Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for January 23, 2025

This is (among other reasons) why I’m a cat person.

My dog was about as perfect as they come, even as a puppy. I got him when he was two months old. He’s my service dog, very welll behaved and sweet.

How long did it take to teach Holly to stop biting?

My lab is 3 years old and he still chews on my hands and arms.

My neighbor got a pair of Dobermans, guess who’ve they’ve adopted!!!! Very gentle dogs until something invades their territory! They learn quickly with pig ears and Milky Bones!

Holly – thump her on the nose (or some other kind of mild unpleasantness for the puppy). She’ll learn to associate biting you with unpleasant consequenses…

Reminds me of my young niece. She was biting her mother and sister. She started a bite on me. I grabbed some hair and did a light pull. She bit harder, I pulled harder. She looked at me, then let go (and so did I). No more biting.

And yeah I know, puppies are a little ‘dumber’ than young girls. But they can learn.

Puppies have little needles instead of teeth. Blowing in her face worked for my Moxie to learn not to bite. Cookie was older when I got her so she’d outgrown that stage.

Kittens are cuter, easier to potty train, and don’t need to be taken for walks when the weather is icky.

And look what happened, Holly

We have a puppy now and it’s been quite a long time! Like having a baby.

The simplest what to get a puppy to stop biting is the moment you feel its teeth start whining, loudly! Like you are going to die! the sound not only startles and distracts them, but they learn humans are giant wusses that have to be treated incredibly gently.