We have a 6 month old female GSD puppy. She is extremely mouthy and also jumps on us to mouth us and grab our clothes. We have tried the following to try and get to stop this behavior, but when she is in this mode nothing works:
1. Yelp and ignore her (she just comes at us harder)
2. Use a water spray bottle (she thinks it is a game)
3. Shake a glass jar with coins (does nothing)
4. Leave her alone (when we return, she comes at us harder)
5. Grab her muzzle and tell her no (she fights to release our grip)
Does anybody have any advice on other methods we can try to calm her down?

You have a 6 month old GSD. Puppies in general are mouthy, and a GSD only more so.

The yelping will only cause excitement, and as you have learned, only makes the behavior worse.

Spraying water in a dogs face is mean, and as you've found, ineffective at deterring the behavior.

Noise aversion and muzzling may temporarily stop the behavior, but in the end a dog that has been startled out of a behavior will do one of two things- learn to ignore the noise, or become anxious about ALL loud noises.
Muzzles only work when they are on, and don't stop the behavior. The second the muzzle comes off, the dog can go right back to the same pattern.

I would advise against having a puppy in a muzzle. You're only masking the behavior at best, and at worst, you're setting her up for other behavioral problems in the future.

Your puppy isn't mean, aggressive or dominant. It's just a typical (in fact, she sounds like a very NICE GSD) pup. She has a bunch of prey drive, and needs to learn an appropriate outlet.

First, I would take some time to read the articles here on Leerburg, especially those on raising a working puppy. Whether or not you intend to "work" your pup, you do have a working breed, and understanding what she was bred for will give you a great deal of insight into how to address behavioral traits.

Here is a good Question and Answer section on this very problem (puppy mouthiness):
http://leerburg.com/qabiting.htm

Welcome aboard.

Alyssa:

Thank you for the reply. I have devoured the website and will begin using the correction methods Ed advises. Also, just want to clear up the muzzle...I didn't put a muzzle on her, I used my hand and told her no. Thanks again for your response.

Melissa: I have the same problem with my 10 month old
female shepherd and tried all the things that you did and
none of them worked, until I got an e collar. It also helps
to try to stay calm even though you would like to strangle
them, and speak with a calm tone voice and not an excited
high pitch frantic voice. My shepherd is much much better
but will try to mouth and I tell her no bite in a calm
low keyed voice and she stops and I praise her for being a good
girl again in a low keyed voice with a happy tone. Hope this
helps, you are not alone.

I would recommend against using an ecollar on a 6 month old puppy.

Melissa,
Aren't puppies grand!!!!!!?
Here's the way to deal with it. Redirect, redirect, redirect, redirect, redirect.....Repeat as necessary.

At the same time you're doing all this redirecting (I did mention that redirecting thing didn't I?) you can start shaping the behavior you want. Yeah yeah, you can do that! Read all about it at 'marker training', also at this site. And I understand the video for purchase is well worth the money.

Patience is the key with pups Melissa. Put the work in now, and you'll end up with the dog you always dreamed of.

If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy

Melissa, I found that an effective way to deal with mouthiness was to always have a short drag line on my pup. With a drag line you have much better control than if you try to grab the pup by her collar. Collar grabbing invites a game of 'you grab my collar, I grab your arm'

When she mouths, calmly take hold of the drag line and move her off your arm (or whatever else she might be mouthing), with a firm 'Enough!'

And as Randy said, 'redirect, redirect, redirect!' What was effective for me was to immediately move into a short obedience session. This should be enough of a distraction for her to forget about mouthing you (at least for a few minutes!)

Are you familiar with marker (clicker) training?

Is she getting plenty of exercise? Tiring her out should help in the mouthiness department also...

It does get better and she will outgrow it...

What seems to work great for me with my two pervious large mouthy dogs is to ignore and keep your back to them everytime they are being mouthy. The key is be consistent. With my pervious two dogs, they have learned to stop being mouthy. I was being consistent.

I kept turning my back to them and ignore 100%. It seems to work great. They are being mouthy obvious because they want something like attention, or whatever. I only reward their behavior when they are calm and not mouthy. It works great when you are standing, but it might be diffcult if you are sitting or laying on the floor. If they get so mouthy when I'm sitting or laying, I simple get up and walk away like I don't want to do anything with them for few seconds.

Hahahaha,
Thats funny Lindsay.

I've even had labs never mind GSDs that think thats part of the game and take a piece of clothing or a good chuck of my a** with tricks like walking away.

Nooooooo, believe me engaging the dog is much better.
Unless of course one is looking to lose some bit of derrie`re!

If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy

Randy:

You made my day! I had a good chuckle about getting bit in the
(you know where). Thought I was the only one getting
"attacked" by my over enthusiatic dog.
You have a great sense of humor, and I don't feel so
overwhelmed now.
Thanks for the laugh.
Betty Reavis