Creative solutions or success stories for nipping

I'm no trainer, but my BC mix would bite on us playing when she was a puppy, and would (and still can) get over excited in a lot of ways, something that helped/helps with her excitement to get her into some of the commands she knows, like have her sit, lay down, park-it, shake hands....whatever to giver her something to focus on and break up the over-excitement.  She gets into following her commands for treats and it helps her focus.

 A few random suggestions:

1.  Train an incompatible behavior, like sit-stay or down-stay.  A dog cannot jump an nip while they are practicing sitting still or lying down.

2.  I would not pick up the dog.  Since this seems to have a high success rate at stopping the nipping momentarily but doesn't seem to be successful in training the dog not to nip the next time, it could be that this is actually reinforcing the behavior, if to the dog being picked up means getting the attention he wants.

3. I would not use the crate as punishment (since you want the dog to be happy and settled in the crate) but I would most definitely give this dog a swift boot from my space for the nipping.  I'm not talking about physical punishment (not literally booting the dog) but if a dog this age getting bigger and stronger were still nipping me I would simply take him by the collar and not say anything to him or look at him, put him in another room or some space where he no longer has access to me, and quickly walk away.  You need to be fast and consistent so the dog eventually makes the connection  If you try to push the dog away, say no, or do lots of other stuff you might be inadvertently rewarding the behavior by giving the dog the attention he wants.  In my world nipping humans = no access to humans, effective immediately.  After a few minutes the dog is quietly and calmly released to try again.

I would use all three of these techniques together.  So, if I'm working on training a sit-stay and the dog starts nipping, do not pick up the dog but immediately shut the dog in another room for 5 minutes and try again.

Most of the aversive type training you've tried usually fails because it's either not aversive enough or your timing is off.  It's much easier to use clicker training to stop this kind of behavior, IMO.  Much less stressful on you and the dog.  Clicker training may not be new to you, but if it is, it can take some practice to feel confident in your skills but perservere and you'll have a training tool that will serve you well for the life of your dogs.

http://www.youtube.com/user/kikopup/videos?view=0

You can see she has a lot of videos.  There is one on teaching a puppy not to mouth which could be used for any age dog who is mouthing. She also has one on jumping up.  She isn't the only good trainer with videos to help you teach a dog not to do things you don't want or like.  Sophia Yin also has some great videos that might be helpful.

Hi Liesje, thanks for the suggestions!  I definitely agree with everything you've suggested and I'll keep using those techniques in hopes that as he gets older, he'll learn that it's easier and faster to get my attention with good behavior. 

Picking him up is sometimes the only option.  If I can't put a barrier between us or get him focus enough to perform alternate behaviors, that's sometimes the only thing that works.  It started when he was smaller.  A trainer told us to pick him up as a puppy timeout when he nips and you're in an open space where you can't remove yourself.  We would do it and he would struggle like crazy.  The trainer told us to wait til he stops struggling before putting him down (so you're not reinforcing the struggling) so we did.  Now he usually immediately calms when he's picked up.  So it seems like for him it's less that it is reinforcing (you can tell he's not a fan of being picked up still) and more of a trained calm that we unintentionally trained into him.

I struggled with the pros and cons of crating him as a punishment so I only use it in certain scenarios.  He's a smart pup so he'll sometimes start doing other things that he's not supposed to as a way to get attention if nipping fails.  So the crate comes into play if he just won't quit and I need something to keep him from destroying the house to get my attention.  It's kind of the last resort tactic.  He has his bed (outside the crate) as his sort of safe zone and that's always been his preferred place to lie down.

I would love to get rid of picking him up as a solution (though my arms have never been in better shape!) but I'm not sure what else to do if I don't have a barrier to keep him from nipping me.  Any suggestions?  He was taken away from his litter very early and then abandoned...despite our best attempts, his bite inhibition is not very good when he is excited so it's imperative to stop him right away to not only keep him from practicing an undesirable behavior but to minimize the risk of injury.

whatever works for you, just be consistent and they'll get it. at 8 months, your boy is still a puppy and is prone to "Oh Shiney" moments.

"Oh shiny" moments...I love it!  It so perfectly describes his behavior and I've noticed as he gets older, he has become less intensely focussed on things and it is becoming more possible to get him to calm down and start performing desirable behaviors after he gets wound up (my only hope before was to catch it before he clicked into "OMG PLAYYYY" mode).

 Everyone's suggestions have been great :)  It makes me feel better to know that I seem to be mostly on the right track so I'll just stick with it and hope as his little puppy brain continues to develop, we can train him out of this.

Could you teach him to carry a ball or toy that would make nipping incompatable?Could you use a flirt pole to allow him to nip in a controlled apropriate mannor?

                                                                         Tena

Hi Tena,

 Thanks for the suggestions!  I've tried teaching him to carry an object.  A neighbor does this with her dog on walks for a similar reason.  He has zero interest in keeping something in his mouth.  It's actually very difficult to even get him to even place his mouth on something most of the time.  He's only mouthy when very excited.

 What is a flirt pole?  I've been teaching him "touch" and targeting.  I've been shaping the "touch" behavior so that he's only rewarded when he bumps my hand with a closed mouth.  I've also been teaching him that if he licks my hand, he can have the food in my fist but if he nips, I take it away.  This has helped a lot with making him more gentle.  For targeting, I've been teaching him to go ring a bell and am planning to start teaching him to go tap something like a piece of electrical tape on the floor/wall/fence/anywhere so that it can be a portable game that will also give him a little extra outlet for his energy.  We also play tug with a long fleece toy with squeakers in it.  I've been using this to teach him "drop it" and he does very well with it.  I've tried teaching him to carry this toy as well but he's only interested if there's someone on the other end of it.

 There is a pittie in my neighborhood who always carries a plastic water bottle around when she walks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nm4goEuBt4

 You can try this method. You just would teach your dog to walk with the object for a long time, rather than teaching him to get it to you as quickly as possible. In this, she shows getting the dog to walk with the object. When you get to that step, you would want to keep increasing the distance or how long your dog has to walk with the object in his mouth. I hope that makes sense for you.

dnew1212

What is a flirt pole? 

Picture a sturdy fishing pole you hold with a dog toy attached.There's a demo on you tube of something called a Bow Wow flirt pole.

                                                                                                                    Tena