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 hurting us or other dogs. For that reason, it will be crucial to start teaching your puppy not to chew on things , be it hands, furniture, feet or soles. How to stop puppy biting fast?
These exercises will also be very useful to teach our little one what to bite and what not, in this way it will be easier for us to avoid guiding the little one towards a desired behavior. Read on article to find out 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 the month of life) when the milk teeth begin to emerge . Later, after 4 months, these teeth will replace by permanent or permanent teeth.
As with children, puppy dogs suffer pain and discomfort that they alleviate by biting objects, hands or whatever 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 with his mother and siblings, so he does not know control its strength and can harm us, obviously unintentionally.
Socialization in bite management
If our puppy has been separated promptly, we must begin to socialize him once the vaccination schedule begins and the veterinarian confirms that he can go out. 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 typical of his species.
Do not be afraid to associate your dog with other 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 it is going to bite him, since that could cause a trauma in the puppy very difficult to reverse in adulthood.
Is it possible to teach a puppy what not to bite?
Although puppies learn new behaviors and commands with some ease, the truth is that they are not always able to remember everything: it is normal for them to forget certain details.
Precisely for this reason, at AnimalWised 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 furniture cannot: better avoid chewing on the furniture and congratulate him for chewing on his toys, in this way, you will get a margin of error 0, a better association and a high percentage of success in his adult stage.
Finally, we want to emphasize that punishment should never be used on puppy dogs. Except for a ” No ” when we observe 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, it can harm your link. Avoid punishment, marking, prolonged brawls and any other type of punishment – puppies should never scold.
Teaching a puppy not to chew on furniture and other things
As we have explained previously, it is normal for the puppy to bite everything : it is exploring the world through its mouth and it will not hesitate to try anything that is within its reach, such as furniture and plants, for example. Here we will explain step by step how to teach a puppy not to chew on furniture, plants and other things:
- The first step will be to teach your dog to drop objects. In addition to helping you to work on this problem, this exercise is very useful to prevent that in his adult stage he can eat something from the street or steal toys from other dogs, which could become the cause of a dispute or fight.
- Once the dog has understood the meaning of the words ” let go ” or ” lets go “, we will put them into practice every time we catch him red- handed nibbling on something he shouldn’t, the idea is to substitute ” No” for the chosen word , to that he not only understands that he is doing something wrong, but must let go of it.
- Avoid scolding your dog if he has bitten something 30 minutes before, as he will not understand.
- At the same time that your dog learns to drop objects, it will be essential to start reinforcing positive behaviors , such as chewing on his toys. Scatter toys around the house that the puppy can nibble on and every time you watch him do so, congratulate him effusively, whether it be with dog treats, a “very good” or a caress.
Park for puppies
Now that you know what guidelines to follow when you are present, you just need to work in your absence . In these cases, when the puppy bites all the time, it is best to bet on the installation of a park for puppies , a very useful tool that is also recommended in learning the newspaper, that is, when we teach the dog to urinate in the home due to lack of vaccines.
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 reinforce himself when he is only.
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Teaching a puppy not to chew on hands and feet
Lacking a mother to teach him to manage the force of his bite, it will be essential to adopt that role and teach the puppy what to bite and with what intensity to do it. It is common for the puppy to bite hands and feet when playing , but it can also do so in circumstances of nervousness or because of the pain caused by the growth of the teeth.
The first thing will be to teach the puppy not to bite hard :
- The moment your dog bites you hard, you must make a loud screech so that it learns to identify pain in humans. Then you will stop playing with him so that, in the long run, he associates the scream of idol with the end of the game.
- This exercise must be repeated many times so that the puppy correctly associates the squeal with the pain and with the subsequent end of the game, otherwise the puppy will not understand what is happening.
Avoid playing with him to bite
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) and we will reward calm games and a positive attitude with a ” very good “ with us and with other people.
At this point we will work as in the previous case: the key is to avoid situations that cause 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 chewing on their toys . The most important thing will be to be patient and offer a lot of affection to our puppy and this type of attitude is not solved overnight, it requires perseverance and positivity.