I have a 12 week old Siberian Husky puppy. When she came into our house at 8 weeks, she had a biting, mouthing, and nipping problem that was not good for the human skin. Using many, many techniques later, she now has excellent biting inhibition and knowing what is inappropriate to bite. She also does not have a dominance issue; we are making sure she understands she is at the lowest of her pack - well, at least I think she understands.

BUT SHE STILL HAS A PROBLEM WITH NIPPING AT THE FACE, especially when she gets even a little excited. I don't know if she confuses it with licking or not, because she loves giving kisses. It's only when she's excited will she lunge and nip - then lick. A comforting thought is that at least she'll only lunge when I'm literally 2 inches from her face and not just lunge at me when I least expect it.

Anyways, I've used spray bottles, handling the scruff of the back of her neck, redirection of toys, yelping, ignoring, time-outs, etc. I've also tried not sitting on the floor with her for a week, but that only seems to delay her understanding that biting the face is forbidden! I don't know what to do to stop this! In a desperate and subconscious attempt to stop her (and NOT smack her in the face), I bit down on her nose... I know it sounds weird; heck, SHE thought it was weird, but it worked . Although it works, I can't keep biting her nose whenever she lunges at my face; I don't know how I feel about fur getting stuck between my teeth... What can I do to stop her lunging and nipping and biting of the face? Help!

I get mini panic attacks every time someone puts their face up to her because she's cute. She usually doesn't bite strangers in the face, but she will if she's playing. Though it's not hard, it's still unpleasant and alarming since she might grow up keeping this habit. It's so very odd that she won't bite the hands anymore, but she thinks it's awesome to bite the face -_-...

Trillion did this for a few weeks, and when she did we would tell her NOPE in a calm way and just stand up and "be a tree" until she calmed down.

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A comforting thought is that at least she'll only lunge when I'm literally 2 inches from her face and not just lunge at me when I least expect it.

MANY MANY dogs do not like it when people are that close to their face and or at eye level. I know it can be fun to bury your face into a puppy and pet them.... But what you are describing is very intense for a lot of dogs. Many dogs would not accept another dog being that close to them either.


Though I agree you should be trying to nip this behavior I find your best bet would be to ask people to not put themselves into that position. Even if you have children best they learn from you and your dog not to do it before they do it to a random dog on the street.

Never set a pup up to fail... Your invading your pup's space, and though it may be playful in nature it could go very wrong.

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In a desperate and subconscious attempt to stop her (and NOT smack her in the face), I bit down on her nose...

With a pup that lunges and bites at faces this would be the last thing on my mind... I would stop this right away and try a positive reinforcement method or time outs. Huskies in general do much much better with positive reinforcement.

Best of luck?
~Chris~

Thanks for the advices. I don't exactly enjoy getting licked in the face, so I am fine with never allowing her touch my face. It's other people I'm worried about. I have been letting people know not to let her come too close to the face. This way, I feel safer for both Okami (my puppy) and the person playing with her. But half the people ignore or forget what I say once they get a lick in the face from her. They think that it's cute and safe. That really worries me because I never know what will happen. I will continue letting people know; it is my responsibility afterall.

I would recommend staying off the floor to play with her a bit longer. Raven also nipped /lunged at our faces when we played on the floor with her as a young puppy. She doesn't anymore and we can sit on the floor to play now. If she nips or lunges immediately tell her no, or whatever command you use stop playing and turn your back to her. She will learn.

I do however feel that dogs need to learn to tolerate people not the other way around. It is far easier and better to teach your dog now to be respectful of people now, both adults and children then to rely on people using good judgement.

People do lots of things they shouldn't do: drive drunk, have unprotected sex with strangers, shoplift, smoke, text while driving, stick their faces in strange dogs faces, etc even when they know the consequences of their actions. If some dumbo gets nipped by Okami for sticking his face in her face she will be the one to suffer.

Just my

This was a tricky situation at my house. We love kisses from the pups. Delilah came to us at 1, she was pretty versed in human interaction (well, aside from resource guarding issues), but Cato came to us at 10 weeks and is big dummy.

He loved to lunge at faces and no amount of NO! or timeout would work with him - we tried everything. Thankfully, Cato is INCREDIBLY food motivated. We ended up finding that before we even played with him or allowed strangers to pet him, we needed to have him sit and gave him a treat. This broke his concentration and excitement about guests and after the treat he was significantly more calm. He caught on really fast and now he will sit every time someone walks in the door.

If your pup is food motivated it may be worth a shot. And remember, it may take 3 or more times for her to understand the first time, so use small treats and be patient. It will work out.

Okami has been doing better recently. Must be something I did right! Yay! ^_^. I guess we just had to be really consistent in saying NO to her. Then she'll start moving forward slowly and do this really slow lick, like she's unsure of the NO or she's saying, "maybe if I do it slow enough, I'll get away with it." Lol.

Okami has just turned 6 months old. She hasn't bitten my face anymore for several months. She gives slow kisses now, which I love because there are no sudden movements. She hasn't bitten a stranger's face either except for one incident where she nipped this guy's nose when she got too excited. She ran off before the guy can say OUCH! I don't think it was a hard nip though, because the guy knelt back down and allowed her to lick his face again 5 minutes later.