This puppy is a jerk! Have you ever heard someone say this about their puppy? It’s no brainer, you might have said it many times about your puppy as well. Puppies have sharp teeth and they use them for biting from time to time just like your babies. Of course, your puppy doesn’t mean to intentionally hurt you, but a playful mouthing game can quickly turn into a painful activity. If your dog will be on the other end, you can imagine how much these bittings can hurt. That’s why it’s important to teach your puppy to stop biting, nipping or teething.
Before learning how to stop your puppy from biting, we should actually see why they actually tend to bite. Like human babies, puppies also like to explore their world by mouthing items. Whether it’s appropriate or not, whatever they encounter goes into their mouth. Plus, puppies also like to play tough, this involves a lot of mouthing and nipping. At first, it does not seem like a problem because they don’t have teeth, so biting doesn’t hurt. As soon as their milk teeth come in and they gain a little more strength, this activity which seems cute before turns into a painful experience. Pups can tolerate this painful biting as they have thick skin, but you as humans definitely can’t.
Anyhow, let’s learn some handy tips and tricks which can be used to keep playtime with your puppy fun, safe, and make sure nobody gets hurt.
Inhibit The Biting
The first thing you can do to change your puppy behavior is, let them know how much is too much. When you cuddle with puppies, mouthing is part of the game. Whenever puppy grabs onto your hand or finger, pretend your hand like a limp and make yelping sounds. After this behavior, ignore your dog for fifteen to 30 seconds.
Don’t pull your hand during a bite. This can alarm your puppy chase instinct and you might have a bigger problem to deal with. If yelping does not work, you can go one step ahead and make a substitute noise like “owl”, “ouch” or any other verbal voice.
If your puppy bites you for more than three times in 15 minutes, don’t repeat this yelping process again and again. And it’s time to stop playing with your puppy for a while. The goal of this whole exercise is to teach your puppy that it is okay to do mouthing without biting. First, inhibit the hard bites and then go for stopping moderate bites. Give a clear signal to your dog, gentle play continues, the rough play needs to stop.
Redirect
Another trick to teach your puppy that your hand or skin is not for biting is to pull your hand away before he tries to mouth you. Remember, you have to pull your hand away before the contact. You can provide a treat and wave around a chewy toy until he takes a bite at that. Also, teach your puppy “let go” or “leave it” command. You can do this by satisfying the puppy urge to mouth things without contact. Like fetch or tug of war, don’t let these games become aggressive. That’s why teaching your puppy “let go” or “leave it” command you can remove something from his mouth without being aggressive.
Distraction
Distraction is the best way to change anyone’s behaviors. Why not implement them on puppies. You can provide different chewy toys for nipping because puppies love to mouth around just out of curiosity. So provide them with interesting chewing toys for mouthing. Notice the destructiveness level of your puppy. If he shreds the toys in a few minutes, provide only rubber or hard plastic for distraction.
Arrange for playtime for your dog with other puppies regularly. Socializing will help in the process of teaching your biting too hard is not cool.
Deterrence
Another way to change the biting behavior is by discouraging it. There are products available, like bitter cherry, and no chew spray that is designed to prevent your puppy from nipping and licking by putting an unpleasant taste in their mouth. First, associate the smell and taste in your dog’s mind so that alone scent can keep them away whenever you will put them on unacceptable chewing targets.
Ankle Biters
Puppies tend to bite at people’s ankles or feet while walking. To stop this behavior, keep your puppy’s favorite toy in your pocket. When your puppy does bite or try to bite then wave that toy around to distract her. If you don’t have a toy in your pocket, stop moving when he bites, he will realize himself and will leave the latching.
The idea behind all of these tricks is to teach your puppy how to have fun without being hurtful. So that you can have more fun playtime without being annoyed.