Seven Answers To The Question: “How To Stop A Puppy From Biting”?
Our first experience of having a dog from a young puppy was when we got Faye in September of 2007. After a few days of her finding her feet and getting settled it became very obvious she was a very confident and boisterous little puppy.
We were very quickly spending way to much time online trying to find out how to stop Puppy biting. Learning how to stop Puppies biting can be done and surprisingly easily if you follow some of the tips I will give.
Biting is normal for a young puppy. It is what they do when they play together with other puppies or dogs and in the absence of those play friends they will be more than happy to use you as their biting partner. Biting Puppies simply express themselves in a way that comes naturally to them.
The following is the best ways we found on how to stop Puppy biting . You may also be interested in learning about housetraining Puppies and Dog Spaying.
How To Stop Puppy Biting?
- When your adorable puppy bites or nips you make a loud “yelp” like it really hurt and stare at the puppy. This will make your little angel think it has hurt you and it should stop. If not then leave the room and return in a few minutes. It will quickly learn it needs to control its behaviour. This is a very effective tip to easily learn how to stop a puppy from biting at you. Biting Puppies do not like to think they have hurt you.
- Find some buddies for your puppy if at all possible. This is extremely effective. Learning how to stop Puppies biting can be made much easier with this tip. f you can, let your puppy play with other puppies or dogs. The little monkey will soon learn the sociable rules of doggie etiquette when exposed to others. It will quickly learn what is and what is not allowed. It will very quickly learn when to control its behaviour. Puppies biting is often playful, having friends for your Puppy to bite and play with is a great outlet for their energy.
- Toys. Make sure the cute little monster has plenty of toys. This will let him/her take out all the teething and chewing on a slightly more inanimate object. Biting Puppies that wonn’t stop biting will do much better with a Toy. This can also tie in with number 1. After performing the “yelp” you can give the biting puppy a toy instead to play with. We found it best not to encourage tug of war type games as this just heightens your puppies aggression and will not help with its training.
- Something foul tasting. Put something that the puppy will not like the taste of on your hands. We found garlic worked very well but you may need to try something different. There are any number of concoctions you can try. Free or specific products are available if you like. Learning how to stop Puppies from biting is sometimes tough but this works very well.
- Exercise. A tired puppy makes for a happy owner. The same goes for adult dogs. Biting Puppies have an awful lot of pent up energy just waiting to explode! You need to be careful if you have a very young puppy as there are many claims that to much exercise can lead to problems in later life. We were careful not to walk our young pup very much until she decided to come on her own and we gradually built up the time of walks over quite a long period. What we did do however is let her outside to play as often as possible. This way the young tearaway will run around and play on its own and will stop when its natural instincts tell it to. This really was a great way to get away from those razor teeth and let the pup do what comes naturally. Biting Puppies that have lots of exercise will be much easier to handle.
- If number 1 doesn’t work then we found this tip very useful. GROWL! If your darling bite monster doesn’t respond to a “yelp” when it bites you or respond to you “yelping” and leaving the room then growl at it. We found this very successful. You are acting like a more dominant dog or what its Mother would have done. What works best will depend on the temperament of your little cutie. This will stop a Puppy biting quickly if number 1 doesn’t work.
- Now for the one tip that worked the best above all else but will not be for everyone. This really does help when you want to stop Puppies from biting. Get another dog! This was without doubt the complete overnight success we dreamed of. We knew that we wanted at least two dogs and a month or so after we got Faye we went to a rescue pound and got our very shy Daisy girl. She was so timid with us and very undernourished. However this did not stop her giving as good as she got with Faye. They would play, jump, bite, roll for hours with each other. I can honestly say that Faye stopped biting and nipping at us the day we brought Daisy home. That was it. She had a better pal to bite and they have been great buddies ever since. This really did answer the question ” how to stop a Puppy biting”? in no time at all.
Obviously number 7 is an extreme example but it was what we had planned on doing anyway so it worked great for us. However I am sure that if you try the above tips one will be a life or finger saver anyway. Faye had already totally calmed down but would still occasionally revert to miss bitey! Hopefully these tips will help if your Puppy doesn’t stop biting.
How to stop Puppy biting is down to some hard work from us. Many Puppies quickly grow out of it, whilst others will need many of the above techniques employed so that both Dog and owner have a happy life together.
May the Doggie Force be with you all.
Very informative post for the new puppy owners.
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Thanks My Doggies. I hope to see you around more.
Very good post. I will try a couple of these suggestions. I haven’t done the yelping. I wonder if I start now it will help, since I haven’t been doing it up to this point. A dog owner I ran into told me to push her gums? into her mouth and wrap them around her teeth with my fingers so that when she bites down, she bites herself and it will teach her not to bite hard. This actually has helped quite a bit but has not eliminated the biting. I might spray some Green Apple on my hands. But she bites my kids clothes and has torn some. Sigh. She’s a lab, by the way.
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Hi Natasha. I am sure it will help if you do “yelp”. I would also try the deep growl as well.
Hope to see you here again.
We have always used ‘yelping’ to keep our puppies from biting in the past. I just got a little one and the only thing I have found that works for her is if we say “eh, eh, eh” really loud. It’s not high pitched like a yelp but when we growl she thinks we’re playing. This usually gets her to stop from doing a lot of things.
Great post! Very useful for new puppy owners.
Hi Angela. Lovely to have you comment here. Sounds like you have found something that works, which is great.
There are lots of variants on the noise that works best. Glad you found one than works for you.
Feel free to leave comments whenever you wish.
All the best.
I agree with having two dogs works best. I know that it is extreme to say…..go get another dog. Like you…..we wanted another dog and that is when some of our problems disappeared too. Love your blog!
Yes some puppy really bites a lot even to their owner. The main skill is to hire a dog trainer i think so or get another puppy that doesn’t bite 🙂
You may also want to find out if you have a fear-biting puppy. That is, if he bites when he is in a state of panic. This is important to know because, if you have a fear-biter on your hands, there are other steps you’ll need to take to prevent your puppy from biting. Great post!
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Really nice post. Enjoyed reading it due to the alternatives for when the yelp doesn’t work.
I have a 8 weeks old Full Blooded Beagle who Loves to Bite anything she can sink her teeth into. Hands, Feet, Face, Arms, ive yelled at her and told her NO until im Blue in the Face. I have even Growled at her. NOthng helps. She has Tons of Toys to play with. So when she gets so bad i just put her in her Dog Crate and leave the room. I let her run outside and play with her toys, and she comes right back to me and starts to bite my feet, Which Hurts with all those Needle Teeth. I dont know what to do with her anymore??? Help??
Maybe for some pups, but my teething puppy just wants to chew and play and yelping gets him excited, and saying no all the time is non effective and exhausting. Our natural reaction is to scold, but here is an awesome and effective way to not have to get upset. It’s basically a quick time out. Any time he bites me, (or does anything else I don’t want him to be doing) I say “One more time” and hold up my finger. The next time he does it, or if he keeps doing it, I immediately say “Too bad” (only once) while I pick him up and put him in the bathroom or the closet, close the door and only leave him there for ten or twenty seconds, but no longer then one minute. If cries or scratches, I wait a few seconds to open the door till he stops. When I open the door I say “Try again? Good Boy.” Then I say “where’s your toy?” even a carrot or pine cone to chew on.
Do it as many times as you need to, if you stay persistent, this technique works so great, my puppy is about 8 weeks old and got the hang of it in one day.