If
you watch a litter of puppies playing, you will notice that they spend
much of their time biting and grabbing each other with their mouths. This
is normal puppy behavior. When you take a puppy from the litter and into
your home, the puppy will play bite and mouth you. This is normal
behavior, but needs to be modified so you and the puppy will be happy.
The first thing to teach your new puppy is that human flesh is much more
sensitive than other puppies and that it really hurts us when they bite.
This is called bite inhibition. A puppy has very sharp teeth and a weak
jaw. This means that the puppy can cause you to be uncomfortable when
mouthing or puppy biting you, but can not cause severe damage. An adult
dog has duller teeth and a powerful jaw. This means that an adult dog
can cause significant damage when biting. ANY DOG WILL BITE GIVEN
THE RIGHT OR WRONG CIRCUMSTANCES! If a small child falls on your
adult dog and sticks a finger in the dog's eye, you should not be surprised
if the dog bites. If you do a good job teaching your puppy bite inhibition,
you should get a grab and release without damage. If you don't, you
may get a hard bite with significant damage.
It is simple to teach a puppy bite inhibition. Every time the puppy touches
you with its teeth, say "OUCH!" in a harsh tone of voice. This will probably
not stop the puppy from mouthing, but over time should result in softer and
gentler puppy biting.
The commands necessary to teach a puppy NOT to mouth, are easy and
fun. Hold a small handful of the puppy's dry food, say "take it" in a
sweet tone of voice, and give the puppy one piece of food. Then close the
rest of the food in your hand and say "off" in that same sweet tone of
voice. When the puppy has not touched your hand for 3 to 5 seconds, say
"take it" and give the puppy one piece of food. We are teaching
the puppy
"that off" means not to touch.
After a couple of weeks of the above training, here is how you are going
to handle puppy biting or mouthing:
Unexpected mouthing (you don't know the puppy is going to mouth,
until you feel the puppy's teeth ): "OUCH!"
Expected mouthing (you see the puppy getting ready to mouth you):
You say "OFF" before the puppy can mouth you.
The puppy is mouthing you because of a desire to play. You have to
answer the question, "Do I have time to play with the puppy now?" If you
do, then do "sit", "down", "heel" or other positive reward training. If the
answer is "No, I don't have time for the puppy, right now" then you need
to do
a time out (crate, or otherwise confine the puppy, so the puppy
can't continue to mouth you and get in trouble.