15/08/2024
Extremely sound advice
Teaching a puppy not to bite is largely a function of how you interact with the puppy.
If you’ve been playing with the puppy for an hour; it’s your fault! If you’ve been rolling around on the floor with the puppy; it’s your fault! If you’re playing crazy games with the puppy; it’s your fault! You really should limit the type of interactions you have with your puppy. You can’t play wild games with your puppy & expect them not to bite you!
Of course, you do need to play with your puppy, but the games need to be structured interactions where the puppy is learning to play in a calm & gentle way. Using a toy as an intermediary so the puppy isn’t biting your hand is very helpful.
Never dangle your hands in front of the puppy’s face or tease the puppy with your hands. You’re asking the puppy to bite you if you do!
Calmness is a behaviour that needs to be trained. The calmer the interactions you have with your puppy, the more likely your puppy is going to be calm with you. AND ….. the less your puppy will bite you.
There is no reason why you have to be bitten by a puppy. You have opposable thumbs & a big brain. Just pick the puppy up, point the biting part away from you & put them down.
A puppy is a biting machine & they will grab anything in their line of fire. IF YOU PRESENT YOUR HAND TO YOUR PUPPY IT’S GOING TO GET BITTEN. Holding the puppy & moving your hands out of the way will keep your hands safe. Keep regripping the puppy as your hands need to move to avoid teeth & give calming massages. Eventually the puppy will give up trying to bite you.
It’s not so much a matter of correcting or preventing biting as avoiding it.
Motion is a strong cue for the puppy to bite. If you’re walking or running & the puppy starts to bite you, stop moving. Often that is enough to stop biting. If you walk with your puppy with food in your hand you can reward them for walking along beside you & not biting you. Praise when the puppy is walking with you & not biting is effective too. This is training your puppy (as opposed to managing).
If you find that most of the biting takes place 30 minutes before you put the puppy away for a nap, you should monitor the situation & put them away for a nap just before that 30-minutes is up. Puppies tend to get overamped & when they get overamped they bite.
Often the puppy will not bite the adults in the house but will bite the children. Puppies DO NOT bite children because they are being dominant over children. The definition of dominance is being in control of resources. Until your puppy gets a job, drives to the shop & buys some food, they are not dominant over anyone in the household. Children have more control over resources than dogs. They can open a cupboard or fridge & access food. A dog can’t.
What is really happening is that the child is interacting with the puppy in an excited way & when the puppy bites the child, the child has a very high-pitched squealing, jumping reaction which is extremely reinforcing to the puppy biting behaviour. The puppy loves that. It’s exciting! The puppy & child can get in a behavioural loop in that the puppy will bite the child more & the child screams more & so on. It’s a hard cycle to break. You must carefully monitor the interactions between the child & the puppy to make sure there are lots of calm interactions, so the puppy learns to be calm around children.
Yelping or saying ouch in a high-pitched voice may help, but I think it could also contribute to further puppy excitement. I'm not a fan.
If the puppy is crazy biting your ankles or legs it’s ok to pick the puppy up, point its teeth away from you & carry it off to its pen for time out. This is managing the situation.
It is necessary to manage the puppy with children or non-dog-savvy visitors. Sometimes it’s necessary to put the puppy away in situations where you can’t manage their biting.
You may not be able to play the kinds of games that you might find fun with the puppy.
The good news is that if you can manage the interactions for a month or two, the puppy is going to grow out of biting.