Litter of Puppies

[Literalleigh]

Hi there,

I just started fostering a litter of 4, 6 week old puppies for my local humane society. The problem with these pups is that they were not properly socialized with humans from the start and are having serious nipping problems, not out of aggression, but because they simply do not realize it hurts, even among each other they are not understanding the social cues of yelping as a sign of pain from the biting. I am in desperate need of learning to solve the problem with them while they are in a group, they really seem to like to pick on one person as a pack lol. And does anyone have any training tips for training multiple pups? I am going to do my absolute best to make these guys as adoptable as I can within the 2-4 weeks they are in my care. Thank you in advance!

Edit: I forgot to mention one of the puppies is blind (Her eyes are too small) she responds very well to noise, specifically when you say "pup, pup, pup" she comes running. I have never personally tried training a blind dog and I don't want to scare or startle her. But she is a bit of a bully and seems to have the hardest time picking up on what the vocalizations of her siblings means. Any suggestions on working with her specifically?

[luvcorgis]

Is the mother not with them? She will usually help them learn how to get along. They are young to be away from her. Allow them to work things out. Usually if one is playing too rough, the other one will stop playing with them. This is how they learn. Certainly, don't let them gang up on one. Perhaps remove the instigator from the group.
As for biting you. They need to learn bite inhibition. They're still a little young but try making a loud " ouch" when they bite too hard and stop playing with them. This might work best to do one at a time. You might Google "bite inhibition" for more. The verbal ouch should work also for the blind puppy. Good Luck!

[Literalleigh]

Unfortunately their mother was not brought in with them, so it's just me. They are doing well with each other, its biting people that is becoming a major issue, they gang up on people. Until I can get them to a dog trainer we will have to separate them during play time, one puppy biting me I can manage, 4 at once? Not so much lol.

[nawaz]

this is very nice post