Puppy Biting Ian Dumbar

05.12 in biting, Dog, dumbar, ian, puppy

Puppy Biting is Normal, Natural, and Necessary!

Puppy biting seldom causes appreciable harm, but many bites are quite painful and elicit an appropriate reaction—a yelp and a pause in an otherwise extremely enjoyable play session. Thus, your puppy learns that his sharp teeth and weak jaws can hurt. Since your puppy enjoys play-fighting, he will begin to inhibit the force of his biting to keep the game going. Thus your puppy will learn to play-bite gently before he acquires the formidable teeth and strong jaws of an adolescent dog.


Forbidding a young puppy from biting altogether may offer immediate and temporary relief, but it is potentially dangerous because your puppy will not learn that his jaws can inflict pain. Consequently, if ever provoked or frightened as an adult, the resultant bite is likely to be painful and cause serious injury.
Certainly, puppy play-biting must be controlled, but only in a progressive and systematic manner. The puppy must be taught to inhibit the force of his bites, before puppy biting is forbidden altogether. Once your puppy has developed a soft mouth, there is plenty of time to inhibit the frequency of his now gentler mouthing.


Teaching your puppy to inhibit the force of his bites is a two-step process: first, teach the pup not to hurt you; and second, teach your pup not to exert any pressure at all when biting. Thus the puppys biting will become gentle mouthing.

Puppies bite. And thank goodness they do! Puppy play-fighting and play-biting are essential for your puppy to develop a soft mouth as an adult.

Teaching your puppy to inhibit the frequency of his mouthing is a two-step process: first, teach your puppy that whereas mouthing is OK, he must stop when requested; and second, teach your pup never to initiate mouthing unless requested.

No Pain

It is not necessary to hurt or frighten your pup to teach her that biting hurts. A simple "Ouch!" is sufficient. If your pup acknowledges your "ouch" and stops biting, praise her, lure her to sit (to reaffirm that you are in control), reward her with a liver treat, and then resume playing. If your pup ignores the "ouch" and continues biting, yelp "Owwwww!" and leave the room. Your puppy has lost her playmate. Return after a 30-second time-out and make up by lure-rewarding your puppy to come, sit, lie down, and calm down, before resuming play.

Do not attempt to take hold of your pup’s collar, or carry her to confinement; you are out of control and she will probably bite you again. Consequently, play with your puppy in a room where it is safe to leave her if she does not respond to your yelp. If she ignores you, she loses her playmate.

No Pressure

Once your pups biting no longer hurts, still pretend that it does. Greet harder nips with a yelp of pseudo-pain. Your puppy will soon get the idea: "Whooahh! These humans are soooo super- sensitive. Ill have to be much gentler when I bite them." The pressure of your puppys bites will progressively decrease until play-biting becomes play-mouthing.

Never allow your puppy to mouth human hair or clothing. Hair and clothing cannot feel. Allowing a puppy to mouth hair, scarves, shoelaces, trouser legs, or gloved hands, inadvertently trains the puppy to bite harder, extremely close to human flesh!

Should a dog ever bite as an adult, both the prognosis for rehabilitation and the fate of the dog are almost always decided by the severity of the injury, which is predetermined by the level of bite inhibition the dog acquired during puppyhood. The most important survival lesson for a puppy is to learn bites cause pain! Your puppy can only learn this lesson if he is allowed to play-bite other puppies and people, and if he receives appropriate feedback.

For more detailed information about bite-inhibition exercises, read our Preventing Aggression booklet and watch the SIRIUS Puppy Training and Biting DVDs. Both are available on-line from www.amazon.com. If you feel you are having any difficulty whatsoever teaching your puppy to play-bite gently, seek help immediately. To locate a Certified Pet Dog Trainer (CPDT) in your area, contact the Association of Pet Dog Trainers at 1-800 PET DOGS or www.apdt.com. 

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Children and Puppies Handling Chasing and Biting

02.38 in and, biting, chasing, children, Dog, handling, puppies

I have several clients right now with young puppies and young children.  It can be a precious mix, especially when the kids are just old enough to be helping feed, walk and train their new family member.  It can be an adorable, fun interaction. That is, until those kids are ready to burn off some energy and start racing around the house or yard with the puppy snapping after them like a furry little alligator. 

"How do we handle this?" the parents want to know.  It partly depends on the age and training level of the puppy, but in general, you begin with management and progress to training.  Thats to say, when the puppy is very young your best bet is to manage the situation.  As puppy grows training will play more and more of a role until management is no longer an important part of the picture.

So what is management versus training?  In the case of a puppy chasing, jumping on and biting at children who are playing wildly, management will start with the use of a crate.  When the children are playing quietly they should be taught how to interact properly around the puppy, but all kids have those times where they are over-the-top with energy - this is a time to put the puppy in its crate, along with a stuffed Kong or a safe chew toy.  Its just not fair to expect your children to change their behavior (they are truly being children after all), and its not fair to ask your puppy to ignore everything instinctual (running, chasing, tackling and biting that squealing human puppy).

As the puppy matures a little and gets some training, its time to move onto a new phase of management.  Instead of crating your puppy when the kids are being wild, try putting the puppy on a leash and allowing them to watch, but not join in, the craziness.  Try to keep your puppy busy with some easy obedience training (dont forget your treats and clicker), games or toys.  If puppy finds it too frustrating then he or she may not be quite ready to move beyond quiet time in the crate.

Once your puppy can handle things on leash, the next step is allowing the puppy to remain loose while the children play, closely supervised by you.  Use the time to practice some recalls (coming when called).  Give lots of praise for every successful recall - thats a tough exercise!  This is also a great opportunity to work on down-stay or "settle."

Keep things fun and positive, and remember, be sure to set your puppy up for success.  These first few months are setting the stage for the behavior and relationship you get with your puppy over the next 12 or more years.  Take the time to do it right and you will be rewarded many times over!

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Puppy Biting Emily Larlham

06.55 in biting, Dog, emily, larlham, puppy

This video is on how to stop your puppy biting you. 

The technique of clicking the absence of biting was shown to Emily by her mentor Kyle Rayon, who is one of the most amazing and innovative trainers, though she is very modest!

Dogs use their mouths to interact with their environment, so it is normal for a puppy to want to bite your hands or clothes. However in our society it is highly inappropriate. To train a puppy to stop using their mouth when interacting with humans is simple. All you have to do is set up training scenarios where your puppy would normally start biting and train an alternate response- calmly sitting, lying down, standing, or walking with a closed mouth. First you would start with the least arousing game- so simply just a reaching hand. As you reach, click or say "yes" and then feed a treat. As the puppy is successful you can progress to more and more arousing stimulus.

You should not allow your dog to be man handled or petted roughly. Petting should not only be rewarding for the human but for the dog as well. However at some point in your dogs life, someone might get to your dog before you can stop them and be overly rough. You can prepare your dog for these situations by playing training games. But when these situations do occur in real life, respect your dog, and get them out of the stressful situation. Do practice handling exercises for grooming as well as vet visits regularly...

Tips-

These exercises should only be done by ADULTS. As children can actually TEACH dogs to find mouthing and biting fun.

If you want to work with your child as the distraction, have your puppy with you on leash while you control all interactions. Making sure to end the game if the puppy is getting too aroused. 

(Once your puppy is good at these games you can also teach your child how to appropriately interact with your dog under your supervision. Miranda)

Put your puppy on leash and tether him to a door so that you can escape him if you make a mistake by progressing too quickly and elicit mouthing.

If your puppy starts mouthing you during the training games it means you have gone too far too quickly- go back a step and make the game easier.

Make sure your puppy can always back away from you, so they dont feel trapped or forced when being handled. This is because they could start learning to bite out of fear or stress.

If you have an adult dog or adolescent dog that is mouthy watch my Handling Shyness video.

If you must rough house with your dog- have a structured game where you hold a toy in each hand that the dog can bite. Never allow your dog to bite your hands when playing. If you feel teeth the game ends. Always have a cue to start and end the game, and never reinforce the dog for starting the game on his own.

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