# Puppy biting



## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

I've posted about our Catahoula puppy a couple of times.

She'll be 5 months old this weekend and weighs almost 40 pounds and is over knee high when she has '4 on the floor' - going to be a big dog.

Anyway she was taken away from her mom and siblings too young to learn bite inhibition and up until this week we've had a terrible time with her.

Then we learned about bitter apple spray. Someone here on some other thread had suggested it when she was chewing on furniture when younger and it worked when we sprayed the furniture she was chewing on.

Well last weekend my wife got so frustrated with her biting that every time she did it she sprayed some bitter apple spray in the dogs mouth. 
It took the dog only about 5 or 6 times to learn that biting us got really nasty results and she stopped. Its amazing, we finally have the dog we wanted.

I can't find the thread to see who recommended the bitter apple spray - but THANK YOU!!!!!


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Just found the thread: Lady89 and GrannyCarol both mentioned it THANK YOU!!! - THANK YOU!!!


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## mnrabbitfarmer (Apr 7, 2015)

Another good trick for biting puppies is to yell ouch really loudly and dramatically. The puppy thinks it's playing and doesn't realize biting is wrong. By showing the pup that when it bites it hurts they will learn its not a good game.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

Yes, not only "ouch!", but end the game and walk away. We got a wonderful Collie with an active working temperament that had managed to get her leg broken at age 6 weeks old. She was age 5 months when we got her and had, of course, missed most of her sibling interaction, due to being broken. We had to teach her bite inhibition, fortunately she did learn pretty quickly, she's very smart. It took a little work with the wild puppy and the grandchildren, but they learned to stop playing when she got too wound up and just take all the fun away. Now as a young adult, she's really good with them. Nothing Tango hates more than having all the fun taken away...


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

mnrabbitfarmer said:


> Another good trick for biting puppies is to yell ouch really loudly and dramatically. The puppy thinks it's playing and doesn't realize biting is wrong. By showing the pup that when it bites it hurts they will learn its not a good game.


Tried that for weeks, she just kept on biting. SHe'd follow or hang on when you tried moving away.
This is an extremely high energy dog and the breed is used for hunting feral hogs, which they do by both herding them and biting them.




> Louisiana's "hog dog" is a jambalaya of native American dogs, Spanish Mastiffs, and Greyhounds. Catahoulas were created to track and drive feral hogs and cattle when it was time to butcher them, and not surprisingly they are aggressively resolute in their work.
> Catahoula Leopard Dogs are not Golden Retrievers. The best Catahoulas are versatile working dogs, capable of learning a great deal, but they have an independent mind of their own and are not pushovers to raise and train. Some Catahoula Leopard Dogs are willful, obstinate, and dominant (they want to be the boss) and will make you prove that you can make them do things. You must show them, through absolute consistency, that you mean what you say.


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## aoconnor1 (Jun 19, 2014)

My Catahoula is also a biter. She mouths everyone, adults can tell her NO and she will quit. My grandkids can't yell as loud and they are short, so that dog won't listen to them. She can't be around my grandkids without adult supervision at all times. 

She is a really good girl otherwise for the most part. I hope yours calms down and grows up! Mine was run over by a truck when we found her and has had her entire pelvis and both hips rebuilt, but that has not slowed her down at all. She gets going right after breakfast is and is out until dark.


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## Jreed (Dec 24, 2014)

I find cider vinegar also work as well as the bitter apple and bitter orange. I do work with toys and spray my hands first and work on a DROP IT command. This command is the first I teach to all dogs, DROP IT includes any of my hand in the dogs mouth. As my hands taste bad the dogs learn not to mouth my hands in play and that my hand in or near a mouth signals the end of play. This allows me to safetly take anything I want from any of my dogs, and also to drop any rats that they kills. I never have to fear my being bitten by my dogs in excitement or play.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Sitting at a week now with no bites, our hands and arms are healing and the puppy is actually pleasant to be around.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

Nice accomplishment. Congratulations. My training is quite different from what has been explained here. When I get a new pup still biting, I make the timing right and put its own paw in its mouth and push its mouth shut just enoug for that pup to know a bite is not comfortable. Has only taken 2-3 time and the pup has learned. (I figure this is simply closer to what occurs between puppy syblings. Just make sure your own energy is calm and positive as you don't want this seen as a harsh punishment.)


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

2 weeks, now. She's needed a couple of reminders but is doing very well.

I like the paw idea, but its probably a bit late.

FYI - we just had her spayed & microchipped Wednesday - doing well, very little pain but she was sleepy the first day. Trying to keep her calm for a week for the incision to heal is going to be a trial. She was at 46 lbs (5 months and 2 weeks old - going to be a big dog (she already is a big dog)


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

Just an update, Emma is almost 7 months old now. I know this will sound silly to some of you but we put her in Doggie Day Camp 3 days a week and take her to the local dog park for 1 - 1.5 hours a day on non-day camp days. She is such a high energy pup this is really necessary and does the trick, otherwise we'd have to get rid of her and while it does cost some money its worth it to us.
After she was spayed, they wouldn't take her at the doggie day camp until the scar had healed and since it was raining all month we couldn't take her to the dog park and she started back to her old ways of chasing the cats and us, and trying to bite us. The bitter apple spray stopped that for us and we kept the cats out of her way.

She went back to day camp 2 weeks ago and she's back to being a good girl also its finally stopped raining here in Texas, so the dog park is open again (and not muddy).

The moral of this story is to get a dog that matches your energy level. Being almost 60 years old now, an extremely high energy breed of puppy was probably not our best choice, we could have gotten by nicely with a couch potato type breed. But she has wormed her way into our hearts so we'll do what is necessary to burn off her energy and hopefully she'll slow down as she ages.


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## motdaugrnds (Jul 3, 2002)

mnn2501, I do so understand your wanting a pup with less energy. However, I sure like your attitude for taking care of the one you got.


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## aoconnor1 (Jun 19, 2014)

I can't imagine the energy level of a Catahoula that can't get out and run! I have a 3 year old female Catahoula that has been hit by a car TWICE now in her young life (once was the reason we have her..the guy in front of my husband ran her over. The second time is because even after being run over and nearly killed, she chased a truck past our home a couple of months ago and got rolled all the way under the truck. She is good as new again though. Crazy dog.) , but she still can't be contained for long periods of time or she gets too hyper.

I am thankful we have enough area for her to get out on and work the energy off during the day. In the evening she comes inside, eats, and crashes until morning, then we do the whole thing over again


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## CountryMom22 (Nov 27, 2014)

Raising puppies is like raising kids...tired kids are well behaved kids, and tired puppies are much easier to live with! I'm reliving this myself right now. We just adopted a coonhound/Doberman or rottie mix. She's 4 months old and constant motion. Very smart but not too used to humans. She is coming around very quickly though.


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## Bry09 (Mar 28, 2017)

Hello everyo


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## cfuhrer (Jun 11, 2013)

I'm glad I found this thread.
We have a hound mix that likes to herd "his boy" and no trick I have tried will put him off of it.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

Start a new thread giving details about your hound and the family situation.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

So, just a follow up, Our Catahoula "pup" Emma is now over 2 years old. Her biting ended shortly after this thread was first started. She still has energy but we run that off her at one of two local dog parks. We can sit there on the picnic benches with the other dogs owners and watch our dogs run and play, or we can walk the perimeter and she'll usually follow us. The only problem we have is when someone brings their toddler in (which is against the rules at both parks) and they run and scream - many of the dogs just aren't used to little kids, including our's dog. Luckily that's usually only on the weekends, so we tend to just go on long walks in our area then.


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