new puppy help
 

my family just got a new puppy last weekend. he's about 2.5 months old. he's super cute and i love him, but he likes to nip. he doesn't do it out of aggression, but out of what he thinks is fun.
with our last dog, we would hold his mouth shut when he bit and he learned to stop. with our new puppy, this isn't working. he isn't putting the two together as when he bites, we hold his mouth.
any advice on how to stop him from nipping at people?

When he does that, yelp. I'm serious. Mother dogs yelp when their pups nip, and the pups stop.

Secondly, keep in mind that dogs communicate just about everything using their mouths. When dogs greet each other, they do it by biting each other (not hard). Your puppy doesn't know any better. My guess is that he nips when he gets riled up due to overstimulation from some heavy play, so when he starts to nip, STOP PLAYING. Yelp, hold his mouth shut, tell him NO, and crate him for a while so that he can calm down.

Hope this helps.

I would also follow Hootie's suggestion, but don't forget that once the bitting behavior is redirected to show your puppy a positive reward for the behavior change :)

KappaKitty is right about the crate time. My puppy used to nip at people and get really hyper and I would put him in the crate until he calmed down. Another good thing for puppies that nip is chew toys and the toys that squeak.

Bite the dog back:D

Either this, or stick your fingers back in her mouth - not far enough to make her sick - just enough to be unpleasant. My vet told me that anything you do that feels uncomfortable or unpleasant should work - they begin to associate these feelings with nippng.