Generally speaking, puppies tend to bite quite often. It becomes important to use certain tips and tricks to make sure that they don’t hurt you.
Your puppy never intends to hurt you. That is the first thing you need to understand when it comes to why puppies bite. Puppies tend to bite because they are excited all the time. They are excited to use their teeth and discover new things.
Here are some tactics to use to stop your pup from biting.
Roughhousing refers to playing with your pet in an extremely playful and energetic manner. While roughhousing can be a lot of fun, it can also be very dangerous for you, especially if your skin is extremely fragile.
The thing with pups is, once you get them really excited to play, it’s difficult to make them calm again.
Roughhousing means you almost always risk your pup biting you, not because they want to hurt you, but simply because they are full of energy and want to play, without any inhibitions!
If you have any young ones or your old parents living with you, make sure to especially avoid roughhousing as they can get bitten if your pup is overactive.
Well, while it’s okay to want to play with your pup energetically, you don’t want to get bitten! One great way to avoid this is by using dog toys.
Include dog toys each time you play with your pup, whether it’s indoors or outside in the yard. This way, even if your pup gets extra energetic, he will most likely end up biting the toys instead of you!
‘Bite inhibition’ is, in fact, something that is very important to teach your pup. Bite inhibition focuses on teaching your pup that it is never okay to bite human flesh and that they should instead focus their energy on dog toys.
Every time your pup bites you, you need to stop playing right away. This will teach your pup that biting is never okay and that each time he bites you, the game will be over.
Once this is conditioned in your pup’s mind, he will automatically make it a habit not to bite so long as he wants to continue playing.
One interesting way to stop your pup from biting you is to take out a loud and sharp ‘yeow!’ sound whenever he does.
This sound is similar to how another pup might react if bitten by yours. Sometimes, this kind of sound can work wonders to dissuade your pup from biting you.1`
Ideally, you should start taking out this sound when the bite hasn’t really hurt you, but when you feel your pup’s teeth come into contact with your flesh.
As you let out a squeal, your pet will most likely back of for a bit, and when he does, you need to stop playing that game right away and perhaps switch to a different game.
It’s possible to sometimes teach your pet the command of ‘leave’ it. Each time you want your pet to stop doing something, you can use this command. To make this command more effective, you can even reward your pup every time he obeys.
Sometimes, even a little bit of praise goes a very long way. Each time your pup plays with you in a well-mannered way, remember to praise him and maybe even reward him.
Positive reinforcement can work wonders if you truly want to discourage your pup from biting you.
Just as positive reinforcement goes a long way, negative reinforcement does not work if your goal is to prevent your pup from biting.
If you decide to punish your pup every time he bites, you are only encouraging him to bite more, by giving him the attention that he was trying to get all along.
In fact, when dogs are punished, either physically or verbally, they are only likely to respond with aggression and may even bite more.
While punishment never works, it can, however, be useful to sometimes put your pup in his crate when trying to calm him down.
Your dog is typically aggressive if he is biting you, and putting him in his crate for a while can calm him own wonderfully.
Do make sure that your dog does not begin to view his crate as a form of punishment and doesn’t associate the crate with the biting behavior because this will only end up being counter-productive.
Often, your pup may simply bite you as a way of telling you that he is tired and doesn’t wish to play any longer.
So the next time your pup bites you during, you may want to give him some time and space to nap.
Just as humans get grumpy because of a lack of rest, puppies too get grumpy when they are tired. In dogs, tiredness translates to grumpiness, which can often translate to aggression.
As a result, a tired dog might bite you. Introducing little breaks between playtime sessions is a good way to help the pup regain his energy before beginning to play again.
These were just some methods you can use to stop your pup from biting. Do let us know in the comments below if any of these methods ended up working for you and why!
by Bobby J Davidson || You can’t buy love, but you can rescue it™ .
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