Teething help

hi everyone!

We just got our little Scamp a little over a week ago and he has been great, he is almost 10 weeks old! Our big issue is with his teething, his little teeth are like razor blades and i am not sure my poor hands can take any more. At first when he would bite we would say a firm no with a slight bop on the nose, when that did not work then we started to yelp when he would bite and that worked a little at first but now he thinks that is an open invitation to play harder! We stopped playing tug of war games with him, and have given him frozen carrots which work at first but then after he eats them he comes right back over to bite us! When he starts biting we usually give him a chew toy and he will play with it for a little but he always come back! I just don't know what to do anymore, do any of you have any suggestions for a new corgi mama?

Thanks!!!

Kathleen

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Permalink Reply by Joelle Soupe on February 4, 2013 at 1:55pm

Oh those razor sharp puppy teeth... I thought those would be the death of me when Charlie was a puppy. And with the feet biting too!

The yelping actually didn't work well for me, but what worked like a charm was leaving whenever he bit my hands or feet. Leave the room, close the door if you have one. Corgis hate it when they're "left out" or feel like they've done something wrong causing you to leave (which they did!). The first night I tried this, Charlie "got it" after 3x. Then with constant practice whenever they bring the behavior back, it will train out of them eventually. Charlie stopped bitting ankles and hands completely probably 1 month after I started the "leave the room" treatment.

Note that in my experience, removing him from the room didn't help as much. Me leaving seemed to appear "worse" of a consequence to him.

Finally, here are some things that helped him with his teething troubles:

1. freeze a wet hand towel in a roll - my coworker told me he did this with his baby so the drool didn't go everywhere since the towel would just soak it up, but Charlie enjoyed the softness yet numbing/soothing affect of the frozen towel. It's also cheaper than buying a freezable toy. I had looked for one but couldn't find one with consistently good reviews.

2. Nylabones - he still loves them now and he's almost 2

3. orka chew toys - they're blue and you can get them at most pet stores. Beware though, that your puppy might go through these very quickly - Charlie tore up the one for "powerful chewers" in a week, but he loved them when he was teething.

Hope this helps!! And rest assured, it is absolutely true that their teeth, while larger, will dull out when they're older.

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Permalink Reply by Yuki & Ellie on February 4, 2013 at 2:04pm

I second the idea of leaving or, in our case, crating when other methods are not working. Ellie responds to yelping and will stop what she's doing if one of us lets out a yelp, but during her young puppy days she sometimes would ignore the yelp and ended up in her crate for 5-10 minutes to calm down.

I also advocate the frozen towel/cloth! I used a frozen washcloth (an old one that was already pretty well worn) for both Yuki and Ellie and they loved seeing me pull that out of the freezer. It was their favorite "treat"!