German shepherd biting.

Question
I have a question regarding biting....My 9 week old german shepherd puppy is really starting to become playful and like her home. But there is some problems, she is chewing, biting me and my girlfriend when we play with her. She also tries to bite me and her while we walk. Anything we can do?

Answer
Tommy, you have a normal puppy there. ;^) There are several things you can do about the biting. If your plans for this dog are to simply be a pet (as opposed to doing activities like Schutzhund, for example), then you can try to curb the biting altogether by correcting it. The method that I've found to be most successful without any negative repercussions is the chin-tapping method. What you do is imagine a scale of 1-10, where 1 is the softest tap and 10 is the hardest. You will start out at level 1, and, holding your index and middle fingers together, as if they were taped to one another, you will tell the puppy 'No bite,' and tap underneath the puppy's chin with just those two fingers. Then, you will immediately offer whatever part of your body the puppy was biting, and encourage her to bite it again (no, I'm not kidding!). When she does (and she will), tell her 'No bite' again, and tap underneath her chin at level 2. Repeat until she makes the right choice and refuses to re-bite you even when you encourage her to do so. Praise her for that and play with her using a toy! The next time, you will begin at the level you left off at last time, so, if it took a level 2 tap to get her to stop the last time, that's where you'll start at the next time. It usually only takes a few days to a week or so before the puppy figures out that biting mommy or daddy is not all it's cracked up to be. :^)