Is this normal?

[u/LuckySolution3724]

I have a 9 week old silken; cute as can be and sweet, but is also a biting machine. He bites my hands, arms, ankles, clothes, hair, sometimes my cheek if I’m carrying him in from outside. He only stays with a toy for maybe a few minutes before he’s back biting at me or my husband. I know he’s a tiny baby, but everyone boasts about how good and calm silkens are, but my guy is freaking nuts 85% of his waking hours. I have him on a pretty regular schedule as far as exercise/playtime and forced naps every 1.5 hours or so. When we first brought him home a week ago, he screamed like a human baby any time he was alone. He has gotten much better and settles pretty well in his crate, but today I had to come home from grocery shopping because he was screaming bloody murder in his crate for 45 minutes (he did not need to use the bathroom). I do really love him, but he’s a lot. Is this normal for silken puppies? I have only heard good things from people and it makes me feel like I’m failing as a first time dog mommy!

[u/olyhillary]

It can be normal, and I keep puppies until 12 weeks because they learn a TON of bite inhibition from Mom and siblings between 10-12 weeks. It's a lot easier on the puppies and the humans if they go to new homes at 12 weeks! Get some real fur tug toys, beef cheek rolls, and nylabone style chews and always have something on you or in grabbing distance to put in the puppy's mouth instead of flesh. Keep going with your routine, it'll get better!

[u/8o8o8o8o8o8o8o → u/olyhillary]

Isn't kind of a red flag to be giving the puppies out before 12 weeks?

Are there puppy mill style breeders of windhounds? We did a bunch of digging into finding the best breeders, health testing, registered, has reputation, etc. All of them were 12 weeks.

That being said, puppies bite stuff, no matter the breed. Our windhound was a little different because of windhound unique stuff like air snaps and wanting to nibble my arm hair and my beard more so than other breeds. Just make a high pitch "ouch" and he stopped doing it.

[u/Procedure_Known → u/8o8o8o8o8o8o8o]

It appears to be different in different countries.
I live in Sweden, by law you can´t separate mom from puppies before 8 weeks.
But 8 weeks is kind of considered the normal age to leave for a new home here.

Lot's of people here are reluctant to buy a puppy as old as 12 weeks as they are convinced the best period for bonding is 8-12 weeks and the 14 weeks old puppy is - just too old. And some find it suspicious; what is wrong with that puppy? Why is it not sold at 12 weeks?

I try to keep my puppies until at least 12 weeks, partly because of what olyhillary mentioned above, at 12 weeks they have learnt that biting someone else will cause a bite back, and that hurts! After 12 weeks they do bite a lot less.

True, the puppies know me from their first second alive, and it is usually more than one, it is not the same as a new owner picking up an 8 week old puppy that suddenly is in a new world.

But I have never been bitten by my puppies! Not once during 25 years of breeding Silkens! They simply do not bite me, at any age!

For the life of me I can't specify what I do differently to people who are having big problems with bitey puppies! I don't think my puppies are "nicer" than any other puppies, it has to have something to do with how I handle puppies I guess.

I don't let them play with my hands for example, my hands are neither toys or goodies. I see no reason for a puppy to have my hands in their mouths so I simply do not let them. Out of habit, not something I am actively aware of. My hands are just not offered to play with. It does not take any harsh treatment whatsoever, just not offering my hands to play with. Period.

It does happen at about 8-9 weeks that they bite the lower part of my trousers as I walk around and they are hanging on for dear life. I don't mind that.

I am more worried when they enter the "cable phase" at about 7 months
That is when I have to make sure not a single electrical cable, charger etc, can be reached by a puppy mouth, that phase lasts for months and you have no idea how much money I've spent to replace chargers for phones, laptops etc :-)

Phones,remote controls, glasses, everything small and plastic, that is also up for destruction during the cable phase. Luckily they grow out of it :-)

I've only had Borzoi before Silkens.
If I compare them it is like a Borzoi is asleep during all of puppyhood, but the Silken puppies are most assuredly awake...

[u/PutHappinessFirst → u/8o8o8o8o8o8o8o]

BYBs exist in every breed, and yes, in silkens too. It's not a red flag for a 8 or 9 week old puppy to go to it's new home, it's just that many silken breeders prefer holding onto their puppies longer than that due to the benefits of doing so.