Certified Professional Dog Training Instructor & Certified Canine Behaviourist
Nipping & Chewing
Puppy Nipping and Chewing: How to Stop the Biting That Hurts
Love that new puppy, but don’t love what she is doing to your sofa, sneakers, or fingers? Then it’s time to intervene. While nipping and chewing are natural behaviours that occur when a puppy is between two and six months of age, they can be stopped!
Puppies will teethe, just like human infants. Chewing and nipping is investigative behaviour. It is how they learn about their world…and it is completely normal. But it is important, to direct the puppy to chewing appropriate items.
Look for specially designed pet toys. Rubber toys that have an opening for food, such as Kong®, can keep a puppy happily occupied for a long time.
Dog Nanny Special Tip – Take any leftover Bones and place them in your crock pot with plain water, simmer over night, to get all that nice flavour out. Soak a plain rope toy, in the now flavoured water, then put in a Ziploc bag and FREEZE. Now you have a cold and crunchy toy your puppy will love to chew instead of you or your furniture.
Beware of items that may hide a choking danger. Don’t offer your pup anything with a squeaker that can be ripped out and swallowed.
Examine toys regularly for tears, breakage, or stuffing leaks.
Rotate toys. Puppies love novelty. Different items will help make playtime special.
As you would with a baby, supervise your puppy at all times. If you can’t be with your dog, protect her in an exercise pen or crate. Puppy-proof your home.”
Put away items that you don’t want chewed or that could be harmful.
Install a safety lock on the cabinet under the kitchen sink.
Keep human snacks and candy out of reach. Remember: Chocolate is toxic to dogs.
Use Bitter Apple / Bitter Yuck / Fooey (brand names), sprays on objects you cannot put away. Remember these sprays must be applied Daily, so that the object ALWAYS tastes bad.
When it’s more than play
Puppy biting and chewing are generally not aggressive. However, it is important to be aware that some puppies can be aggressive. If you have a puppy that seems deadly serious or is snarly or if you are afraid of the puppy, it is important to learn the reason. Videotape that behaviour or have The Dog Nanny make a personal house call to view & investigate the behaviour and it’s cause. If you are concerned about it, there may be a reason to be concerned.”
Puppies should remain with their litter until seven or eight weeks of age to learn how to communicate with other dogs. When they rough and tumble, they learn that they will have fun if they bite gently.
Reinforce positive play
To teach the puppy appropriate play behaviour, “hard biting should elicit a painful shriek from a human companion, sending the message that this behaviour is unacceptable. Stop interacting with the puppy for a few seconds. You have removed the rewards (you and playing), and you are teaching bite inhibition.” This is best done between two and four months of age. “Only ever allow teeth touching only pressure of a bite you permit and add a cue before yelping to teach a signal to the dog.
“The only biting you should allow is soft biting on bare hands or clothed body parts.
Other biting, such as the lure of a pants leg or shoelace, can be handled by distractions such as throwing a toy or a simple clap. “Don’t engage the dog verbally. IT reinforces the negative behaviour.” “Reinforce only the positive behaviour.” OR simply ignore the behaviour, no re-action from you is not fun and puppy will learn to get your attention a different way.
It is important to remember that as much fun as a new puppy may be, children and puppies should NEVER be left together unsupervised. Work with children to teach them how to teach the dog to play correctly. Hide-and-seek is a terrific beginning. It introduces the concepts of the “come” command. Teach children not to roughhouse or wrestle. Like a human baby, puppies get overtired and over stimulated. They need time to rest and calm down. Always provide you puppy/dog with a safe zone, such as his/her crate, where they can get away from bothersome children. Ensure all children know when the dog goes to their safe zone, they are off limits.
“Control the game, control the dog.”