How To Stop My Puppy From Biting In 3 Easy Ways
I must prove a vital point to every dog owner who raises a puppy on how to stop a puppy from biting/mouthing.
Puppy biting and mouthiness are two of the most frequent problems we see inadequate dog training advice given for, so we’re going to give you the most standardized professional advice we can for this problem.
There’s a good reason why it’s frowned upon for amateurs to provide online strangers with legal or medical advice.
Although prohibiting a young puppy from biting may provide quick relief, it could be harmful because your puppy won’t understand that his jaws can cause pain. As a result, the bite that results if provoked or startled as an adult is likely to be painful and result in serious injury.
RELATED POST:HOW TO INTRODUCE A KITTEN TO A DOG
Once your puppy has been taught to mouth gently, it is then time to reduce the frequency of mouthing. Your pup must learn that mouthing is okay, but she must stop when requested. Why? Because it is inconvenient to drink a cup of tea or to answer the telephone with fifty pounds of wriggling pup dangling from your wrist. That’s why!
Undoubtedly, puppy play-biting needs to be stopped, but only in a methodical and gradual way. Before puppy biting is outlawed completely, the dog needs to learn to reduce the force of his bites. There is plenty of time to limit how frequently your puppy mouths once he has acquired a soft mouth.
1. Teach your puppy the “off”
It is better to first teach “Off” using food as both a distraction and a reward. The deal is this: Once I say, “Off,” if you don’t touch the food treat in my hand for just one second, I’ll say “Take it” and you can have it.
Once your pup has mastered this simple task, up the ante to two or three seconds of non-contact, and then to five, eight, twelve, twenty, and so on. Count out the seconds and praise the dog with each second: “Good Dog One, Good Dog Two, Good Dog Three,” and so forth. If the pup touches the treat before you are ready to give it, simply start the count from zero again.
Your pup quickly learns that once you say, “Off,” she cannot have the treat until she has not touched it, for say – eight seconds, so the quickest way to get the treat is not to touch it for the first eight seconds. In addition, regular hand-feeding during this exercise encourages your pup’s soft mouth.
2. Say “No Bite”
If ever your pup refuses to release your hand when requested, say “No Bite!” rapidly extricate your hand from her mouth, and storm out of the room mumbling, “Right. That’s done it! You’ve ruined it! Finished! Over! No more!” and shut the door.
Give the pup a couple of minutes on her own and then go back to call her to come and sit and make up before continuing the mouthing game. By the time your pup is five months old she must have a mouth as soft as a fourteen-year-old aging dog.
3. Don’t allow Pressure
Once your pup’s 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: “Whoah! These humans are so super-sensitive.
I’ll have to be much gentler when I bite them.” The pressure of your puppy’s 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!
Too Much Stress Can Cause A puppy To Bite
Even the gentlest, most loving dog can be induced to bite. Dogs’ teeth are important tools, and every dog is aware of their potential use as offensive or defensive weapons.
Every dog has a bite threshold (a point beyond which, if pushed, he will bite). Some dogs’ bite thresholds are low; some are high. Aggression is caused by stress.
Each thing that causes a dog stress is a small building block toward that dog’s bite threshold. The lower a particular dog’s bite threshold is and the more things that cause that dog stress, the more likely he is to bite.
The four common dog stressors are small children under age 4; thunder; men with beards; and moderate to severe pain.
Conclusion(how to stop my puppy from biting)
The severity of the injury, which is established by the level of bite inhibition, the dog learned during puppyhood, nearly always determines both the prognosis for rehabilitation and the fate of the dog should it ever bite as an adult. The most crucial survival lesson for a puppy is to understand that bites hurt. Only if your dog is allowed to play-bite people and other puppies and is given constructive criticism will he be able to acquire this lesson.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this article. Kindly ensure you leave a comment below on your take on how to stop my puppy from biting you can also follow us on Facebook @resourcesmadeeasy for pets.
If you are willing to gift us anything from your heart, kindly share this article or contact us if you need more educational articles regarding this topic.