"he still is very mouthy. I know its excitement and i tell him either no bite or if it's really bad which is most times i lightly close his mouth and say no bite"

You are right when they get over excited they don't hear you. He is getting into his teen time also. He needs lots of consistency with his training. The training has to be before he gets to the point of being over excited. Lots of rewards for good behavior.
If he is over excited I would immediately just give him a gentle time out. They don't learn when they are in the excited zone.
What behaviors do you want Chester to do when he is trying to get you to play and give attention? Train for those over and over and then after you know he knows these behaviors ask for them before he gets worked up.
One of the alternatives could be to teach him a hand target. He needs to touch his nose to your palm. You can make it a game. Can you touch my hand if it is over here. Can you touch my other hand. Can you touch my hand with your nose and stay in that position for 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds etc. Can you touch my hand through my legs. Rewarding for each touch. This is giving him something positive to do with you that isn't biting. You can involve the crate with the hand touch. Ask Chester to go into the crate. Reward. Give Chester the release from the crate and ask for the hand target. Reward. Ask for Chester to go to the crate. reward. Have him stay in the crate 2 seconds, 4 seconds, 2 seconds 6 seconds etc. Rewarding for each behavior.
Don't lump all of this together. Get Chester to learn each one before moving on to the next game.

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Roushbabe wrote:I'm just curious, how do you train a puppy to have a soft mouth? My puppy of 9 weeks at times does a soft bite but my problem is when he's super excited he tends to forget. I agree with enhancing the golden retriever soft bite and not completely stop their biting.


Bite Inhibition in a 3 mo. old GR Puppy - Golden Retrievers : Golden Retriever Dog Forums look at my two posts here and Tippykayak's post on the thread


"I prefer holding a low value treat in between my thumb and index finger and giving the dog the treat. If the dog bites hard I say ouch loudly and do not give the dog the treat. I wait for this to go through the dogs mind and try again. After a few or a lot of times not getting the treat the dog takes it more gently I say yes and give the treat. You are looking at increments of the bite changing. It does take some time

Dr. Ian Dunbar's book "Before and After Getting Your Puppy" has a chapter on bite inhibition. In the hardback book it starts on page 135.
There are links somewhere on DogStarDaily to this book separated into Before you get your puppy and the other one is After you get your puppy I am not sure but it might be in there also."


how do you teach bite inhibition? - Golden Retrievers : Golden Retriever Dog Forums look at Ljilly28 and Tippykayak's post

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First and foremost we never yanked the hand out of her mouth. That entices them even more because we make them think it is a game. We intentionally put the hand in the mouth while laying down on the floor with her. That means play time for her. And when she does get rough we say OUCH and then calmly say easy. If she kept on being hard I slowly removed my hand from her mouth and got up and again you repeat, OUCH - just like a puppy leaves the play when the other is too hard. And then you come back on the floor. I will not tell you that it is easy or that it will never hurt a little (that will be a lie) but she never drew blood and we never had marks.
Last night we played on the bed and she jumped between me and my daughter with all her 63 lbs which has nothing to do with the force of her bite and nibbled at our nose, ears and hands for over 15 minutes and neither of us are hurt.
I think that what is also important is that you are the one that starts and stops the play time and impose the game rules, how, when and where. When we are done we say that's enough and get up, go to the kitchen and she gets a little piece of cheese or treat. Also when you give the treat you repeat Easy. if they are too hard because they are excited you say Ouch, no. You repeat and again say Easy! Until they get it that they should be very calm and soft when taking that treat out of your hand.

I tried the Ian Dunbar approach for the first month. It made her bite harder and more often. I've been bit thousands of times, and so have my kids - my daughter has 5-6 ripped shirts to prove it. Bella has been told "ouch" enough to know it hurts. Our vet said this approach is outdated, and to "please don't do that." She still gets mouthy at times, and never bears down, so she has clearly developed a "soft mouth." We just make it clear that its not OK, and we have a means to stop it.

Thankfully, she has never done this to people who don't live under the same roof as her. In this sue happy world, I don't think you want your dog's teeth touching the skin if anyone, regardless if it's only play biting.


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Grasslands Liberty Belle "Bella" CGC (5-7-2012)

So glad to hear that the outdated methods that have been proven to work are now replaced with squirting lemon juice in their mouths.

I would also add that even Ian Dunbar suggests getting to them stop biting altogether after a couple months.


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Grasslands Liberty Belle "Bella" CGC (5-7-2012)

I'll take the advice of my vet and trainer with 1000+ OTCH points, but thanks for your input on my chosen method.


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Grasslands Liberty Belle "Bella" CGC (5-7-2012)

The suggestion to use Dr. Ian Dunbar's Bite Inhibition to create a soft bite was for Roushbabe who has a 9 week old puppy. She asked how to create a soft bite. You will not get the soft bite by squirting lemon juice in a puppys mouth. Your suggestion is to stop the bite.

The information I gave on the other thread on behavior science is not outdated.

For Chester I offered a different approach using positive reinforcement to give an alternative behavior instead of the biting.

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"I would also add that even Ian Dunbar suggests getting to them stop biting altogether after a couple months. "

Yes, around the 4 month mark. That is why I gave the alternative behavior approach for Chester who is 7 months.

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I was responding to Claudia, who has been describing and recommending Dunbar's approach while neglecting to add that Dunbar wouldn't recommend that for a 70+ dog.

I actually liked Dunbar's book. We followed the crate training recommendations to a tee, and it worked great.


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Grasslands Liberty Belle "Bella" CGC (5-7-2012)