Why do puppies bite?
Puppies like biting everything, even you and your favorite belongings. To a little puppy, everything in the world is something strange, new and interesting. This means that like little babies, he wants to explore everything. So he will try to bite, to play with, and chew a new thing that he sees.
Smell and movement are especially irresistible to a puppy.
In addition, puppies have much energy of youth. They can keep doing and doing things without getting tired. After a sleep he is ready for playing and biting!! Here we have some good training tips to help your puppy stop biting.
Puppy Biting tip 1 – NILIF (nothing in life is free)
NILIF based on the perception that nothing in Life is Free. The best way to train your puppy is to create a strong bond with him and make him trust you. Nilif actually is, when we ask our puppy to do something and in return we award him whether with food, toys or affection.
A dog owner said: “I train my puppy to do some very simple commands”. Let’s check out what he did with his dog!
- Look
Look simply asks your puppy to have eye contact with you for a short amount of time.
- Showed him that I had piece of food
- I said “look” and brought the food close to the level of my eyes.
- My puppy followed the movement of my food
- As soon as he looks, I mark the behavior and reward him with some food from my other hand
- Touch
Touch asks a puppy to gently touch our hand with nose.
- Again, I had some food in my hand and I showed that to my puppy
- I closed my hand , move it a little and said “touch”
- My puppy followed the food. He will probably lick your hand but ignore him until he touches it with his nose.
- As soon as that happens, reward his behavior
- Sit
Sit is a useful command that all owners try to pass to their pet. To train my puppy to sit I used the same method and it worked!
- Firstly I showed my puppy that I had some food in my hand
- I closed my hand and move it over my puppy’s head and he started following my hand so he took a sitting position ready to jump and catch the food
- Repeat the motion until he gets a sit. Do not repeat the command. I only said “Sit” once.
- As soon as he did it, I marked the behavior and give him the food from my other hand.
The dog owner said: “once my puppy understood these three commands, I asked him to do something each time before we do an activity. For instance,
- Ask for a Look before a walk
- Ask for a Sit before the food
- Ask for Touch before a game
When my puppy bites, the owner said, I no mark his behavior and I hive him one alternative command (e.g. touch).
Image Source
Tip 2 – Drag Lead
By using a lead you can control and stop puppy from biting. In general when puppies are playing they get so over excited that sometimes cannot stop biting. In such situations, we think that a drag deal can help you! Most of times when our puppy bites us we try to stop him with our hands and arms.
However, all this movement will probably make him get more excited and think that we are playing with him. In order to make him stop you should stay calm, do not shout or yell at him, and do not move your body. You can calmly pick up the drag lead and move your puppy into a quiet area where he can calm.
Do not use an aversive collar such as choke chain or a prong. Such collars should only used during walks. Make sure that the loop of the drag lead does not catch on objects in the house while your puppy is moving around.
Puppy biting tip 3 – Lots of exercise and play
As we said, Puppies are over energetic and have a lot of curiosity. If we do not provide to them interesting activities they will probably find their own, like little babies. Bored puppies will usually chewing on books, curtains, shoes, furniture and people.
In order to avoid such thing you should provide him a lot of physical and mental activities. Buy them a new toy and do not forget daily walks that are very helpful for his health. Another good idea is to let you puppy play with other puppies too. This is something that they really like and burns their energy.
Puppy biting tip 4 – Rules and Routine
Puppies can learn quickly and are eager to please. You can set up a routine for you puppy including food time, play time, walk time and sleep time. In this way, our puppy does not develop bad habits. You can also set some good house rules, such as:
- No getting on furniture
- No biting people
- No guarding of toys
- No bulling other dogs
Puppy time is precious and passes very quickly, so do not waste it! We hope that we help you! Good luck with you new puppy!! ( Via SHIBA SHAKE )
