Hi everybody, first post here. I've read all the articles, thanks alot Ed, and gone through alot of the forum posts. Everyone seems to suggest that the mouthiness for biting hands goes away between 4-5 months. Storm, my almost 6 month old working line gsd hasn't heard that she is too old for this behaviour yet. She has incredible drive, massive enenergy. She will play for hours on end, either the ball on a string which is her favorite, or her second choice is working on her tug. It seems like it's always playtime, unless she is in her crate. All throughout teething she hasn't slowed down on either. I mean, I literally ripped a tooth out with the tug, she spit it out on the ground and hit that tug like nothing happened 2 seconds later. When she has a ball or tug or rawhide in her mouth she is ok but without it I can barely pet her on her head or chest without her going at my hand. I don't want to trash her drive but those new adult k9's are starting to hurt a bit. I use a prong collar on her and what I feel is a decent pop barely gets her attention when she starts really targeting my hands. She redirects quickly, I guess I'm just wondering when I'll be able to sit down and watch an entire TV commercial with her without getting my hand bit. I've tried the feeding her out my hand thing, the bitter apple on the hands thing, neither of which bother her in the slightest.

How much will you take for her?

Call the airlines, if you act now I will take her off your hands for free <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

If the dog is pestering you that bad while you are trying to relax, she goes back to the crate, end of story. Give a little time out, and then try again. It might take a bit for this to get absorbed, but it DOES work.

Ed has a new article on his table of contents about becoming a pack leader. This issue (while not specificly stating the biting part) is addressed in that article.

Great minds....

In essense she does go back into her crate when she gets that way. This is my first gsd after many other smaller non working breeds and can not believe she won't lay down and chill for even 10 minutes or so. I am only thinking about bonding issues, she is a family pet possibly getting her into competative sport/sar. She is the only dog I've ever met that a scratch on the head is rewarded with a bite to the hand , com on let's play instead of a lick. Oh, and despite all this I wouldn't sell her a for a million bucks...;-)

Originally posted by Michael Knapp:
In essense she does go back into her crate when she gets that way. This is my first gsd after many other smaller non working breeds and can not believe she won't lay down and chill for even 10 minutes or so. I am only thinking about bonding issues, she is a family pet possibly getting her into competative sport/sar. She is the only dog I've ever met that a scratch on the head is rewarded with a bite to the hand , com on let's play instead of a lick. Oh, and despite all this I wouldn't sell her a for a million bucks...;-) ok, 2.5 million monopely money....


Aside from this, my dog NEVER stops biting. He'll retieve something and when you stick you hand out, pet him, anyhting, he'll bite you. All the time. Hell, I can't een put the collar on without his biting. I have to tell him sternly and he'll calm down for 6-10secs and he's back at it....

I have sliashes and cuts all over my hands. I really don't care at this point. Just do your job and we're fine. Just slow on the jumping in the air and biting my jacket or hands. But I don't care about that either. Just keep on running him around in the public and having him do fetch work and he still comes to bite when he gets back. He's 4 mo old right now so I don't care if he's a live wire for the rest of his life.... I am a hyper person by nature as a kid and still am. So we are a perfect team. The biting does get annoying though. My thing is let him know that word that her knows you are pissed and to lay off. My word for anything negative is STOP. When I say stop, he stops bitnig my hand while tying my shoes etc. But I cant't do it for more than a few second. Literally. He'll be right back. But all I need is a few seconds. He's young, I can't expect 12mo discipline in a 4 mo dog. So I just learned to deal with it while training....


Good luck...