Training your puppy – eliminating biting behaviors

Bringing home a new puppy is always an exciting time.
Introducing the new puppy to the family should be fun for both
yourself and your puppy. One of the first challenges, however,
to the excitement of the new puppy, is curbing inappropriate
puppy behaviors.

Preventing biting and mouthing Biting and mouthing is a common
activity for many young puppies and dogs. Puppies naturally bite
and mouth each other when playing with siblings, and they extend
this behavior to their human companions. While other puppies
have thick skin, however, humans do not, so it is important to
teach your puppy what is appropriate, and what is not, when it
comes to using those sharp teeth.

The first part of training the puppy is to inhibit the biting
reflex. Biting might be cute and harmless with a 5 pound puppy,
but it is neither cute nor harmless when that dog has grown to
adulthood. Therefore, puppies should be taught to control their
bit before they reach the age of four months. Puppies normally
learn to inhibit their bite from their mothers and their
littermates, but since they are taken away from their mothers so
young, many never learn this important lesson. It is therefore
up to the humans in the puppy’s life to teach this lesson.

One great way to inhibit the biting reflex is to allow the puppy
to play and socialize with other puppies and socialized older
dogs. Puppies love to tumble, roll and play with each other, and
when puppies play they bite each other constantly. This is the
best way for puppies to learn to control themselves when they
bite. If one puppy becomes too rough when playing, the rest of
the group will punish him for that inappropriate behavior.
Through this type of socialization, the puppy will learn to
control his biting reflex.

Proper socialization has other benefits as well, including
teaching the dog to not be fearful of other dogs, and to work
off their excess energy. Puppies that are allowed to play with
other puppies learn important socialization skills generally
learn to become better members of their human family. Puppies
that get less socialization can be more destructive, more
hyperactive and exhibit other problem behaviors.

In addition, lack of socialization in puppies often causes
fearful and aggressive behaviors to develop. Dogs often react
aggressively to new situations, especially if they are not
properly socialized. In order for a dog to become a member of
the community as well as the household, it should be socialized
to other people, especially children. Dogs make a distinction
between their owners and other people, and between children and
adults. It is important, therefore, to introduce the puppy to
both children and adults.

The best time to socialize a puppy to young children is when it
is still very young, generally when it is four months old or
younger. One reason for this is that mothers of young children
may be understandably reluctant to allow their children to
approach large dogs or older puppies. This is especially true
with large breed dogs, or with breeds of dogs that have a
reputation for aggressive behavior.

Using trust to prevent biting Teaching your puppy to trust and
respect you is a very effective way to prevent biting. Gaining
the trust and respect of your dog is the basis for all dog
training, and for correcting problem behaviors.

It is important to never hit or slap the puppy, either during
training or any other time. Physical punishment is the surest
way to erode the trust and respect that must form the basis of
an effective training program. Reprimanding a dog will not stop
him from biting – it will simply scare and confuse him.

Training a puppy not to bite is a vital part of any puppy
training program. Biting behaviors that are not corrected will
only get worse, and what seemed like harmless behavior in a
puppy can quickly escalate to dangerous, destructive behavior in
an adult dog.