[Jackson23]

She is 4lbs, 3 months old, but extremely violent. That's the perfect word for describing her. She has her times when she's the absolute perfect dog, she'll curl up next to you and fall asleep- nearly completely trained to go outside, never inside, doesn't cry at night in her crate... and so on.

Yet the other half of the time, she enjoys lunging at the furniture and tearing at it as hard as she can... snarling at everyone, biting her toys and trying to rip the heads off (really...) biting as HARD as she can if you try taking something out of her mouth, and so on. I've bled several times from this 3 month old puppy!

Her breed is irrelevant to the case (no she isn't some wild dog), but what went WRONG here? The parents have great temperament, and she is very social and friendly... but I thought this biting thing would have gone away by now! And I have tried a million remedies, she still finds a way to make it hurt.

 

[saintnoel]

What breed is she?

 

[BoxMeIn21]

I can assure you, no matter what it looks like, your puppy is just playing. It's perfectly normal behavior.

When she's going after the furniture, just redirect her to her toys - and that's fine if she wants to rip the heads off - let her be dog.
As far as biting you, take this opportunity to teach bite inhibition while you still can. It's not a quick fix, but with patience and consistency it will pay off.

Here is the link for that:
http://www.jersey.net/~mountaindog/berner1/bitestop.htm


One more thing...don't let her fool you on the house training. Most dogs don't even fully grasp the concept until around the 6 month mark. They may be accident free - but they are certainly not housetrained. Keep in mind they sometimes tend to regress before it finally sinks in.

 

[Jackson23]

Well I do understand that she's just playing, but when you see her she starts to completely nuts. I mean she goes from chasing her toy around to grabbing hold of your hand and sinking in her teeth as much as possible. Quite frustrating when it's a pain (literally) to play with my own dog! But I'll definitely check out that link, hopefully it will have some new info on how to reduce biting.

 

[BoxMeIn21]

Well I do understand that she's just playing, but when you see her she starts to completely nuts. I mean she goes from chasing her toy around to grabbing hold of your hand and sinking in her teeth as much as possible. Quite frustrating when it's a pain (literally) to play with my own dog! But I'll definitely check out that link, hopefully it will have some new info on how to reduce biting.

That's exactly what that link is for - to teach her how to use her mouth appropriately, so you can teach her to STOP.

 

[Dog Tracks]

Just out of curiousity how old was the puppy when she was taken from her litter? Bite inhibition is taught best by the dam and litter mates. The dam teaches "soft-mouth" by pushing away a puppy who bites down hard on her teet. Litter mates teach each other bite inhibition by stopping play with a mate who bites too hard.

Mabel was a play-biter when we adopted her. The cure was pretty simple although it required about a month of consistent training. Anytime her teeth so much as touched our skin we let out a painful "Ouch" sound and immediately put her in the study (a small room with a closed door). Don't say anything other than "Ouch", no reprimands, etc (silence is a more serious statement than any words can convey).

She only needs to stay in the closed room for 15-20 seconds. Let her out and begin play again. One short play session might result in 5-10 trips to the study. But pretty soon she'll learn that using her teeth makes a good thing (play with you) go away.

 

[Trixie]

Ha. My dog can be like a crazed lunatic when she plays, as well. She destroys all her toys. She's over a year old, and has always been like that.

Although she has excellent bit inhibition, and always has, so I can't help you there. (probably both her breed -- known for having a "soft mouth" -- and her socialization contributed to that)

Sounds pretty normal overall to me. Make sure the pup is getting enough exercise both on a leash and off-leash. It will wear her out and put her to sleep.