Advice for human chew toy please

[bgb699]

Hunter is a 6 month old GSD/Lab mix that we got from a German Shepherd rescue when he was 10 weeks old. He was from a litter of 12 pups, their mom had died when they were 6 weeks old. He's a great dog except that he wont stop biting/mouthing/chewing. Not on things like furniture and stuff, but on people. He doesn't do it out of aggression, he's the most happy go lucky dog I've ever known. It just seems like this is his way of playing and it hurts! He's broken skin on everyone in the family. We've tried everything I've heard of- time outs(crate), ignoring, yelping, squirt bottles, bitter apple and vinegar (which suprised him the first couple times, but now he LIKES it!) and giving him his toys to chew on in exchange for our hands. You cant even touch him without him chewing on you. I have a feeling that because he was seperated from his siblings and mom at such a young age that maybe he didnt learn bite inhibition. Im seriously at a loss of what I can do about this. Is he ever going to outgrow it? Any suggestions? He does have plenty of chew toys. In fact if hes not chewing on one of us, he's got a toy in his mouth (and vice-versa!)

[Yoladybug]

Unfortunately I don't have any brilliant suggestions for you. Abby was the same way when I got her. She never meant to hurt anyone, but she always tried to chew on people's arms, hands, fingers, etc. She's completely stopped now. I found that scolding her didn't work very well (she's so happy go lucky that yelling at her only makes her tail wag harder...very frustrating :roll: ), so every time it happened I would just shove a toy into her mouth and praise her like crazy for chewing on that instead of me. I'm not sure if that stopped it or if she just grew out of it.

[Seijun]

Hi, I had problems with my adult dog, also EXTREMELY mouthy, and only one method stopped her. Other people I have met have also used this method and have reported it as working wonders. Some people think it is cruel, but it is no more cruel than using a squirt bottle. The method is as follows:

"When the canine mouths you, insert your thumb into the bottom of his mouth with your thumb pressing down on the soft part of the mouth under the tongue (not hard, your intent is not to create pain, only slight discomfort). At the same time, your fingers should be curled under the canine's chin, applying slight pressure to the chin. In other words, your thumb and fingers should be pressing toward each other, with the canine's chin between your thumb and fingers. While doing this, follow up on the verbal command of "No Bite!" or "Off" or some such command that you will use throughout the life of your animal. Most canines will react by pushing at your thumb with his tongue and trying to pull his lower jaw out of your grip. After a few times of doing this, the canine will eventually realize that mouthing people results in this reprimand, and the animal will then learn to keep its mouth off of people. This is a painless and highly successful way of teaching bite inhibition to older canines who haven't been taught it as pups."

~Seij

[courtnek]

Free was also very mouthy as a pup, and I have used Seij's remedy with success. A mother dog will take a pups lips in her teeth and hold them slightly to stop mouthing. For a human, Seij's remedy works better. Your pup was seperated from mom too early, and so now you have to teach him bite inhibition. This process will not hurt hin, just dont press real hard.

[ESSlover]

Thanks for putting this up!! We are going CRAZY with Carsons biting. And when we try to get him to stop, he just gets more excited. My parents get so upset that they start to hit him, and then he backs up and then runs full force and tries to tackle you. We try to give him other stuff to chew on, but he just drops it and "attacks" your arm again.

I think we'll try the thing that Seig suggested.