02/10/2025
As a dog professional, social media is such a wearing place to spend any time.
I read a post (I should have learned to not read these things!!) where someone was asking for recommendations for a dog trainer because their puppy bites. Which is a great thing to do (if they did indeed find a good dog trainer who knows what they are doing), because getting the right advice is important
Unfortunately, alongside recommendations for trainers, the replies were full of loads of really terrible (and UNSOLICITED! advice)
π One person had said that the puppy was trying to exert their dominance and that you need to not back down
π One person said to not exercise the puppy for more than 10 minutes per day
π Another person said that that breed will bite until they're about a year old
π Another person said that playing tug games is part of the problem
π Another person recommended spraying the puppy in the face with water (because "it doesn't hurt" π) each time they bite!
π© What do these snippets of advice have in common? None of them are correct! None of the people giving the advice had the full story. They just knew that a puppy was biting and thought they were the amazing expert with a magic fix
π Puppies bite because it's NORMAL! Puppies need the right amount and type of stimulation, enough sleep, a good diet, appropriate items to chew on, opportunities to use their mouth to explore, appropriate play, gentle handling (but not over-handling), help to calm down after excitement and careful introductions to all the things we do with them
β It's not about quick hints, tips and fixes
β It's not even about stopping the biting
βοΈ It's about providing for their overall needs
βοΈ When you get that right, things do get easier
Some puppies are more bitey than others and it's really helpful to have a puppy expert to help with this if you're finding it difficult
I'm seeing so much more poor advice on social media and my advice to anyone is to take everything with a pinch of salt π§
Even better....flush it down the toilet π½
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