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Comment by Alexis Trujillo on February 4, 2010 at 3:02am

Yikes! Kalvin and I wish you the best!I would agree with Beth and her comments on how to deal with the situation! We will keep you in our prayers!

Comment by Beth on February 3, 2010 at 10:16pm

By this age yelping may very well not work. I have heard my adult dogs yelp when one gets too rough playing with the other, an trust me, it is a loud high screech that you are very unlikely to duplicate effectively.

Inside you can use baby gates. One firm "no" or "Ah-ah" and if he does not stop, step over the gate and leave him for 1-3 minutes, then go back and resume play. More biting brings more walking away and he'll learn the game is over soon enough.

I disagree with the "no tug games" thing, though many trainers say the same. I personally have used tug very effectively to teach the "leave it" command and the key is to designate one toy as a tug toy, then teach to "leave it" to swap out for a treat and always end with you having possession of the tug toy. For a very mouthy puppy, playing tug can give them a healthy outlet where using their teeth is allowed and may lessen their desire to chomp on your pants instead.

You can also take him off-leash to an open area like a basement and run and encourage him to chase. The second his teeth touch you, become a statue, look at the ceiling (to make sure you are avoiding eye contact) and cross your arms over your chest. Once he abandons you for something more interesting, encourage him to chase again and repeat. It should only take a short time for him to get the point. However, the older he gets the longer the attention span and the longer it will take for him to ignore you if you ignore him.

You must be consistent because if his biting on you gets him something he thinks of as positive attention even once, it will just reinforce the behavior. What many people think of as "correction" is actually stimulating and exciting to a puppy. Many people get upset with pup dragging on their leg, and try to pull back and grab at the puppy while possibly waving their arms and making great dramatic "Hey, stop that, I said stop that!" noises. Watch a person do that, then watch two dogs wrestling/chasing, then watch the person's reaction again and you will see what we naturally think of as discouraging the behavior is actually quite similar to the way a dog wants to play to begin with, so we unwittingly are encouraging what we actually want to stop.

Good luck! Corgis are exceptionally mouthy dogs with not a lot of natural bite suppression, and compared to puppies of other breeds can be a bit challenging in that regard.

Comment by Jane Christensen on February 3, 2010 at 8:49pm

I think people have given you all the correct info here...just an FYI...he is probably starting to teeth also so make sure he has plenty of puppy friendly chew toys!

Comment by Bev Levy on February 3, 2010 at 8:43pm

Sparty was like that too as a puppy but Izzy never was. We were successful with the very dramatic high pitched yelp and stopping play. A firm no while walking too. If he persisted, he got a few minutes time out in the kitchen (boring, but not the crate). Obedience classes with a positive instructor was also very helpful when he got older. He is great as an adult and never mouths anyone!

Comment by Alex on February 3, 2010 at 8:09pm

We went through that phase when we first got Kenji. It was a battle with him from the moment we adopted him. You just have to be firm and show your pup the correct behavior.

Comment by John Wolff on February 3, 2010 at 7:38pm

Sounds important. Stomp this out fast, do not tolerate it.
Try a wildly exaggerated, hammed-up reaction, a loud sharp high-pitched squealy "YELP!!!", then make eye contact and say, "Yow! You hurt me! No! No!" He thinks, "OMD, these humans are really fragile; I gotta go easy with them".
Make sure everybody he's in contact with does this all the time. Talk to all your neighbors etc., show them your plan, and get them all with the program. You do not want them to be afraid of Brody, and you want them to know you're getting on top of this.
I remember in puppy class, one pup got too up-close-and-personal, the other pup let out a high YELP! and the other dog backed off immediately; that's a signal they should know (instinctively? or learned?).

Eventually, maybe after no-biting is learned, you want to get the dog used to you inspecting and fooling with his mouth -- removing forbidden food, looking at teeth, etc. -- the vet should be able to do this, too.

The rule is: "I (human) can initiate mouth contact anytime I want, even stick my fingers into your mouth, but you (dog) can NEVER initiate mouth contact with a human."
I've heard that pups learn bite inhibition in their last weeks with their littermates, so if they're separated too soon, they can miss some of this.
We visited a littler at maybe 6 weeks? 8 weeks -- their ears were still down -- they were mouthing and gnawing my fingers, toes, nose face, ears, and I asked the breeder if it was OK for me to allow this, she said it was OK at that age. But at 14 weeks, I don't think so.

As Jenny suggests, if you start cooing "gentle...gentle...", he may associate that with calming down and learn it as a command.

Comment by Jenny and Kilgore on February 3, 2010 at 5:45pm

When Kilgore was a pup he had trouble learning bite inhibition, so I and everyone he was around would yelp loudly when he got too mouthy, and fake cry. He learned quickly he was hurting me. I also rewarded when we would play and he would be gentle, now when he gets too mouthy I say the word gentle and he calms down!