How to Stop a Puppy Biting
If you’ve been lucky enough to welcome a puppy into your world recently, you’ll probably have found yourself googling quite a lot of things. Most probably ‘How to Get a Puppy to Stop Biting’!
Puppy mouthing or biting is completely normal, but those little baby teeth are sharp as heck! So here are my top tips to help you learn how to stop puppy biting….from someone who’s been there!
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How to Stop a Puppy Biting
– My Top Tips!
First things first, buy this book.
This training book was like a puppy bible for me when I got Toby. It’s easy to follow and is packed full of really helpful puppy training tips and advice – there’s a reason why it’s a consistent best seller.
I’d highly recommend picking up a copy to help with your pups first year, what a life saver!
Re-direction
As soon as your puppy starts biting or mouthing at your hands, ball up your fists, give a strong NO command and re-direct their attention to something acceptable like a toy.
You’re going to want to have a lot of puppy friendly chew toys to hand. I suggest getting a bundle pack like this and having one in every room…and even in your pocket just in case!
With Toby, I like to use a loud, sharp ‘AH-AH’ noise to indicate his behavior isn’t right.
It’s important to be aware of the tone of voice you use for good and bad commands.
Dogs don’t speak English, so there needs to be a big difference with your tone to help them understand what’s right and what’s wrong.
Keep things light, higher pitched and airy when praising and lower, sharper and more direct when scolding.
The Two Second Rule
When training a puppy you need to be quick. Their attention span is so short, if you leave it longer than 2 seconds between their action and your correction, they’ll probably have no idea why you’re yelling.
It’s important to move fast!
Take away your hand – ‘AH AH’ – and re-direct.
FREEZE!
What does your puppy want most in the world right now? …attention!
You are the ultimate play thing for your furry new bundle of joy, so taking yourself away is also taking the fun away.
When your puppy starts to bite, jump up or get too excited…just freeze. Freeze in place and see what they do! They’ll probably be very confused and stop what they’re doing to investigate. If you’re lucky, they might even sit or lie down and wait for the fun to start again.
Freezing can be a really effective and gentle way to hep teach your puppy right from wrong.
Puppy Cries
Another technique I found helpful when training Toby was to wimper like a dog when he bit.
Often your puppy will be so taken a-back when you start whimpering and crying like a puppy (see my video below for an example) they will stop their actions and you can quickly step in with praise.
You may feel a little silly, but it’s worth a shot!
WATCH: How to Get a Puppy to Stop Biting
I hope you found this post helpful and I truly wish you the best of luck with your new furry companion!
If you found this helpful, you might want to check out these posts as well:
5 Puppy training Hacks You REALLY Need to Know!
How to Keep Your Dog Entertained Indoors
10 Puppy Essentials You Might Not Know You Needed
Easy Homemade Apple and Cheddar Dog Treats!
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