June 14 thru June 20, 2010
Ellie is due for her next set of puppy shots and a veterinarian visit. She is 21 pounds now and still doing very well, health wise. I mentioned the biting to our Veterinarian and he said he knew what to do. She went to bite him; he cupped her muzzle lightly and said “no”. Well she did not try to bite him again but I am waiting on judging whether this works or not till I get her home. There are a lot of distractions around the office. The staff knows us very well from our last Labrador going through weekly and bi-weekly chemo treatments.
I got her home and tried the technique he used and sure enough it worked. He said anytime teeth touch a hand or arm immediately give her a correction. She does not like it at all and backs up snapping like a gator but she doesn’t bite and that’s what we need. It takes a couple of days to get a handle on this but it is working and my hands and arms are very grateful. This was getting very frustrating and now that I’m getting a handle on it I am very encouraged and we start working on some other obedience.
She still wants to chew everything else. Furniture, tissues in the bathroom waste basket, basically anything she can get those teeth on is fair game. I am sure it is because we have not established proper boundaries with possessions. I was afraid of this as we have two large baskets full of dog toys from our previous two Labs. She does not know what is hers and what is not hers. I am staying on it and as long as I’ve got the biting (me) under control I believe we can conquer anything. I also think that once I can start walking her regularly she will do better. Playing ball in the backyard is good but just not good enough to get over that frantic puppy energy.