How To Stop Puppy Biting And Mouthing

You love your new puppy and the two of you are having a lot of fun together, but the biting hurts! How do you stop puppy biting?

Puppies And Their World

Puppies, like human babies, explore their world with their mouths. A baby will put everything in his mouth, and so do puppies.

Puppies spend a lot of time playing, chewing and investigating their environment. All of these things are a normal part of their development and all involve using their mouths. Often, puppies will chew, bite, and/or nip on peoples hands, and clothing. This may seem cute when they are puppies, but it’s not at all cute when they are adult dogs. It’s best to stop the puppy biting right away.

What’s A Person To Do?

It’s important to teach your dog when they are puppies not to bite, or it will be much more difficult to correct this behavior as they get older. One thing you need to teach them is that people have very sensitive skin and biting people is absolutely unacceptable behavior.

Learning Bite Inhibition

Generally, puppies learn bite inhibition when they are still with their mother and litter mates. When a puppy is playing with a sibling and he or she yelps when he bites down too hard, the puppy learns that it hurts and they learn to play bite with less force. Many behaviorists believe that if a puppy is taught to be gentle when he uses his mouth he will be less likely to break skin if he should bite later in life from fright or pain.

When you play with your puppy, let him mouth on your hands (that’s just part of dog play), but, when he bites hard try letting your hand go limp. This will probably startle him into stopping. Or do as his puppy siblings did and let out a yelp!

If this doesn’t work, then just stop the play, say “too hard” in a firm voice and walk away. If you do this consistently every time he bites too hard, he will get the idea that biting down hard is unacceptable behavior pretty quickly.

Next, Teach Your Dog That Teeth Are Not Allowed on Human Skin

• Substitute a toy or a chew bone when your puppy tries to gnaw on fingers.
• If he begins to mouth when you are stroking or petting him. Stop the petting immediately and just freeze. The minute he stops mouthing, give him lots of praise.
• Never yell, scream, or hit your dog for any reason. Always praise for good behavior, don’t punish for bad behavior.
• The best “punishment” for bad behavior is to stop whatever gives him pleasure. Whether it’s playing, petting or even just your attention. Timing is important, stop it immediately, so he understands that the behavior means no more fun or pleasure.
• Provide plenty of toys and sometimes swap them out, so he doesn’t get bored with the same ones.

TIP: If you don’t want your puppy to chew on your shoes, don’t buy toys that resemble shoes, purses or other human objects that are “off limits”. Your puppy won’t know the difference between “okay” objects or “off limits” objects.

Be sure to see our series on “How To Train Your Dog”