I had a unique experience with Stella, a chocolate lab, with leash biting. I have been successful every time with just telling the owner to ignore the behaviour and it will disappear. It never took more than 2 minutes to fix. Stella is a 13 month old dog that has very sharp teeth and as I am telling my client to just ignore the leash biting, I look down to see she has almost worked her way through the handle of the leash.
Time to switch gears and try something new. I brought the leash to her and every time she put in her mouth I moved back and put the leash out of reach. After about 6 times I came out and attached the bolt to her collar and when she took the leash in her mouth I removed the leash and put it out of her reach. After 6 times I said lets teach a few more things before we come back to this.
I taught Stella “Watch Me” and “Off” and then went right to the recall exercise which I use the leash to teach and when she put the leash in her mouth I said “Off” and she dropped the leash.
Sometimes our methods don’t work as planned and we have to quickly find another way that will work to accomplice the desired behaviour.