# Nipping while walking tips?



## badbananas (Nov 4, 2014)

Hello all! I know nipping is a constant thing on here. But was hoping you guys had some tips for me. 

I have a 10 week old GSD, had him for 2 weeks now. He is a great dog and very intelligent and already know a few basic commands. He gets nippy at times (as all gsd pups it seems). When it's inside it is easy to fix- I yipe and walk away and he lays down and whines. Then walks away. 

Outside is a whole nother story. He doesn't do it all the time, but there are walks where it is just non stop. I told my husband it's like a snicker commercial! Something just comes over him and he isn't himself and he just needs to snap out of it. Like a hyper moment? 

He will bite my clothes, ankles, hands and not stop. No amount of yike-ing, saying no bite, or pulling him away (I have him on a harness and just try to keep his distance/catch him before it hits me). I have tried bringing different toys (he looks past them and keeps going for me when he is in this moment). I've also tried treats and tried getting him to sit or stay (to snap him out) but he just keeps lunging at me. 

Is there any tips you guys have for me? We are enrolled in training classes and met with the trainer (but they officially start at the end of nov). She just tells me the yike method and that he will grow out of it. It is very annoying and painful waiting! I know there has to be somehing. 

Also- I know a lot will ask if I play with him ect. I am a stay at home mom so my whole day is pretty much around him and my toddler. I play with him as much as he wants (first week was a lot of sleeping. And getting adjusted. This week is he just kinda wants to sit when we are outside a whole lot and not really do much but watch. Which I don't mind but I can't stay outside for hours on end! And some walks he will gladly play outside. And inside we play a lot then he will nap. So he definitely gets play!). It just seems like there are those moments (typically first walk and evening walk. But some days he is an absolute angel. Then next couple days a terror. Like two steps forward, five steps back!). 

Thank you for reading! Sorry this is a bit long. I am new to this site and made an account solely for advise around this!


----------



## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

Oh lordie, i remember those days. The pup has no idea that just because he wants to play you don't want to play. I call those the "joy of life" moments. Sometimes it seems that the more you try and stop them they take it as a challenge to try even harder, the exact opposite of what you are trying to tell them. 

If you pup has pottied, I would recommend bringing the pup in and settling him into his crate for a bit. Not a long time out but just for a while so he learns that behaving like this means he looses the chance to be with you. I wish I had done that. Now that my pup is older he can be obnoxious at times. Just be calm and relaxed about putting him in the crate since you never want you pup to think that his crate is for punishment. And it will help keep you from getting too annoyed with your pup.

God Bless you, a toddler and a GSD pup at the same time! I hope hubby brings you treats often. For you, not the dog.


----------



## RavenK (Aug 12, 2014)

I rescued my puppy when she was 4 months old and she had this problem BAD. When we were walking she would run around in circles and then start jumping and biting my arms. (All in a very playful manner). While I don't usually abide by pinning a dog to show "dominance" I also believe in not letting your dog bite you! What I did was gently hold her down and talk calmly to her. I wouldn't push down hard or make a biting motion with my hand, but only used enough pressure to stop her from biting. This pretty much just made the "fun" stop happening until she chilled out. Another thing I did is re-direct with a tennis ball. If your Dog likes toys try bringing them with you on your walk!


----------



## Wolfenstein (Feb 26, 2009)

Hahaha I feel like I'm getting a vision into my future, we're likely going to have a puppy and a 3 year old at the same time in a few months. 

Rest is definitely a good idea, and a place to start looking. Puppies are babies and need naps just like little kids do. So if you've been playing all day in the house, going outside might be throwing him over the top into that "slap happy" stage and just turn him wild, haha.

If you're managing naps well, you're probably going to have to change your approach to being outside a little bit until he starts to understand the rules. When you're in the house, he obviously has gotten the message that nipping=stopping play. The problem with being outside, though, is you have nowhere to go! So any form of pushing the dog away or holding him where he can't reach you is just going to seem like playing to him. Interaction of any kind is going to be a good thing to him, so he's just going to keep doing what he's doing. He's inadvertently being reinforced for it.

If I were in your position, I would get myself completely padded up. Thick jeans you don't care about, thick shoes, etc. Stuff that if the puppy bites it won't matter, and won't hurt you in the process. Go outside like you do, and bring with a really great toy that you can tug with. Something that's going to feel really satisfying for your puppy to sink his teeth in to. Go out and do whatever it is you do, but when he starts with the nipping, stand up, turn away, cross your arms, and freeze. Like, absolutely COMPLETELY freeze. Try to look away, and turn into a statue. Because it's been working thus far, you might have a bit of a wait when you start out, but hold your ground. Wait for that sweet spot where your puppy backs off. It's really, super important for it to be when he's not engaging you anymore, if it seems like he's just taking a pause before he goes back at it, you might want to keep waiting. Better to wait longer than accidentally reinforce the bad behavior.

Once he finally stops and diverts his attention, give him a resounding "YES!" and really go at it with the tug toy. You want the fun to come from the interaction with you, not just from the biting. If he gets off of the toy and starts going for you again, wait it out again. Like I said, it might take a bit because what he's been doing has been "working" in his mind, but he's young and GSDs are smart, so he should still catch on pretty quick.

In short, it's going to be part making absolutely sure you're only encouraging the behavior you want out of your pup, and part waiting out the puppy phase. There are always going to be times when the pup slips up and goes at you instead of the toy, but at the very least if you teach the appropriate behavior, the pup will knock it off sooner than if you hadn't done anything about it.  Good luck!!

Here's a good video about puppy biting, too! It's talking a little more about aggressive biting, but the idea is still the same.





And this is another one about picking a good tug toy that's going to be really satisfying for the pup:


----------



## SuperG (May 11, 2013)

As far as nipping during a walk.....hmmmm...I recall my current shepherd as a pup having a fixation on the leash...nipping at it incessantly. I decided to bring a tennis ball ( which she was rather fond of ) and start bouncing the ball when she started to graze on the leash. The distraction was adequate and after a bit of her leaving the leash alone, I would let her carry the tennis ball for a portion of the walk...seemed she enjoyed that much more.


SuperG


----------



## badbananas (Nov 4, 2014)

I started exactly that today! Took for walk, and brought in immediately after he pottied. He nipped a couple times but no "crazy mode" type nipping. A simple "ah ah" worked. When I noticed he was about to start crazy mode, I just lured him in with a treat LOL. So seems to be working. First day, so shall update after the weekend.

LOL I won't lie! There are moments (only ever after a bad walk) that I wonder why and what did I get myself into! But I always think of how much it will be worth it in the future (cause he really is a great dog otherwise!). And I'm not the type to just give up on an animal, but after a couple days of horrible walks, or especially if he tries to nip at my daughter, I have gotten to that point where I almost wanted to (but of course didn't!). It is difficult at times. But I am happy I got him. I'm also glad I waited for my daughter to be older (almost 3!) because she can understand keep her distance when he is in crazy mode and even says "puppy crazy mommy!". So it's good that yours will be 3! I couldn't imagine a young baby trying to crawl around with a nippy "toddler" puppy! It would be so stressful! (I know he isn't doing it out of aggression. Still stressful!). 

Otherwise he is really sweet to her. And I foresee them getting into a lot of trouble together in the future. I really wanted a puppy for her to grow up with and am overall happy about my choice! Nippy and all. He is my first puppy and I feel like my second toddler lol. Once I clean one mess (toddler throw up yay! Entire household is sick =\), then I go in and see he pooped on the pad (good boy!) but stepped in it and got it all over the carpet. Ahhh. But he looks so cute with his confused ears. 

I have a family dog which I rescued/raised since she was almost 1. She is 12 now (and lives with my mom). half blue heeler and half dachshund, really gorgeous, caring and smart. In the beginning she had some nipping tendencies but understood no. My mom just keeps reminding me how someone already did the work for us. And one day he will grow out of it and I'll miss it. Very comparative to having a toddler! During the roughest moments when she was a baby, walking the halls all night sleeplessly. Wondering if it will ever end and why people have kids! Now I look back and forget about the bad. Just remember and miss the cute chubby baby. 

(Also I have the dog pads because sometimes my daughter takes too long playing around while I'm trying to get her ready to go out, and he has to GO NOW! At first I didn't want to use them at all. But have became a lifesaver. Especially the past couple days since I've been sick and no energy in the middle of the night.)


----------



## badbananas (Nov 4, 2014)

I apologize but I am new! Do you "quote" to reply to specific people or do you usually just type out a reply?

Wolfstein- I have tried the "look away be boring. Stay sti" technique (trainer asked to try) and it only made him nip me more! He never gave up. He would just keep his hold on my pants then to my ankle! 

I am almost considering bitter apple? On the pants legs. But not sure if that is suitable? I have only used it on furniture when Sally (the blue heeler daschund mix) was younger and would eat table and chair legs. But he is such a baby (10 weeks) would it be cruel/even affect him? (This is if the bring immediately inside doesn't work. Or as precaution)


----------



## mspiker03 (Dec 7, 2006)

When Paisley was little, I brought a tug on walks. Otherwise, she thought the leash was a great tug toy when she wasn't busy trying to nip at our legs.


----------



## SuperG (May 11, 2013)

badbananas said:


> I apologize but I am new! Do you "quote" to reply to specific people or do you usually just type out a reply?



Just shoot from the hip....you'll be great.


SuperG


----------



## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

I wonder about the advice some trainers give, "just stand there and be boring". Have they ever had a GSD puppy??? They aren't bored while you stand there. They are having great fun shredding your slacks! 

I used to grab a big stick and drag one end along the street and my little pup would chase it. Sometimes I'd bring a workglove tied to a string. Sometimes we'd go for a walk and I'd not say a word, just kept moving (after the pee and poo) so the pup had to figure out what was going on by paying attention. 

Let us know what works for you.


----------



## Baillif (Jun 26, 2013)

Why doesnt my puppy understand english? No bite no bite no bite!


----------



## SuperG (May 11, 2013)

Your post regarding why your dog doesn't understand english, prompted me to do a quick Google search and even though it doesn't address your exact question...it is related....and it's scary.


* Why can't dogs speak english? *


i mean, they understand it, they follow it, and they hear it all the time. 
when baby humans do this, they eventually speak it. 
what is keeping dogs from speaking english? 
this isnt a joke, i am really interested in why they cannot speak english. 
thank you 



Ahhhhhhhh....the world never ceases to make me chuckle. Maybe this person was overly influenced by Mister Ed as a child.


SuperG


----------



## badbananas (Nov 4, 2014)

I think on of you guys sent me some good juju! Or maybe it's just the good days before the ugly rears it's head. But he has been SO GOOD! Something just clicked in his head! He begins to get that frenzied look, rolls around and I know it's coming. Goes from toy to my ankles and I just say "MAKO SIT!" and he has been sitting! Like wtf why couldn't you have done this earlier?! My ankles and hands are a mess. He will give me some sass sometimes but throughly understands now. He will get a good nip in here and there but over all it is working! Finally clicking! And when the sit doesn't click I just bring him up and he is fine. Darn goofy dogs. 

Haha speaking of funny trainer advise! When I was picking trainers, I met with a few. And one was so weird. He didn't like the "sass" of my pup, and considered it a fault. If you tell him to do something he doesn't want to do (sit when in a frenzy, or leave a nice yummy sandwhich someone decided to throw on the ground >.>) he will listen and sit/leave it. But talk back. He will lay down and give these barks that you can just tell like "but moooom. I never get to have any fun" and he will lay his head down. And sometime when it's something super tempting he will keep barking for a couple minutes then settle down. Anyways- the trainer was like "you know you need to stop that. I have this citronella spray made for dogs, and when they begin to get like that just spray him in the face" and I was like oh my... To -me- he wasn't doing anything horrible "talking back"! He over all listened. I immediately high tailed it out of there. Some of the trainers I met were so shot out and I wondered how the heck did they receive their certificate. Another one's advise for me about nipping was to bite back! And I though they were joking but the explained "if I can do it to a pitbull I can do it to a gsd". Needless to say it took a few trainers to pick the one I chose.


----------



## Debanneball (Aug 28, 2014)

Baillif said:


> Why doesnt my puppy understand english? No bite no bite no bite!


I think my dog only understand 'alien', or he thinks I speak it! As for the walks, I tied a tennis ball (came attached to a handle) to the end of the leash. As he walks, he drags it, carries it, no more bites. I walk, he follows!


----------



## badbananas (Nov 4, 2014)

Just wanted to update (for anyone reading going through same thig). 

Mako is now 11 weeks and I can reign him in with a "sit". He still gets crazy and nippy but it's easy to tell the signs and being him in before it starts and play that energy out (without nipping). So there is a light at the end of the tunnel!!! Hang in there.


----------



## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

three steps forward, two steps back...hmm, or is that how you teach a dog not to pull...

thanks for the update. (grin)


----------



## badbananas (Nov 4, 2014)

That's too funny! It is exactly that though. 

So comparative to a child's first year of life. All the insane phases and bad weeks (extra grumpy. But comes from them growing). I am just glad he is responding to sit for the most part. Though there are still crazy times! But I immediately take him in. Just at least know now I know it's normal for them! My western boots have become apart of my armor lol.


----------



## dhaney81 (Nov 5, 2014)

Hello. I also have a 10 week old puppy as well, who gets pretty nippy himself. I take him on long walks, clicker train him daily, play fetch/tug of war but he still has those moods where he runs around all crazy whining and tries to bite anything and everything. I've been trying to give him toys/bones as an alternative and I also do the "ouch!" and stop playing thing, but he still likes to bite my clothes as I put them on, my desk and sometimes he tries to bite me. The bones keep him busy for a little but he crushes them pretty quickly, and I don't want to give him to many. Does anyone have any suggestions on specific chew toys or longer lasting bones that they like? Or any other suggestions?


----------



## badbananas (Nov 4, 2014)

Things i do

-freezing kongs! I am actually about to go buy another, they are amazing. You can stuff all sort of deliciousness in then and by freezing, it lasts way longer. And keeps him busy for a while (I also give him one when I need to go out and he is home alone as it's safe for kennel. No choking risk. It seemed to really help with his sep. Anxiety he had. Also I leave a shirt of mine lol). You can look up all sorts of "recipes" and the kong site itself has tons. So far just tried peanut butter, water (like "plug"small hole with peanut butter and some of his food. Fill with water and stand upright in a bag. Or even just throw in ziplock back with water so it's a giant ice cube lol) and broth with some treats (like his jerky and his food.). But also just put plain food in and he still has fun rolling around. 

-an split elk antler. Which has been lasting a while. Keeps him occupied when I give it to him. I have tried the tendons which were suppose to be long lasting but that was gone within 30 mins! Which for the price for just one I thought it wasn't worth it. (I like the antler because it doesn't split like bones. And I am way paranoid of him choking on things)

Plastic bottles. I don't know why but he loves them so much. I take the caps off and he goes to town (he doesn't eat them. Just teeth). 

Things I want to try- freezing a wet cotton tug toy! I hear this works really well. Like how you freeze a wet cloth for a teething baby. 

Those puzzle snack things. I saw a DIY post on here that was simple and easy. They also have them in stores, I am ordering one from foster and smith =) so hope it keeps him entertained. Will tell you how it goes lol. 

I have one nylabone I bought, but he quickly grew out of it (what was I thinking buying a puppy size?!). They have many cool ones out there. 

I am a noob to puppies in general. So this is all I've got! I'm hoping someone replies with some cool ideas. Willing to try anything to keep him busy! And not chewing me. 

(Which isn't funny how much nobody talks about GsD pups nipping?!?! Then you get one and you figure it out. I read soooo much before I got him and nothing warned of this. Guess they don't want to scare you lol but there should be a "land shark" chapter in ever gsd breed book!!!)


----------



## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Great tips and ideas from everyone! :thumbup:

Hope some of them are helping!


----------



## Drewbacca (Jan 6, 2014)

not that I'm an expert in the matter, but I did have this issue with my pup Roya. She's 13 weeks now and she doesn't do it much anymore, if at all. What are you wearing when you're walking her? Sweats? Something that looks visually enticing? I know that when I first started walking her in the mornings, I had sweats on and she would constantly go after them. But I do the NO BITE command as well and that seems to work some. But we walk alot and i guess she got tired of being tugged on by the correctional collar and me saying no bite that she just stopped doing it haha one can only hope!


----------



## badbananas (Nov 4, 2014)

Now we are at 14 weeks and things have calmed down sooo much. In the house when we play, you can see he wants to nip but pauses. Or when he occasionally actually does stops and has this goofy look on his face like "why did I just do that?". 

Outside he is a DREAM now! All it takes is a AH-AH (right before he does it.) and he immediately sits LOL and waits for a treat. We are able to actually play outside for once! It is amazing. When he gets too hyper I try not to chance it and bring him up. 

I feel like a total doofus writing this. But I'm not sure if it all just snapped, or if putting him on a regular collar helped. I read on here how a harness (which was what I had for him. Just out of habit, we always used harness for my family dog) give the dog FULL control. While a collar gives you control. But definitely since I used te collar he walks so much better!

It is funny. Went to go pay rent and the manager told me how 3 people have complimented on how well behaved and good looking mako is. At first I thought she was being sarcastic! And I laughed wondering "did those people not see him taking me down by my arm like a protection dog?!". The last two months, I was always worried and embarrassed they would think he was aggressive lol. But I guess they're watching us outside now, Practicing his commands.

Sorry this is so long! My husband is a little jealous, can't stop talking about him and laughing when I look over and he is looking back with that sweet face. I mean seriously. He is just so darn handsome and being so good now! (Also excuse the couch. Mako just ate an ice cube before too the pic. Also It was my husbands bachelor couch and I've just been waiting for my toddler to grow up a little more before I buy a nice one!)


----------



## car2ner (Apr 9, 2014)

So cute, and doesn't it feel great when people mention how well behaved your pup is? Keep up the good work and thanks for the update.


----------

