Hi,

My Boston is nearly 5 months old and is still in the biting/chewing stage. I've tried yelling "Oww!", "No!", giving him something else to chew on after he tries to nip me, etc. However, none of it works. Is there something I'm doing wrong or is it just going to take time for him to outgrow it? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks a bunch!

E.

hi your pup is in the fase of changing his teath. this will take up to 6 months after which it takes about another month before the teath have fully grown. this is a stage when they bite and chew on everything. the biting that your talking about could also be gehavior. fausto has the habbit of trying to bite in your calves when he's exited or when people come to visit. scolding or giving him something else has no effect and he becomes more determend to bite. what does help is ignoring. when he does it i stand still and fold my arms and look at the celing. when he stops which he does because there is no reaction i walk on. if he starts again i repeat the same. because he doesn't get any reaction there is no point in showing the behavior and it dissapears.
if you are going to use this to change his behavior you must ignore always. if you give any reaction at all he will continue the behavior. reactions are: using your voice, looking at him,any body language etc etc. this is called behavior extinction. it works but asks a lot of yourself. beaware that the behavior could get worse before it gets better. this is normal as they will try everything to get the reaction!

Hi,
My pup is 14 weeks old and is doing the same thing. I tried ignoring it like the above post sugests, but in my case Spencer seems to bite in even deeper. I finally just decided to shove his toys in this mouth every time he tries to bite.

ignoring is a very hard thing to do. he is trying to get a reaction and he got it. ofcourse you shouldn't accept the harder biting. but he now has found a way to get the attention he wanted. what i'd suggest is keep ignoring him and leave the room. don't let your pup follow. wait a minute and return. if he starts again leave again. this does take time but by shoving toys in his mouth your giving him what he want! smart those dogs are!

My audrey was a bite and chewer, especially when losing her puppy teeth. When she would engage in this behavior I would grab her lower jaw, in a non-hurtful way, just making it impossible for her to bite or chew at that moment, and I would very firmly say no. I would also encourage her to not bite, but give kisses. Well, she doesn't bite or chew anymore, but she does lick all the furniture, bedding, and every guest that comes to the house. The positive, what she is doing doesn't hurt anyone, the negative, it can be annoying and a lot of people are bothered by her giving so many kisses.

Give them something else to chew, hard pressed rawhide works well

My little one is a biter... I bit her back yesterday and she yelped- she got that point- atleast for now! You have to be careful when using this tactic though- I didn't do it hard enough to actually hurt her. I am sure she will start biting again, but I will bite her again, and she will stop again!

Before, she had a bad habit of tugging my hair anytime that it was close enough for her to get- I stopped that by tugging her ears!

She is getting better, I am always careful not to actually hurt her with my unconventional tactics! My Nugget's well being is my top priority which is closely followed by establishment of my dominance (can't have her thinking that she runs the house)!

Unconventional- yes, but it works for me and her!!!

agression treated with agression will cause agression or fear. a boston has a high pain level. you never know when you will cause damage. ears are VERY sensitive! there are many dog friendly methods of reversing this behavior!