Why does my puppy bite me? How can I stop it from biting me?
Puppy mouthing is 100% natural dog behavior. It’s not dominance. It’s not meanness. It’s a puppy being a puppy, roughhousing with parents and littermates or with human substitutes.
Bite inhibition training
Dogs have one defense—their teeth. Every dog can bite. If frightened enough, or in pain or threatened, your dog will bite. That doesn’t in any way make him a “bad” dog. It makes him a dog. It’s your responsibility, therefore, to teach your dog that humans are fragile. If you teach your dog bite inhibition, that training will carry over even if he’s later in a position where he feels forced to
All puppies like to play and wrestle and nip each other. When they come to live with people, they want to play in the same way. They don’t know that our skin is far more tender than their littermate’s fur—so sometimes those nips can hurt!
In the litter, mother dogs and littermates teach a puppy when he’s biting too hard. Mom gets up and leaves; littermates yip and stop playing. A puppy that has been taken from the litter too young, or that has no littermates, may be particularly nippy because it did not have a chance to learn ‘bite inhibition’ the natural way. Teething may also be a cause of nipping, as the puppy wants something in its mouth to chew on and will grab hold of anything at first.
If Puppy nips you …..gently hold the puppy’s collar with two hands. Thumbs behind under the collar… your hands are behind the ears. Surround your hands around the puppy’s next and hold gently until the puppy settled.
‘NO EYE CONTACT – NO TALKING DURING THE TIME OUT HOLD’ NB: Puppy may do an alligator roll or try harder to bite you. Remain calm
and firmly (but gently) with two hands hold the collar until the puppy settles down and Then begin slowly counting. Any signs of puppy struggling to get away from you or
puppy getting stiff. Start counting over again until you get the full count in with a
calmly sitting puppy.
Wait for the Puppy to get CALM
THEN….. count slowly and quietly to 3.
After 3 seconds of CALM. Remove one of your hands from the collar & neck
1. Pet the puppy under the chin-calmly
2. Give the puppy eye contact.
3. Purr: “Yes, Gooood! Puppy!
4. Pet around the mouth – slow and gentle. “Good….. puppy” Calm
PRO-ACTIVE MANAGEMENT OF NIPPING & BITING
Don’t let the puppy play with your hands or clothes. Simply stop the fun or gently hold the collar until the puppy quits trying to play tug on you or leave and then come back with something appropriate to play with or chew on. If biting always stops the fun, biting at hands and clothes will occur less often. Often this is enough to extinguish playful nipping, but probably not enough to extinguish nipping due to teething discomfort.
Have a safe and comfortable spot where you can leave the puppy when you cannot play with him or watch him; his kennel, an X pen with his bedding and some toys in it, or an area fenced off with baby gates. Nippy puppies go back to their own space for a while.
When the puppy grabs you or your clothing, stop moving. The movement seems like play to the dog. The fun is gone if you are still.
When the puppy grabs a hand or sweater, for example, disengage him gently by holding his collar until he lets go. Wait a 3 seconds. Then provide a suitable replacement—a chew toy—or play tug instead. Keep a couple of chewable replacements for your clothes and hands handy in each room where the puppy spends time. Ideas: tug toys, toys, soft knotted ropes, an old sock with a tennis ball in it, empty marrow bone. Rotate the chew toys.
Give your puppy something permissible to chew on, while you scratch his back and belly. This helps him to learn that some things are OK to chew on. Many puppies have learned in this way to grab a chew toy before they come over to you, as a way of telling you that they know what the rules for safe play are! Reinforce that with the scratching and rubbing they want!
**Play tug with your puppy See next week’s blog
