It’s always exciting to bring a puppy into your home. They are cute, adorable bundles of joy. However, many people don’t realise how much puppies use their mouths. A widespread question is, how do I get my puppy to stop biting?
1. Understand Why Puppies Bite
The first step is to understand why puppies bite. Puppies mouth/bite everything and everyone. It’s how they explore their environment. When a puppy bites, it’s not aggressive. It’s communicating to get your attention—usually to initiate play, investigate its world, boredom, overtiredness, hunger, or teething.
The good news is that most puppies outgrow the nipping and biting stage by 4 or 5 months. Unless they have the biting behaviour accidentally reinforced, a puppy will engage in a behaviour to meet a need. If the behaviour (appropriate or inappropriate) elicits the desired response, the puppy will repeat the behaviour.
For example, the puppy nips to get your attention, and you give attention (good or bad). The puppy has learned that nipping receives the attention it wants.
When you understand why your puppy is nipping or biting, it will be easier to change the behaviour. Some breeds are mouthier than others and more prone to nipping. For example, herding breeds nip when herding, and providing an outlet for this breed will go a long way to preventing nipping you, children, and others.
Working breeds tend to have more energy to burn and can be mouthier. Ensuring plenty of exercise and mental stimulation can redirect the energy from mouthing to appropriate play. Enrichment activities will have a massive positive effect.
Likewise, breeds with high prey drive will often chase and bite moving hands, feet and loose clothing. My husky was lethal for going after the bottom of my daughter’s pj bottoms. She had many little ‘Luna love bite holes’ around the cuffs. A flirt pole is an ideal alternative to teach your puppy appropriate things to chase, bite and chew while honing their hunting skills!
You will pick up when your puppy is most mouthy and when it is getting overtired or overexcited. This will help you prepare to redirect the little land shark to something more appropriate to chew, such as a toy or a chew.
Bite Inhibition
If a puppy has been removed from its mother and siblings too soon, it is unlikely that it has learned bite inhibition.
Bite inhibition is learned by playing with its siblings and the mother; the puppies learn what bite pressure is acceptable. Biting too hard when feeding will cause the mother to stand up and take the food with her. Biting a littermate too hard will stop the fun game. The puppy learns to use less pressure in each instance.
In the UK, it is usual practice for the puppies to stay with their mother until they are 12 weeks old. By this time, they have learned bite inhibition and other social skills.
That being said, a 12-week-old puppy will still be mouthy. Puppies are usually teething between 3 and 4 months old. The puppy’s teeth are very sharp, so mouthing or biting will hurt. The good news is that you can teach your puppy more acceptable ways to get your attention or acceptable items to chew when they are teething.
2. Remove The Inappropriate Chew Item
The most effective way to stop inappropriate nipping is to remove your fingers, hands or feet from the puppy as soon as it puts its mouth on you. It’s helpful to have appropriate chew toys to hand to the puppy immediately.
If your puppy nips you again (after being given the toy), remove your hand and turn away from the puppy. By removing the attention, your puppy will quickly realise that nipping doesn’t get what it wants.
Yelping may excite the puppy because it will make the puppy think it’s a game. It can be difficult not to yelp because those little teeth are needle-sharp. If you yelp, turn or move away from your puppy so it knows it is not a game.
For persistent nippers, you may have to remove yourself from the room for a few seconds (no longer than this, or the puppy won’t understand the consequence of the nipping). My youngest daughter had to do this with Luna. After a couple of days, Luna realised that nipping my daughter had caused the fun games to stop.
3. Use A Toy or Chew To Redirect
Having lots of toys and chews around to give to your puppy when they try to nip or chew on you will teach them that there are more fun and interesting things to chew on. Having toys and chews with different textures will be exciting and enriching for your puppy to explore.
You will soon find out which one is your puppy’s favourite, and this can be used to further redirect your puppy from nibbling on you. You are preventing the nipping and biting from becoming a habit for your puppy.
4. Eat, Sleep, Play and Repeat
Humans aren’t the only ones who can get hangry; puppies can get grumpy and nippy when hungry. Puppies only have small stomachs and will need several small meals throughout the day. Keep the meals regular to ensure your puppy doesn’t start to feel hungry.
Puppies need a lot of sleep, but like babies and toddlers, they don’t always want to rest. Ensuring your puppy has regular naps in a quiet area throughout the day is essential. And they should never be disturbed when they are sleeping. Overtired puppies can get very mouthy and will express this through nipping.
Puppies have a lot of energy to burn off. Boredom and frustration will often be seen as chewing and nipping. Take your puppy for sniffy walks, play fetch, play a gentle tug, and do some fun training games. The more physical and mental stimulation your puppy has, the less boredom and frustration nipping will occur.
Having a good routine helps your puppy know what’s coming next. Breakfast, outside for the toilet and a little play or a walk, 5 minutes of fun training games, in for a nap. And repeat. When a puppy’s needs are being met, it reduces the need for nipping and chewing as much. You can encourage your puppy to relax and have some downtime by providing a chew or Kong in a quiet area or their crate.
5. Reinforce Good Choices
When you remove your hands, feet, or yourself from your puppy when it nips, it will try other tactics to get your attention or get you to play. It is trying to figure out what works to get what it needs.
When Luna realised that nipping didn’t get her what she wanted, she placed herself in front of my daughter for attention or would gently nudge her. We liked this behaviour, so lots of praise reinforced it, followed by a game or belly rubs—usually a game followed by belly rubs.
Luna is almost 8 but will stand beside me at my desk when she wants attention. I still reinforce this by praising her and giving belly rubs.
You can also help shape your puppy’s behaviour by being proactive. When you see your puppy heading towards you in land-shark mode, you can redirect the puppy by asking them to do something they already know how to do, such as sit, touch or fetch.
Using a portion of your puppy’s food allowance as a reward allows you to reinforce them by following your cues and getting out of the habit of nipping you for attention. A favourite toy can be used to get your puppy to fetch or play tug.
Teething is the same for puppies as for babies and toddlers; they chew to ease the discomfort in their mouths. Providing appropriate teething chews for your puppy will go a long way toward stopping them from chewing on you or anyone else in your home.
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