Dutch Shepherd Forum

Hi all!
Pepper is now 3mos old, house broken, walks loosely on a leash, knows sit, down, play dead, come, crawl, shake.... BUT she won't stop biting us! We walk her 2.5mi twice a day OR go on a long walk (4ish miles) once a day. She has interaction with other dogs at the park a few times a week as well. I think we're exercising her more than enough for a 3mo old pup and she does awesome with other people and other dogs (becomes totally submissive and wants belly rubs)... but the biting at home is out of control. We can't sit on the couch without her jumping up and ripping holes in our shirts. I can't walk across the living room without fear of my ankles being bitten- and it hurts! If we make any moves to release her grip she bites our hands. Yelling, scruffing, yelping like a hurt dog do not work. We have to outlast her or physically remove her and put her in her crate to get it to stop. We need to stimulate her mentally, I think, and we need good toys that do so. I think she wants to destroy things more than she wants to sit and figure them out... She's also not very food motivated so the treat-dispensing toys might not be the best. I wish digestable cardboard boxes existed so she could just tear one up for an hour or so!

She's currently in her last week of puppy class and she's signed up for obedience classes next. Ay. Please don't tell me the solution is a second dog, haha!

Thanks!

A second dog will work Thalie is Sadies chew toy. Kidding aside. My girls are destroyers too. Sadie has destroyed plenty. I have Moose antlers for them to chew, toys just dont do it for them. I do have ropes for tug of war, but if left out they will destroy the ropes. Thalie plays catch, that may be something you can work on with her. How is her "out" I would work on that next, it works wonders. Although at 1yr, Sadie is still a thief, but she will Out it before its destroyed. The Moose antlers are great because they wont splinter and last for months.

Xena LOVES 1 gallon milk jugs. That is her "get it" toy. The downside is that they are very noisy in the house. So far she has dented and punctured it, but has not ripped it up. (water bottles are not the same, apparently.)

Caitlin,

The solution is not another dog.

The solution is patience and redirecting the chewing on you.

Not going to say I was totally successful at this. Much of it for me was waiting out that phase of Cino's life. At that age he constantly had to have his mouth on me. My arms and legs looked like they had been through a shredder.

The redirection. When they are chewing on you use your 'no' command, pause, give them something to chew on, praise them, get them to lay down, praise them. Don't let them think that by chewing on you they will get the reward of play/chew toy.

At that age there were chew toys always within reach and I would even carry one with me at times...

p.s. there were times that Cino had his prong collar on and a leash in the house. When he started in on the chewing he not only go the verbal correction but a physical one as well. Need to follow it up with something positive!

...

you asked about toys.

Kongs were a fantastic item. Take a little peanut butter and smear it on the inside of the Kong and throw it in the freezer.

Bones - I go to the butcher and get frozen leg bones. They will have a little bit of meat/tendon/etc on them and be full of marrow. I have them cut in half. When I first did it I was worried that they would stink. They don't. ...speaking of them.... Abby just brought me one and dropped it at my feet. The dog will clean it very quickly and continue to chew on it for a long time. Once cleaned out, I do the same as what I do with the Kong. Smear a little peanut butter in it and freeze it. Plus, my vet like how clean the dog's teeth are when they chew on these bones. Watch for splinter/pieces as the dogs will break pieces off sometimes.

Abbycicles (named after my mutt) - take the bone and partially fill it with a quality canned dog food, mix in some kibble, again freeze it... keeps the dogs busy for awhile.

Rope toys - but don't leave them alone with it. They can knaw on it, play tug, ...teach the out early on though.

I would get a tug toy, appropiate for her age and teeth, and play tug with her. Can be nicely done while sitting on the couch watching TV. And you can train her to see it as a reward for correct behavior. Command "Sit", dog sits "yes", then immediately offer tug toy and play. The only down side is, she needs to know the command "out" otherwise you have a heck of a time getting it back. But she will get it that it's not gone forever but the play will continue. Command "out", dog outs "yes", offer tug toy immediately. If you can get her focused on the tug, she will do whatever you want her to do to play with you. And no more holes in shirts and legs. Just don't leave the tug with her without play. It will be gone in 10 seconds. It needs to become a "symbol" of play and interaction with you.

And don't get anything at petco, petsmart, etc. It will not hold up long. I would order from companies like rayallen.com, hallmarkk9.com. I had bad experience with leerburg.com. The tug toy emitted some toxic smell when Marco was "working" on it and saliva on it. Leerburg and the manufacturer Klin promised there couldn't be any toxic in it since it is stuffed with scredded textile pieces. I thought it might be scredded rags with paint thinner on it. Who knows. So it took it carefully apart at the top seem. The scredded textile pieces were wrapped in some disgusting blue plastic liner that emitted the smell! When I told leerburg, all I got was attitude and taken off their newsletter subscription. Never will do business with them again!

You have tons of good ideas to get you going, so just a couple of things....

Obviously, supervise toy time.

Make sure any item with openings have enough openings so a vacuum doesn't get created as the dog licks the inside.

An age-appropriate Jolly Egg could be great fun. The design is INTENDED for dogs not to be able to wrap their mouths around it, and therefore, it just keeps rolling around, which they love. (I bought the largest one and, unfortunately, Thor wrapped his mouth around and sunk his teeth in right off, so the $20 toy lasted all of about 60-seconds...not only was the thrill gone for him, but we worried that any subsequent time with it might result in his jaw getting locked around it, despite its size.) A big enough one for a pup under supervision could wear her out, though, giving mom a chance to

Also, a cube (or other quality dispenser) that dispenses tiny treats where the dog has to work really hard--and think about how--to get each one out.

Note about Leerburg: Expecting a delivery tomorrow from them, a leather tug included. Very disappointing to hear that they provided such dreadful customer service. And then to take you off their newsletter list...guess that makes them feel powerful.

Raven wrote:Note about Leerburg: Expecting a delivery tomorrow from them, a leather tug included. Very disappointing to hear that they provided such dreadful customer service. And then to take you off their newsletter list...guess that makes them feel powerful.

Leerburg has a great product selection and prices. The leather tug you ordered might be all okay and you don't have to worry about it. But Leerburg's owner, Ed Frawley, has a "way with people". Some created Ed Frawley hate websites, telling what kind of bad news this dude is. http://edfrawley.tripod.com/id2.html

I think redirecting while waiting out the stage. If you do keep doing what your doing, eventually it will pass. It will just seem like forever while your waiting for that to happen. It did for me. Good luck!

May I inject two types of toys to beware of and this comes with experience in assisting a vet friend in surgeries. We have lost several dog patients on the table due to this.

1) Rope toys -- the rope gets chewed and knotted in the intestines and causes blockage

2) Stuffed dog toys from dollar stores -- evidently the US has few or no regs on imported dog toys because the stuffing is toxic. I would assume that stuffing for childrens toys would be regulated unless it comes from China and we dont seem to regulate anything from there.
During surgery, last week we lost a precious little Yorkie that was a 7 yr old little girl's companion after it destroyed a stuffed animal dog toy and ingested the stuffing. The pup came in all dolled out with bows and painted nails. Now that was hard to tell her that her puppy had died.

This is from personal experience.

GSDNanny wrote:During surgery, last week we lost a precious little Yorkie that was a 7 yr old little girl's companion after it destroyed a stuffed animal dog toy and ingested the stuffing. The pup came in all dolled out with bows and painted nails. Now that was hard to tell her that her puppy had died.

OMG, this is awful!

If children toys from China contained lead and all kind of other lethal stuff, one can only imagine what is in/on dog toys from China.

Any imports from China were under new regulations a couple of years ago with stricter independent testing, but, basically, US vendors found the new guidelines didn't give them enough time and crunched them financially, so....

Testing(s) of dog food sold in dollar stores, produced in China, found alarming amounts melamine in the foods.

GSDNanny wrote:May I inject two types of toys to beware of and this comes with experience in assisting a vet friend in surgeries. We have lost several dog patients on the table due to this.

1) Rope toys -- the rope gets chewed and knotted in the intestines and causes blockage

2) Stuffed dog toys from dollar stores -- evidently the US has few or no regs on imported dog toys because the stuffing is toxic. I would assume that stuffing for childrens toys would be regulated unless it comes from China and we dont seem to regulate anything from there.
During surgery, last week we lost a precious little Yorkie that was a 7 yr old little girl's companion after it destroyed a stuffed animal dog toy and ingested the stuffing. The pup came in all dolled out with bows and painted nails. Now that was hard to tell her that her puppy had died.

This is from personal experience.

Cant agree more! The ONLY thing my girls have are Moose antlers. I do have a rope but I am in charge of it and we play tug and it goes away when we are done.

I too have rope tugs but I dont leave them with the dogs, they are only to play with one on one and then put away. I dont normally leave toys out for the dogs with them unattended. The majority of them can destroy a solid brick so..... They do get the raw venison bones at leisure and they have some small trailer tires they are allowed to play with unattended. One of the GSDs has his favorite deflated basketball he carries around everywhere. Another has his and ONLY his 5 gallon plastic bucket he possesses. Oh my sounds as if my furkids are totally neglected with their choice of toys!

Guess what I got in the mail? A Leerburg catalogue!

Isn't it strange after my post here on Sunday stating they took me off their newsletter list after I complaint about their tug toy!? May be a refund check is next

Ed, are you screening all working dog forums?

Ciara has gone from a biting terror to much more controllable (at 6 months), but it definitely took time to let it "phase out." I was so frustrated and thought maybe she was overly aggressive, but we bought her tons of toys and let her chew on ice and carrots, which she loves. She still bites/mouths, but it's not nearly as bad, and she's learning the "leave it" command more and more every day. Hang in there! From what I gather, this breed is very "mouthy!"