Although I do agree to an extent Jeff, for some reason husky puppies know when their human is stressed and will feed off of it in a not so nice manner. If they think the pack leader is not up to par, they will act up to take over, as in who's the boss. I am no expert either, but Northern breed dogs need a strong pack leader(I'm not saying that Sam is not strong, nor am I saying you have to deal with this with a strong arm), however, if you are stressed, the puppy will be too. I'm thinking that he is sensing her stress and acting out. As odd as it sounds my husband insisted that we get a female pup just for this reason, I don't necessarily agree with his reasoning, but, I do know that puppies know when the leader is stressed.

He is 7 1/2 and he gets a ton of exercise and the reason I was so upset is BECAUSE I know the difference between play and anger bites, he was protecting his new non kibble food, we have been working on it but its been a slow process and he seems to have gone backwards with the introduction of chicken.

Still we go outside together and play and walk, inside I play with him when he is not sleeping and train him when he is focused (which is surprisingly often)

Now that I am calmer I can see it's just his food aggression resurfacing. I got bit because I grabbed him when he was in that hyper aggressive state, it was my fault. What I am really worried about is his is shyness around other dogs but I think that is a problem for another thread.

*Edit* LOL If anyone is the pack leader its me, he only really listens when I ask him to do something and he looks to me for guidance, I have been under a lot of stress lately (Money problems, sick puppy, sick ME) and because my pup is super people focused he might have been feeding off of that with me because I just tried feeding him again (after a hot shower) and he was a champ.

Sam, That's what I was pointing out. I'm the pack leader, unbeknownst to my husband, ha. Miya is the same way, he is a yeller and she goes crazy when he yells at her, me I'm a firm soft requester she stops immediately. You have to remain calm to get calm results. I'm glad you're both doing better.

My last Husky, Malukhai used his teeth a lot as a puppy, I still have my hoodies that have holes in the wrist part of the sleeve, haha. When I "checked in" with the breeder, I mentioned the biting and she told me its "unacceptable, and needs to be stopped while he's young", and suggested when he bites, to immediately put him on his back and put my hands around his throat (sounds horrible I know) that this is what the mother would do. I tried it a few times, but like...it really didnt work. Anyways, as Malukhai grew up, he still used his teeth a lot, but I found it to be more and more like in an affectionate way (makes no sense I know, but I'm not the best at wording things correctly, haha) like for example, each night before he fell asleep, he'd jump in my bed, lay down, and give me his paw, I'd take it and then he'd put his other paw on top of my hand...then he'd put part of my hand in his mouth and just kinda "gnaw", no pressure...he'd stop, then put his head down on his paw (and my hand and his other paw, haha) then his eyes would slowly close and soon he'd be asleep. Anytime I'd try to move my hand, no matter how sneakily I would try to do it so I wouldnt wake him, he'd wake up. I guess what I'm trying to say is, some huskies do use their teeth a lot, and you do need to correct them so they know its wrong/hurts sometimes...but often it won't seem like its working...but they do get older and I'd say most do "adjust" the pressure, etc...

Jimmy what you just described on what your first breeder told you to do is called Alpha Roll, an old school technique. I can't believe she suggested you to put your hands on pups throat, old schoolers would probably say turn them on their back and hold them until calm, but what do I know,. lol You wouldn't believe how many training books I read when I first got Miya, and so many suggested that technique, did they actually think that was safe and would work? Yikes, is all I can say.

Jimmy you're right about mouthy dogs though, they do learn not to put pressure on, Miya is a mouthy dog too, I believe that my hand is/was/and always will be her pacifier, she will leave my hand in her mouth and falls asleep that way, I slide it out just in case, lol.

Renee, she was about 60 years old and at that time, breeding huskies for like 40 years or so...I'm pretty sure there were a lot of old school things she still did

This is an excellent thread! I have finished reading all 7 pages AGAIN and have been able to take some more knowledge that we can start implementing with Akira. She is still really young, really likes to chew on everything but is learning quickly who she can chew on. lol Both adults in the house are much more consistent with removing our arms/hands from the picture. Our kids tend to pull away which excites Akira and she comes back for more. Then they push her away to try and get some space...and the GAME begins. We are working with our oldest kids with this and they are slowly learning. They can see by our example that it DOES work. It's awesome to see that Akira can come sit on my lap and if she gets too mouthy I just put both hands behind my back. She doesn't like that at all because she wants me to be petting/cuddling her. I wait until her barking fit is over and then resume petting again. Usually only a couple barks, but sometimes it lasts awhile. lol

Our biggest challenge is that when walking away she goes after our legs/ankles. I will be trying one person's suggestion of lifting the heels up more towards their face to keep her away as we go hide from her sharp puppy teeth. lol Any other tips are more than welcome!

Another question...I see a lot of people say they let their husky just lightly chew on their hands as an affectionate thing. I know this is not a puppy stage thing due to training confusion, but when did you start allowing this?? Was it hard for them to distinguish the difference between biting and mouthing?

** EDIT ** It would be awesome to hear back from anyone that is willing to share how their now older dog is doing with their biting issues. There are quite a few older posts where their puppy was really young and they now have a 2-3 year old adult. Just a little encouragement for us puppy owners.

Kevin, at about a year old Miya understood the pressure of her mouth. I do allow the affection/play biting now that she is older, occasionally she bites down a little hard and the "Miya be gentle" will come out, in a nice calm voice. I personally played tugs with her, under my terms, to allow her to understand when it was appropriate to be mouthy, and also to allow her to do what is natural to her. I would recommend that for the adults only, again at your terms. I actually installed tugs as a training tool with Miya, probably around 4-6 months. Using the tugs as a reward for training. Again on your terms, play tugs, out of the blue start teaching drop it, leave it, and other commands. The reward is resume playing of tugs. I also, imho, believe the rewarding through tugs made her understand that I was the one in control, and what type of mouthing/biting was appropriate. I hope that helps.

I want to try the isolation method, but my 11 week old has a short attention span and could quickly get into something else while i'm gone for a minute.
Carter loves to put his mouth on everything, hands, calfs, my border collies tail, ect.  He is not swayed by no, or yelps, or shaking a coke can with pennies, turning my back to him, or other toys.  He likes to put his mouth on your hand while attaching the leash too.

Is the husky stubbornness coming out when he shows no regret when I'm correcting him?

I would tend to lean toward puppy playfulness and excitement. If you want to try time outs you will need to make a very dog proofed spot like a bathroom with nothing he can chew on or gate him in a laundry room or kitchen. Somewhere that has everything picked up and nothing for him to get into while you are ignoring him. My boy sometimes gets mouthy when he gets excited so I make sure when I am dealing with him that I don't use a high pitched voice and sometimes I don't talk to him at all. If he doesn't calm down I put my hands behind my back and wait quietly. Eventually he sits and stares at me and I can begin again to put the leash on.

we went threw the same thing with my little guy. we bought stuff that tasted bad to the dog and sprayed it on us before playing with him, so if he bit our hand or arm he would let go because of the taste.
As others had said, saying ouch (high pitch), or get up and turn your back.
For the most part she is young and probably just feels good to bite stuff. you can look up a whole bunch of stuff to give her, like frozen broth, lets her chew but also numbs the gums from all the chewing.
wish you luck ! (:

It took a while, but Yuka is doing great for the past 3 weeks. Now instead of biting in our hands he kinda fake bites against/next them, which i have no problems with as it is fun for him and painless for us .. He still does sometimes nip with his front teeth though but that's also getting less by the day.
What we did is say no and redirect to a toy, if he would still go after our hands we say no and ignore him or reward him when he did well for a while. So apart from the occasional front teeth nip, he's doing great and even stops right away when he feels a finger while grabbing a toy that's in our hands, another added bonus is that he learned what no is, which helps with other things like picking up stuff from the ground that shouldn't be in his mouth etc

Enzo is 4 months old now and has been playing pretty rough with my two Bichons. Sometimes they do well with open mouth play, but sometimes Enzo just bites and pulls their tails, face fur, and ears. I did read that they play pretty rough, but is there a way I can help curtail this until he matures and is less bitey? We walk 3 times a day and practice training skills during the walk and at home.

Try playing a few games of tugs a day. What really worked well for Miya, was to play tugs, and if she dropped the tug then I would give her a command, like sit, and then resume the game. Every time she dropped it I would give a different command.Game never resumes unless she was calm, a simple eheh be gentle eventually works, and this also gives a chance to do more obedience training while having fun. You must keep it structured so you are the one in control, and you start the game and you finish the game so you introduce boundaries. This will tire Enzo both physically and mentally and that will curb the biting.

Nice idea,
we'll give it a try

I don't miss those days. Mars would nip at your heels during play, the more excited the worst. But trying some of the members' suggestions here, really helped. I had to carry a spray bottle filled with water to spay him with every time we stepped out to play. Enjoy your new pup.

Nonnahikes wrote:

Enzo is 4 months old now and has been playing pretty rough with my  two Bichons. Sometimes they do well with open mouth play, but sometimes Enzo just bites and pulls their tails, face fur, and ears. I did read that they play pretty rough, but is there a way I can help curtail this until he matures and is less bitey? We walk 3 times a day and practice training skills during the walk and at home.

I'm actually surprised that the Bishon's haven't put him 'in his place.' While they're a small dog, they shouldn't be that much smaller than Enzo is - even at 4 months. Even a very small dog can teach a bigger dog respect when they've had enough of the 'holy terror'.

Huskies *do* play rough, but when another dog *IN PLAY* says that they've had enough, even a Husky will learn. Dogs will do the same thing we humans do, tell them "No!" (though the dog may be a little more emphatic) and then stop playing until the Husky figures out that "rough play means no play".

Obviously, if he's hurting them it's time to call a time out. In general, I think it safe to say that no dog will intentionally, seriously hurt a house mate.

The Bichons are trying. The Male Bichon has definitely established his position on things and Enzo has backed off. They even just lay together on occasion. But the female is older and gentler and her "no" isn't as convincing. But also they will play together which makes it harder for me to tell if I need to separate them, but I do when it looks like she's had enough (Because the husky could play all day!). It's getting a little better which makes me hopeful that at some point, they'll all do real well together.

Enzo, Bear, & Bella

I had to laugh at your picture - and that's a neat "family" picture. Bear just has "you don't wanna mess with me!" look about him. Also notice that he's closer to Enzo than Bella - wonder if that says anything??

If bear's got it in hand then I think it's safe to say that things will cool off among them. As long as he's not hurting them, I'd let them "play". If you keep interrupting, she won't have to correct him - and it's best if she's the one who says "no" - even if it's not that emphatic, she'll either up the level or he'll get the idea.