Hey guys I need your help. I have a 9 moth old germa sheperad, who whe nhe gets excited he nips at your hand when you reach to pet him. He does no do it in a agressive way but only does it when he is excited. Problem is his nips are getting harder and harder. I grap his mouth and close it and tell him not bite but this only excites him more which makes him nip more, I have tried giving him a toy but he still nips at your hand.

nibbling can be a submissive sign. If the pup is being submissive and you punish it for that, it probably will react by being more submissive, ie more nibbling. So the question is do you think it is submissive or has he picked up a play behavior. I would try acting hurt and in pain when he nips, maybe with a nice OWWW!!!

I think how you deal with it depends a lot on what you are wanting to use the dog for, if it is going to be a PPD then I'm sure some here can help you use that behavior, and in that light how to respond to that behavior depends on what you want out of the dog in the future.

I beleieve it is a paly behavior, which is why he does it when he is excited running around or excited to see me. He is a family pet or watch dog, I may want to do a few obstacle courses with him.

Ken,
based on what you describe, he probably considers your "punishment" play (ie you are rewarding him for the activity), but when he does actually get punished he probably has no idea what he is being punished for.

What your dog needs is a cue given the INSTANT he does the wrong behavior, then he needs to be quickly "punished" for that behavior. Given what you describe you want out of your dog, the instant he put teeth on me I would loudly say "FOO-EEY", then I would quickly withdraw from the dog, all the while acting slightly hurt and indignant. I would turn my back on him and shun him for a few minutes. That shunning should be punishment enough. I would also give him an alternative behavior, some sort of toy to bite on when he acts appropriately (along with praise).

The best way to do it is to set him up so that the behavior happens in an environment that you control, and then react as I described. Then go back to playing with him and react again as needed. Again the key is to cue the dog to the exact behavior you are trying stop by instantly marking that behavior with a loud "foo-eey" and then punish by stopping all play and shunning him, but no more than a minute or two. Do this 3-4 times in a row, if he still has not figured it out, then break off all play for a good hour or two. If you think about what you are doing and watch the dog’s reactions you can adjust the technique to more fit the situation.

Thanksguys this is some good advice, I will try it.

Ken, How does he do at healing on lead?

He tends to pull or want to lead at first, I correct him a few times and change directions then is starts to folow me.

Thomas, I got the same exact advice from my trainer. with the exception of "FOOYEE". she said to say "OUCH". When I had those needle teeth dig in that wasn't a problem to remember. is the term fooyee used to prevent confusion with the "out" command?

Dennis, I'm not sure who coined the Fooeeeyeee or why they chose that word. I heard it on one of the leerburg videos awhile back. The reason is suggested it was because I did not know what the final training plans are with the dog, but if its bite work I dont think you would want the dog to out when someone says "ouch" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

'Pfui' (otherwise known as fooey, as in egg fooey yung, a delicious dish from the East <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> )is German for 'shame'.