If I read one more blog posts that says it's good that puppies bite I'm going to scream. Once I'm done screaming from Gumbo biting me. However well-intentioned these folks are, I can't agree that this is a good thing for puppies! OK, well maybe it is for them but not for me!
Now don't get me wrong. I really do love our little guy. It's just those baby teeth that I can do without seeing them puncture my skin. We've been trying all sorts of strategies to keep his biting down.
- Keeping chew toys on hand to stuff in his mouth before he plants a good one on you. Works pretty good as long as you pay attention to his wandering mouth.
- Make sure that our arms and any other bodily limb is not moving too much - nice meaty targets for him. These little guys love to chase things!
- Putting Vicks VapoRub on your hands. This does work but you smell pretty bad. Does work on our kitchen cabinets though.
- Acting like a litter mate and squealing when bit. This doesn't work with Gumbo. It seems like a signal to turn up the intensity and bit harder.
- Ignoring him when bitten. This does seem to work, albeit, slowly. We stick him back in his X-pen and ignore him for a few minutes while turning our back on him. This seems to really hurt his feelings since his playmates are ignoring him.
- Filling a Coke can with pennies and shaking it when he bites. Not worked so far. Just gets his motor running more he hears the noise. I'm sure he'd love to sink his choppers into that can!
Before you get the idea that we're going nuts, let me say that we do see some progress. Our breeder told us that if we can hang in there until he's 18 months, we should be in the clear. Great. He just turned 3 months last week. So we we have any skin left we'll be good to go in 15 months. We should be pretty good at all this by then so feel free to contact us for any tips as we'll be experts. Or we'll be in the hospital on an IV.
Cheers!
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