Puppy Biting

[FrancesMadsen]

My puppy is biting my feet. I’ve tried to Yelp and walk away but she seems to be getting worse. Any advice?

[JMFS]

Is it when you have socks on, bare feet, or is she indiscriminate?  Mine is Obsessed with socks.  When I'm putting socks on, her wet nose is right there to soil them straight away.  If I leave a sock on the floor, it's in her mouth.  As soon as my socks are on she's investigating.  No clue what the fascination is. 

I ask about shoes because if she still does it with shoes on you can do the "pretend I'm a tree" method and stop all movement and reaction.  Eventually she'll determine feet are boring and move on to something else for you to ask about, lol.  If it's bate feet then I know it's tough to remain still as those sharp puppy teeth are scoring your skin.  If that's the case you can attempt redirection.  When she goes for your feet, distract her with a toy or a treat.  I chew a Lot of gum and have Mentos containers aplenty.  Rather than toss them I give them a wash and voila!  Treat container.  I have one in every room (out of reach of furry creatures).  When Esther does something I want to redirect I bring out the treats.  For feet that might mean tossing the treat away from you so she has to leave your feet to retrieve the treat.  If she likes toys you can use a toy instead.  That's a boiled down version of what redirection is, and it's one of our most powerful tools.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hello, and welcome to the forums!

Side note: Jennifer, I love your Mentos treat dispenser idea!

Yelping and walking away can help with some mellow pups, but some pups get more aroused when we yelp and walk away. The reason for this is that pups are attracted to movement and the yelping makes us sound like a hurt animal (sort of why dogs love squeaky toys!) and if it's followed by us moving away, it will become a cue that we are moving away and the pup can attach to our feet/legs as we move away for a fun ride. Now, we aren't just toys that squeak, but we have transformed into tug toys too!

 

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

I am attaching some threads that discuss puppy biting. You may find tips that may help you:

 

 

[JMFS]

The Mentos / empty gum container of any brand work Great.  I can even fit them into my waistband for hands-free training.  I have one stuffed with Smarties for myself, lol.  Q-tips, cotton balls, paperclips . . . they hold many things.  They're great for protecting small items when traveling, too, with their rigid design.  I suppose they'd work for kiddos' lunch boxes, too.  I sometimes use plain Goldfish as treats for the pups and yep, those fit great in the containers as well.  I don't use them often because of the sodium, but the girls sure like them.

The only drawback is they're not airtight so things can go stale or dry out, and liquids wouldn't work well.  Though you Could do presoaked cotton balls or rounds if you needed alcohol wipes or some such.  Easy enough to control spoilage by filling them with only what's needed.  Conceivably one could poke a hole in them to loop a wrist tether or caribiner.  Or heck, put them in a treat pouch so you don't have to clean the treat pouch.  :D  And they fit into drink holders nicely.

Another idea for the biting - if you have galoshes / rain boots / wellies you could start the training using those to protect feet.  Even if she got a good nip in, you wouldn't feel a thing.  :)