# Obsessed with fingers!



## katy13 (Apr 29, 2014)

My wonderful 9 week old V is obsessed with hands! When she is "playing" with her toys her eyes are always on my hands, and ready to chomp. How can I correct this? 

What I have done:

Closed her muzzle and say no bite
hide my hands (lets her at least not see them, but once she sees a glimpse she is back at it)
put her in time out


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## marathonman (Jan 15, 2013)

Typical V pup behavior, especially when so young. Getting physical with her is not the answer. The pup is not going to have a clue what you are doing with clamping down on her muzzle. My advice is to have lots of appropriate chew toys around. When she looks like she is going to you, offer her a chew toy. If she does bite, yelp loudly, and turn around and leave if needed. She'll get the point quickly. Do a search for shark attacks for more ideas on how to redirect this behavior.


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## katy13 (Apr 29, 2014)

marathonman said:


> Typical V pup behavior, especially when so young. Getting physical with her is not the answer. The pup is not going to have a clue what you are doing with clamping down on her muzzle. My advice is to have lots of appropriate chew toys around. When she looks like she is going to you, offer her a chew toy. If she does bite, yelp loudly, and turn around and leave if needed. She'll get the point quickly. Do a search for shark attacks for more ideas on how to redirect this behavior.


I actually should have said that I have tried yelping but that only excited her more, and I do walk away (her time out). But my problem is even when redirecting she only sees my fingers on the other side of the toy. I am tempted to put bad tasting stuff on my hands. lol


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Moving objects attract a puppies attention, and they like to put their mouth on everything that gets their attention.
What do we move most when playing with them, our hands. Your pup is just doing what every normal Vizsla does at that age.
Does it hurt? You bet it does.
The good news is it will get better with age.
You might want to purchase some material from Ian Dunbar to help you get past this stage.


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## lilyloo (Jun 20, 2012)

The good news? It's completely normal and it will go away with age. The bad news? It's going to get worse before it gets better. Our girl's nipping/shark attacks peaked around 12 weeks and were completely gone by 20 weeks. I think your pup is still a bit young for this at 9 weeks old, but what worked really well for us was a squirt bottle filled with water. Any time she nipped at us we'd give her a little squirt and say "no biting!" at the same time. Worked like a charm. This was after trying everything under the sun --- time outs, yelping, walking away, etc. We even (as a desperate measure) put bitter apple all over our arms and hands. Didn't work. I did forget and lick my fingers ....that was awful for me!


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