Playing with a puppy often means having your clothes, hands and other body parts nipped. This is normal. Puppies explore the world with their mouths in much the same way as children explore the world with their hands.
At around 16 weeks old, nipping can get worse from teething. So it’s really important to start dealing with biting as soon as you bring your puppy home.
Here are some ways to work towards teaching your puppy to understand how to properly use their mouth when interacting:
1. Teach bite inhibition
Bite inhibition is a dog’s ability to control the force of their jaw. A puppy or adult dog who hasn’t learned bite inhibition won’t recognize the sensitivity of human skin, and will bite hard even when playing.
The best way for puppies to learn bite inhibition is from playing with other dogs or puppies.
When a group of puppies play, there is a lot of biting involved. Inevitable, a pup may bite a playmate too hard, causing the playmate to yelp and sometimes stop playing. This is a teaching moment for the pup, who can see that their bite hurt their playmate and will learn to adjust.
By processing this real-time feedback, puppies learn to control the intensity of their bites so that no one gets hurt and the play can continue without interruption. In fact, some theorize that puppy teeth evolved to be so sharp so that they’d learn to use their mouths delicately during play before they get their stronger, less sharp, adult teeth.
The more appropriate puppy play your dog gets, the less they will try to treat your hands and feet like play things. If your puppy expends a lot of their energy playing with other puppies, they’ll feel less motivated to play roughly with you.
2. Turn biting into an off switch
Biting is usually a self-reinforcing activity; the more your dog bites, the better they’ll get at biting and the more they’ll enjoy it. Often, we inadvertently reinforce puppy biting by responding with noises and attention that your pup will interpret as rewarding behavior are likely interpreted as rewarding to your puppy.
For this reason, time-outs are a much more effective way to curb mouthing in puppies. Next time your puppy delivers a hard bite, try the following:
- Yip in your best imitation of a puppy squeal and then become extremely still for ten seconds.
- Put your head down, tuck your hands in your armpits, and be quiet. You can “awaken” again when your puppy takes a break or initiates a more appropriate type of play.
This is technically a form of punishment, as you’re trying to discourage a behavior from happening again by ending the fun and taking away your attention. As with any kind of punishment, it should only need to be used a handful of times in order to work. If you find you’re having to make a “yip” noise and then “turn off” time and time again, try doing it without making the noise, as the noise might actually be exciting and appealing to your dog.
3. Give good chew toys
Make sure your dog has plenty of great things to chew on, especially as they begin losing their teeth. Bully sticks and antlers are great for big chewers. Frozen carrots, ice cubes, and pig’s ears are also great alternatives for chew toys. Monitor chewing whenever possible, especially if your dog is chewing anything where a piece can possibly break off and get lodged in their throat or digestive tract.
4. Play games where your dog can use their mouth appropriately
Rather than wrestling or rough play with human hands, play non-contact activities with your pup, such as fetch and tug-of-war. Once your puppy can play tug safely, keep tug toys easily accessible. If your pup starts to mouth you, immediately redirect them to the tug toy. Ideally, they’ll start to anticipate and look for a toy when they feel like mouthing.
5. Keep your hands away from your puppy’s face
Even with bite training, if you have your hands all over your puppy’s face and you’re doing exciting things with them, guess what your puppy is going to do? Bite!
If your puppy is riled up while you are playing with them, you can feed small treats out of one hand while petting with another. If it’s too hard to give individual treats, you can use something like a LicketyStik, or make you hands into what we call “Hand Kong,” a fist tightly holding treats that your dog can just barely get to. This will help your puppy get used to being touched without mouthing.
6. Reward your dog for not interacting with hands near their face
You can teach your dog that good stuff happens when hands are near their mouth, but not if they touch them, by following these steps:
- Slowly bring one hand towards your dog’s face, then remove it before they begin to come at your hand with their mouth.
- Click and treat the moment that you stop moving your hand towards your dog.
- Continue this pattern, eventually working in the second hand so that your dog learns that two hands approaching is not an invitation to chew, but may result in a yummy treat.
As your dog gets better at this, you can up the criteria to the point where your dog is only rewarded if their mouth remains closed while you approach their head with your hands.
7. Associate your hands as ‘lick-able’ instead of ‘bite-able‘
In situations where you know your dog might be particularly mouthy– perhaps when you come home from a walk — put a small amount of butter or peanut butter on your hands. This will encourage your dog to lick your hands in these situations, rather than nibbling on them. Licking and biting are incompatible behaviors, so encouraging the former lowers the chance of your pup biting.
8. Encourage other fun mouth activities
Feed meals in a work to eat bowl. By challenging your dog at mealtimes, you’ll tire them out while doing something that is both appropriate involves using their mouth. After all, if your pup is chewing on a food toy, they can’t be chewing your sock!