Newbie seeks advice on BITING

[FourAtThree]

Hello All-

I'm a new member and a new Mom to a female Pyr pup, Phoebe. Phoebe is now 11 weeks old and came to live with us three weeks ago from a rescue group in Missouri. She was the only female in a litter of six.

We have been a German Shepherd Dog family for many years, and our "son" turned nine in June. Phoebe is our first Pyr. We have not had a baby in the house for about 11 years, so I'm rusty on all things puppy. Having said that . . .

Can anybody please offer some suggestions on how to stop (ok, I'll settle for now on "curb") biting? "Nipping" is not strong enough to describe Phoebe's enthusiasm when it comes to her mouth. Sometimes she becomes frantic with biting, and I think I've tried most everything to stop her (e.g., walking away, pinning her down, going into another room and closing the door, tempting her with peanut butter and using the term "kisses," etc.). None of my actions seems to deter her biting. She is often relentless with biting, especially when she's tired.

I know I'm supposed to remain calm and patient, but that is easier said than done.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!

[vin63]

Could you describe a little more of the circumstances surrounding the biting episodes? Is it a show of aggression? Is it during a particular part of the day, or family activity, after/before meals, etc? Does she have chew toys available to her? Do you offer her chew toys when she starts to bite family members. Are you crate training, or any other form of obedience training currently?

[FourAtThree]

I honestly don't know if it's a sign of aggression. Sometimes it seems she has split personalities.

I can't pinpoint with specificity when the biting frenzy happens. Sometimes toward the end of a walk, sometimes during play, many times when she's tired. When I walk away, she follows and keeps jumping and biting. That's really the disturbing part.

We have lots of chew toys for her, and I always attempt to give her the chew toys in lieu of my hand, arm, leg, etc. I've read suggestions about freezing old washcloths, but she chews virtually everything so that has not worked for us.

Yes, we are crate training and she does well in the crate. I've gotten to the point where I put her in the smaller crate for "Time Out" when she gets out of control with biting.

Within the past week or so our male GSD has started to reprimand her when she bites at him. For the first two weeks he tolerated it, but it seems he's gotten a bit frustrated with her biting, too.

In addition to the examples I provided in the first posting, I've also tried the stern "NO!" and the loud "Yips and Ouches!" Nothing has worked. I'm really at a loss about how to stop this bad behavior.

I started training her from the moment she arrived. She learned to sit and look up for a treat within about an hour, and learned 'down' within a day. No doubt she's a smart cookie. We started a puppy class last week, and tonight will be our second lesson.

[Tsunibear]

Okay so when you say "Ouch" put her jowls underneath her teeth so she can feel how bad it hurts. I had to do that with my shar-pei, he has shark like teeth and when he would "nibble" it would hurt and someone on here suggested that you put their jowls under their teeth to another member and so I tried and it works. When I say "ouch" now he knows from experience that I mean ouch and he stops.