Biting Puppies

Puppies who bite are cute at first. They are wonderful when you first bring them  home. All is going well. They can become the stars of their  puppy kindergarten class. They can doing great with their housebreaking. There’s just one problem. Some puppies just won’t stop biting! What do you do?

Biting puppies have sharp little teeth. In nature they don’t have many ways to defend themselves at this age so their little teeth are very sharp. Their sharp little teeth also tell their mothers that it’s time to stop nursing because they can eat real food. Hopefully not your hand.

Puppies play bite with their brothers and sisters because they are preparing to be grown up dogs who might have to defend themselves. They are getting ready to be predators, if they were still wolf-like animals. However, biting puppies can become a problem when they are brought home and continue to treat you like their litter mates.

A puppy’s mother and litter mates would eventually teach the other puppies “bite inhibition.” This means, basically, that they would put them in their place. They would teach them  when they could and couldn’t bite somebody, and how much force to use. You’ll notice that when dogs play and wrestle that nobody gets hurt. Dogs have to learn how to play that way. When puppies are taken into a  home by their new owner, it becomes the new owner’s  job to teach him the rules. They have to finish teaching him “bite inhibition” so he won’t continue to bite you or play too rough.

So as you see biting puppies are truly treating you like you’re a littermate.  They are  biting you and rough housing with you the same way they would with one of their brothers or sisters. What a compliment! But, it produces problems in a relationship. As puppies get older they will bite harder and their play can become dangerous. For these reasons, and for the simple fact that biting puppies hurt, they have to be taught not to bite.

The most effective way to handle  biting puppies  is to cease all play with them when they  bite. If on the floor together, get up and leave. Ignore them for at least five minutes. Every time puppies bite someone’s  hand (or anything else) , all activity should be stopped with them completely. A “no” sound can be added when they bite as well. Some people growl. The activity should be stopped and the puppies should be ignored  for a few minutes.

Puppies want attention and they want to please. They may not understand what they did wrong. But they have been effectively called out when the behavior became too rough. Play can resumed  a few minutes later, but if the puppy biting starts again, stop it immediately. They will learn what they are doing wrong. This is the same thing that other  puppies or their mother would do. They will not play with puppies that are too rough. They get up and leave, just as was mentioned here.  If  playtime with the  puppies is stopped this way a few times over a couple of days they should stop the play biting behavior.

This is a good way to handle  biting puppies who are play biting. For adult dogs who are biting you may need to do other things to deal with that problem, including working with a professional trainer. But biting puppies are a common problem. Most puppies will play bite. It’s fun for them and they don’t know all the rules yet. For a puppy, play biting with people is merely an extension of playing and biting with their littermates. It’s not hard to teach them not to bite and the lesson should stick. It doesn’t mean they will grow up to bite people as adult dogs. You just need to stop the behavior when they are young puppies.