Any tips?

Rupert gets a bit rough, and his playing ends up with a painful nip, he has occasional lunged at us, mouth open, which results in getting a hand/arm pierced on his needle teeth, including my lip

I know his a puppy, but I just keep saying NO! Not getting anywhere, play leads in to me been nipped Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

When Susie 'nipped' us when playing, we were told to go "aaaargh!" or "Ouch"! Or any other such noise to let her know we weren't happy and turn our back on her. Other dogs do this (yelp) when play gets a bit rough. She soon got the message. Spaniels are very quick to learn. Oh yeah, we were told never to play fight as well. Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.

I've just read about the yelping when they nip, think we will give that a go

I knew about play fighting, so there's none of that, just petting, holding his toys, tickling etc Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

He is trying to replicate playing with his siblings but at his age his teeth are very sharp,give him a tap on the nose (with one finger not hit him and a firm NO ) If your not happy with that pick him by the scruff as his mother would sit him down with a firm NO don't let the nipping continue or he will see it as normal behaviour.Get the dog other things that it is allowed to chew and bite.You also have to remove the temptation from him I can understand that your family want to cuddle him and be close but by having anyone's face near my result in a painfull lesson but the dog will not understand what its done.Try to limit the play time so the dog does not get over excited

You could try when he bites/nips, stop playing with him, it always worked for us, they learn that if they hurt, playtime stops.

A quick sharp slap under the chin with the flat of the hand when the mouth is open will stop that as the dog comes for you. We had exactly the same problem many years ago (1972 to be exact) with our first Afghan hound. So it was down to the obedience training class and our dog went for the instructor.He only tried it twice and never again.

Shutting the mouth quickly like that does actually not hurt the dog but makes them think twice before having another go. OK anyone reading this will be up in arms yelling cruelty etc, but over the year (about40) when anyone has had the same problem this is what we advise and on each occassion the owners have said IT WORKED.

Never ever ever across the bridge of the nose as untold damage can be caused, even with a newspaper, but under the chin, better when still have puppy teeth, and yes they are like little needles going into you.


A dog needs a pack leader and that is the owner. Training is not that difficult we have trained many dogs over the years. The main things to remember are

1= use one word commands
2= tell a dog don't ask (tone of voice)
3 = always always praise a dog if it does what its told
4= Always give same commands for each action
5= Don't stick to giving commands in one situation, ie training classes as the dog then associates that place with obedience only
6 =sitting gently push down on the back above the back legs area
7= feeding try and feed at same time of day and in same place, even a cat will get used to this routine
8= DO DO praise when a dog does something right, we all like someone to say well done

Basic rules we have stuck to over the 10 or 12 dogs we have owned over he 40 odd years and also with running the boarding kennels for 21 years. In all that time I can only recall having to get an owner to collect their dogs around 5 times purely as the dog had never been trained or was nervous aggressive.

I personally would like to see all dog owners to pass a test of some sort in basic training and welfare but obviously this is impossible. So many dog owners don't actually have a clue about which side a dog should walk on beside them or how to put on a check chain properly. Notice I said a check chain and not a choke chain that is showing ignorance. Also I see so many people just using one hand on a lead and I think to myself "what happens if that lead slips out of that hand" Scares me to death.

Correct control in public places especially crowded ones are essential in my opinion

OOH don't get me on about dog ownership I could fill pages of it. I sat down the other day and tried to work out how many days of boarding dogs we did. When I got to over 200,000 (we had well over 5000 clients on our books) I gave up, yes it was a very large boarding business we had, licenced for 118 dogs and 42 cats.


I could go on about rescue and the services such as border control sniffer dogs and well as the armed forces and police who came to check out rescues we thought suitable. Or about Afghan Racing (for fun only and exercise) or about our breeding program or about our dogs being used in advertising.

Link to one of our dogs being used in advertising
This was one we bred (Muffin) Kabella Ice Cream at Pashkym

 Ex 2010 Freelander2 GS-e Diesel manual Silver owner

Working cockers can be quite persistent, one of mine didn't really stop until he lost his puppy fangs. Still, he'll start humping everything soon and that will take his mind off play biting for some of the time

This is quite a good place for various bits of info - http://www.gundogtrainingforum.co.uk

A site my wife sometimes looks at is www.cockersonline.co.uk but she said some owners can be a bit anal about their dogs.  Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.

Our Westie has always been prone to nipping during play, even now at 15 moths old. We were told to simply stop playing at that stage & pehaps he'll get the message. Still waiting! One thing that puzzles us is that when we put on his lead for a walk, he'll try to bite us - not hard but it's annoying & uncomfortable - yet when we come home & take it off to put on his house lead he's as good as gold. can't figure this at all! From a time when dinosaurs weren't just confined to zoos!

Graham, both ours do that when trying to attach a lead to go out, we've put it down to excitement, they don't seem to understand that the quicker you get the lead on the quicker they can go out.

That's all we have been able to come up with too - nice to hear it confirmed! Are yours Westies? Perhaps it's a "Westie thing"  From a time when dinosaurs weren't just confined to zoos!

Two Westies, in the eyes of the wife they can do no wrong.

a sharp rap on the nose with a rolled up newspaper should do the trick.

Iain

All three of ours responded quickly to a high pitched help and immediate stop to any "fun" that was occurring. If they didn't we'd just pinch their bottom jaw/ in mouth between thumb and fore finger. I think all of them only needed that once to learn it wasn't acceptable to bite.

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Two Westies, in the eyes of the wife they can do no wrong.