nipping/playbiting

Question
Hi Kristen-

We have a 13 week old female puggle named Emmie.  She is the best, dog ownership is amazing.  

We can't seem to get the nipping/playbiting under control.  We have tried EVERYTHING.  The "ouch" method, a shaker, a spraybottle, ignoring her.  None of it worked.  When she gets in a mood, she becomes aggressive with it.  The negative reinforcers just make her more aggressive and ignoring/"ouch" are not deterrents in the slightest.

It's not that she is unintelligent, far from it.  At 13 weeks she has been able to learn sit, stay, down, gimme kiss.  She resonds really well to new information, new tasks.

We have also tried every chew toy in the store, she gets interested for a short time, then moves on to my heels.

Any advice?

Answer
First, Seth, try exercising her a little more to wear down some of that energy. Second, you need to start correcting her whenever she puts her teeth on you. I've found that one of the best ways to stop a puppy from nipping and biting you is using your fore- and middle fingers to 'tap' the dog underneath the chin. Hold your fingers out straight, as if they were taped together, and use the long part of your fingers vs your finger tips. Imagine a scale of 1-10, where 1 is the softest and 10 is the hardest. Whenever Emmie bites or nips at you, tell her "No bite," or something similar, and tap her underneath the chin at level 1. Then >>immediately<< re-offer the part of you that she bit to begin with, encouraging her to try and bite it again. I know this sounds crazy, but stay with me! Most likely, she will chomp right down on it, at which point you say "No bite," and tap her again underneath the chin at level 2 this time. Repeat until she makes the connection between biting and being corrected, and makes a conscious decision NOT to bite you when you offer whatever part of you she was biting. At that point, praise her and whip out a toy, encouraging and praising her for biting the toy instead of you. If she bites you again, repeat as above, starting at whatever level you left off at previously. So, for example, if you got to level 3 before she got the idea last time, start at level 4 the next time she bites you. It doesn't take long for them to get the picture this way, because it is allowing them to make the decision for themselves.