difficulty in stopping biting

Question
Hi Beth, my name is Lisa.  I'm a new rat terrier owner and have a 14 week old male terrier mix.  I knew nothing about the breed aside from the general knowledge of terriers and their activity levels.  He's a smart dog.  I have trouble with getting him to obey me , but mostly its the biting and chewing I have issues with.  Are these dogs different than other breeds?  Are they 'special' like I've heard? And need a different approach than other dogs? Thank you for your time!
Ps) I am home with him all day, he gets moderate exercise, and is not really crate trained, gets toys only when earned and somrtimes pottys inside still...hope this helps!

Answer
Lisa -

Thanks for giving me so much background information.

It sounds like you're headed in the right direction.  Getting him to stop biting can be a real challenge, but I have always had good luck with this technique:

When he grabs at your hands or other body parts, quickly grab him (you may want to put a harness on him to make this easier), grasp his muzzle in your hand firmly but not harshly. Then firmly but gently move it back and forth and say "no bite" in a low pitched angry sounding voice (you don't need to be loud, just very firm sounding... almost a human version of a growl).

If he's chewing objects, I always recommend kong toys stuffed with peanut butter and then frozen. Plastic water bottles with little holes work great too - You make the holes just bigger than a piece of kibble and then put some in there.  These things will help keep his little mind busy.

Now, he needs to go to obedience classes no matter how good a trainer you are.  I take all my dogs, including one of my dogs who's wonderful. It's just so good for their minds.

Is he a toy rat ??  Most of the ones being bred these days are, and those really have temperments much more like toy dogs than like terriers.

Let me know what else I can help you with ....

-Beth