Stop Your Puppy from Biting

August 24th, 2009 at 11:56am

I bet if you are reading this, you happen to have a new puppy with sharp little teeth who is fond of biting pretty much everything. Among the targets is the skin on your hands and feet, any loose shoes you haven’t put away, and well, I am sure you already know nothing is safe.Here are a few practical tips to help stop your puppy from biting and to make his chewing less of a problem.

Be sure to get some chew toys for your new puppy. Since your puppy is teething and definitely needs to bite something, these toys are great alternatives to your skin. As the puppy’s playing gets too rough, use your hand to hold is little mouth closed. You should keep his mouth closed until he becomes submissive and accepts your hand over his mouth without struggling. Your puppy won’t exactly enjoy his mouth being held shut, so soothe him with your voice while you hold him. Using a firm but calm voice, tell your puppy “no biting”. If he becomes nervous he’ll resist longer, so keep your voice calm but firm. The calmer he stays, the quicker he’ll become submissive. After be calms down and becomes submissive you should offer him a chew toy. Give him praise as soon as he starts to chew on the toy.Every time you play with the pup, repeat giving him the chew toy as needed and he will soon associate the praise-the positive reinforcement- with chewing on the approved chew toy.Stay patient and don’t get mad at your puppy for not learning quickly-it could take some time to get the idea across), and definitely be sure never to hit him for his playing rough and biting you. Hitting or scolding the pup is a negative reinforcement and will hurt your efforts to bond with the pup and slow down his ability to learn properly.For the best results, make sure the whole family knows to only use the positive reinforcement techniques. If some people are yelling or hitting the puppy when he play bites, this will undermine your own approach and cause the puppy to be confused.

Another good method for stopping your puppy from biting and chewing up your household, is keeping your puppy in his crate whenever you are not able to actively supervise him. If the puppy is allowed to wander the house without anyone watching he will surely attack his favorite targets. Always be sure to have some chew toys inside his crate for him to bite on while there.

Just use common sense to stop your puppy from biting easily findable items. For example, try keeping your shoes and slippers, etc. in a closed closet.

Borrow a trick form Mama dog to let the puppy know he is biting too hard. You can imitate her, by yelping with a very high pitched voice to let the puppy know he is biting too hard. It might sound silly, but if you watch a Mama dog, you’ll see she does this when a puppy is biting too hard-to let him know he is hurting her.

A more vigorous demonstration that you want him to stop biting is to hold his mouth shut with your hand and at the same time stare him in the eyes and give him a growl or snarl. Mama dogs will do this in order to get the message across very vividly to their puppies.

You might not want to get fur in your mouth like a Mama dog does to make your point, but you can certainly grab the scruff of his neck with your hand until he is submissive again to let him know that you are the boss. Stick with the correction until the puppy is totally submissive-that is how you will really know he’s received the message about listening to the boss-by being submissive and relaxed.

In order to discourage your puppy from biting, don’t play rough house games (such as tug of war and wrestling) with him. I always used to do both those rough games with my puppies, and consequently always used to have bloody hands and wrists and forearms. At the time I didn’t know better and was unaware that this was potentially a way to increase my puppy’s level of aggression.

Try out these tips to stop your puppy from biting you and your household. Please click here to see more great dog training tips www.BehaveDoggy.com.

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