# Biting issues for a 1 year old



## samthedog

Hi, 

I have a 1 year old, who has biting issues that has turned into such a concern. He tends to bite our hands, sometimes going after our clothes on us. We can't understand his cues and don't know why he does this. 
We try to go out for a walk everyday to make sure he has exercise, he gets hyper randomly, or maybe its due to the smells he isn't used to around the environment, and starts darting everywhere, then its like he gets mad, and can't control himself he starts to bite us, and its getting really painful. We have had bruises and his bites are so much more stronger, it really hurts. 

He's a little better at home, more relaxed, but there are occasions where he can't seem to control himself, and he gets too hyper/aggressive. Maybe he is just a high energy dog. We noticed he humps his cushion pillow to release some of his energy. (We had him neutered).

He listens to our dad more because that is his alpha master, but as for my sister and I, both of us have troubles controlling him. my dad doesn't have enough time to spend with him, and my sister and I are really the ones who needs to be able to control him. 
We don't know how to stop him from biting us. We tried doing the "ouch", we tried nudging/pushing him away, we tried ignoring him and leaving him alone thinking it might be a punishment if we walk away, but he continues to run after us, and continue going after our clothes. 

We don't know why he bites us, we try and make sure we aren't giving any threats to him, so we don't what it is that makes him act this way. 

HELP US! we are desperate on some new ideas on how to control his biting. we don't know how to stop it. AND IT REALLY HURTS!


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## Juli

First, props to you and your brother for stepping up, for your concern as well as all your help with your dog. I'm sure your Dad really appreciates this, and would be happy to share tips on what works best and what doesn't. My pup is just one month younger than yours and she's a female, but we have some of the same problems. Have you been able to give your dog a toy when this behavior starts? Have you tried obedience classes? I'm a first time dog owner and no expert, but there's lots of support and good suggestions on this forum from really experienced dog owners and trainers. I hope that you're able to learn what works best for you. Good luck to you!


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## Susan: w/ Summit we climb

You need to leave the area altogether, so he can't run after you. Put up a barrier, so he can see you but can't be with you, or just leave the room. Either way, the game's over.


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## samthedog

Thanks all! Looking for more ideas from you! 

We will try the toy idea. 
We leave all together, but he will still try and go after one of us.


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## Cookie's Mom

What you described sounds like typical puppy behavior! Oatmeal turns 1 next month and she also has random moments like this where she goes nuts (jumps, nips, does zoomies). What seems to work 90% of the time is when I put her in a sit as she is in the middle of being crazy. That seems to break her out of it since she is focusing. This works pretty well when we go for walks too. We also use the command, "with me", which pretty much tells her that she needs to settle down and walk in sync with us. We do use treats on our walks to encourage her to be good. If putting her in a sit doesn't work at home, we put her in a time out (approx 3-5 minutes) to calm down. We use her xpen or crate for that. We've noticed that she gets less episodes of craziness when she is well exercised (mentally and physically).


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## goldenSkye1

Skye wasn't biting that bad, but anytime she would get rowdy and start biting me, I'd spray her in the mouth with Listerine mint spray (probably at Walmart or any drug store) or any breath spray would work. Listerine is super spicy, so it definitely wasn't a yummy taste. It's a pocket-sized tube, so it's easy to take with you on walks. It took maybe 3-4 separate occasions for Skye to realize that was the consequence for biting, but she's learned now. And when she slides back, all I do is give her a glimpse of the tube, and she is DONE with the biting!!

Skye was being aggressive with me for a while when she was 10-months old, but after some discipline (I had to knee her in the chest), she no longer does it. So, my point is that it will get better!!


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## quilter

We've had lots of threads on this, so you can find lots of ideas. Seems to be fairly common with the one-year-olds. Search on jumping and biting or jumpy bitey. If you aren't doing training every day, like obedience, rally, tricks, etc, then it would be good to start. Exercise helps, especially running. So will growing up.


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## Goldylover2

Go buy a prong collar. Then buy some nylon rope at Home Depot. Attach the nylon rope to the prong collar and have him where this in the house. Five to seven feet long. Make sure there are no knots in the rope. You don't want it to catch on anything in the house. When ever he starts to nip or bite. Yank the nylon rope hard and tell him no. He'll get the picture. This is what I had to do with my 7 month old. My trainer told me to do this. He was not only nipping and biting but doing other aggressive behavior.


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## quilter

I wanted to add something about training. What training will do is change the way you and your dog interact. He will look to you for direction or at least understand that you give directions.  When he's in that crazy mode, he's probably not in a state where he can learn. Teach him in the non-crazy times, and the benefit will spill over.

In the end, you aren't spending time training him not to bite, you are training him other behaviors he can use around you. For example, if you can identify what triggers him to do this, you can train a new behavior in that situation. As an example, Casper got into this habit of jumping on me in the morning when I got to the upstairs hall. (I have no idea where he got this idea.) So, I taught him Sit/Stay, and would put him in a Stay before I went through the hall. Problem solved! 

Another upside of all this is that goldens generally love training, and training them is fun because they are good at it. More positive feelings all around!

If you need books about training, all of Kyra Sundance's dog trick books are good.


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## Elisabeth Kazup

There is still a lot of puppy in them at 1 year old. Ours is almost 13 months old.

He goes nuts about once a day! He was "going vertical" on us...leaping up; slashing with teeth and nails. We were bloody almost every day. He was just puppy playing but we had to teach him that his play was inappropriate, just as another dog would correct him but without putting our hands on him.

This is what we did. Took a soda/pop can and removed the tab and dropped it into the can. Then I added about a dozen pennies/nickels/dimes. Put tape over the opening so the coins can't come out.

The first couple of times I threw it "near" him....not AT him. The startle effect brought him back to being reasonable. Now, when he gets like that, we just shake the can a bit and he remembers that that behavior is not allowed. It takes about 3-5 minutes for him to calm himself but it does work.


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## samthedog

UPDATES FROM OUR DOG SAM!

- Tried to bring a toy during walks. Worked for a bit, and distracted him just when we saw him about to be riled up. But then after that, he still continues to undergo his aggression rampage, jumping, going after our jackets, biting our hands. 

- Tried the can with coins trick, was attracted to it rather than being scared. 

- We walk out all together for time outs, doesn't work. We come back and he's calm, but he doesn't get it, because he does not associate it with it. When he's on full biting mode, its hard for us to push him away, he clasps onto our hands, and doesn't let go so we struggle to head to the door, and as soon as we get our hands away we shut the door. 

Have yet to try the Listerine trick, I'm wondering if this is okay? if he's already in his aggressive mode? (Note: this is not just nipping, this is full on biting) Or will he see this as aggression from our side, and therefore react with more aggression? 

We are still hopeful!! Thank you for all your wonderful tips so far!


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