Young puppies need naps. They can sleep up to 20 hours a day. When they're tired, they can go into temper tantrum or monster mode.
If you already notice they calm down after a nap, you're already on the right track.
The biting will not completely stop until they're older and no longer teething but until then, keep enforcing naps, redirect their biting with a toy, or do a reverse time out where you stop playing with them. Make sure they have chew toys specifically for teething. Many people freeze items to help soothe their gums.
i nap with her whenever i can because she really loves to lay with me, it’s just hard because when she starts biting i can’t for the life of me get her to lay down. but i nap with her for hours on end when she lets me!
One thing I wanna say about this is rotate the chewing toys out every few days or even a week. That way it will be like new to them and be more interesting.
Naps saved my life. I had my boy on a strict nap schedule. One hour of walking and playing and general insanity and then 1.5 to 2 hours of nap time in his kennel. I let him start to fall asleep while out then kenneled him (I work from home so I needed to get some work done). Regular kennel time taught him to love his kennel and now he naps in the kennel with the door open because he loves it in there. I know it’s so sweet when they nap with you but some boundaries are good for these professional clingers.
No amount of toys, chews, or training completely eliminated the biting problem. He’s two and a half now and still likes to do a little nibbling when he wakes up after sleeping in my bed. But with time and development, you’ll get there! Just part of the process of puppyhood.
Redirecting is what works best unfortunately. This will be the reality until those adult teeth are fully in at 6 months. If your puppy us being too roudy, very possible not enough sleep. Even 4 month old puppes still need 20 hours of sleep a day. Realllly getting a sleep schedule going should help astronomically. You may have to work crate or play pen training better
Your baby will get better over time. We had success with the yelp-then-ignore strategy. Just keep it up, be consistent, make the walk away & ignore period long enough to fully send the message. And if your high-pitched yelp is just making her more excited, I suggest trying a low-pitched annoyed “big momma dog” tone instead.
Ohhh my cavie used to nip! Every time he nipped, we would walk away and ignore him for at least 5 minutes until he was sitting somewhere nicely or playing independently. He learned quickly that bites do not get him anywhere.
Definitely recommend freezing things to help with teething. We did frozen blueberries and carrots so it doubled as a treat or even just a frozen wash cloth. You can also do frozen green beans, but we haven’t. Also recommend getting good chew bones, not just toys. I discovered beef cheek chips later in the teething journey but my god they’re amazing and my boy still gets them at a year old.
We had a 2 story townhouse, so if he started getting really wild when playing or biting we’d yell and climb over the fence onto the stairs until he calmed down. If he’s biting your hands a lot I had a neighbor recommend freezing butter and rubbing it in your hands so puppy learns to lick and not bite, but again we got that advice toward the end of teething so never tried it. It does get better, but man it’s rough!
It gets better. We thought we had a problem dog and then one day she turned into a sweetheart. She still likes to rough play with me but she adjusts her bite pressure and if by accident she hurts me she's all over me and tending to it. And with my wife she won't engage no matter how much she tries.
They're very intuitive dogs. I wasn't well recently and she snuggled with me all day until I got better.
If you’re not using the crate as a punishment, rather a place to take a break, then it’s not punishment.
My pup is almost 5 months, and we’ve had him since the beginning of April. He was suuuuper bitey and a little snarly (which completely freaked me out)… but we found that he was mostly just trying to communicate something (had to poop, didn’t want to be held, did want to be held, wanted to play, whatever), and we just had to play the guessing game. Almost 2 months later, that behavior is pretty much completely gone… he’ll still get a little sassy if we’re really smothering him (can’t help it. He’s a cute little peanut head), and we’re fine with that since he’s just trying to communicate “go awayyyyy”.
Unlike our 4 year old Cav, this little guy is pretty independent! he’s pretty content playing with toys on his own/chewing an antler/sniffin out the window. I guess his Velcro is less sticky! Very interesting.
Sounds like your girl might just really want to play! I highly recommend rolling that ball for some indoor fetch. 10-15 passes, and hopefully she’ll stay away from those limbs of yours! Now that our pup is all vaxxed up and can meet other dogs, he really loves it. Played with a big ol Collie mix all weekend
Withdrawing from play and saying “Oww!!” is how we taught our boy the difference between mouthing and biting, and it worked very well, but didn’t get rid of mouthing during play
You yelping and making whimper or crying sounds will teach her that those bites are not fun for you. Immediately give a time out and stop play. A Firm but not loud No! also works. Redirection and whimper worked for my boy. He bit me so hard twice that I bled.
I found the high pitched sound also made my little guy more excited. We switched to a low voiced NO, and would turn our backs and ignore him when he bit. Worked well for us.
Young puppies need naps. They can sleep up to 20 hours a day. When they're tired, they can go into temper tantrum or monster mode. If you already notice they calm down after a nap, you're already on the right track. The biting will not completely stop until they're older and no longer teething but until then, keep enforcing naps, redirect their biting with a toy, or do a reverse time out where you stop playing with them. Make sure they have chew toys specifically for teething. Many people freeze items to help soothe their gums.
i nap with her whenever i can because she really loves to lay with me, it’s just hard because when she starts biting i can’t for the life of me get her to lay down. but i nap with her for hours on end when she lets me!
If she settles down and naps with you, great. If you need to, have her nap in a crate or playpen. The biting, unfortunately, is normal.
okay, thank you! i just bought her some more things she can gnaw on that can go in the fridge or freezer, too
One thing I wanna say about this is rotate the chewing toys out every few days or even a week. That way it will be like new to them and be more interesting.
Naps saved my life. I had my boy on a strict nap schedule. One hour of walking and playing and general insanity and then 1.5 to 2 hours of nap time in his kennel. I let him start to fall asleep while out then kenneled him (I work from home so I needed to get some work done). Regular kennel time taught him to love his kennel and now he naps in the kennel with the door open because he loves it in there. I know it’s so sweet when they nap with you but some boundaries are good for these professional clingers. No amount of toys, chews, or training completely eliminated the biting problem. He’s two and a half now and still likes to do a little nibbling when he wakes up after sleeping in my bed. But with time and development, you’ll get there! Just part of the process of puppyhood.
Redirecting is what works best unfortunately. This will be the reality until those adult teeth are fully in at 6 months. If your puppy us being too roudy, very possible not enough sleep. Even 4 month old puppes still need 20 hours of sleep a day. Realllly getting a sleep schedule going should help astronomically. You may have to work crate or play pen training better
Your baby will get better over time. We had success with the yelp-then-ignore strategy. Just keep it up, be consistent, make the walk away & ignore period long enough to fully send the message. And if your high-pitched yelp is just making her more excited, I suggest trying a low-pitched annoyed “big momma dog” tone instead.
Ohhh my cavie used to nip! Every time he nipped, we would walk away and ignore him for at least 5 minutes until he was sitting somewhere nicely or playing independently. He learned quickly that bites do not get him anywhere.
Definitely recommend freezing things to help with teething. We did frozen blueberries and carrots so it doubled as a treat or even just a frozen wash cloth. You can also do frozen green beans, but we haven’t. Also recommend getting good chew bones, not just toys. I discovered beef cheek chips later in the teething journey but my god they’re amazing and my boy still gets them at a year old. We had a 2 story townhouse, so if he started getting really wild when playing or biting we’d yell and climb over the fence onto the stairs until he calmed down. If he’s biting your hands a lot I had a neighbor recommend freezing butter and rubbing it in your hands so puppy learns to lick and not bite, but again we got that advice toward the end of teething so never tried it. It does get better, but man it’s rough!
It gets better. We thought we had a problem dog and then one day she turned into a sweetheart. She still likes to rough play with me but she adjusts her bite pressure and if by accident she hurts me she's all over me and tending to it. And with my wife she won't engage no matter how much she tries. They're very intuitive dogs. I wasn't well recently and she snuggled with me all day until I got better.
If you’re not using the crate as a punishment, rather a place to take a break, then it’s not punishment. My pup is almost 5 months, and we’ve had him since the beginning of April. He was suuuuper bitey and a little snarly (which completely freaked me out)… but we found that he was mostly just trying to communicate something (had to poop, didn’t want to be held, did want to be held, wanted to play, whatever), and we just had to play the guessing game. Almost 2 months later, that behavior is pretty much completely gone… he’ll still get a little sassy if we’re really smothering him (can’t help it. He’s a cute little peanut head), and we’re fine with that since he’s just trying to communicate “go awayyyyy”. Unlike our 4 year old Cav, this little guy is pretty independent! he’s pretty content playing with toys on his own/chewing an antler/sniffin out the window. I guess his Velcro is less sticky! Very interesting. Sounds like your girl might just really want to play! I highly recommend rolling that ball for some indoor fetch. 10-15 passes, and hopefully she’ll stay away from those limbs of yours! Now that our pup is all vaxxed up and can meet other dogs, he really loves it. Played with a big ol Collie mix all weekend
Withdrawing from play and saying “Oww!!” is how we taught our boy the difference between mouthing and biting, and it worked very well, but didn’t get rid of mouthing during play
You yelping and making whimper or crying sounds will teach her that those bites are not fun for you. Immediately give a time out and stop play. A Firm but not loud No! also works. Redirection and whimper worked for my boy. He bit me so hard twice that I bled.
I found the high pitched sound also made my little guy more excited. We switched to a low voiced NO, and would turn our backs and ignore him when he bit. Worked well for us.