new foundland biting

[kereru]

hey,
we have a 4 month old newfoundland pup. hes learns very quickly and is very good at sit, stay, down etc, but he loves to bite, we ve tried giving loud yelps, ignoring him, this only seems to encourage him, we put him in time out but this hasnt curbed it,
some sites say you should hold their mouths shut and count to 15 while saying "no bite!" but hes the size of a labrador now so if you try anything like that it turns into quite a struggle, and i dont want to end up reinforcing that this is an ok way to interect with us.
i just keep thinking how big hes going to be (his mum was 70kg) we cant afford to have a dog that big play biting.
and im really stumped, it feels like nothing is working,
any ideas?

[insidepockets]

if he has good bite inhibition (a soft mouth) then you could put mouthing on cue and then allow him to do it ONLY when you ask. The thought with that being that he obviously wants to mouth so that would be a good reward for Not mouthing. I would try all else first though, putting a unwanted behavior on cue can backfire. Also, don't even try this unless he has excellent bite inhibition.

Make sure you are always encouraging him to chew appropriate things. Mouthing is very normal puppy behavior and tends to go away on it's own as they mature. Just make sure you aren't reinforcing inappropriate mouthing. Ever.