Chad,

Find a happy median with the correction and re-direct. I apparently did it wrong with my male. He was the exact same way - would much rather take a chunk out of me then play with a toy and re-directing wasn't working with him at ALL! My wonderful little 8 wk old was leaving huge wounds on me. On one occassion I rolled him and he did the typical submission thing (yeah right) the minute I let him up he ran straight out from me barking and raising all kinds of #$&* then circled around to the back of me and bit me right in the middle of the back. There was no choice with this little boy but to use corrections and like I said he WOULD NOT re-direct. What ended up happening was that I ended up with a very calm, clear headed boy with a natural, calm full grip that wouldn't bite around me! He did awesome bite work until I came anywhere near him then he would drop the sleeve. It took a lot of work on a back tie and playing with a tug on a string to get him comfortable with biting around me again. So use the corrections sparingly, try the back tie and tug thing 2 or 3 times a day for 5 - 10 minutes or so and see if that helps. I have scars all over my hands, arms and legs from a 8 wk old puppy (he is now 3)!

Good luck, sounds like you have a nice pup <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

von der Wueste German Shepherds

I too am having the same prombems with my pup! On the field and greeting the members of my club on Saturday he is the perfect friendly gentlemen. However, most people don't see what goes on when you bring the little monster home. I was just playing with my dog a few minutes ago, and he was getting very mouthy with me. I grabbed a dish towel off the counter to try and redirect his behavior. He showed a little interest, and then bit the crap out of me on my upper chest. I quickly grabbed his muzzle and he yelped, then came at me again. When he doesn't get his way he immediately trys to start humping on me. I try my best to redirect but this is a very self assured cocky little 3mo. old. The funny thing is he doesn't act this way when I'm out with my club on training day. In fact Berhard Flinks when he first saw this pup told me to give it up on trying to get this puppy to do Schutzhund. Later on that same day I had the puppy on leash and he watched some other dogs being worked and really fired up on that. I called Bernhard over and we played with him for a few minutes, gave him "success" and I put him up. Bernhard said this was the first puupy he had seen that made him change his mind on continuing on with his training. I am interested to know if anyone else has similiar experiences with their young dogs? My opinion of him is he has extreme food drive, and little prey drive. Very easy to put him into defense and will bark aggressively. I have had some experienced trainers tell me it is unusual for such a young dog to bark like he does in defense. Since I know the defense drives are there and I can tap into them later, I am tring to bring more of the prey drive out and make it fun for him. Another trainer told me that defense was bad for him at such a young age and was creating conflict. Most of the time he is a happy go lucky liitle guy, but you can really see the domiance in him because he loves a good fight and I pay the price!

John, you are bringing back memories of my "sweet" little boy! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

That is exactly the same thing Bernhard said about my boy; said he didn't have enough prey drive to do the work!!! However, later in that same seminar he also used Kuj as his example of a perfectly clear headed, calm dog with a natural full mouth grip, absolutely no mouthing and plenty of prey drive. This is where it was discovered that "I" was the reason he wouldn't bite and hold. It was Bernhard that discovered the he had learned NOT to bite around me! Took a lot of hard work to get past that too. Now, he gets his sleeve and comes and stands perfectly calm right in front me and never becomes mouthy --- BUT remember it took at lot of work to get there as I had, through corrections, taught this dog not to bite ME (he just generalized it into not biting "around" me).

Having to do it all over again, I would try really, really, really hard to ignore the fact that he was making me into shredded meat as I do think that they grow out of this behavior.

Kuj won't bite me now to save his life. He does get in my face and raise hell if he isn't happy, but does not bite me. Which is nice considering he now only weights 35 lbs less then I do! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

The corrections did not diminish any of his drives it just made it hard for me to work with him for a while.

von der wueste German Shepherds

I should also clarify that the only time I have real problems with my pup biting me is when I'm sitting on the floor roughhousing with him. So most of the time I instigate it. I don't mind a little mouthiness, but I have a cut and a bruise from last night. For some reason too, he seems to work better on a tie out then just running around loose. His prey drive is there, it just needs to be developed. I had a guy tell me yesterday that you can pretty much see what your going to have in a dog at 4mo. old. I'm not sure I agree with this, as my other dog has been slow to mature and now at 15mo. has ten times the drive he had as a pup.

maybe my method wont work for a dog doing sch. Ive only done SAR and agility. I always re-directed my puppies and if they bit me hard while playing gently with me Id scream OUCH at the top of my lungs to startle them,then give them something other ten my hands to chew on and engage them wit that.but then we had rough play too...tug of war games to build confidence (let them win sometimes but not always and enforce "out" when your done) I always felt this worked somewhat like a puppy learning bite control with their litter mates...someone tell me if Im way off base??

If you are roughhousing with him to build his drive and he bites you then ignore it and try to put more movement into the prey item and less into your body. You are trying to get him to bite during these sessions so don't discourage him by correcting him.

Now, if he's just running up and biting you or your family for no reason then I would try to redirect to a prey item but if it's getting out of control then use Shirlene's method. You may also want to consider kenneling him more during the times that you can't keep and eye on him 100% to be ready for a quick redirect.

You also mentioned your puppy tries to hump you. This is normally a sign of domination. Without seeing the behavior first hand, I would opine that you have some issues with your puppy understanding you are the alpha male and this could also be the reason he bites you so much. He may be considering you a litter mate and not his leader.

I can put movement into the prey item but if he gets frustrated to the point that he doesn't get it fast enough to satisfy him, then he will go for my hands or an easier target. I know my mistake is to reward him probably a little faster because at his young age his attention span is short. I can't think of any time that he has just bit me for no reason. I'm fairly certain he knows I'm the leader. He just enjoy's being a little sh*t at times. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />