Puppy Biting
Get it Under Control!

It is important to get puppy biting under control while your pup is young. Unchecked, innocent dog biting and dog licking can lead to full-fledged dog aggression. Here's how to prevent a biting problem before it gets started...

Photo by Mike Haw, Hyattsville, MD

Dog biting is a natural instinct. But dog biting, left unchecked, can become a major problem in your adult dog.

The good news is that you can easily learn why your puppy bites and how to get his biting problem under control!

Photo by Jeremy Duff, Columbus, OH

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Dog Biting is a Natural Defense

And your pet, in his early days and weeks learned some of the “wild behaviors” of his ancestors.

When your puppy was 3-7 weeks old, he learned that there are certain acceptable ways of dominating the “pack”—or, at this age, his brothers and sisters.

One of the ways that this is done is by puppy biting. Dominant members of the pack are the biters. Submissive members let the others bite them!

The puppy pack leader emerges as the one who does the most biting. Rough and tumble events eventually get rougher and rougher.

Later, the pack leader won’t have to bite as much—a growl here and there will get everyone’s attention. And keep everyone in his place.

While biting activity for wild dogs is normal, it is absolutely not acceptable for your family pet. It puts your family, neighbors and friends at risk—and your pet’s life may be endangered because dogs who bite people are often euthanized.

It is important to understand that your puppy is not playing when he nips or bites a family member. When he is mouthing your arm and hands, he does not consider this to be a game.

Photo by Doug, Old Sarge/flckr

Your puppy is testing a fellow pack member to see just how far he can push you. He’s testing the water to see who the

You see, while you think of him as “family member”, he thinks of you as an “odd dog”, but still a member of his “pack”. And, he plays by pack rules. Individual members must vie for the leadership position by using force.

It is critical that you take control and show him that you are the leader of your pack. Your puppy must understand that biting the pack leader always results in a firm correction and that you, not he, are in charge.

How to Prevent Puppy Biting

In order to do this, we need to make sure that we are not encouraging—although innocently—the very behavior that we are trying to stop!

• Don’t Rough House with Your Puppy This is not a constructive way to use excess energy. For your dog, this is a contest. Every contest is for leadership.

  And remember, the dog who bites the most emerges as leader.

• Don’t Play Tug of War with your Puppy Again, this is a contest for your dog, and it is very similar to the physical contests that a wolf faces in the wild. Your dog will not want to give in.

  You may choose to quit, so that you don’t hurt your puppy. And you know that you could beat him.

  But, guess what? Your puppy now believes that he has won! He will feel that he can act dominant over you and challenge you.

  As time goes on, simple challenges can lead to jumping up on you, humping, ignoring commands, aggressive growling, biting, or even an attack on you or someone else.

• Do Not Give Your Puppy Family Clothing to Chew Unfortunately this teaches your pup that it is OK to chew on clothing—whether it has a human occupant or not!

• Do Not Reward Any Kind of Oral Activity This includes licking. Puppies are very oral fixated, and one little lick can lead to several. Several licks can lead to little nips and pretty soon your puppy is nipping away—at you!

  You want to stop this puppy licking and puppy biting--while the activity is still fairly innocent.
  
  

  

  Photo by Steve Pollock, Brentwood, CA
  
  

  Do not reward the licking/nipping activity in any way. Don’t talk to your dog, pet him or even give him eye contact while he is engaging in this behavior.

Dogs with Puppy Biting Problems

Most often, they are pretty enmeshed with their owners. This means that there aren't any boundaries. No one is in charge!

You’ve seen it. If the puppy bites the owner’s hand, he unconsciously (it seems) then pets the puppy. It's almost a nervous thing--the owner doesn't know how to get the dog to stop his nipping, so he pets the dog to distract him and ends up rewarding and reinforcing the behavior.

Puppies with biting problems tend to:

• Start biting when they are young

• Be petted excessively around the face or head. You should avoid touching your pup around the head or face for the first 6 months. I know this sounds odd, because we are used to “petting” dogs on the head.

  But, petting in these areas actually turns on the “pack” button for your pet and encourages him to engage in oral activity—licking and biting. As your dog matures, this becomes much less of a problem.

• Play tug of war with one or more family members.

• Be allowed to chew on family members’ clothing.

• Lack sufficient aerobic exercise. If you help your puppy use up all that excess energy, your pup will be more likely to lie down next to your feet than to challenge you to a fight!

• Be given attention that rewards the behavior.

• Not have enough toys that they are allowed to chew.

• Be disciplined by hitting or swatting around the face.

• Be isolated from their pack, the family. This could be because everyone is at work or school all day and the puppy sleeps in a room away from the family.

The most important of these suggestions are having chew toys available and getting daily exercise. If you take these two steps, you will be well on the way to curbing any dog biting issues.

How to Correct Puppy Biting

At the very first nip or little bite, the best thing to do is startle your dog. You can speak sternly saying “no”, rattle a soda can filled with coins or gravel, or even squirt your dog with water. The idea is to startle him and tell him “no”.

Give your dog about a minute, and, if he is quiet, sitting, lying down or otherwise appropriate praise him for his quiet activity. Use words like “good quiet” so that he understands that you are happy with him. You can reinforce your pleasure at this point by petting your puppy on the chest or stomach.

At this time you can also give him a bone, chew rope or other toy that he is allowed to chew.

It is important that you don’t give him the toy while he is biting or immediately after you correct him, or it will be confusing to him. He will think that he is being rewarded for biting!

Get Everyone Involved

Your dog needs to learn that he must listen to all members of the family, not just one. Otherwise, he’ll just learn who he can and can’t bite!

There is an exception to this rule, however. Children under 10 should not be allowed to correct the puppy with anything but a voice command. Don’t let children hit or bite the puppy. And waving their hands in the air just excites a puppy and encourages the biting.

Most often, it is better for an adult to supervise your dog’s behavior with children, and for the adult to do the corrections.

Don’t Teach Your Dog Aggression

Photo by Jan Tik, flickr.com

For example, if you hit or swat at a dog you are actually using a form of agitation training. This is used to train guard dogs to attack. Hitting a dog will cause him to snap back and bite.

Or, at the other end of the spectrum, hitting him can make him become overly submissive—which is a problem in and of itself. Worse yet, you might actually hurt him.

Waving your finger in a dog’s face when you are correcting him can also cause him to snap at you. This is another technique used in agitation training.

The Older Dog and Dog Biting

Puppy teeth are like little pins. They usually don't hurt, and your puppy probably won't bite too hard. But this is not true for an older dog.

If the dog biting problem is not resolved for you by the time your dog is 2 years old, it has become a serious behavioral problem.

And, unfortunately the prognosis for an older dog with a vicious biting habit is not good!

If it's too late for your dog already, and your dog has a biting problem that you can't control--you will need to seek the services of a qualified professional obedience instructor.

Be Patient with your Puppy
and His Biting!

The most important thing to remember is that nothing will happen overnight. You need to be patient and also consistent with your puppy.

Your dog will learn, in time, that he is not allowed to snap or bite people. And eventually, the puppy biting problem will be a thing of the past!

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