into a duracell bunny with sharp teeth that has a fetish for feet, hands, dressing gowns and generally any thing that hangs.

She will growl quite loudly as well, she will pounce backward when she does it with her tail up, to me it seems she is playing but a little too ott!

We have tried mimicking puppies crying, that worked at first but now doesn't have much of an effect, ignoring is really hard with bare flesh, I've tried spraying bitter apple on as part of my daily routine lol, which works, but has no effect what so ever if i forget. Plus no one apart from me will be deterred. I have tried redirecting, sometimes it works but sometimes she gets more hyped up. I have tried limiting her to very few toys but this doesn't really work. I have even tried doggy teething tell that works a little bit at first but wears off. I have tried freezing her kong which distracts her for a few minutes but afterwards she will still treat me as the better toy! She knows the word leave it, will leave everything but human skin and i don't want to devalue the command. I have tried teaching her to settle down with the clicked which works when she is reasonably calm but has no effect when he is really wired even with hgh value treats. We have tried leaving the room, but for some reason she gets herself into a state and starts whining, when i leave her normally she is fine and can be trusted with free run of downstairs. We have tried ignoring any squakey toys for a while with limited effect.


Mental stimulation she gets between 4 and 7 training sessions ( which I try to keep very positive) a day ( which she responds really well to and learning very fast) and 4-7 very short play sessions as don't want to stress her joints having lab in her.


Physical activity I am limited with due to growth plates and jabs. She gets lots of play, fetch and is let to run about in the garden for short bursts at about 20secs- 1min at a time about 10-12 times a day.

She is fed on skinners and does not get any human food apart from cheese and hotdogs in small amounts when learning something new.

Everything else I am so so so proud of her with but this has left me scratching my head as i know it is probably just a puppy phase bt I can't stop thinking what if she doesn't grow out of it and then when it happens I feel like i am failing her I know she needs A LOT of mental stimulation and I will be taking her to classes soon. Just feel like my hands are tied slightly because she is still so young at the moment.

Any ideas? Virtual cake for anything that does!

Forgot to add we are trying to get her used to as many people as possible and was fine with two kids under 6 that have met her but worried she would be tempted to have a mad moment it out on a walk when she is older...!

She has also met about 15 people - is that too many, could I be overwhelming her?

I have had a dog before who had very little problems with puppy biting, he mother and immediately stopped when I whimpered basically overnight so i was very lucky in that respect!

Is it just bad when she has that mad 20 min? is it at the same time every day?

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

http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discu...c=64170.0;wap2
http://www.apdt.co.uk/documents/Playbiting_000.pdf


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

http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonli...ialization.pdf
http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/dogsocialization.pdf
http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/th...leoftwelve.pdf
http://www.deesdogs.com/documents/pu...cial_chart.pdf
http://www.apbc.org.uk/articles/socialising_a_litter
http://www.apbc.org.uk/articles/puppysocialisation1
http://www.apbc.org.uk/articles/puppysocialisation2
http://www.apdt.co.uk/documents/Socialisation_001.pdf

Yes she is just bad when she has the mad 20 minutes. There is no pattern apart from about 1/5 times she needs a poo desperatly. When it happens I run through my head is she bored, is she hungry, thirsty, want to go out, overwhelmed etc. But its like watching her through a glass box and not being able to do anything. Thanks for replying so quickly btw

I`m guessing it might get better once she gets to meet more dogs at classes and friends houses etc then I guess they wont put up with it. Thanks for the links

Btw none of the first links worked and we got her at 6 weeks 4 days

I was going to say why so early ?