Need Advice - My 'no bite method' good or bad?

I posted this on another thread, and it seems that it's important to teach your pup from biting "too hard" to "soft" to none at all so that if he/she does actually bite as an adult, hopefully it won't be a "hard" bite and cause much damage.
 
[linkhttp://www.crickethollowfarm.com/biteinhib.htm]http://www.crickethollowfarm.com/biteinhib.htm[/link]
 
I don't think you gave the "yelping" enough time. Assuming he was 8 weeks when you got him, that's a tops of two weeks. I wouldn't be so quick to give up on it yet [].

Hi, I also train my dogs with positive reinforcement!  no force, free choice etc...
   But to back up the word No!  i use a spray bottle (with water in)  what i find is try and be descrete with it (he bites, quick spray, with the word no!) when he releases, tell him good boy, (maybe with a treat)  and i find this works for me and stops bitting, and any other bad unwanted behaviour and the dog is working from your voice and knows no means no!  
 
   I even used this method to stop my border collie bitting my feet and jumping up clinging to my t shirt, while we were out on walks...   and now she listen's to me from a good many metre's away...
    I don't feel there is any harm in this, (its only water) but its effective enough to stop bad behaviour, i find bitting (mouthing needs to be nipped in the bud, its no fun when he's hurting your arm or kids arms, thinking it's fun... 
   So i would carry on with it, thanks Lance..

 i use a spray bottle with ice cold water in and spray it rite in her face if she dose any thing bad and say NO and walk away from her or but her in a room and close the door this has worked for me and i took 2 week's some time's she still dose bad thing but as soon as i get the bottle and she see it she will stop and run away

Thanks for your replies.
 
I got my pup at 7 weeks, so we gave yelping 3 weeks.  It worked the first day, after that, he would just bite harder when we yelped.  I would say we gave it a very fair try.  If it was working some of the time, I would try and stick with it.  But it was never working.
 
I think I am going to stick with the 'bitter in a bottle' method for a little while longer, as I feel we have an extreme case here.  I almost had to get stiches yesterday to a bite on my ear.  It bled for 4 hours.  My wife is in tears almost everyday because of skin breaking bites on her arm.
 
Thanks again everyone!

I'm a trainer.  I think your method is all wet!  This is a normal puppy, and already you are being aggressive with him.  That will come back to bite you later...  Simply continue to yelp if his teeth contact your skin, and take all your attention away from him.  Inadvertantly, if you aggress when he bites, you may escalate his behavior, rather than improving the situation.  You can paint a little Vicks Vapo Rub on your hands so they are a bit less attractive.  And, be sure you have a chew toy to substitute for your flesh LOL.
Find a clicker trainer and go to class.  I can't stress enough that this method is great with the hounds (Traditional methods often fail with them because they have their own agenda - but they are sooooo food motivated, and will work for reward - then you just make sure you fade the food appropriately).  Jen (Roscoe's mom) and I (Maska) both have clicker trained hounds.  Mine has a CGC & is a registered therapy dog, and I think Roscoe just got his CGC, too.  It works!!!!!  [linkhttp://www.clickertraining.com]www.clickertraining.com[/link] has a trainer search.
 

Its great, but skip the bitter apple! Might get in its eyes!
Say ouch loudly when it bites you,  pull hand away, then say good if he doesnt try to nip again and resume whatever you were doing! If he starts again turn away from the dog ect. He needs to know that you dont like it and it will not get your attention nor will you play if it does that.   

BTW, if you got your pup at seven weeks, this is probably the reason you are having such trouble.  This is too young to be removed from the litter, and he missed some valuable lessons in bite inhibition.
Here's another thing you can do.  Teach him "easy".  Grab a few treats in your hand and make a fist.  Hold it out to him and let him mouth your hand.  He may be persistent, so be prepared for it to be ouchy.  Eventually, when your fist doesn't produce the treat, he may sit down or move his mouth away.  The instant that happens, you can open your hand so he gets the treat and say "easy".  He will learn that backing away from your hands produces the good stuff.
Eventually, you start treating only occasionally for "easy" and the rest of the time, you praise.

I would NOT start with the water spraying until he's much older. You're going to traumatize him. A general rule of thumb is nothing but positive reinforcement for babies-- and he's a baby until he's around 5 to 6 months of age. I've got a piranha puppy staying with me for a few days, and I've been watching my alpha bitch teach him manners. Amazing. If he's rude, which he mostly is, she ignores him. He's running in circles around her yelping hysterically,  and she pretends he isn't there. No eye contact, no acknowledgement, even when he gets brave and crashes into her. The second he stops being rude, she invites him to play. Her timing and patience are a wonder to watch. She's "disciplined" him exactly three times: once he tried to grab her bone, and she gave him a horrible roaring growl , lunged, and air-snapped at him (didn't touch him, but it sounded like she was killing him, her noise and his screaming terrified response); once he bit her too hard in play and she snarled and walked away, and once I wasn't quite sure what his transgression was, but she again air-snapped and snarled. Every now and again, she has calmly and very deliberately knocked him sprawling, apparently to just remind him that she can. His behavior has improved tremendously over the course of a few days. As to me, whenever I interact with him I stuff a toy in his mouth so he can't chew on me. I play with him to exhaustion with tug and fetch games BEFORE he gets wild and demanding. Stuff a toy in his mouth before giving him a belly rub or putting his harness on. My timing and patience are nowhere near as good as my dog's, so I try to be pro-active and prevent problems. Got bit to bleeding once, and I yelped and walked away to get some bactine.

What Spiritdogs has suggested really works, especially the part about holding a treat in your fist.  We have a 6 month old Aussie puppy (Ruby) and a 3 month old Golden puppy (Samwise) and Samwise is so big and goofy that I don't think he really knows how big his mouth is.  We are doing the fist thing with him to teach him to be gentle and it's really working well.  This is something I had learned in obedience class with Ruby.  I can't stress enough how valuable obedience class is for puppies, especially at this stage in their development. 

Some dogs don't seem to mind the yelping - or maybe it's some humans don't yelp very well! [] Yelping never worked with our puppy, it just excited him, so we omitted that part but stuck with the ignoring and withdrawing from play. It's not an immediate solution, you need to be persistent with it, but it's a good one.

I found Yelping didn't work for me! 
when i yelped and turned to walk away, my pup would chase after me, bitting my ankle's...
   I kept it up for 3 weeks, untill my legs and ankles couldn't take no more....
   I find the spray bottle works very well (stops him in his tracks)  they say you shouldn't use it on pup's, but believe me, pup's can hurt!  and when they are persitant, this method works!   and it train's the dog to work off your voice (when NO bite! is a no go area)

still, I would never spritz a young puppy-- would you slap a infant human? you wouldn't, no matter what he did. If he thinks your yelps are exciting, try a different noise: a gasp of horror. A scream of agony.  If he thinks you walking away is a fun game, try freezing and staring off into space (my alpha bitch did this A LOT during the first few hours of our recent visiting puppy). Nothing more boring than an immobile person. With puppies, a few days of extreme patience really pays off later on. Helps to find some experienced dogs to help teach your puppy how to inhibit his bite too, especially if you took him home a bit young.

No i wouldn't slap a young infant!  
   But this method is not about that!   its only a squirt of water (as a distraction, whats so harmfull about that?)  and try explaining to your kids when the playfull puppy has marked his arm...
 
  I have tried to stand still, but being a herding dog as soon as you move, he's there (or anything else, come to that)  after all you are not going to stop the world from moving, just because your taken your dog for a walk....  
   The dog has got to learn, not to use his teeth for play, now if she is off lead and my yongest son is running around on the field and she gets to close (my son or i can give the command no bite!  and she lays down or skirts passed him)  i have seen other owner's still battling with mouthing, much older than my pup (using the yelping methods)  only with bigger teeth...   (very unsafe)

ok i agree with you only partially, its a bad idea to spray that stuff directly into the dogs mouth whether its diluted or not. but you certainly have the right idea, too much of something like that can mess up a dogs intestines believe it or not, and  other physical corrections arent an option because the pup probably doesnt take you too seriously if its nipping when it plays to begin with  lol  but your definitly on the right tracka simple water spray aimed at the dog and saying "no" in a calm way can work as well. especially if you want the dog to understand voice commands like that in the future. start now, so the dog understand what NOT to do in the future. just excersise patience and be persistant with the way you're going about it. and instead of just leaving it at "no" and a squirt of water, correct the pup by putting something he IS allowed to play with in his mouth