Puppy trys to deflea us

Question
We just got a 10 week old American Pitbull. He is a very quick learner. Had him 3 days now, and he will stay in his crate without whining, goes in and out when we say in or out. Comes when we say come, and stops when we say No. The breeder gave the puppy his first set of shots, I got dewormer and 7 in 1 shot from local feed store. So I don't think the obedience people will let me take him to classes because a Vet didn't do it.

Sometimes when we are playing with him, he will start to mouth our hands. When he does so to hard, we go Ow! and ignore him. So then he started to deflea us. Not really mouth us, but kinda just use his front death as if he was trying to get fleas off himself but with us. It actually is more painful then the other way. I know that puppies do teeth and they chew things regardless till they are about 4-5 months old. I give him his toy to chew on, and he will start with that, but when we pet him he will go back to mouthing and defleaing my hand.I need to figure something out to get him to stop this. Because I would like to take him out to socialize but don't want him to do that to someone, them pull away, and him actually bite them. I am messing up a bit, because when strangers come up he does a little bark, and I pet him. Because I want him to do that when he is home and a stranger shows up. I want to make sure he keeps them away. Also when goes to bite, I will start to wrestle with him. Which has made him start to bite harder.

Answer
The mouthing/nipping is a dominant sign. You rewarded the behavior when you said OW!  Get some lemon juice. spread it oin your hand, not get a treat and hold it so the dog must touch your lemon taste flesh to get the treat. The dog will learn you do not taste good but hte treat does and stop trying to eat you. Next, when the dog does try and nip, quickly squirt lemon juice directly into the dogs mouth and say JUICE!  Use the plastic lemon bottles from the store. If the dog happens to likelemon juice, use vinegar, hot sauce, bitter apple or tobasco. You want the dog to learn that if it bites what it isnot supposed to bite it gets a bad taste in its mouth.

Up here we don't care if you self vaccinate (with a kennel we do our own except rabies) and a local obedience trainer should not care either. Just have proof of the vaccinations fromthe vet and receipt for ones you did yourself. Your vet can also enter them on your health record if you show them the receipt.

regards,
henry ruhwiedel
www.dogkennel.org