Ask a dog mom

[Mister Agenda]

My Aussiedoodle Finnegan is about nine or ten months. He used to be very nippy and has gotten better, but he still gets fits where he's excited and nips at hands and jumpt up to nip at our faces. Not hard (he drew blood a few times when younger), but sometimes it hurts and it's hard to discourage him and calm him down. We've tried pointedly denying him attention. It's usually in the evening when we're all sitting in the media room and I figure he's bored and wants attention, but he doesn't have to choose violence to get it, y'know?

Any suggestions on getting him to improve on this? He's smart and picks up tricks easily, but he's hard to train off problem behavior.