Biting is most common in puppies when they are playing or teething. Puppy biting may seem fun and playful to your puppy, but if it is not remedied quickly it can become a big problem.
To understand how to stop your puppy nipping and biting, you first need to understand how undomesticated puppies learn how to control their bite. Undomesticated puppies learn how to control their bite from playing with other puppies. When puppies play with each other they bite each other everywhere. It is through this play biting that they learn how strong their bite is by seeing how other puppies react to them. Puppies yelp when another puppy bites them too hard. The sound of another puppy yelping lets a puppy know they have gone to far, and that if they bite that hard again they may lose a play partner. Because puppies learn how to control their bite by how other puppies react to their bite, it is best to take a similar approach when training your puppy to stop biting other people.
If you have a younger than 16 weeks, then it is very easy to rectify the problem. When your puppy tries to bite you simply say “No!” and give them a rubber toy to bite instead. It is important that you don’t try and pull your hands away as the puppy will take this as an invitation to play. If your puppy bites you, make sure your puppy thinks he is really hurting you by saying “ow, ow, ow!”. When your puppy stops biting you, then you can remove your hand and give him a plastic toy to bite instead. If your puppy tries to bite you again say “No!” and leave the room. The fear of losing a playmate is often enough to prevent a younger puppy from biting you again. What’s important here is consistency. You must ensure that you correct your puppy the same way each time.
If you have a puppy that is older than 16 weeks, then the problem can be harder to remedy. The first step is to stop any challenge games such as tug of war, wrestling with your puppy or chasing him. Your puppy is getting the wrong message from these games and thinks that they are a challenge to bite you. You must make it clear that any biting or nipping will not be tolerated and that his teeth should never some in contact with human skin. When your puppy nips or bites shout “NO!” loudly to startle your puppy. If your puppy bites you then you can use the same approach that is described above. It is important that you are much stricter about biting with older puppies.
Voice tonality is another important aspect of puppy training. When you are scolding your puppy you must ensure that you use a strict voice tonality, and when you are praising your puppy you use a positive tonality that is different to your regular voice tonality. Your puppy will begin to associate each tonality with their respective meanings.
It is important that you never hit your puppy when he bites you. Hitting your puppy will make your puppy lose respect for you, and you don’t want to train your puppy to fear you! Some guides suggest that you put your puppy in their crate if they bite you, but this simply causes your puppy to associate negativity with their crate and eventually your puppy will begin to resent it. You don’t want to use any techniques that will make other aspects of training your puppy harder.
When you think you trained your puppy to stop biting outside play you can begin playing challenge games with your puppy again. If he bites simply use the same approach that you used to prevent biting outside of play. If your puppy licks you instead of biting or nipping it is important to praise your puppy by saying “Good boy” or a similar praise. It is best to praise excessively the first few times so that the puppy associates good emotions with this kind of play. Again, it is best to use the same praise every time so that your puppy knows he has done something good when he hears “Good boy” or “Good dog” for example.
It can be hard to prevent biting sometimes, but if you use the tips above you will have no problem training your puppy. For step-by-step video instructions about how to train your puppy, check out the recommended product in the sidebar.
