@rlbeers Omg hey! My shelter rescue is guessed to be lab/border collie! She’s been with us almost two weeks and is starting to settle down enough to get bored. They said around 7 months old and she’s a smart girl. Do you have favorite games or toys for yours? She doesn’t like to play WITH people yet. I think she assumes that if we touch her toy, it means she has to drop it and she lets us have it.
Edit to add: toy recommendations are especially appreciated!! We use a slow feeder maze bowl and a puzzle feeder with her now.
@his_delight Thank you I really needed this today we have an 8 week old pomjack and my husband and I joke we got an STD for Christmas lol. He's a cute Shark Toothed Demon but man I forgot how bad puppy teeth hurt!! Thank God for Nature Gnaws
@his_delight I have a 6 month old and I've written a few times in this sub about how I've struggled with him. The biting is no longer one of the issues, but he was an absolute terror of a land shark for a long time!
I just wanted to drop this advice, as it was the only thing that worked for me: if you're leaving the room because he's biting you, make sure it's a room with absolutely zero stimulation (i.e., none of his toys, anything he can bite/chew etc). Mine couldn't have cared less when I left, because there were so many other things he could chew instead.
Once we started removing him from the room and into our closed off hall for 30 seconds each time he bit, he was much more bothered because it was completely boring for him. It didn't take him long to catch on that biting us meant a boring time for him! The first time we had to take him out 15 times in about 20 minutes. A week later, it was probably once an hour.
@karalea11 Thank you for this tip!! I can’t leave mine in the room, he gives no shits and just moves on to shaking his toys viciously ha. But I will remove the TP in the powder room and put him in there when he starts biting me.
Didn’t occur to me!
@pintomanf8 Me either, until I started realising that the reason it wasn't working was because he had so many other things he could play with when I left.
Decided to put him somewhere boring to see if that changed his response, and voilà! Glad someone else finds the tip useful.
@his_delight This helps me so much. My land shark is 4 months today. Bites and chews and exhausts me to no end. I often wonder if she will ever calm down and give us both space. Your story will be mine some day. She is a beautiful mini dachshund named Mia and as tired as I am, I would not trade her for anything. Thank you for sharing
@seeking626 Haha, I adopted a mini dachshund a few weeks ago and we called her Mia as well she’s 14 weeks tomorrow so we have a long way to go before she gets over the land shark phase!
I also joined the bitten nipple club this week
Those puppy teeth are like razor blades!
@his_delight Thank you I needed to hear this today. She is 18 weeks old on Wednesday and today she has just been a little shite.
The last few days all she has done is shred puppy pads, bite me. I feel like I could almost scream. Other people (my friends) have been in and out the house and she hasn't bitten any of them, just me (I'm her owner and only one here 24/7). Today started her with a dog walker and thought it would make her come back more sleepy and may be the start to settling herself. That didn't happen, she just bit me like crazy and ripped up more puppy pads. I felt bad but 30 minutes before her bedtime and I put her in her crate with a couple of toys and left the room, we both needed time away from each other so I imposed time out on us both. She has just dropped off to sleep.
Things have definitely improved since she was 10/12 weeks to how she is now as back then it was every single day not just the odd day or two it is now, but still when like this I freak out and wonder if it will ever truly get better so I needed to hear this.
@his_delight I have a now 1.5year old.. he is our youngest (we still call him the “puppy” LOL)- I swear this is our exact story. And only me. Loved my husband and literally would snuggle and kiss him. This dog would chew on me in my sleep. Constantly. If I was near him, I pet him, anytime he wanted to eat me. Once I woke up with a whole
Patch of my hair on my pillow. Didn’t want to swallow it, just chewed it out. Of my head.
But.. he’s 1.5, and currently sleeping soundly on my lap. He’s an angel. There aren’t words to
Describe how reliving and exciting it is he stopped trying to assassinate me
@his_delight Idk if it was timing or what but when I started taking her on playdates she just stopped biting me hard. She will just press her teeth to my skin, not chimp down. The other dogs taught her bite inhibition. Playdates are a lifesaver for me.
@joanzoraqi2014 I’ll be honest the issue for me personally wasn’t even so much the bite inhibition as it was the sharpness.
I have dermatographia and just overall very sensitive skin so the “teeth pressing” you describe was what would cut me every damn time. My husband never bled!! But I would be covered in red marks and bleeding scratches
@his_delight Just wanted to chime in because I was also going through this at the exact same time as you (end of May 2023) and mine is also a lab!
I have to agree, although it didn’t feel like it would at the time, it DID get better. And sometimes I even catch myself thinking about getting another one
Another tip for those who are in the trenches right now - invest in training! Training was really a game changer for me. It helped with the biting right away and tired her out, which in turn, made her much more manageable.
And just know, it does get better! The day WILL come!
@his_delight @spilly_talent
So glad to read this! We have a 13 week old Lab and his teeth are so painful!!! I think he’s going to be big as well, he’s already 30 pounds of muscle and when he wants to use those little knives in his mouth agggh. Nice to know it gets better
@his_delight My arms and hands were so banged up and scratched when my dog was a puppy that it looked like I was getting into barroom brawls.So happy those first few months are over lol. I swear I was more anxious and sleep deprived than when my kids were infants.
she’s 14 weeks tomorrow so we have a long way to go before she gets over the land shark phase! 
