Puppies are cute, sweet and curious animals. They are in a very important stage of their life in which they must learn to inhibit their bite to avoid harming us or other dogs. For that reason it will be crucial to start teaching the puppy not to bite things, be it hands, furniture, feet or plants.
These exercises will also be very useful to teach our little one what he should bite and what not, in this way it will be easier for us to avoid guiding the little one towards a desired behavior. Keep reading on our site to discover how to teach a puppy not to bite:
Why does the puppy bite all the time?
Dogs are born without teeth, it is in the stage that passes from the transition period to the socialization period (around one month of life) when teeth begin to emerge of milk Later, after 4 months, these teeth will be replaced by the definitive denture or permanent.
Just like children, puppies suffer from pain and discomfort that they relieve by biting objects, hands or everything what they find. Therefore, it is common for us to observe that the puppy bites all the time.
If we add to this that the puppy has been separated from its mother too soon (before 8 weeks) we have an added problem: the puppy has not learned to inhibit the bite together with its mother and brothers, so doesn't know how to control his strength and can hurt us, obviously unintentionally.
Socialization in bite management
If our puppy has been separated soon, we must begin to socialize him once he begins the vaccination schedule and the veterinarian confirms that he can now go outside. Contact with other older dogs will be essential for him to learn how to play with them, which also includes false bites.
This process, so important for the puppy, will not only teach him to manage the bite with other dogs, it will also be useful for him to learn about the social behavior of his species.
Don't be afraid to associate your dog with larger ones, the important thing is that you make sure, before the interaction, that it is a sociable and friendly dog and that in no case is it going to bite him, since that could cause a trauma in the puppy that is very difficult to reverse in his adult stage.
Is it possible to teach a puppy what not to bite?
Although puppies learn new behaviors and commands quite easily, the truth is that they are not always able to remember everything: it is normal for them to forgetof certain details.
Precisely for this reason, on our site we want to highlight an old saying that says "prevention is better than cure". Do not expect your puppy to remember that his toys can be chewed and the furniture cannot: better prevent him from chewing on the furniture and praise him for chewing on his toys, in this way, you will achieve a margin of error of 0, a better association and a high percentage of success in their adult stage.
Finally we want to emphasize that punishment should never be used on puppies. Except for a "No" when we see something he is doing at that precise moment, scolding our dog can be counterproductive: punishment inhibits behavior, impairs learning, can generate stress and anxiety in the dog and worst of all, can damage your bond. Avoid punishments, marking, prolonged fights and any other type of punishment: puppies should never be scolded
Teaching a puppy not to chew on furniture and other things
As we have explained before, it is normal for the puppy to bite everything: he is exploring the world through his mouth and will not hesitate to try anything that is within his reach, such as furniture and plants, for instance. Next we will explain step by step how to teach a puppy not to bite furniture, plants and other things:
- The first step will be to teach your dog to drop objects. In addition to helping you work on this problem, this exercise is very useful to prevent the adult from eating something from the street or stealing toys from other dogs, which could become a source of dispute or fight.
- Once the dog has understood the meaning of the words "let go" or "let go", we will put them into practice every time we catch him red-handed nibbling something he shouldn't, the idea isreplace the "No" with the chosen word , so that not only does he understand that he is doing something wrong, but that he must drop it.
- Avoid scolding your dog if he has bitten something 30 minutes before, as he won't understand
- At the same time your dog learns to drop objects, it is essential to start reinforcing positive behaviorssuch as chewing on toys of the. Scatter toys around the house that the pup can chew on, and whenever you see him doing so, praise him effusively, whether it's with dog treats, a "goodbye," or a pet.
Now that you know what guidelines you should follow when you are present, all that remains is work in your absence In these cases, when the puppy bites all the time, the best thing would be to bet on the installation of a puppy park, a very useful tool that is also recommended when learning the newspaper, that is, when we teach the dog to urinate at home due to lack of vaccinations.
If our puppy stays in the park whenever we leave home, it will be impossible for him to bite any furniture or any plant, so we will avoid any accident 100% and most importantly: the dog will not it will reinforce itself when it is alone.
Teaching a puppy not to bite hands and feet
Lacking a mother to teach him how to manage the force of his bite, it will be essential to adopt that role and teach the puppy what should bite and how hard to bite. It is common for the puppy to bite hands and feet when he is playing, but he can also do it when he is nervous or because of the pain caused by growing teeth
The first thing to do is teach the puppy not to bite hard:
- The moment your dog bites you hard, you should make a loud screech so that he learns to identify pain in humans. Then you'll stop playing with him so that eventually he'll associate the dolo screech with the end of the game.
- This exercise must be repeated many times so that the puppy correctly associates the screech with pain and with the subsequent end of the game, otherwise the puppy will not understand what is happening.
Once the puppy has learned to manage his bite we will avoid playing with him to bite, we will avoid overexciting him (since then he is likely to lose self-control of the situation) andwe will reward with a "very good" the calm games and the positive attitude with us and with other people.
At this point we will work as in the previous case: the key is to avoid situations that encourage the dog to bite our hands and feet and on the contrary we will reinforce with various tools at our disposal (words, caresses, sweets…) the attitudes that seem correct to us, such as biting their toys The most important thing will be to have patience and offer a lot of love to our puppy and this type of attitude is not solved overnight, perseverance and positivity are required.
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