Puppy Biting

[archiestaffy]

Does anyone have any tips on how to stop puppies nibbling? Ive got a 41/2 month old staffy and he is still nibbling my fingers. Ive tried yelping, one on those high pitched whistles, telling him no etc.

[herbie]

I was watching dog borstal on tv and they had much the same problm and they filled a warer bottle with stones and rattled it in front off dog and said a firm NO every time this happened after a couple of days it stopped. also you could try squirting water in his face ive seen a lady up the park using this method with her dog i think the suprise element stops them hope this helps.

[JB]

Hee hee - staffies! Remember - he's still only a baby and still teething! Make sure he's got lots of (safe) chew toys as an alternative to your fingers, and they yelping thing seemed to be the most effective with my two. I would try and keep it consistent and use only one method (he may be a bit confused!) Bear in mind, he will go through a secondary chewing stage too! My two are nearly two years old now, and the boy will still have a little chew if he's over excited (girl is an angel and so calm by comparison!) Wouldn't change either of them!

[happy_face]

Hey archiestaffy. I've got 2 staffies, one almost a year and one 6 years. The puppy girl used to play bite really bad until I took her to puppy classes and learnt how to train her not to. This is what I was taught and it might help you too.
Sit with puppy sitting or standing. Have loads of treats and feed them one by one to puppy whilst in happy tones say "Take it". Do this about 5 times. Then the next treat you don't want puppy to have so choose a word you want to use for when you him to stop nibbling your hand. This word has to be associated with this only. I use OFF, which means I don't use OFF to ger her off sofa, bed etc.
Puppy will automatically go for the treat in your hand as you've just been feeding him treats. When he nibbles you hand to get at it say "OFF" (or your word). We were told to say "OFF" and "OFF" again and if she stil didn't get it then quite loud "GET OFF". That stops them and then immediately praise with good boy and DROP treat on the floor. Alternate between how many treats before you ask OFF as they quickly figure out the routine. Do it several times a day and you will soon find that when he goes to playbite your hand and you use your cue word he'll stop. Then obviously praise him. Also this is the only exercise where you let puppy get treats from your hand. You should always drop treats on the floor so that he doesn't associate your hand with treats and get hand fixated. Good luck