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Excessive mouthing


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Hello, I have a 7 month old BC mix who we adopted about 6 weeks ago and I would very much appreciate any tips and suggestions for helping us in our situation. I am a high school student and when asking my parents if we could get a dog I knew it would be a great responsibility (which I've now come to realize to which extent :D) and so when we got Sky, although it was hard at first, things were going good. As we got into the 2nd week of having her, I noticed that whenever she got too riled up or excited it felt as though a flip had switched and she had become another pup. It started as mild mouthing, nothing painful just the normal adolescent puppy play, but as the weeks went by she began to mouth/nip especially hard leaving red marks/scratches and pretty gnarly bruises on both my arms and legs. I know she does this all in the name of play, but I have to admit I am a bit frustrated. I've tried the redirecting to a toy which at this point she ignores completely, doing the "ow!" method which only excites her even more, disengaging from all play (kinda hard when I'm in the middle of the yard and she's latched onto my leg and gets more excited with any movement from me), ignoring her until she stops (which the only way I can ignore her without getting nipped too badly is by rolling up into a ball or risking her biting my calves and bum when turning around), and our trainer even recommended doing corrections which I have tried several times but each time I only feel guilty that I'm hurting her or worse damaging her trachea. Even so the corrections don't seem to faze her, whether it's because I'm doing them wrong or whatever the case may be. I've also tried avoiding situations that may build up to this excitement but at this point it happens almost every time I try and play with her (it almost feels like I've become her favorite chew toy :huh:) I know I must have patience and that is something I must continue to work on. I'm just continuously growing frustrated because I feel like I've hit a dead end and I do not wish for this behavior to continue to get out of hand especially because both my 80 year-old grandparents live with me along with my 8 year-old cousin who at this point is too scared to even go outside without me holding onto her leash before hand. I come on this forum after googling countless times and watching many youtube videos on how to correct this behavior but all I could find were two drastic situations which did not fit my own. It was either describing mouthing from a two month old puppy or aggressive biting from an adult dog. I would very much appreciate your help as experienced BC owners who know and understand this breed's behavior. In advance, I thank any of you who may take the time to respond to my situation. :)

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