Puppy Stage...........?

Baby berner

Our baby girl is 7 weeks old. Super sharp teeth that loves hands and ankles. I let her chew on them and repeat "easy" and yelp really loud when she bites too hard. She instantly stops on the yelp. Also if she goes back for more I yelp and stand up to stop play. She feels bad and lays down when I do this. I will replace my hand with a toy or towel when I'm grooming her to replace her focus.

Tip: when she's calm I brush her and play with her feet and ears so she is used to being handled. She went to the vet today and fell asleep as he was checking up on her!... As she often does when I am brushing her.

I am worried because she loved her crate the first week and now that she travels in it... refuses to go in it and hates it. I don't know how to get her to love it again when I go back to teaching she will have to be in a crate... SUGGESTIONS PLEASE!

 

I have two crates. One for home and one for travel. Not sure it is needed though as she has not refused either crate (except when being send there for being bad). What I do with mine to make her love her crate is all treats are given in the crate. Even if she can take them out to enjoy elsewhere, there always arrive in the crate. We also practice being sent to the crate from various parts of the house. Since it is a game that has food she loves it. I would start by always feeding her in her crate. Way in the back. I would also have her spend a few hours i the crate everyday now with you home so it is not such a scary thing when you are gone. Mocha spends from 9-11am in her crate everyday even though we are now home all day long. It keeps the schedule and she knows what to expect. To avoid barking or fussing make sure you pop by and treat her anytime she has been lying down quiet. Soon she knows what to do. I also have 4 toys in with her so she can amuse herself with tugging or chewing as she pleases.
Hope this helps

 

I had the same problem with the biting. I purchased Grannick's Bitter Apple Spray and sprayed my hands and arms. She did not like the way I tasted and stopped. (The look on her face was priceless) I also sprayed it in the leash. Works like a charm.

It tastes terrible. I was not aware of how many times I touched my lips in a day. You will be surprised too.

 

Itchy Berner

Thanks guys!

Update - now Bernadette is a week over 3 months and understands that the crate is for bed at night, naps during the day and home when I leave the house. She barks/cries at 5:30 every morning to go out and potty. She does not go in there alone but will not put up a stink when I walk her to her crate.

The puppy teething is NOT over, but she has come to realize that biting the family members is not a good idea. She still likes to chew on an alternate brush when I brush her, and her leash when we run - I think the gnawing soothes her? Anyhow, so much better than it was before!!

New Question - our vet is running a trial to see if she is so itchy because of her food (food allergy). she was on chicken and sweet potato and he put her on kangaroo and potato. She is on meds right now so her itchy'ness has calmed down, but when the meds start to wear off she chews on her feet and legs. Any suggestions? I think she just might have dry skin - any suggestions for a dry,itchy berner? Poor girl itched her ears until they bled. Thank goodness her ear infection is all cleared up.

 

Is the medicine a steroid? If it is a steroid then all the medicine is doing is suppressing a histamine reaction. It is treating the symptom, not the cause. If this is the case, then I agree with your hunch. It must be an allergy. Start with food allergies.

Eliminate all current foods and treats. Bake a chicken, or buy a couple of rotisserie chickens (remove the bones). Give her only that for a couple of days... If all goes well, introduce ground beef, etc. Try it for a week. If the itching stops... He may have allergies to something that is constant in each of the kibble.

With treats you can then introduce whole dehydrated treats like: Dehydrated chicken or dehydrated liver There are no fillers or things I cannot pronounce added. My little one loves bacon. I cook it until it is crispy and breaks apart into little pieces.

I know this seems expensive... but it's not really. A bag of dog food is not cheap and feels really expensive when it has to be thrown out.

I hope you find a solution. I know how troubling this can be. Please keep us posted. I know you love your little one.


P.S.
As an a alternative I found a site that will do a home kit saliva test for food intolerances. They test for 24 common foods, but it costs $280.00.

NutriScan tests for:
Beef Chicken Eggs
Corn Barley Wheat
Millet Soy Oatmeal
Cow's Milk Salmon
Lamb Rabbit Venison/Deer
Rice Chicken Quinoa
Turkey Potato White Fish
Peanut/Peanut Butter Pork
Sweet Potato Duck Lentil

You may spend more with trips back to the vet and changing food. Wouldn't it be great to just know immediately?

NutriScan Food Sensitivity and Intolerance Test for Cats and Dogs - Dr. Dodds

 

Good morning. Have your tired "pushing back" when your pup/dogs bite at your hands? its much easier as a puppy but basically if they bite at your fingers/hand, quickly push your hand/finger into their mouth( far enough to make them pull head back) and say forcefully "no bite" or whatever your command will be. Same goes for when offering treats...keep about 95% of the treat enclosed in your hand and when you offer the treat, say the word "gentle" to whatever word you choose for a command again. Keep enough of the treat concealed in your hand that they basically have to use their front teeth to nibble at the treat..if your pup gets to "chompy" take your entire hand and push it against their nose/mouth and and say no. They will learn quickly that trying to engulf the treat gets them nowhere. The pushing does not have to be hard..but enough to make them move their head backwards.

 

Was also not so cuddly as a puppy....

Hi!
Just wanted to share m 2 cents. Our berner puppy was also teething like crazy I though it will never end! And nipping.....and lets say he was not a gentle player

But slowly slowly it started to diminish....the only technique I used is a loud "Ouch!!" and stop playing and turn away when he nipped too hard.
Don't remember the exact time but deff by 6 months old we had a gentle mouth.

About cuddling - I was also disappointed that Mishka did not want to cuddle. We called him "Mishka the Terrorist" lol cz all he wanted to do is destroy things and terrorize us.

As he was growing up he started leaning, more sitting on our feet, and eventually hugging with his paw and putting his head on your lap (super cute )

Now he is a year old and he loves to cuddle! Just jumps up on the bed and lays on you, seeking attention and belly rubs. Our cuddly bear!

So just wait, it will come I'm sure

 

Sierra our new puppy

We too have a new Berner puppy, her name is Sierra she is 15 weeks old. She is much the cuddly type. My husband and I joke how she wants to be a lap dog which is okay now but not when she is an adult. She constantly needs to be around us. You set on the floor she is in you lap licking your face. She did go threw a chew stage where your hands were her chew toy. We stopped that by when ever she put her mouth on our hand we immediately screamed in pain. She would stop and lick our hands which we would say good girl. She was house trained in 2 days. I read where some people have problems with their puppy eating poop here is an article about that and what causes dogs to do that
Stopping Dogs From Eating Poop

We have never had a problem with Sierra doing that.

We got Sierra from a small breeder, her female had only two puppies. The family was very hands on with the puppies. When we went to pick one out we sat on the floor, the male did not come to us at all Sierra ran into my husbands arms and starting licking his face. Sierra picked us out. That was all it took and my husband looked at me and said she is the one. So my question to you is did you pick yours out or did the breeder. We looked at a lot of breeders and rejected those that would not let us pick out the puppy but they would pick it out for you. I don't believe they can really pick a puppy that fits you.

Hope some of this helps.

 

Thanks for your help, aje196! He's getting a little better but still resorts to his landshark self He's still young and we just need to be consistent with training, etc. I'm hoping he'll evolve into a cuddly pup as he gets older. When I sit on the floor and hold his chew toys for him sometimes, he'll climb and sit on my lap to chew it and lean against my chest. Makes mom happy oh the little things!









tshirthell,80stees,Teepublic

 

I tried the bitter apple spray, but it was not much of a deterrent for our boy. I was really worroed because we were about to be visited by our 2 year-old granddaughter. I was amazed that he instinctively seemed to know to be more gentle with her. She was here for a week, and that behavior generalized to all of us. The nipping dropped off dramatically. He was 12 weeks old at the time.

 

They really are an incredible breed. When we lived overseas the Germans used their Berners to make sure the German children stayed in the park playground so the mothers could talk freely to one another.

 

NO dog will turn down a hot dog/weiner/frank