Stop Your Puppy From Biting You!!
Even though we have covered this subject before I find that I’m still getting a lot of emails form 1st time owners of new puppies asking does the first blog I wrote relate to a puppy. In all honesty, it does. But there are some differences in training a adult dog and a puppy, let me explain.
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If you have a new puppy in your home you must have already noticed his passion for chewing and biting everything he can get his little mouth close to. Among the targets is the skin on your hands and feet, any loose shoes you haven’t put away, and well, I am sure you already know nothing is safe. I know from my own experience there is almost nothing they won’t stick in their mouths. You will need to save your flesh and household items from those little sharp and pointy teeth and the damage they can do. Besides teething, one reason puppies put things in their little mouths for a chew, is because this is a way for them to learn about their environment. They find something that smells interesting and start thinking, “Hmm, can I eat this? If it’s not so tasty, they next think it might at least be something they can play with. ” I won’t actually eat it, instead I will tear it to pieces”. Puppies bite often because their teeth bother them, but also because in nature the puppies of the pack play pretty rough with each other. You’ve probably seen how puppies play fight with each other, and it is just a part of how they grow up and learn social interactions. In a litter they learn naturally to control too much rough biting by interaction with Mama Dog and the other puppies. One way the Mama dog makes sure to keep her puppies from getting too crazy is by grabbing them by the scruff of the neck. She may also turn her back and ignore the offending puppy and she will sometimes bare her teeth and growl (a sure warning in dog language that even a young puppy clearly understands); she may grab the puppy by the scruff of the neck and shake him; or she may put her paw over the puppy and hold him down until he is submissive. Offer your puppy a chew toy to play with as a favorable option to your flesh. By utilizing a few common sense ideas based on the behavior of the Mama Dog you can find ways to curtail the problems caused by your puppy’s avid chewing.
I have listed a few good ideas for helping you deal with your puppy’s biting stage hope this helps
1. One of the first things to do is provide some chew toys to your puppy. He’s teething, so he’s going to have to bite something, and these chew toys are the perfect substitutes for your hands and feet. When you begin to play with your puppy, have the chew toy there and ready. As you start playing with your puppy and he gets too rough, stop him by placing your hand over his mouth to hold it shut. Hold his mouth closed with your hand until he stops resisting your grip. He may squirm around because he won’t like his mouth being held shut-so soothe him with a calm voice and hold him still with your other hand. Without raising your voice firmly tell him “no biting”. . If he becomes nervous he’ll resist longer, so keep your voice calm but firm. The calmer he stays, the quicker he’ll become submissive. Don’t remove your hand until the puppy has become submissive. Once he has become submissive and stopped struggling, it is time to remove your hand from his mouth, and offer him his chew toy as a wonderful substitute to human flesh. Get him to take the chew toy in his mouth, and then give him lots of praise and affection. Repeat this each time you play with the puppy and he will associate the positive reinforcement with chewing on the toy instead of you. The idea is that since he doesn’t get any praise for biting you (only a time out from playing with a big old hand over his little mouth) he will want to perform the action that gets him the praise and the toy, instead of the hand closing his mouth. this is a great example of how positive reinforcement theory works. Be patient with the training (it won’t change overnight), and definitely be sure never to hit him for his playing rough and biting you. This type of negative reinforcement will hurt you progress with training your puppy by undermining his trust and confidence in you. Everyone in your household needs to understand this, so you everyone treats the puppy’s behavior problems (such as how to stop your puppy from biting) with positive reinforcement. If some people are yelling or hitting the puppy when he play bites, this will undermine your own approach and cause the puppy to be confused.
2. A good way to prevent household damage when you can’t supervise your puppy’s activities directly is to keep him in his crate. By not either watching or confining your puppy to his crate, he most likely will be found chewing various items around the house. Always be sure to have some chew toys inside his crate for him to bite on while there.
3. Just use common sense to stop your puppy from biting easily findable items. For instance, it is a simple and easy idea to keep all your shoes behind a closed door. Keep the puppy in just one area of the house (if not in his crate), and the doors to anywhere else should remain shut.
4. Use another tip from Mama dog to stop your puppy from biting by letting your puppy know that his biting is hurting you. You can imitate her, by yelping with a very high pitched voice to let the puppy know he is biting too hard. It might sound silly, but if you watch a Mama dog, you’ll see she does this when a puppy is biting too hard-to let him know he is hurting her. It is likely the puppy will start his rough biting again shortly thereafter, so get ready to yelp some more. I have that when he is really biting hard, that combining the hand over the mouth with a snarl and staring into his eyes. sends a strong enough message that he will stop. Mama dogs will do this in order to get the message across very vividly to their puppies. Of course you probably won’t want to exactly imitate the Mama dog and get hair in your mouth, but use your hand to grab the scruff of his neck as a substitute. Remember, don’t stop the correction until the puppy is clearly submissive, and demonstrates that he knows you are in control.
5. In order to discourage your puppy from biting, don’t play roughhouse games (such as tug of war and wrestling) with him. I, for one, was always guilty of playing rough with my young puppies, and I had the scarred and scabbed hands and forearms to show for it. At the time I didn’t know better and was unaware that this was potentially a way to increase my puppy’s level of aggression.
Hopefully, these simple tips to save your skin and your household from your puppy’s inquisitive and busy teeth will prove helpful. Your puppy may need to chew to comfort his teeth for up to 2 years old in some cases, so be sure to correct the problem when he is a pup, to get it under control early on.
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