![]() It may take many repetitions for her to understand what’s expected. Then offer the chew bone and petting method again. After a nip, yell “OUCH” as though you’ve been wounded, then ignore her until she’s calm. Teach your puppy that nipping “turns off” any attention and social interaction with you. You must also teach your puppy to be gentle with hands, and that nipping results in unpleasant consequences for her. At first, you may need to pet or scratch your puppy for short periods of time, since the longer she’s petted, the more likely she is to get excited and start to nip. Alternate which hand does the petting and which one has the chew bone. This will help your puppy learn that people and petting are wonderful and will keep her mouth busy while she’s being petted. As you or the child reach out to scratch her behind the ears with one hand, offer the chew bone with the other. This technique can be especially effective when children want to pet her. Redirect your puppy’s chewing onto acceptable objects by offering her a small puppy-safe chew bone or other type of chew toy whenever you pet her. Continue this process until your puppy consistently delivers only level 1 bites. The next week, time out anything that is a 4 or above. It might even leave a mark.ĥ – Ouch!! That hurts and your hand is now bleeding.įor one week, your puppy gets a time out if she gives you a level 5 bite. Then you can re-direct her to toys or time her out for all bites.Ģ – There’s some pressure, but you barely flinch.ģ – Wow, those little teeth are sharp, but it’s tolerable. Don’t phase out play biting all together until your puppy is reliably biting softly.Each week ask your puppy to bite a little softer by timing her out for her hardest bites.Stop play, and leave your puppy alone or put her in a time-out area for about one minute. Rule of thumb: From 6-18 weeks of age, allow your puppy to bite when playing as long as it is not too hard. ![]() ![]() If she is ever startled and bites on instinct, she may cause serious injury. Otherwise she won’t learn to inhibit her bite. Let your puppy bite you now and again so you can let her know which bites are too hard. Your puppy needs to learn that human skin is fragile and can’t be treated as roughly as a fur coat. Why you should allow some biting (at first) As you work with this normal puppy behavior, your two goals should be to redirect your puppy to use acceptable chew toys and to teach her to be gentler with her mouth. Therefore, puppies usually want to bite or “mouth” hands, feet, shoes, etc. When puppies play with each other, they use their mouths. Over time, a puppy figures out how to use her mouth gently – called bite inhibition – to keep play going. When puppies play, they learn from their playmates’ yelps and body language when a bite is too hard. They bite things that move, things that don’t move, each other, your hands…everything! This is normal and it is an important part of their development. Teaching Bite Inhibition and Dealing with Rough Puppy Play Community Veterinary Hospital (Portland).
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