# How to stop "play biting", 7 week old Golden



## Braccarius

7 weeks is pretty young even for a pup. They are called "Land Sharks" because most of their exploration is occurs with their yap. This is a difficult stage but there are a few things that people have used to some success.

- The thing that has worked best for me is always redirecting to something else much more fun to chew than me. I used to keep a kong on me for the better part of 3-4 weeks when we got Harley because hew as exceptionally "mouthy"

- I'm not above learning from my dog, and recently I was fostering a very undersocialized puppy (removed too young from parents likely at 3-4 weeks). I wondered why she was constantly irritating my female but leaving my male alone until I saw her go to "bother" Harley. She was hanging off his face but he did the most remarkable thing, he never made eye-contact, sat there completely still and pretended she didn't exist..... surprisngly it worked. She wandered off to find Mirabelle after 5 seconds.

GOOD LUCK! Its a hard phase!


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## mylissyk

This is totally normal behaviour for a puppy, they explore and play with everything with their mouth. It won't continue into adulthoood, especially if you correct it the right way now.

Do not punish the puppy for play biting! When he puts teeth on skin shove a toy in his mouth instead, or say "ouch" in a high pitch voice and move away. This is going to take a while to stop, he is just a tiny baby doing the most natural thing for him to do, and he will learn not to, just be patient.

I just have to repeat, do not punish him for biting. 

Take a look through the Puppy forum on the board, you will find hundreds of threads about correcting puppy biting, and lots of advise and good methods for dealing with it.


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## LBooth010811

mylissyk said:


> This is totally normal behaviour for a puppy, they explore and play with everything with their mouth. It won't continue into adulthoood, especially if you correct it the right way now.
> 
> Do not punish the puppy for play biting! When he puts teeth on skin shove a toy in his mouth instead, or say "ouch" in a high pitch voice and move away. This is going to take a while to stop, he is just a tiny baby doing the most natural thing for him to do, and he will learn not to, just be patient.
> 
> I just have to repeat, do not punish him for biting.
> 
> Take a look through the Puppy forum on the board, you will find hundreds of threads about correcting puppy biting, and lots of advise and good methods for dealing with it.



Thanks so much for the advice! My husband and I are completely new at this puppy thing. We had someone tell us the other day that if we didn't "stop this biting thing, he would turn into an aggressive, dominant, mean adult dog" so we got a little worried. Chances are, this person had no idea what they were talking about! But we would certainly never punish him for doing this.


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## LBooth010811

Braccarius said:


> 7 weeks is pretty young even for a pup. They are called "Land Sharks" because most of their exploration is occurs with their yap. This is a difficult stage but there are a few things that people have used to some success.
> 
> - The thing that has worked best for me is always redirecting to something else much more fun to chew than me. I used to keep a kong on me for the better part of 3-4 weeks when we got Harley because hew as exceptionally "mouthy"
> 
> - I'm not above learning from my dog, and recently I was fostering a very undersocialized puppy (removed too young from parents likely at 3-4 weeks). I wondered why she was constantly irritating my female but leaving my male alone until I saw her go to "bother" Harley. She was hanging off his face but he did the most remarkable thing, he never made eye-contact, sat there completely still and pretended she didn't exist..... surprisngly it worked. She wandered off to find Mirabelle after 5 seconds.
> 
> GOOD LUCK! Its a hard phase!


Thanks for the advice! We've been trying to do that when he bites us, we'll show him his rope toy or his squeaky. Maybe as he gets a little older, he'll grow out of it!


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## mylissyk

LBooth010811 said:


> Thanks so much for the advice! My husband and I are completely new at this puppy thing. We had someone tell us the other day that if we didn't "stop this biting thing, he would turn into an aggressive, dominant, mean adult dog" so we got a little worried. Chances are, this person had no idea what they were talking about! But we would certainly never punish him for doing this.


I would agree this person did not know what they are talking about! Puppies use their mouth to play and explore everything in their world, just like human babies stick everything in their mouth. Puppies just do it with teeth. 

I know it can get very frustrating if they are persistent, but if you keep redirecting to a toy, and also being totally boring if he play bites on you he will learn. Just be patient, it will get better if you keep reinforcing the right thing to do with his little sharky teeth.


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## mylissyk

By the way, puppy pictures are required!


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## LBooth010811

mylissyk said:


> I would agree this person did not know what they are talking about! Puppies use their mouth to play and explore everything in their world, just like human babies stick everything in their mouth. Puppies just do it with teeth.
> 
> I know it can get very frustrating if they are persistent, but if you keep redirecting to a toy, and also being totally boring if he play bites on you he will learn. Just be patient, it will get better if you keep reinforcing the right thing to do with his little sharky teeth.


Okay good! I feel better. She made is sound as if my pup was going to be a demon dog haha! And per your request, here are some pics of my sweet man, Jake!! 




























Enjoy!


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## Jige

I frim 'NO' along with redirection is all you need oh yea patience too. He is very young in a few weeks you will discoved he has moved on from chewing yu that you can stop right away to chewing something important that you are unware he is chewing until it is too late...haha Ahh the joys of puppyhood.


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## LBooth010811

General V said:


> I frim 'NO' along with redirection is all you need oh yea patience too. He is very young in a few weeks you will discoved he has moved on from chewing yu that you can stop right away to chewing something important that you are unware he is chewing until it is too late...haha Ahh the joys of puppyhood.


Haha, great! Oh well, it's worth it!!


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## Loisiana

Okay, threads outside the puppy forum need warnings if they are going to include cute puppy pics! I avoid the puppy section for a reason! LOL

idonotwantapuppyidonotwantapuppyidonotwantapuppy


Trust me, if every puppy that acted that way grew up to be demon dogs then 95% of dogs out there would fall in that category!


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## LBooth010811

Loisiana said:


> Okay, threads outside the puppy forum need warnings if they are going to include cute puppy pics! I avoid the puppy section for a reason! LOL
> 
> idonotwantapuppyidonotwantapuppyidonotwantapuppy
> 
> 
> Trust me, if every puppy that acted that way grew up to be demon dogs then 95% of dogs out there would fall in that category!


Haha!! Sorry for not posting a warning  But doesn't he have the cutest little face? I love him to death!


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## deemsnyd

We tried several things with Gracie...re-directing to toys, sharp "No's", yelping to let her know it hurt, etc...but nothing worked for very long and nothing seemed to "stick" in her memory for the next time. This is a hard thing to manage because it's completely normal behavior. The way Chloe handled it was to place her head/neck in her mouth and not let her get to her skin with her teeth. Plus anytime she wanted her to stop all SHE had to do was look at her...needless to say, we couldn't duplicate what Chloe was doing. I read somewhere to have a small squirt bottle with water hidden in your hand and as soon as they do it (timing is important) give a little spritz in the face without even looking at them. Do it quickly and keep the bottle hidden. Worked like a charm, only had to do it once or twice and she's a different puppy now. I think it just breaks their concentration because they can get so focused on the biting. It's quick, it doesn't hurt, they can't really figure out where it came from if you're fast enough and it's the best re-direction technique I've found for this particular behavior. Hope this helps.  Gorgeous little guy, by the way.


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## Chooch

We're in the same boat. 10 week old pup who goes into his puppy fraps and he starts nipping at everything he can. Sometime what works for us is to let him try to bite, lets say he's trying for my arm, i'll just keep putting my arm in his mouth, and he backs off. It worked for my 3 goldens before, along with the saying "OUCH" and turning around. They learn, it just takes a bit of time. Giving them an option like a toy also teaches them to grab toys instead.


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## Doryann

My Jake is 8 weeks old and he does the same thing. But I am finding what works for me is to fold up my arms and look away from him and not acknowledge him. He will just stop and sit down and look at me, like he is trying to figure me out. Then when I reach to pet him he is much calmer. Before I started this I would push him away and say NO but he thought this was playing and would just get crazier! Ha!
Like I said he is only 8 weeks old and I don't pretend to know what I am doing yet, but this has definitely been working for us. Good luck!


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## FlyingQuizini

Very cute... and so leeeetle... He's really seven weeks? I honestly would've guessed five by the pic.

In any case - constant redirection to the right thing to chew and if he's too over-stimulated to redirect, remove access to you so he can't continue the unwanted behavior. A 10 min cooling down period in the crate (where he's crated happily, not as though you're punishing him) can do wonders to re-set wee little puppy brains.


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## Selli-Belle

Here is a bit of theory behind bite inhibition and here is a technique for stopping the annoying biting.


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## Bkhollan

My golden Bella use to play bite for the first few months of me getting her. I never did the redirect to her toys(good idea tho), but I would just say "ouch" and turn away from her. She learned that biting me was the end of playtime for a few minutes. She learned fairly quickly that way. With treats and praise, you can really teach a golden to do about anything. They love to please.


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## Bella's Mama

What wonderful suggestions. I'm going to try some since our golden is play biting badly


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## Photosbykev

totally normal behaviour as others have already said. We are using the redirection and use a kong approach but it does take time, my hands look like I've taken up punching cactus plants! Bailey, our pup, is now 10 weeks old and teething bigtime lol we've even bought some teething gel to support the ice cubes and frozen kongs we are using.


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## paula bedard

Ike was the same bitey, mouthy, land shark at that young age too. I noticed that Ike particularly liked my skin...guess it tasted good. If he wasn't mouthing my hand, he was licking it. He also seemed fascinated by different textures. He put everything in his mouth, didn't eat it, just chewed on it a bit and dropped it. A loud 'Ouch' and redirection with a toy usually worked. When he would get particularly bitey and I could not redirect him with a toy or stuffy, I would give him a time out in our bathroom (never the crate, the crate is not for punishment) I'd say 'time out' and put him in there for a minute or two, lights on, and let him calm down. He did not cry, he'd just lay in the corner. Pretty soon, all I had to say was 'time out' and he'd immediately calm down. Granted many pups might take to shredding the bathroom or crying, but Ike didn't. This worked for us. I've since used the same 'time out' for my son's pup and it's worked for him too. To this day, if I say 'time out' the dogs immediately calm down. Good luck with your pup...and ENJOY!


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## Bella's Mama

I also would like to mention that our pup LOVES her washcloth. We gave her an old one to chew on, and she love chewing on that more than anything.


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## bbailly

*play biting at a year*

We are in the same boat too. Is it just typical behavior for all golden to play bite? Our dog is a year and is still unpredictable and will play bite out of the blue. My husband says it's normal andtha t our daughter is causing some of it because of the way she plays with him. We've tried it all and nothing works. I have many friends with other dogs and young children and their dogs do not play bite. Any thoughts.


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## laprincessa

bbailly said:


> We are in the same boat too. Is it just typical behavior for all golden to play bite? Our dog is a year and is still unpredictable and will play bite out of the blue. My husband says it's normal andtha t our daughter is causing some of it because of the way she plays with him. We've tried it all and nothing works. I have many friends with other dogs and young children and their dogs do not play bite. Any thoughts.


Yep. What's your daughter doing? And how old is she?


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