Teaching Your Puppy Not To Bite

Teaching your puppy not to bite

Is often simple if the puppy has learned the basics when he arrives at your home and this is the case for the majority of puppies. Sometimes it’s more complicated.

When you have a dog, that’s really what matters most: controlling the strength of his jaw when his fangs are in contact with skin and being reluctant to grab human limbs, and other living beings that are part of your daily life…. in most contexts, including those that are a little out of the ordinary.

In the dog world, we talk about these essential skills, which go hand in hand with the words inhibition and control.

Bite Inhibition

Crucial basics are learned before your puppy enters your life

Bite inhibition in a dog is the control of the pressure exerted with his jaw, when he takes something in the mouth.

Dogs are not born harmless because they are our best friends. They are made to be.

Imagine a kind of “training course”. You could describe it, in terms of learning not to bite (of course, other important things happen along the way), like this:

• It starts a little when the teeth grow (usually in the 3rd week)
• The heart of the training takes place between the 4th and 6th week: a period during which the brothers and sisters play a major role.
• It ends in the 7th week.

For a majority of specialists, currently, beyond the 7th week, learning the basics to know how to be a dog is no longer possible.

Basically, what they learn to know how to be dogs is that it is better to live in peace and that certain behaviors compromise peace.

How puppies learn not to bite too hard

It is therefore above all the other puppies in the litter, but also the mother of the puppies, who are responsible for teaching your future puppy not to bite too hard: this can only really be learned well between dogs.

The very small puppy already learns (quickly) that a behavior can have a good or a bad consequence for him. If the consequence is good, he will do it again. If the consequence is bad, he won’t do it again. The puppy plays with its siblings and they use their fangs. Given the teeth they already have, very young puppies can hurt. Suddenly, the puppy realizes that a certain pressure has bad consequences: biting too hard causes the game to stop because a puppy that has had a little pain squeals and moves away!

A dog that controls this part of its body very well, capable of inflicting serious injuries, is therefore not a nice dog. It is an animal that was able to acquire certain basics first.

Why we should worry about it before even buying a puppy

The behavior that has good consequences for the puppy, when playing “with a canine family”, is therefore to control the force with which he grabs the other puppies, his mother and any other adult dogs present in his daily life, during his first weeks. Of life.

To learn this biting inhibition really well, you still need a number of siblings. The number of puppies per litter depends on several factors, the female dog herself, her age, the breed… in short; there are very small litters and larger litters! It has been observed that puppies learn best in these. Do not panic if your puppy comes from a very small litter; he can still learn. Now you can see this for more details about Dog Car Seat Cover at Family Pooch.

Let’s say that

The larger litters represent a more favorable framework for this learning (and for learning communication between dogs in a more general way).

And then you need a competent mother. Or, failing that, an adult dog that will regulate the games. It’s a good thing to see an adult dog react more intensely with a puppy to say “enough” (without, of course, actually hurting or scaring him). So in the absence of a good mother, or present on the premises where the puppies grow up with their mother, the adult dog(s) must be sociable dogs and well in their head.

Let’s not forget that puppies learn other important things besides mastering their jaws: between the 5th and 6th week in particular, while learning to be dogs, puppies learn that humans are friendly and possibly that other species are friendly (for example, this is a good time to interact with a sociable cat and not see cats as prey to chase or be afraid of).

The breeder therefore has an important role to play.

So as we want to be able to consolidate good bases with our puppies, it is better not to acquire a puppy anywhere quickly, well done “for cheap”… without even visiting the breeding… etc. No, it is not often that a puppy has not acquired the bite inhibition before the fateful age, but choosing the right breeder is really very important.

Everything… but not that!

No or little inhibition is a very serious problem

You probably don’t often hear or read “it’s very serious” for a dog not to have learned this or that… because dogs learn so many things throughout their lives!

However, not having learned this famous bite inhibition in due time is very serious for a dog.

On the one hand, he can no longer learn it. On the other hand, obviously, the problems this causes are serious security issues. Let’s add that education (just for once!) can’t change much and more often than not, it can’t do anything anymore.

I moderate my comments because it depends on how ill-gotten it is. Nevertheless, the solutions, we will find them mainly in veterinarians. With a dog that has little or no inhibition, trainers help you avoid incidents.

A very difficult life for a dog, sometimes shortened, in short… it’s really very serious.

Let’s get back to normal

You take in an 8-week-old puppy that has the basics right, and then you polish those basics with your pup until he’s 4 months old.  The evolution of the puppy’s brain means that this is no longer possible after tweaking. Most often, if this is not done, it is necessary to get help; it’s a whole other story, but with the right basics, you can stay optimistic.

That said, overall (it may be later), puppies have their permanent teeth around the age of 3 months and it starts to really hurt if you haven’t already been able to teach your puppy not to bite or chewing hard and then above all, at 3 months, a curtain begins to fall:  it is the beginning of the end of the ideal period to make a puppy sociable.

Teaching your puppy not to bite: it’s up to you

The skill learned between dogs will allow our dogs to live in peace with us too. However, we have an important role to play in consolidating the bases! With puppies from excellent sources, it goes quickly but there are certain do’s and don’ts.

What you should not do

If your pup never gets a chance for his fangs to touch your skin, he can’t learn when it’s too strong or not. What you really need to learn is what the right pressure to exert is. Without any contact, it is not possible to learn.

It is not worth retorting.

Remember that puppies that are in pain from a sibling grabbing too hard will squeal and wander away. The game stops. They don’t throw punches, don’t sulk for hours at a puppy in solitary confinement, don’t grab by the scruff of the neck to shake the overly aggressive puppy (the mother doesn’t do that either, if not, she has a serious problem) and they don’t force a puppy to roll over on its back either (animals that do that, do it on their own). Forget abrupt gestures that don’t teach your puppy not to bite. They only teach him one thing: to be wary of you.

Also, a puppy who only inhibits himself because he is afraid that something bad will happen to him, does not learn not to bite or nibble and the day when it will no longer be to play but to defend himself , he will bite and he will bite too hard.

What to do

It helps to cry out your pain when your puppy hurts you and stop playing for a few moments. But it is necessary, in parallel, to show him which behavior is appropriate.

It’s also very important to teach your puppy that not hurting is the behavior that has good consequences.

Just express your pain if your pup chews or bites too hard and in parallel, praise him for not squeezing. Use the same word for that praise and your pup will understand even faster (yes, well done, great…choose what feels most natural to you and stick with it).

To succeed, take into account his excitement threshold: when is your puppy too excited to control himself properly? For example, if it turns out to be a little difficult, play with your puppy when he comes back from a walk. You are offering your puppy, calm because tired, more favorable circumstances for this learning!

Not having enough physical activity does not help to control oneself.

You need chew toys for your puppy. And it’s good to always have one or two quickly on hand for those times when he might start trying to grab you: you’re sending the message to him that there’s better to grab than parts of your body.

During play, get into the habit of petting your puppy from time to time when he has a toy in his mouth (in the process of pulling or when you retrieve a toy, etc.). And use your hand from time to time to do those things you do without realizing it when you play with your dog – for example, quite simply putting your hand on his chest to hold it for two seconds while picking it up a throwing toy – and your pup will grow up knowing what to grab (the toys and not your hands) even in the heat of the moment.

When it’s more complicated than we thought

In general, teaching your puppy not to bite is more complicated than expected when:

your puppy bites you when you want to pet him: first hand him a treat then pet him when he eats it (or even a series of treats): he can no longer catch you (since he is eating) and you get used to being touched (it’s nice) but once again, be careful not to do this sort of thing with an overly excited puppy otherwise it’s a failure.

Your Puppy Bites You

Anytime you move your hands (or feet): put them away in a closet… no, just kidding; don’t shake them too much, especially too close to him, and especially when it’s almost time to exercise (the critical moments are quite often after a good nap, before or after eating, before a walk).

You play fight too much (or just too much with your hands and not enough with toys): everyone does what they want; I am rather reluctant to clinch with dogs. Because they play with their fangs and we just want to teach them not to use them on us. There are dogs more competent than others for this. With a puppy, favor toys, do not “try” him more than necessary and, when he has developed good skills, you will know his limits. You will play as you wish but respecting them.

Your pup may not have a solid foundation for bite inhibition. Don’t panic too quickly. Don’t expect perfection right away. You can gradually soften it up by expressing your pain at the right time and showing your satisfaction at the right time.

Finally, we can sometimes doubt that it’s really still a game, especially with puppies that are very quick to grasp, who grasp hard from the start, and absolutely nothing changes in 1 month. Make an appointment with the vet. If there really is an inhibition problem, then get the advice of a good dog trainer.

Self-Control

Living with a reluctant dog

A dog that “inhibits its jaw” controls the pressure it exerts on a whole host of things and especially on the skin of human beings, dogs and possibly other animals with which it is familiar.

Certain self-control allows this dog not to use this part of his body except as a very last resort.

A self-controlled dog is reluctant to use its mouth. What we’re really interested in when it comes to teaching your puppy not to bite is fear aggression.

In everyday life,

In most situations even when they are a little out of the ordinary, grabbing skin is not an option. But also (and especially I would say), in case of sudden surprise or even fear, grabbing some skin is still not an option.

It can be said that when the dog does not immediately know what to do in response to some event or if the rules of canine etiquette are suddenly broken, your dog who knows how to control himself does not use his mouth.

It’s written into his whole system; it’s not thought out, especially since we’re talking about reactions here that take a fraction of a second. When a dog is scared, lots of things happen in his body. Hormones and all that… you can’t control it! When his behaviors are based on biting inhibition and impulse control, what happens in the dog’s body does not cause him to bite.

How to Get a Nice Dog

You have understood the mechanism; you can say “nice dog” 🙂because we humans can apprehend certain realities and that do not prevent us from being sentimental at the same time. So concretely, we are talking about dogs that, for example:

• jump if you accidentally step on their leg but do not catch you
• look surprised after an accidental little knee in the teeth but don’t catch you

The following basics can be considered to turn a puppy into a biting reluctant dog:

• At 4 months he already makes the difference between a maximum of circumstances thanks to novelty, variety and surprise introduced gradually and gently during good socialization
• He leads a balanced life with a minimum of stress (such as lack of physical activity, stress does not help to control himself )
• Not being bored and having fun largely contributes to inhibiting aggressive behavior (moreover, to begin with, it avoids the emotions at the origin of aggressive behavior)
• He trusts you

The key to teaching your puppy not to bite

In order for a puppy to become a harmless dog, as much as it is possible to be so outside of completely exceptional circumstances, the most important thing is to base everything you do with him on building a real bond of trust. .

Teach him to control himself without being afraid of you

To do this, I think you need:

• know how to communicate with your dog at a minimum: that is to say know his way of expressing himself in order to be able to take into account what he expresses and know how to express himself to make himself understood; since dogs do not communicate like us, and it is very easy to forget it on a daily basis. This prevents you from behaving too much as if your dog were a person (source of many problems).
• Control their own impulsiveness: dogs do a lot of things that don’t fit with the world in which they live and must therefore learn, for the majority of them, to control themselves in various and varied situations. Perhaps the most difficult thing about it is that we ourselves are impulsive. We tend to react on the spot when a behavior displeases us – it is less risky (so as not to break the trust) and more effective.
• Not to respond to every badly worded request from a puppy but to be patient and wait for another way to ask for something.
• Make sure you don’t ask for the impossible: this has already been discussed above with taking into account the arousal threshold and not playing with a puppy at any time. So it’s about choosing   the most favorable situations for success first and that goes for learning any behavior – with or without a specific word. For example, without a word (so I don’t learn “an order”: I teach my puppy that a specific behavior allows him to get what he wants): if I have a greedy groOos in front of me who jumps on me when I have his bowl full of kibble in my hand, maybe I can start teaching him that he has a treat that I hold in my hand, when he’s not jumping on me. If he is less excited, it works better. I see if I can create more favorable circumstances for success.

Orders?

Puppies are a bit of a “trap” 🙂because wise and cute as they are, it’s as if there was nothing to do, when there is everything to do (and without delay) .

Personally, I encourage you to learn “as much as possible, as well as possible and as soon as possible” because it helps to “prevent instead of cure”! However, there is no point in living with a dog who obeys the finger and the eye to 20 different words but if you have the misfortune to do something wrong… you risk having your bones crushed.

Sitting is necessary

To learn a lot of things, so you can start there, and then it’s easy. Coward, which tells the dog to open its mouth to let you retrieve what it grabbed, is arguably one of the best things to teach a dog as soon as possible. Learning not to move is in itself a great exercise to help a dog control himself in a lot of contexts (because you do it over several weeks and in different places) – and it is indeed useful to know.

I know a lot of dogs who can’t do much on command but they know the basics. They don’t use their fangs for a yes or a no. Learning commands is fine, but commands don’t teach your puppy not to bite. It also all depends on how a puppy learns.

There is more than one way

to do it, but we can mention shaping here (to be discovered here in outline). Because as one of my favorite specialized authors* so aptly puts it: “Dogs educated with shaping are more resilient and flexible in their behavior and are less impulsive and have less behavioral rigidity”. It may be a bit categorical (there are other ways of educating dogs which are very good too!) but it is a reality.