When we got Pixel, our 2-yr old sable at a pet store, she was about 8-9 wks
old and teething like a champion.  After we'd selected her, she immediatly
started to chew on my husband, hard.  She continued to consider us humans
her chew toys.  She wasn't vicious, just chewing/biting WAY TOO HARD, often
leaving deep marks short of breaking the skin.  She also tended to chomp
down and *hang on* OUCH!!!
 
My husband discovered the training method that solved the problem quickly.
In short: BITE BACK!
 
Here's what we did: whenever she would bite one of us too hard, she'd get
scruffed and we'd bite her on one ear until she "cried uncle" or let out a
little yip.  At the same time, we'd say "no!" and "too hard!", followed by
15 min. of cage time.
 
This may sound a bit draconinan and dangerous, but it really isn't.  Ferrets
are tougher than they appear, especially their skin.  And we were biting
just hard enough to cause a little discomfort - getting her attention, so to
speak.  You may be afraid to get bitten on the lips or face while doing
this, but a properly scruffed ferret will go limp and be physically unable
to turn around and bite back.  She never even tried.  Still, if you're
afraid, you can use one hand to scruff the ferret and two fingers of the
other hand to *gently* keep the jaws closed.
 
This method worked quite well.  Pixel will still play-bite, a game we enjoy,
go after hand and feet when in the mood, but she *knows* just how hard she
can bite.  Sometimes she will test her limits, go lick, lick, lick, chomp,
CHOMP!!!  But these days all it takes is a stern warning of "NO!  TOO
HARD!!" and she will take off like greased lightning, daring us to follow
and scruff her.  We usually let her get away - if ferrets were 100% obedient
they would make for much duller pets.
 
We've recently tried to use this method on our 9-month old sable/blaze,
Benito, to discourage him from a particular annoying habit we've dubbed
"litterbox hellionating".  We have hardwood floors and the boxes sit in
corners on a couple layers of newspaper.  Benito considers these
arrangements neat toys, trying to pull the newspaper out from under the
boxes, moving the box all over th place, and worst of all, crawling in
between the layers of paper and moving the boxes by wedging his body under
them.  Short of nailing the boxes to the floor, we have yet to find a
solution to this problem.  Worst of all, Pixel seems to have learned this
"game" from him and is starting to do the same thing... sigh....
 
We've tried the ear-biting discipline on Benito with a stern warning "NO!
The Box is NOT a TOY!!" and cage time.  He will usually sulk for a few
minutes, but the punishment will do nothing to discourage him from doing it
again... He has, however, learned, to make a fast get-away once we catch him
at it, leading us on a merry chase to catch him, by which time it is too
late for effective punishment.
 
At least he's gotten somewhat better about still going *in* the boxes, even
after he's moved them.  He used to move the boxes and newspaper, *then* go
in the corner, which, of course, would encourage Pixel to do the same (and
she was 100% litter-box trained before Benito joined the family).
 
I'm just hoping that this behavior is still part of his youthful exuberance
and that, eventually, he will get bored, especially if we continue the
punishment.  But the ear-biting seems to make no difference over just
scruffing, scolding & cage time to correct the behavior, while ear-biting
worked great to train Pixel not to bite too hard.
 
Claudia
w/ Pixel & Benito
in Los Angeles
[Posted in FML issue 2013]