Like you said, you gave him a nip and he looked at you stunned. What would his mum have done to the pup for this beahviour, exactly the same.
I have always nipped the pups i have had, usually though for mouthing/nipping me.
As for the cat issue i cant advise as its the cat that attcaks my dog, usually when hes sleeping (lol) to the point when he yelps as she bites his ears. protection dog my ar#e!!!

How old is the Pup
3.5 miles seems a long way to excersise a Puppy

i could not even imagine the look on my dogs faces if i bit them, lol.
i think next time they are acting up, someones getting bit!
that will certainly add to my "mallory abuses animals" persona, what with DD collars, prong collars and lemon juicing my dogs.......and the amount of snarling that goes on in my house(my dogs are VERY vocal players....)and my yelling OUIET!!!! all the time.....

Jennifer -

Don't worry about it too much, but I wouldn't recommend it on a regular basis. Once he catches on to your tricks it won't work as well and as mentioned face bites from puppies can be painful and stitches are not fun.

Biting the nose is a technique used by the Cherokee indians I knew - but they were using this on young wolf and hybrid pups. To that group the more scars you had on your face the better trainer you were. It meant you had raised many many pups and continued with your methods despite painful puppy teeth being dug into your cheek once in a while. Effective.. meh.. maybe. But a cheek grab or a scruff is easier(you try being accurate going for the nose of a squirmy puppy!) and less dangerous.

Good way to catch them off guard as you noticed but me personally I try to avoid getting dog hair in my mouth

Jennifer,
When the pup gets amped up it's a good time to do some basic motivational obedience! How old is the little monster? He sounds fun. And Mike is right about the cat thing, lol. my pup figured out the cat is fun to get and is now obsessed with eating him, PITA.

I bite my dog from time to time, mostly playing around. I've received my fair share of 'taggs', as Carol mentioned. No stitches, but certainly some blood. I guess they bite back out of pure instinct.

Ok this is long but i was trying to address everything and multiple quotes are beyond me lol. Im glad nipping him wasnt a big no-no, I did learn he needs a bath because he was gritty!!!

He was on his way to the crate, we made a pit stop to gather the kong from the freezer and I was carrying him so he would top being such a PITA on the way there.

I dont allow him loose near the cats, but I cant stop the cat from coming near him.. the cat will either put the fear of CAT into him or learn to keep his distance.
During the day he is separated from the other dogs, tghey get to be with me while he is sleeping.

In the evenings we all hang out. They are primarily pets so I need them to be friends, it makes my life much much easier.

Scruff shakes, and belly rolls only escalate it when he is out of control. So im not sure what im gonna do with my little guy.

He is sleeping from about 12am TO 7am now, thank goodness, but he is wound up in the morning. He still wont sleep in the crate at night, so he has been sleeping on his bed on the floor next to me, no accidents or problems so far, so its working for now.

He has a snack and then we walk a mile to a mile and half in the morning to get the willies out, he is rarin to go the entire time, but I dont rush it, we go slow and stop to sniff and check things out along the way. Yesterday we spent about 45 minutes following the mailman and slowly decreasing the distance until finally he wanted to meet him and sniff his hand

Then we Come home and have breakfast and he crashes again until around 11. He eats again and we work on some OB games and just kind of hang out until the demon comes back and then generally its walk time again. the mid-day walk is shorter but faster, we do about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile.
Then he crashes again until 2:45 when its time to go pick my son up from school, generally we walk again and its 6 blocks total round trip.
He will play with my son for a little bit after school but i limit that so he doesnt get out of control with my son and he sleeps then usually until after we eat dinner and is up and at em again around 630 or 7.

We hang out and he watches my son take a bath..it fascinates him for some reason. Then after i get the kiddo to bed we play and do some more OB games or i try to toss the ball for him. But after about 4 tosses he just looks at me like "well if your just gonna keep throwing it!" A retriever he is not!!
Then around 930 or 10 he starts getting spastic, over stimulated and onery and he cant seem to settle down and sleep. But another walk seems to help. I dont know if its the fresh air or the change in scenery or what but it does seem to help. then evening walk is shorter.

I dont want to be traipsing around with only a puppy late at night, so we generally do circles around the intersection at our corner...its a 4 way stop and there are no cars that late in the neighborhood, or we go up and down the block a few times..or a combination of both.

Sometimes there is another walk thrown in there when he is just being a total spaz, but they are spread out and not too long at once. I dont know if its a breed thing, or just this pup but nothing seems to calm and center him better than a nice walk.

So maybe not quite 3.5 but it is between 2 and three total throughout the day

I always make him stop before he wants to, and he never seems tired or resistant to it. If i wasnt walking with him he would be doing it himself with a serious case of the zoomies..which are hilarious but are rouch on the stuff he richochetes of off, and his head from sliding into the wall at each end of the hallway before he turns around..goober!

Levi our other husky was up to 8 miles a day of walking by 8 months and was still tearing around like a madman when we got home. The Vet OK'd it and said he is made to run and run and run on snow and ice, basicaqlly you cant walk far enough fast enough to cause him problem. We started with around the block with this one and have built up over the last 6 weeks to where we are now. He still has tons of energy when he is awake and his puppy sleeping dramatically dropped off this last week.

He is 14 and half weeks now.

 Quote: mallory kwiatkowski

i could not even imagine the look on my dogs faces if i bit them, lol.
i think next time they are acting up, someones getting bit!
that will certainly add to my "mallory abuses animals" persona, what with DD collars, prong collars and lemon juicing my dogs.......and the amount of snarling that goes on in my house(my dogs are VERY vocal players....)and my yelling OUIET!!!! all the time.....

We have the howling, and wooooooing, and the snarling and the boom boom boom of lokis feet down the hallway, and then his deep Bay combined with this new sound Pup learned that makes him sound like a flooded engine..its freakin hilarious, but loud

And then the 2 cats will go all ninja on eachother and make a racket like they are going to rip eachothers throats out...but they are playing. But when they do it all three dogs go stock still and then go monkey-poo with eachother like it sets them off.

now add to that a crazy 7 yr old boy

We have anbything but a calm and quiet household.

During the day at least.
At night I make them all calm down and settle with something to chew or a toy of some kind. but it works for us and everyone is healthy and happy and well adjusted.

hahaha, now i am sitting waiting for someone to get out of line so i can bite then. Wouldn't you know, they have been good today.

lol have some mouthwash ready...im not sure if could move fast enough to do irt again if he hadnt been right in my face when it happened.

If you do bite them let me know how they react!!!!