You should never dismiss something like that as a "trait" or "that's just how he is". All dogs can be trained. It just depends on how consistent you are.

Toa is 8 months. He mouths but never bites down on me. All dogs do it. I stopped Toa's puppy biting by ignoring him. If he wanted to bite then the game is over. No toy. No play. Then when he calmed down again we could go back to playing. Seems mean, but it works. You have to treat the dog the same way another dog would. They wouldn't stand for it. Sometimes the high pitched yelp worked, but sometimes the high pitch means high energy and gets them even more excited. You have to combine this with ignoring the pup for a bit to get the full effect.

Not sure why someone posted about odour eliminators, but I have to put my two cents in on that too... I tried everything (including nature's miracle) when we had a kitten that peed everywhere, and the only thing that truly got the smell out was OUT! brand. We even rented a carpet cleaner and bought special solution for it and that didn't even get the smell out. But OUT! worked the best for us.

Welcome to the world of crazy Berner babies!

My Finnegan and his Swissy Girlfriend did this to her Mom, and unfortunately I heard the same thing from other Swiss Dog owners. I suspect it has something to do with their hearding instincts, to nip and bite to get attention.

My best method of stopping this was to always carry around toys, and as soon as the biting started, I would first say NO BITE, and then re-direct the energy and say "YOUR TOY or FINNEGAN's TOY" and when he picked up or played with his toy, I would praise and praise.

To this day, when I get home, the first thing he does is he goes and grabs a toy to play with.

Some good avoidance ideas are carrying an empty can with 20 pennies in it, and when they bite, shaking the can and again saying NO BITE. Again, redirect energy to one of their toys.

Squirt bottles with water might work, but it didn't for Finnegan...he liked the water.

It is just play, but unless you have a lot of fur, it does hurt.

Good luck,
Gail

Originally Posted by Chris

Over the last week our Luke has started to become more aggressive when he is excited. He is 3 months old now. He will sometimes run up to you and start biting your shorts/jeans etc. and biting on your legs. We try to get him to stop by saying no or stop and pushing him down or lifting him up on two-legs, and also trying to distract him with a toy or something... but so far this seems like some behavior that we need to work on removing as we don't want a biting (to him im sure its just play) 100+ lb adult berner.

Thanks for the feedback. That is very useful.
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I also had a "huge" problem with Storm. I tried many ways, but the best I found with him was to "time out" away from me. He hated being away from me and this seems to help in everything.

I am having a heck of a time with Penny, who is 14 weeks old today.

She can be a perfect, snuggly angel that likes her belly rubbed and to play with her toys, but then there are the other times when she turns into Spawn-of-Satan dog. This morning was one of those times. She's been liking to get up really early, 4:30AM or 5:00AM to play. We suffer through her barks and cries for an hour (she does NOT have to go potty, i must note... nor is she hungry or thirsty... just wants to play) to try and teach her that we don't get up-up, except to go potty, until 6:15-6:30A.

Upon letting her out, she sometimes gets kind of crazy. Running around semi-uncontrollably. If you sit on the couch, she lunges, continually jumping and biting (hard) at anything she can, your feet, legs, sweatshirt, arms... even your face if you dared to get it close. At these points its all I can do to not hurt her by pushing her off of me. I drag her to the bathroom and shut the door, she scratches for awhile, calms down (sometimes pees) and then I let her out. She's usually good for 2-3 minutes, but then she's back at it!

I was practically in tears this morning... I just didn't know what else to do. Spraying her with water isn't working. "No!" doesn't seem to faze her at all. She only bites more if you yelp. Coins in a can... fail. We walk her and tire her out, which works immediately after the walk, but not in the long term.

I'm trying to positively reinforce good behavior, but i'm so startled by this seemingly aggressive behavior... she's not my first dog, but I don't remember my previous puppies (labs) doing this! I smacked her on the butt with my sock monkey slipper this morning and felt so bad!! But the little puppy-teeth-sized bruises on my arms and ankles, and the dime sized bruise on my stomach (yea.. .she went for the ties on my hoodie) suggests it was warranted!

Please tell me this is a puppy thing! Or do i need to seek some professional help for Penny Bean?

Ok I might get into trouble here but storm was the same way. I thought I was going to kill him if it didn't stop. It took a lot of patients and many different things.

here is what worked the best, doesn't hurt him and I still do it. when he started to bite like you say i would hold my hand under his jaw and hold his tongue down and say no. It took several times but he got the message.

Because I work I have him on a schedule.His play time is after supper. I take him outside and play hard with him, whether it be a ball, or squeeky or stuffed animal, he has my attention, full attention then. He gets walked as soon as I come home from work. I don't have to leash him, he gets to run free and we go walking in the bush. How long depends on how he is doing physically that day.

I didn't have the jumping because he couldn't but I ended up with that when he was 90lbs. So I pushed him down said no and made him sit. we turn when he goes to jump and when he calms down he gets attention.

It can be very trying at times but be patient. I also found aggresion does not work with these guys. you have to be patient and firm, but not aggresive. My mom slapped storm one time, it was not a good scene. She also tried to "pin" him down to show him she was boss, not a good scene.

good luck!!!

Our female Berner was a totally bratty puppy. She nipped, jumped up on us and on the sofa, pee'd on the floor whenever her "friend" Snoopy came over, and had many sessions of running around like a dog possessed by the devil. I remember after one such session, (witnessed by a friend who is a cat owner), thinking, "OMG, what the heck have we gotten ourselves into with this little monster?". But, I have to say, I spent a good deal of time training her to sit, stay, rollover, come, wait, be still, be quiet, etc etc and it has all paid off in the long run. We also crate trained her, so she had lots of "quiet time" with only kong toys to calm and amuse her. By the age of 2, she was a very calm and confident dog and now (nearly 5), she is one of those supremely wonderfully obedient, confident and sweet dogs that everyone longs to have! We still marvel that that bratty puppy turned out to be our dear Shady! On the other hand, we have our boy Leo, (now 2 y.o.) a darling puppy who did everything we asked him to immediately, who is quite shy and scared of any new situations. When we have thunder and lightning storms, he has panic attacks that last hours! Panting and hyperventilating! Poor Leo!

I have a 9 month old Berner puppy and he had a nipping problem in the beginning. We used the "dog whisperer" method of firmly and quickly poking him in the neck with our index and middle finger while making a "psssst" noise when he bit too hard. This action simulates what a dog would do in the wild if another dog got a little too rough...they nip each other in the neck as a warning. This method worked wonders and the results were immediate. He now responds to the words "be gentle" and the dog whisperer method is no longer required. He simply mouths us now and licks our hand.