Nipping and biting

[Sam75]

Hi Everyone,

I am new on the forum so I do apologise if there is a thread already on this topic. I couldn’t find it.
I have a standard schnauzer puppy now 12 weeks old called Lexi. I have had her from 8 weeks. She is adorable and very very smart. She has learned very quickly a wide range of commands.
However, she just bites and nips all the time. When she is playing she nips, when she is being affectionate she nips, grooming she nips and bites. The only time she doesn’t nip or bite is probably when she is sleeping!
I have 3 kids 13yrs, 11yrs and 8yrs we are all covered in tooth marks.
She was the only girl out of a litter of 5 pups. She bullied all the boys. At that time I thought it was cute....

I have tried all the tricks in the book, such as yelping when nipped, ignoring her, substituting with toys, treats. Now just out of ideas.

The good thing is that she does not do that to visitors.

We are getting frustrated as her behaviour is getting a bit worse, so any advice or if there is anyone who has solved this issue in the past I would very grateful.

Thanks.

[zeta1454]

Hi Sam - welcome to the Forum

Puppy nipping and biting is one of the most common ‘issues’ which arises on the Forum so you are not alone and Lexi is not unusual in her behaviour but typical for pups of her age. Puppies all go through this phase and it is a developmental phase while they are teething (which can be painful) and learning social skills as in how to behave within their new human family.

You need to be consistent with whatever strategy you use to try and manage her biting and personally I have not found the ‘yelping’ strategy that helpful with pups we have had as it can actually excite them to do it again! With our pups, we have a routine to be sure that they are not getting overtired which can often lead to nipping so regular rest periods in the crate with a chew toy every hour or so when very young and gradually reducing to allow longer play /training sessions as they mature. Also plenty of very short training sessions through the day which help to exercise the brain and encourage good rest when in the crate. We have a range of chew toys including Anco roots, Yak sticks and antlers which do help with teething although you can get a variety of other chew items which are also good. We have also given our pups raw lamb ribs or spine to chew on and that keeps them absorbed for a good while.

Pain from teething and boredom in an intelligent puppy can often make nipping and other unwanted behaviours worse although this may not be the case with Lexi. You should try to hold or play with her carefully to avoid letting her teeth come near your skin as in lifting her up (if and when you need to) facing away from you and always have a toy in hand when playing to redirect her teeth on to this. I would stop play immediately if she is becoming bitey and return to play after a few minutes and repeat if necessary. She should quickly learn that play stops as soon as she bites. If she is really in a biting ‘mood’ settle her in her crate with some tasty chew items and let her work on those with her teeth - a filled Kong is another good chew toy.

There is a link here which also has good advice:

https://www.clickertraining.com/how-to- ... nd-nipping

Sometimes puppy issues can seem worse when you are frustrated and disappointed that, after all you have prepared and your expectations, your puppy is not always the sweetest and well behaved dog you hoped and you maybe worry that she is untypical of puppies, unusually aggressive or any other similar concern. This is rarely the case - Lexi is still a baby even in dog years and puppy nipping is a phase which she will pass through whatever you do or don’t do even though it can be a trial and a painful one at times! Don’t expect instant success but with patience and consistency, I am sure you will be able to work through this with Lexi.

[Dawnspell]

Hi and Welcome
Have a look at the training videos by Kikopup on youtube. I like her way of explaining and training, I know Ive seen more than one with a title relating to puppy mouthing/biting.
You dont have to use the clicker as she does in many of the videos .I dont use a clicker with Jasper, I need both hands I just use the word "yes" in place of the clicker click.

[Sam75]

Thanks for all the advice. I will be update you all on progress. I may need to buy her more toys to chew on. I’m sure she will love the lamb ribs.
I have started watching the kikopup videos. Thanks again.
That’s her sleeping after nipping everyone in sight!

[NewbieStandardOwner]

Hi,
I'm new to the forum so a bit late to this thread. I was wondering if anyone had advice on nipping and mouthing in an older Standard Schnauzer. We have a 10month old boy. We too had a very similar experience as Sam75 when he was young. Yelping also made him more excited and bite harder. Since his true puppy stage has passed he is much better, but his baseline behaviour to use his mouth to control things is still there.

If he gets boysterous he leaps at you and trys to nip your elbows. If he gets grumpy he uses his teeth to grasp your hands. I do mean "grasp" not "bite". He has learnt his bite inhibition and is not trying to hurt you, but he will gentle put more and more pressure in an attempt to bully you into doing something. He does the same any time you try to do something he dislikes, such as drying his paws after a walk. He also uses his mouth when he greets strangers to our home (people not dogs) or when he's excited....it's very embarrassing and I'm worried it may be misunderstood as aggression.

We have tried turning our backs and staying still. We've tried stopping any game as soon as his teeth come out, ignoring mouthing behaviour and putting up with a perfectly placed inner thigh skin nip in order to get your attention etc. Only engaging when he is calm. These have definitely helped, but I can't work out how to do things that need to be done, eg paw wiping. If every time you do it you have to stop and ignore the behaviour.
Does anyone have any training videos regarding this age category and how to stop all his mouthing behaviours? He definitely knows exactly what pressure he is using and is trying to control situations, rather than biting.
Many thanks in advance

[zeta1454]

Welcome to the Forum

Mouthing is natural dog behaviour and dogs love to play ‘bitey face’ games with each other so it is a harder behaviour to try and train out of a dog. The most important thing is to stop any actual biting so you have done well to teach him to inhibit his bite but I do understand that especially with a larger dog it is worrying that his behaviour might be interpreted as aggression by people who don’t know him and it is an annoying behaviour for you to experience regularly.

I haven’t any video links to suggest but a couple of other suggestions you could try are:

Use a rope toy or similar to redirect his mouth away from your leg or the other hand he is grasping and get him to hold on to this instead in games or when you want to walk without him mouthing your ankles.

Train ‘leave it’ with any simple words you prefer to use so that every time he grasps any part of your body or clothing and he hears the ‘leave’ words he releases and sits and is rewarded. It may be a slow process but if you have trained him before it should not take too long for him to learn your cue word that means ‘let go’. Using a clicker for this can be useful - we have found that training any behaviour with a clicker soon results in a dog responding to you every time it hears a click even when you may not be actually training them at the time. It is a sound which focuses them on you and they anticipate a reward for a particular behaviour.

https://www.clickertraining.com/15tips

The drying paws situation you could try either having another person distracting him with a toy or treat while you carry this out as a quicker solution.

Your pup, at 10 months is still a puppy and an adolescent and much of the excitable behaviour will be due to this and may just fade as he matures. Try to spend some time every day training him to sit on command and ‘leave’ any behaviour that involves mouthing people - always reward good behaviour and responses in training. If he is greeting strangers who visit the house at the door or in the hallway, stop this by keeping him in a room away from the front door. If the strangers are visitors who are coming into your home, don’t let him greet them until they are in and seated and, if need be, initially have the visitors ‘armed’ with a toy or a treat so that when he comes up to them he can be asked to sit and take the toy or treat and then go to his bed or blanket to settle.

As an adolescent he will be boisterous and excitable and some of this behaviour will need to be managed and contained until he matures but with regular training of ‘leave’ - ‘sit’ - ‘settle’ you should be able to guide him into controlling this excitement which will also likely reduce his mouthing. If you have any friends with more mature friendly dogs of a similar size to your boy, see if you can arrange play dates to give him the opportunity to work off some of this adolescent energy with another dog where the mouthing is not an issue.

Adolescence in dogs is always a challenge in one way or another and standard schnauzers are a more challenging breed than a miniature schnauzer for sure