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[quote=Anonymous]Our German shepherd puppy went through an absolutely horrible biting phase around 3-4 months. I have a scar on my hand, and she ruined soooo many pairs of pants- she would literally jump and latch onto our ankles biting hard, totally latched on and ripping at our clothing. It was so awful.

It only lasted 4-6 weeks and then disappeared quite suddenly...some of it was due to teething I think, and it’s also more  common for some breeds (like herding breeds will really want to nip at ankles).

We also have older kids (tweens and 4th grader) and she did the same to them during that time- worse actually. We tried everything under the sun, and this is what worked:

1) prevention. It seemed to be much worse when the puppy was overstimulated, or if/when the kids were actively playing/running around. It would wind the puppy up...we learned to recognize when the pup was getting overstimulated and put her in her crate for a nap/rest preventively. Also- if the kids were doing a lot of running around- active noisy games etc- puppy went in her crate during that time 
2) avoiding triggers. For her, this seemed to be “tug” type toys (made things worse and seemed to encourage the biting), and running, fast/jerky movements (common with kids)
3) talked to the kids about avoiding the above, when around the puppy 
4) if she did bite, turning and walking away- removing the fun. For a time we put her in a super yard but a gated room etc would also work well. Anywhere boring so that she learns biting ends the fun. We’d come back after a few minutes and try again. Repeat repeat. 
5) once she was fully vaxed we started spending a lot of time at dog parks. The other dogs taught her bite inhibition!

Things that didn’t work: yelling no, giving her a toy when she tried to bite (rewards an unwanted behavior- bite and I get a toy!)[/quote]

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