How To Stop A Puppy From Biting- Avoid This Common Mistake
In this article we will be discussing the most common mistake that dog owners make with stopping puppy biting, chewing and mouthing.
After you read this, you probably won’t ever think about the puppy training advice you’ve heard from others in the past in the same way ever again. Hopefully you will be able to view this situation through the eyes of your puppy because that is when you are able to really start understanding them.
Just think about it…
Currently, dog owners are teaching millions of puppies to gently mouth their hands and fingers.
We are actually training our puppies to behave in a way that we don’t want them to in the future!
How strange!
Yet that’s the standard way it is currently taught. You are told to teach your puppy how to gently mouth and then let them know when they do it too hard. Then later on when we teach them that they shouldn’t do this any more, we act like it is the worst thing in the world that they could ever do. So how do you stop a puppy from biting?
Are you confused? Does it all sound complicated? That’s because it is.
You are definitely not alone. A majority of individuals are taught to do that, and I was too when I started to train my dog. However, there is a way that is much easier.
The most important difference is that it is very important to start out in the way way we are intending to go on. That sounds really logical, right? That is because it is. Your dog will really appreciate the fact that the rules won’t change as they are growing up.
Here are the following steps to take, in somewhat simplified form.
- – Always give your puppy things to chew on. These could be things like pieces of wood or chew toys.
- – From the very beginning, encourage your puppy to avoid your clothes, feet, and fingers.
- – If your puppy does happen to mouth you, calmly redirect him to something else.
- – If your puppy continues mouthing, calmly place him on the floor and let out a small yelp noise so that he knows that his sharp teeth hurt and then move away from him.
- – If he keeps mouthing your clothes or you, quietly and calmly take him and put him in timeout for around one minute.
Simple. This approach is much easier, trust me. I learned about it on Doggy Dan’s site called The Online Dog Trainer. It provides a straight forward way of training puppies. If you’d like to see what the website has to offer, which does include a section and video on how to stop puppies from biting called mouthing, sign up for some free dog training videos and evaluate it yourself with no risk.
The following are a few things that you need to keep in mind:
- When your puppy is still young, say around 8 weeks old, always give him several chances if he mouths you accidentally. The time when you shouldn’t tolerate any more mouthing is when your dog is around 5 months old.
- In addition, whenever you call your puppy for him to come to you, ensure that you are holding something in your hand that he can place inside his mouth. If you fail to do this you are setting your puppy up to fail. When humans give affection it tends to be through using our hands. However, dogs and puppies have a tendency to use their mouths a lot more often instead. So when you cuddle them, they need to have something to mouth.
- The final tip is, simply, whenever your puppy starts mouthing you and doesn’t pay attention to his chew toy, stay calm and place your puppy on the floor. Don’t start to beat on your chest and use your superior voice telling him “No!” “Don’t bite.” (This is an outdated old school training technique). That’s just increasing his excitement level, which is something you really don’t want.
The key to creating an incredible relationship with your puppy is to understand him very well. When you can see things through his eyes, you will start to see how the actions you take makes him feel.
The website,The Online Dog Trainer, set up by Doggy Dan contains more than 250 videos which are great for helping you to see things from the point of view of your puppy. There are even weekly videos which show how he raised Moses, his puppy, starting when he was 8 weeks old. If you seriously want to stop puppy biting in a gentle and kind way, that will result over time in the two of you developing an incredible relationship, then click here to check his website out.
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