Yorkie Puppy Biting

Question
my yorkie puppy is very hyper i just can't settle her down. i have tried a lot to get her to stop biting she seems to be getting worse.. i tell her "no", i have ignored her but she just bites me and barks at me. Is there anything i can do to make her stop this biting all the time?

Answer
Bite inhibition is something that puppies learn from their mother and littermates, but when puppies are removed too soon, the new owner(s) must assume that job.

When a puppy bites a littermate too hard, the other puppy gets furious and immediately attacks the biting puppy back, who then says, "oh, sorry... I didn't realize that was too hard." The owner must do a similar thing.

When a puppy bites/mouths me, I immediately grab any part of the puppy's lip and pinch it hard, fast, and briefly while roaring in the puppy's face and staring him in the eye. Sometimes I roar (like a lion), sometimes I deepen my voice (similar to a roar) and tell him loudly "BAAAAD, puppy! DON'T BITE!". This is extremely effective with almost all puppies. If it works, the puppy will immediately start licking (a sign of submission... and apology). After a couple times, the puppy will only have to be reminded on occasion that this is not an allowed behavior. By three months or so, the puppy should never be biting anymore.

In a small handful of puppies, the more dominant ones, lip pinching will be ineffective and will cause them to bite more and then the correction must escalate to the next level, which for me is grabbing the puppy by the scruff of the neck, letting it hang in the air (I might also give it a brief shake), as I stare it in the eye and roar loudly in its face. Sometimes I will put the puppy on its back and hold it down as I stare it in the eye and roar (like I am going to devour it!)

Get your puppy into puppy socialization classes, and then regular obedience classes ASAP, and start working with her every single day. Also practice "Nothing in Life is Free" with her. http://k9deb.com/nilif.htm You should probably also practice "long downs" with her a few times a week. http://www.volhard.com/general/artbywv.htm#tnw

When man decided to take dogs and breed them down into smaller more "cuddley" versions of what they had at the time, they forgot to tell the dogs that. Yorkies aren't much different from schnauzers in that respect; they all think that they are 500 lb. dogs! Cute can only get a dog so far.  8-)

Karen