[MaddieMommy]

Hi everyone,
Not sure if this is in the right section - please let me know if it's not. I just joined the forums, and my boyfriend and I have a 3 1/2 month old girl Beagle named Maddie. We love her, but a huge issue we have had since the start is her nipping.
When she gets over excited, it is impossible to pet her, as she automatically goes for our hands. The bites seem to be playful rather than mean, but it hurts! And once she is focused on biting us, there is no escape. She has even gone for my face a time or two. We spoke to our vet when she went to get shots, and the vet told us that it was normal for puppies to nip, as they are teething, and that we should have plenty of appropriate toys for her to chew. We do have toys, but the nipping seems to be getting worse rather than better. We've tried saying no, ignoring the behavior, putting a toy in her mouth every time she bits...nothing seems to consistently work.
I'm wondering if anyone has any tips or tricks that have helped with nipping, or perhaps this is just a behavior I'm going to have to wait out until she is no longer teething?
Any help is appreciated!

MaddieMommy

 

[Zookeeper]

Yep, been there, done that! LOL

We learned to yell "Ow" really loud when Duke nipped at us and it did make him stop. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, he did go right back to nipping after a few seconds, but we kept repeating ourselves and eventually he stops.

Now that he's older, when he starts to play too rough, I tell him "easy" and he will then very lightly and playfully bite at my hands, but then it's a game and I allow him to as long as it's easy. If he gets hard again, game is over and he's off my lap.

 

[Quesoart]

Brie also had a nipping problem at that age(she's going on 11 months old now), and I tried everything(with no success). Then one day I just got up and walked away from her after she started nipping at me. She followed me into the kitchen, but I continued to ignore her. Finally she just went over to the other side of the kitchen and sat down. She looked so pitiful, but I stood my ground and although she will still try it when she gets excited or we're playing, all I have to do is begin to walk away from her and she settles down. Patience is the key with these beagle puppies. Hope this helps!!

 

[Vness]

It's very normal. With Marco I yell OUCH! and say no and turn away until he stops playing rough and only play when he's being nice. I'm used to it though. He just bit my foot and it's bleeding a little bit. I left him alone with a toy. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/angel.gif

 

[Marley's Mommy]

I went through this so bad with Marley. He is 11 months old now and I am happy to say it is 99% better. It's normal at that age, just try to get through it. Yell ouch so puppy knows it's not allowed. You can also put a toy in her mouth like you said. And can try to stop playing and she will get that it's a consequence. Now, others have also done water bottles and stuff like that, but that's after she is a bit older and still doing it.

 

[Bernie's Mom]

With Bernie, he's gotten somewhat better with the constant biting, and yes I do mean biting. I still have puncture points/wounds from when we got him a month ago. We still can't pet him, unless he's occupied with some other toy or chew, but now it's more the sharpness of the new teeth coming in, than his need to inflict battle scars LOL. He's not called Barricuda for nothing!

We've found the "ouch" etc, seems to get him even more intent on finding fingers, feet, or any other part of the human body. The thing is.. NONE of his stuffies are damaged beyond being puppyslimed. Don't know why. The ONLY thing that works with Bernie is to ignore him, and that's completely ignore. Get up, stand up, move, remove yourself, and do not look at him. We say.."NO BITE" firmly(ok.. loudly LOL) and walk away. He's instantly sure that there is something better to do where we are.

 

[Luigi]

Yeah, Luigi is a big nipper too. I'll have to try that get up and walk away thing.