[Blackrabbit]

So Hudson is 12 weeks old, in general he is very good and behaves well. However he can get very mouthy, barks, tries to bite sleeves and jeans etc when excited. We are trying to ignore and rewarding good behaviour, but its pretty hard with those teeth when he gets too much!. He sleeps in his crate at night in our bedroom, so we are time outing him in a play pen in the living room as we don't want to associate the crate with punishment. At the moment we are letting him stay in the pen until he has had a nap (not responding to crying etc)

Its been a long time since we had a puppy without an older dog to teach him. Is this the right thing to do, and is it just part of growing up?

 

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This is typical puppy behavior they will bite and put their mouths on everything. Redirecting his bad behavior will probably help get him some puppy approved chew toys Kong's are always good can have some treat put in them and exercise helps they get full of energy and the exited behavior wont be cured by more crate time he needs an outlet. He should not be allowed to bite on your body at all or pull on your clothes a firm NO and give him something of his to chew on not you!

 

[Lindar51]

Yes I feel you are doing the right thing. It is how we trained our boxer. He went to his crate often as a young puppy and slept in it at night. Our crate was in our busy kitchen area. At that age we redirected, but at times he became overly bitey. Then I would take him out for a potty , come in wait a minute and put him into his crate. That way he didn't associate the crate with anything other than it was time to settle down. He would sleep after those bitey sessions for a minimum of two hours. Like a toddler when they get over tired they mouth. Using the pen as you are should give you the same result.

 

[Matt74]

Sounds about right. I'm one who did the opposite of what everyone says and used my crate for everything. Time outs, sleeping, etc. I wouldn't recommend it, but it didn't affect my guy one way or the other. He looks at the crate as his hangout place and goes in by himself. If he is acting up when I have visitors, rarely happens now, all I say is "crate" and he goes right in. I guess if you have a sensitive dog, you should probably follow the majority opinion on how to use a crate, which is what it sounds like you are doing.