You can envision your puppy’s daily desire to chew, bite, and generally gain reinforcement through his mouth like a mountain:
Ideally, you want to wear this mountain down every day. Once your puppy has chewed his mountain of chewing desire away, he will not show any more undirected mouthiness.
(It is sort of an opposite Cup Theory – If Your Dog Doesn’t Listen – What Fills His Cup?)
Chewing on rubber/plastic/rope/stuffed toys often only does this to the mountain:
Most of that mountain is still there – and so is your puppy’s desire to mouth and chew your arms!
Because rubber does not taste good. Your puppy will chew it enough to take the very edge of his chewing desire – the tip of the iceberg – but not enough to wear down the entire mountain.
He rather turns to something that actually takes good for that, such as your hands.
If you don’t want your dog to target his “undirected mouthiness” towards you, you need to give him plenty of opportunities to take down this mountain every day, with chew articles that taste really good.
That means that they should ideally be made from animal matter – such as bully sticks, cow hooves, yak milk chews or (a big favorite of mine): Stuffed Kongs.
Once the chew items taste good for your puppy, he will interact with them much longer, grinding off more and more of his “mountain of mouthiness”:
Once your dog has “chewed out” his daily mouthiness mountain, he will no longer show the undirected mouthing. His desire to be active with his teeth has been fulfilled.
Your Puppy’s Chewing Phase
Puppies do not understand this “desire to mouth” and how they can satisfy it. They just go and mouth whatever is closest (often their owner or a piece of furniture).
You as the owner need to schedule chewing times every day and make sure your puppy has quiet and safe spaces and delicious chewing items.
This means:
- No older dogs around that might take away the chew items
- No kids should be allowed to make the puppy play during “chew time” or take his chews away
- There need to be plenty of different chew items for your pup to choose from
Ideally you should present your puppy with chew items throughout the day.
Do not only offer him something to chew when he is already biting you!
Instead, regularly giving him chew items will prevent him from ever instigating the biting in the first place.
Puppies Biting During Play
Puppies that bite specifically during play have a different origin of biting.
It is much more directed (towards things that move/are close to their toy) and usually once the puppy has “latched on”, he is more insistent on holding his bite than in “undirected mouthiness”.
This type of biting stems from the inherent play/prey drive that all dogs have to a certain level.
All play mimics some kind of hunting behavior. Whenever we play with toys, the toy is the prey and our dog is pretending to go through (and having fun with) some part of the predatory sequence.
Like already with the chew items, the pet industry isn’t exactly helpful with appropriate puppy toys. Nearly all toys you can find in the toy aisle are:
- Too hard
- Too short
- Not prey-like enough
Traditional puppy rope toys are tiny. They are so small that even if a puppy made an effort to not bite your hand, he might not be able to always pinpoint where his mouth goes. Add on top of that that the toy is so hard that your puppy might not actually enjoy tugging on it (especially soft-mouthed breeds, and teething pups). Your sleeve next to the toy is a much better option – soft, big, fluffy, much more prey like.
The best toys for puppy play are not actually toys. An old and torn-up t-shirt will be a much more fun for your dog than a small and hard “actual toy” from the pet store.
Just before the lockdown I had a local puppy consultation for a pup who would bite his owners’ hands every single time they played. I had them get out an old shirt and play with that (the shirt was bigger than the puppy!). For the first time ever, the pup showed appropriate play behavior – no biting hands, no attacking the human, but actually “fighting” with the shirt. It was not the puppy being “bad” at playing – it was just that he had bad toys beforehand!
How Do You Assert Dominance Over A Puppy?
You shouldn’t try to assert dominance over your puppy. He does not know that you don’t want him to bite you. If you treat him harshly, you will break his trust and set yourself up for potential reactivity issues down the road.
A much better way to handle a puppy who is wild and wound up is to simply walk away. Put your puppy into a safe area such as an exercise pen and let him calm down. Puppies often become extra crazy when they are very tired, just like kids.
When he has relaxed and taken a little nap, he will likely be easier to handle already.
How Do I Get My Puppy To Stop Biting My Hands And Feet?
Sometimes puppies become a bit (or very much) crazy and cannot think anymore. They are on a roll of adrenaline and games and even when offered appropriate toys might decide to keep on biting your hand, feet, sleeves etc.
In such a scenario, it is an ok – and sometimes the best – solution to just end the game, get up and leave. You do not want your puppy to rehearse biting you in a play frenzy. It is usually clear when a puppy loses his mind during wild play and starts to just bite whatever he wants. Make your exit brief and swift, do not scold the puppy – but definitely interrupt the unwanted behavior and stop the play session.
How To Discipline A Puppy For Biting
You should never discipline or punish your puppy for biting. In many cases the puppy will actually bite you back after a harsh correction, and then you really have a problem on your hands.
This is a tricky one that you should really watch out for, as it can easily morph into a more serious communication problem between puppy and owner.
A typical scenario would be the puppy doing something and the owner wants to reprimand him, bends down, wags his finger in the puppy’s face, tells him “No!” in a stern voice and the pup reacts by biting the hand.
This is not the puppy “talking back” or “wanting to be alpha” – it is the puppy drawing a line and setting a boundary of what makes him feel uncomfortable.
The scolded puppy most likely has no idea what he is getting scolded for. All he knows is that someone is bending over him in a threatening manner, intruding his personal space and maybe even raising their voice. Of course he is going to let that person know he does not think this is ok!
You should never put your puppy in such a situation. There is really no behavior that needs to be “reprimanded”. Puppies learn through management (controlling their access to the environment – such as for example not letting them roam the whole house during potty training), reinforcing good choices, setting them up for success and limiting the situations in which they can be “wrong” in the first place.
Putting you and your puppy in scenarios in which you scold him, and he tries to tell you (with his teeth no less!) that he feels really uncomfortable with that, is never good and needs to be avoided by all costs.
Hang In There!
It’s never fun to be bitten, mouthed and chewed on. The good news is that with proper management and the right reactions, your puppy will stop biting.
And now have fun with your puppy, and enjoy watching him grow up.
If you are raising a puppy during the COVID-19 shutdown, this article on Socializing Your Quarantine Puppy might also be useful.
Happy Training!
