My puppy has a serious problem with play biting. Advice?

Question

I have a 12 week old Australian shepherd puppy.  She's already potty trained and crate trained and knows 2 commands.  She's great except one problem - she will NOT STOP PLAY BITING!!!!  And HARD too, she's drawn blood twice.  She wants to bite our fingers constantly.  She has PLENTY of chew bones, toys, rawhides, etc in the house.  She is also quite a dominant dog and doesn't like to take "no" for an answer.  Here's what we've tried so far with no luck:

Distracting her with another toy.  She chews on the other toy for about 5 seconds and then immediately tries to go back to our fingers. 

Saying "no" sharply.  This either has no effect or gets her more excited - sometimes she'll bark at me and then keep trying to bite.

Yelping loudly like another puppy.  She will stop and look at me, surprised, for about 5 seconds, and then will try to bite me again.

Walking away and refusing to play.  This helps until our next play session.

When all else fails, I put her in the crate for a "time-out."  But so far this doesn't seem to be helping, other than stopping me from being bitten when she's in the crate!



I'm all out of ideas, except for using physical means, like a rolled up newspaper, which all the experts say is bad.  

Anyone else have any good ideas??

Thanks in advance!!!

Alison · Accepted Answer

What did with mine was put bitter apple spray on my hands :) I sad NO with a tap on the nose ... 

Puppy is still a baby and doesn't know.

Sometimes a doggy day care kinda helps them along in learning the difference between play bite and real bite. One she bites a dog hard she will realize opps won't do that again.

Elaine M · Answer

The yelp thing is great, that's what another dog would do. But combine it with you stopping ALL play and  retreating without looking at her.  She needs to understand biting means play stops immediately.

You can get a bottle of Bitter Apple too, and spread it on your hands, one taste of that and she'll back off as well. It tastes like biting into the inside of a banana peel.

Im Inquisitive · Answer

Get some cayenne pepper and aloe vera gel, and mix them together until the cayenne pepper looks like bread crumbs. Then put some of that mixture into your favorite hand lotion. Next, squeeze out some of the lotion and rub it all over your hands and arms. Dogs are repelled by the cayenne and aloe mixture. She will not bite your hands when she smells this. I'm still having issues training my puppy (please read my question and offer advice!) but when I put this mixture on my hand he DOES NOT bite them.

Anonymous · Answer

1st never use the crate as a punishment! If they are suppose to sleep there they will think that it is another punishment. Puppy's bite, you need to keep saying no and walking away if it continues. After a little they'll get he idea.

annmarie · Answer

When he is biting your hands or other body parts get a bone and stick it in his mouth so he chews on that and learns thats the only thing he can bite.

Anonymous · Answer

Hot sauce on your hands would be effective!

My puppy has a serious problem with play biting. Advice?

6 Answers