Dog Lovers

Puppy biting, together with nipping and mouthing is a natural and necessary behavior especially if he is in the teething stage. Such behavior though normal should be controlled while he still young otherwise as he becomes older he might move on to biting humans.

Puppyhood is the perfect time for dog owners to learn how to stop a puppy from biting. This is because it’s easier to train a puppy than to train an older more mature dog.

But how can this be achieved when biting together with nipping and mouthing are part of dog play, is how they explore the world, or because they are teething? Isn’t it going against their nature for us to learn how to stop a puppy from biting?

On the contrary it’s not going against their nature; we are actually training them to become good dogs in the future. If you don’t learn how to stop puppy from biting, nipping, and mouthing, he will interpret this as tolerating his habits and later on when your puppy becomes an adult dog he might find that his toys, leash, clothing, shoes, furniture are not enough anymore thus he starts biting people which is very alarming.

Puppies who were adopted before 8 weeks are usually the ones who exhibit excessive biting, nipping, and mouthing habits. This is because this 8 week period is a time when he learns how to socialize and how to control his bite so as not to inflict pain from his litter mates and adult dogs.

However, all is not late because there are steps for dog owners to learn how to stop a puppy from biting and enforce obedience on his puppy.

1. Act like an injured puppy when the puppy bites. when he starts to bite, nip, or mouth, act like an injured puppy by giving a loud “Ouch” that will startle him, then glare at him, then walk away. This is how you teach Puppy that biting hurts.

2. Ignore Puppy for a few minutes after the biting, nipping, or mouthing occurred. This is how you teach Puppy that when he does something inappropriate playtime stops moreover this is how you make Puppy understand that all forms of biting is unacceptable and thus will not get your attention.

3. Be persistent by repeating this action every time he starts biting, nipping, or mouthing until his bites become softer and softer. When you are trying to learn how to stop a puppy from biting you will tend to become soft because let’s face it when he looks at you with those puppy eyes you melt like ice cream under the sun.

However, this is really how you mimic what goes on in an actual litter of puppies during the puppy socialization stage when he starts playing with his brothers, sisters, or his parents.

4. Don’t play the following games : tug of war or wrestling games as this encourages more biting, nipping, or mouthing because Puppy thinks you are playing games.

5. Positively reinforce Puppy’s good behavior by praising him such as “Good dog, good dog” and petting him at the same time. Another idea is for you to give him his favorite treat.

This is assuring him that you still love him it’s just that he has this bad behavior that you need to correct. Now you are educated in puppy care in terms of how to stop a puppy from biting and is teaching him that good behavior merits good rewards.