Hi.  I have a 12-month-old welsh corgi, and I want to know how to discourage nipping.  She can be very mouthy while playing, and her nip can sometimes be a bit painful, although they never break the skin.  I have a 2-year-old son, who doesn't seem to mind this, but I still don't like it when she does it to him.  I also have another baby on the way.  What do I do to teach her that it is unacceptable?

Hi Bobbie

I have a Corgi the same age.  She turned a year old on Sunday.  Is yours a Pem or Cardi?

Nia can be quite mouthy, too.  It's a tendency of the breed as nipping is part of herding.  However, you are correct that it's unacceptable, especially with little kids.

We've found saying "OUCH!" in a very loud voice and ignoring her as soon as she nips or even tries to put her teeth on us works well.  "No bite!" works well, too.  If Nia is on the couch with us and she starts being mouthy, she's told "No bite!" and has to get down.  We are seeing less and less of this behavior as she matures.

She is a pem, and turned one on the second.  I understand that it is a herding breed thing; when I was growing up we had a border collie, and he nipped his whole life.  We kids were older, though.  I'll try saying "ouch", and see if that deters her.

We used to have a little dog that sometimes got nippy, it never hurt but still not anything acceptable. I found saying "OUCH" loud and sternly did actually help. It helps to say "no biting" because sometimes when a dog is getting in trouble for something they don't always know what they did wrong but if they hear that after everytime they nip they should catch on eventually.

We also used the "ouch" technique when our dogs were going through their nipping stage. I swear they know when they gone to far and that "ouch" really slows them down. It's like playing to rough with a sibling and the sister or brother yelps to let the nipping dog it's had enough.

I hope it works for you.

lelap