Here’s a puppy biting tip you may not have heard.

If you are a new puppy owner dealing with puppy biting, you’ve got to be wondering: “What’s a puppy biting tip that actually works?”
How many frantic searches on Google have you done on ways to stop puppy biting? Only to find so many, you don’t know which is best.

Let me quess, you’ve tried:

• alpha rolls (putting and holding your puppy on his back) and that didn’t work.
• You’ve grabbed his muzzle with a “No bite!” or
• yelping when he bites and the poor old stand-by of using a squirt bottle.

Nothing works with your puppy biting!

Let Me Simplify Puppy Biting for You

It’s a reality. Training puppies not to bite can be time-intensive. You can’t just do it a few times a day for only a couple of days. Puppies need daily reinforcement to give you good behavior instead of the bad behavior they offer. This can take weeks before they “get it.”
If you’re tired of your hands and arms being a pin cushion, try this technique. It’s works.

Link the Biting to an Undesirable Consequence

Your puppy wants to play with you and your family members. But he doesn’t know what your rules are at first so he just plays with you the way he would play with his littermates or other puppies.
That will include a fair to large amount of play biting.

Here’s what you do.

Begin to play with your puppy with petting - no rough housing.

When he bites(and he will) you say, “Oops! Too bad!” and immediately crate your puppy. Leave him in his crate for 1-2 minutes and then repeat the exercise.

Age and size appropriate family members repeat and repeat this exercise. There is always with parental supervision.

What you’ll begin to see is your puppy will start to experiment with other kinds of interaction, like “licking.” He discovers that licking is good and he gets more time with you.
Over time, the you puppy’s biting ceases and the Band-Aids can come off your hands for good!
Here’s a caveat. Very bossy puppies may take longer to come around, more so than the more submissive puppies.

Don’t give up! You and your puppy will surface as winners.

Common Sense Reminders

Until you have your puppy biting under full control, do not engage in the following with your puppy:

Games of chase: This will activate a puppy’s prey drive meaning lots of running, chasing, biting and chewing.

Playing fetch is a much better game for all family members to play with your new puppy.

• Rough play/wrestling: This will teach puppies how to use their mouths to grab and hold when playing with humans. The thing is, puppy biting is normal puppy activity. It’s how they interact with their litter mates. It’s how they learn the important lesson of bite inhibition. In other words, don’t bite human skin.
• Tug-of-war games: Until you have control of your puppy’s biting, it’s best not to play tug for now. It’s a good way to burn predatory energy BUT tug-of-war must have strict rules. We talk about that in another article.

And one more important note for you:

Control Your Puppy When Not Interacting With Him

1. Containment: Use crates, exercise pens or gates to contain your puppy when you can’t train or supervise your puppy. Too many people leave their puppy out for too long of a time and they get into trouble with biting.
2. Puppy proofing and prevention: Keep things you don’t want chewed on out of reach, and keep your puppy on a leash. When you can’t eyes-on, hands-on supervise or he gets too crazy – crate your puppy.
3. Redirects: When your puppy is out on leash, ALWAYS have appropriate redirects like a stuffed Kong toy or chewy.

Don’t forget, practice makes perfect for you and your puppy so keep on working with your puppy until he finally “gets it.”

Does this sound like something you can do? Let me know.

Together We Can Raise A Happy and Obedient Dog

Jim Burwell, is Houston’s most respected dog trainer for 30 years, serving over 11,000 clients. Jim takes the science of dog training and shows you how to make it work with your family and dog. He gives you the ability to get the same great behavior from your dog.