# Puppy biting and won't let go !



## JayneL (Sep 22, 2010)

Looking for some advice from some well practices Vizsla owners !

First time puppy for us although myself and husband both had dogs as kids but I for one have definitely blocked out the puppy phase !

Our puppy Buddy is 8 weeks old and he has been with us for one week. He is pretty much running around and exploring the garden - digging and eating my bushes and having fun. However seems to get a bit over-excited and starts biting and grabbing at trousers, shoes, ankles and hands and does not want to let go - he has really strong jaws !

We have tried yelping, No bite, ignoring etc etc but he seems to be in a world of his own for about 10 minutes before calming down, more often than not crashing out for a long nap - he is only 8 weeks lol !

Kids have been great with him and have been trying to be firm (as have we) but he is totally oblivious to us and just keeps gripping on and not letting go.

Anyone have any ideas what we could do or is this just something we need to 'get through' and keep discouraging?

Thanks


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## Mischa (Feb 17, 2010)

JayneL said:


> We have tried yelping, No bite, ignoring etc etc but he seems to be in a world of his own for about 10 minutes before calming down, more often than not crashing out for a long nap - he is only 8 weeks lol !
> 
> Kids have been great with him and have been trying to be firm (as have we) but he is totally oblivious to us and just keeps gripping on and not letting go.



This sounds very familiar. It will more than likely pass as long as you keep up with letting the dog know that it is not ok.

We hired a trainer, as none of our methods were working and his recommendation was a plastic water bottle with 7 pennies in it. You give it a shake when your dog is doing anything you don't want. 
It worked wonders as she instantly snapped out of her insanity mode. 
But, she became somewhat fearful of loud noises after this, and at 7.5 months old, is going through a stage of fear where any random thing can frighten her. A guy in sunglasses, someone walking with a suitcase, etc...

I don't know if this fear stage has anything to do with our method of discipline, but it worries me enough that I use it much more sparingly now.


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## florencebear (Aug 3, 2010)

We have used the plastic bottle and in our case some gravel, and it has been very effective. So much so that we rarely have to use it now. Florence is now 5 months old and we went through the first 3 months with torn clothes and flesh! She has a very hard bite and it really hurt. She will still occasionally try to nip us when having a cuddle, but we hold her jaws firmly together and say " No bite" and she is doing it less. But do try the bottle, we wish we had known about this from the start!

Good luck


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## lovemyava (Mar 19, 2010)

We recently found the squirt bottle works amazing! We have it around the house easy to reach and when Ava tries to nip or bite she gets sprayed with water. The behavior stopped almost instantly I wish we would have done that from the start, it would have saved lots of clothes and plenty of frustrating moments. Good luck! It does get better the older they get


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## JayneL (Sep 22, 2010)

Thanks for your help will give it a go...he has all sorts of toys to chew on but prefers one of us !!! He just managed to draw blood from my eight year old daughter tonight - needless to say she was not amused.

Will give both a try...don't think my fleshy bits nor trousers - not to mention the rug can take much more...have to remember he is just a baby but one with very sharp teeth


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## Mercutio (Jan 18, 2010)

Hi mischa, 
I think it's possible the bottle gave mischa a bit of a fright. Some things bother merc that don't worry other dogs and some things that don't bother him worry other dogs. Personally I'd err on the side of caution and not use the bottle any more, or maybe make it quieter?

Also, as someone with a V who has gone through, hopefully just getting over, a phase where being scared of unusual things turned into barking, growling and sometimes lunging at these things, I would be putting a lot of time into trying to convince her that these randomly scary things are actually not at all scary. I didn't realize that a child with a skipping rope is completely different to a child walking and different to a child playing football.... 

I'll get off the soapbox now,  it's just that after nearly a year of spending a lot of time on desensitizing work I really wish I'd known more about exposing him to these things in a positive way when he was little. Of course, my experience is not necessarily what you guys are going through now either!


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## Mischa (Feb 17, 2010)

Mercutio said:


> Hi mischa,
> I think it's possible the bottle gave mischa a bit of a fright. Some things bother merc that don't worry other dogs and some things that don't bother him worry other dogs. Personally I'd err on the side of caution and not use the bottle any more, or maybe make it quieter?
> 
> Also, as someone with a V who has gone through, hopefully just getting over, a phase where being scared of unusual things turned into barking, growling and sometimes lunging at these things, I would be putting a lot of time into trying to convince her that these randomly scary things are actually not at all scary. I didn't realize that a child with a skipping rope is completely different to a child walking and different to a child playing football....
> ...


Any advice is welcome Mercutio.
We've been trying to let her work out her fears with some gentle persuasion. For example: this morning there was a crushed cardboard box on the sidewalk. Well, she didn't want to walk towards so I let her sit for a minute, then tugged towards gently, and repeated as she stopped. Once we got to the box I kicked it a bit, and that spooked her too, so then I stepped on it and she became curious about it, so I praised her curiosity.
It seems to work on an individual object, but then another random fear pops up. 

I'm trying to build her confidence back up. 
Any tips on this? Anything you learned along the way to fix the problem before it turns into something bigger?


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## Mercutio (Jan 18, 2010)

I learnt that on the wrong day, just about anything could look scary to merc. And on a good day he takes everything in his stride. Anyway, good advice given to me: associate the scary things with a reward like treats or a toy. The trick is the timing. You have to get the reward in after she sees whatever it is but before she gets scared. Otherwise you reward the fearful behavior which isn't what you want. Also, at home we started playing games with odd things, like starting a game with a ball then banging plastic bottles or waving bags around. So the dog is already having fun when the scary thing comes out and if you keep playing they learn that it isn't really a big deal. I did as much as I could, unfortunately after we had a problem, like you approaching things he didn't like, but slowly. One step forward then if he looked stressed back off a step. Then when he calmed down, two steps forward,back off when he looked stressed. Took 15 minutes one day to get passed an abandoned pram but I figured it was better than trying to drag a 30kg dog up a hill and past it. Also I was told by a few people that dogs don't generalize so a box on this corner is different to the box on the next block. Hopefully mischa will get through this phase soon and it will be like it never happened. We're almost there...


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## Mischa (Feb 17, 2010)

^how old is your V?
I'm just wonderingnif this is something that happens at a particular age.
Mischa is almost 8 months and this has been going on fairly regularly for about a month.

She's had other fears pop up since we got her, but they were individual situations that were all short lived.
I wasn't too concerned at first because she's gone through a few occurrences already, but none of them have lasted this long, and it has never been multiple things at the same time.

Hopefully if I'm patient enough we can get through it soon.
Thanks for the tips.


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## Mercutio (Jan 18, 2010)

Merc is nearly three now. My problems started when he was about 18 months, just when I thought he was close to growing up! Our trainer said that they go through one stage at around 9 months and then there is another developmental stage of social maturity usually around 18 months to 2 years. Mercs behavior does sound quite similar to what you describe with mischa but hopefully because you've become aware of it so early you can stop it before she becomes as bad as merc. Good luck.


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