New puppy chewing/biting

Hi all,

Just made my intro Collected my 8 week old shih tzu puppy last night and so inlove He has a check up at the vets tonight so il be asking vets plenty of questions. I know this question probably gets asked allll the time and I was fully prepared for a puppy to be chewing but my little guy is absolutely obsessed with chewing hands and arms and ouch it's sore! Lol he is currently at my feet trying to pull my slippers and socks off I bought him a few chew toys, but is there anything else I could get him to deter it? And anything I should be doing when he's trying to use my limbs as chew toys? Lol

I have a friend coming to visit today who has a 7 month old puppy so I shall be bombarding her with questions too, but appreciate any advice

Bee

Those little teeth do hurt thats for sure I remember it well Whenever any of mine chewed/bit me I would calmly say ouch/no and put a chew toy in their mouth instead. This has always worked for me but I am sure others have more advice. Enjoy your boy and we want photos

yep, i would let out a yelp and ignore the pup; if it persists leave the room

when it chews, give chew toys - have a variety

stuffed kings can be useful to get them keen on chewing those toys instead of chewing other things (such as table legs, skirting boards etc)

This worked for me 2. I got through loads of chews.

We bought our little dog a cuddly monkey that was almost twice her size and gave it to her when she started to bite us - we used it as a distraction plus it was huge so if she slipped she was still on the monkey.

She is almost 2 soon and now she has a big hippo which she uses for the same purpose.

The monkey died; I'm not sure how long hippy will last.... Sorry about the picture quality but hope it gives an idea of size versus dog! Good luck

Hi, I found if my Chi nipped me I squeeled like other puppies would let him know he's hurting you. Loads of chews and things like carrots are good you can also cut up and freeze carrots when going through teething, go to a charity shop and get lots of toys for him to play with my Chi loves balls not tennis balls as he strips them but soft rubber balls if you have squeeky ones carefull when the squeak comes out they can get swollowed. Have fun.

My first dog-- I was clueless-- was only six weeks old when I got him and was separated from his mother well before that. He had no bite inhibition whatsoever... no one had taught him. The only thing-- the ONLY THING-- he wanted to do was chew the living daylights out of my hands and arms. I tried all the standard things-- distraction, toys, yelping and ignoring him (someone advised me to smack him, but I refused)-- nothing worked. Finally, this did: whenever he started chewing my hand, I just closed my fingers around his lower jaw while ignoring him completely for about 10 seconds. Not hard, just enough that he couldn't chew me (apart from, well, the teeth embedded in my hand) but he also was stuck with his face in my hand, and suddenly the game was no fun. It hurt me (not him) like the dickens, but he did learn pretty quickly. I alternated this with giving him yummy stuff to lick off my hands like cream cheese or paté, so he'd know I liked the mouth, just not the teeth.

I totally made this method up-- I can't give you any endorsements. It worked for me.

It's important that pups learn bite inhibition, and this can take a little time, this is normal

This may be of some use

http://www.apdt.co.uk/dog_training_tips.asp select play biting.

Please note as well that it can sometimes get much worse before it gets better - that's ok, that's normal too and nothing to worry about as long as everything is being done consistently.

Very young pups do tend to respond to yelps, but older pups and terriers can sometimes see the yelp as something fun and it can make them worse!

Wys
x

god i've had it lucky with my dogs! never been chewers.

I remember the thread that said that the easiest dogs were CKCs and Greyhounds, I've defo given myself an easy life!!!

My min pin used to chew at our hands (nothing serious though no broken skin!) me and my daughter would pull away and say 'nobiting!' and she quickly learned to stop.

It was a source of endless amusement to us because when we'd say 'nobiting' she would remove her mouth but KEEP IT OPEN! We'd laugh out loud and she'd think she'd done something clever. But the upshot was if she did start again you could tell she was waiting eagerly for you to tell her to stop! We'd do the stop start stop start thing and she thought it was a great game. She doesn't gnaw v. often now but still stops immediately if you tell her (still keeps her mouth wide open too!)

I did think I'd been very lucky with her not chewing stuff up until I pulled all the covers off my bed one day and noticed gnaw marks and scratches on the top of the heavy footboard! The sneaky ratbag had gone under the top quilt to chew it in secret.