When my pup was a youngster, I mostly redirected her mouthiness and didn't correct her for it.
Now that she's 8 months old, I really want to make it clear to her that mouthing is not acceptable any more. But I don't think it's very fair to start correcting her for something that I have been redirecting all along. And I can't figure out how to get her to understand that mouthing is not acceptable. Holding her mouth shut, etc only encourages more mouthing.
Her mouthing is not excessive, but with a senior citizen mother who visits frequently and a 5 year old in the house, I would like to eliminate it entirely.
I have seen several mentions here about mouthing being bad pack structure behavior, but how does my pup know that, when I've been redirecting her all this time?
I started yesterday with a 'kiss' command; a lick or nose snuff would get her a treat, but a mouth w/ teeth would get her a 'no, not that' and no treat. She picked up on it fairly quickly, but I'm not sure if it will serve to eliminate the mouthiness.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

There is some good info here:

http://www.jersey.net/~mountaindog/berner1/bitestop.htm

But there is also some suspect information like this so take the advice in the article for what it's worht.

"If ever the pup refuses to release your hand when requested, shout "Off!", rapidly extricate your hand and storm out of the room mumbling, "Right. That’s done it, you jerk! You’ve ruined it! Finish! Over! No more!" and shut the door in the dog’s face. Give the pup a couple of minutes on its own and then go back to call the pup to come and sit and make up. But no more mouthing for at least a couple of hours.
"

I highly doubt that the dog understands this mumbling lunacy was a result of his mouthing.

The pup is only 8 months old. A mouthy 8 month old pup is not unusual. It's not like the dog wakes up one day and says "yanno what mom, I'm 8 months old now, I'm gonna stop mouthing". An 8 month old is a puppy still. The mouthing usually subsides between 10 and 14 months old. Continue redirecting, you can't just whack em on the head one day and tell em to knock it off cold turkey.

The concept of redirection is that a pup does not need the correction, instead he is learning a habit/behavior. He learns that biting what he is given is acceptable. An 8 month old pup still doesn't think things through all that much, but when the maturity starts to kick in the lightbulb will shine.

mine was mouthy with only me,no didnt work,holding mouth didnt work,toys werent good enought,he wanted me.i got the turkey baster and gave him a puff,he hated it,if he ever tryed again i said ill puff you,never grabbed my hand again,who would ever think such a crazy thing would work ,but its over now

Sue - ROFLMAO!!! "I'll puff you!" OMG - that's a threat I've never thought of using.... :laugh: It's amazing how some things work.

i like to train positve,but the mouthy stuff was just too much,i know everyone is laughing ,but it worked,hes such a wimp.i finally taught him to give paw at a year and a half,he never liked me touching paws cause i hurt him clipping,now we go to groomer for clip.i say go thru-he goes thru my legs,then i got a hola hoop though i could get him to walk thru and then raise up to jump,little sissy is scared of hula hoop

Lynne, I am assuming she is still wearing a lead in the house.

One way to help get her to stop is hold her out and away from you when she is mouthy. Not hanging her, but just calmly, quietly with maybe a "NO" in a normal tone (or no words at all) shorten the lead and hold your arm out and to the side. Praise/treat her when she stops moving and looks to you.....

Thanks everyone for the tips. She's much, much better than when she was teething (of course), but at 70 lbs and with jaws like an alligator's, I'm determined to eliminate the mouthing entirely.
Sue, I think you get the award for most creative method!

I read what Sue said about the turkey baster and wondered if it would help with my super yippy, yappy puppy. Her breed is an overbarker and I don't want to completely stop her, just get her down to a couple of barks. Like, don't bark when the phone rings, don't bark at something on the TV, don't bark if I move in my chair,etc.

Soooo, last night I tried the turkey baster. It worked. She seemed shocked. I tried it first in my face to see if it was a big blast, it was just a little puff. After a few times, I would just show her the turkey baster and it was working.

Somebody tell me if I'm wrong or right to do this. I guess this isn't really positive but it works and she is real, real yappy.