My dog won’t stop biting! He bites my hands, my pants, my sleeves…HELP!!!
Biting is an extremely common puppy activity and can last until the puppy is 6 months old and beyond depending on when you choose to stop reinforcing it! Puppies usually nip to get attention and to try to get others to play with them. And I’ll tell you, nipping is an extremely effective attention getter! Nothing gets a human screaming quite like a nip with razor sharp puppy teeth! But with some proper responses on your part, paired with prevention and creativity, you can have this problem “nipped in the bud” in no time!
First let’s look at the problem from the dog’s perspective:
Puppy: I’m bored and I want my human to play with me…Oh look they are walking by RIGHT NOW! I’m going to grab their pants to get their attention.
Human: Shaking pant leg wildly squealing NO, NO, NO.
Puppy: I LOVE TUG GAMES let me see if I can get more of this pant leg in my mouth chomp chomp!!!! Oh look…here comes their hands to play tug!!!!!!
Human: NO, I said NOOOO!!!! LEAVE GO OF MY PANTS!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO NOT MY SLEEVES!!!!
Puppy: Oh I love this game!! And clearly my human loves it!!! Look how much they’re playing!!!
Human: OWE!!!! NOW I’M BLEEDING!!! BAD DOG, BAD DOG!!!! To the crate!
Moral of the story…most puppies think they are playing with you and as you attempt to pry them from your clothes they just think you are playing even more. The key with this behavior is to teach your puppy what appropriate play looks like while preventing and discouraging inappropriate play.
Top 5 ways to stop biting and nipping NOW!
- Exercise and Rest- Make sure your puppy has enough stimulation breaks (physical and mental) throughout the day and enough rest. Puppies like toddlers can benefit from regular activities as well as regular nap/quiet times. By having these stimulation breaks you’re teaching your puppy how to get attention in a positive fashion as well as giving them an outlet for their energy.
Physical Stimulation: Tug, brisk leashed walk around the yard, fetch, play with another dog, and the list can go on. Letting your dog out it the backyard alone is NOT necessarily enough physical stimulation. They want you to play with them.
Mental Stimulation: This can be more tiring than physical. Get 4 empty boxes and hide treats in it for them to find, give any sort of stuffed food toy like a Kong, buster cube, etc that the puppy can work for their food from, a quick clicker session teaching something fun (nose touch, give paw, ring a potty bell), quick session of puppy push ups (sit, down, sit, down, down, stand, etc).
Rest: If your puppy seems too wound up sometimes it’s because they’re tired. Place your puppy in their crate with something to chew on (frozen filled Kongs are a favorite) and let them relax for a bit. - Bitter Apple Deterant-If pant legs are your puppy’s favorite place to nip try a little Bitter Apple on the bottoms of your pants. I’ve found that most people aren’t always aware enough to stop this beforehand so this helps by giving the puppy a bad taste when they sample your pants. But don’t go over the time and coat your arms like one desperate owner did. Remember, you want your puppy to associate you with good things as much as possible!
- Toy-Carry a toy in your pocket or clipped to your waistband. As your puppy approaches stick the toy in his mouth and only pet him when his mouth is occupied. A mouth that has a toy in it, is a mouth that can’t nip. If your puppy is running at you with “the look” in his eyes, you can also toss the toy to divert his attention and then start the petting when he picks it up.
- Leash-If your puppy is doing “drive by nips” put your puppy on a leash. Allowing the puppy to rehearse the behavior, running up and nipping over and over again, is just reinforcing it. Put the puppy on a leash and assess if the puppy has had enough of #1 today (stimulation and rest). If no to either, time to get to work, if yes to both then start reinforcing # 3—you only get attention when your mouth is occupied.
- Assess Situation-Assess if your puppy is doing this behavior at a particular time each day. Meaning does your puppy only nip during your favorite TV show? During dinner? When getting ready for bed? If so, prepare for this. Do short training sessions during commercial breaks and have appealing toys to give during the show. Or crate the puppy while you are occupied and periodically give treats while crated for quiet behavior. Remember a crated puppy is a safe puppy. They’re a puppy that isn’t chewing things they shouldn’t and you aren’t inadvertently reinforcing things you don’t want reinforced like nipping.
Reinforcing nipping is easy to do. If YOU THE OWNER are doing any of these things, stop NOW to stop reinforcing nipping.
- Rough housing with the puppy to the point where they are nipping. Your play should be interspersed with relaxation. If not, and you’re winding your puppy up and they are going over the top again and again you are reinforcing that behavior.
- Running from the puppy when they are nipping. Some puppies have a high chase response and it also provokes nipping. Running games with your puppy are fine unless it encourages the nipping. Make a plan to stop the nipping first then resume chase games.
- Tugging your clothes, arms, legs, hair, etc from the puppy while giggling and laughing and then not planning on how you’ll stop it next time. This sequence just reinforces the nipping game with your puppy. So if your puppy is grabbing any of these things have a plan to stop it. That might mean your puppy has to drag a leash around the house and you step on it when they get close to you in the house or it might mean you carry a toy, but in any case you need a plan to no rehearse the bad behavior.
Personal story
Though I grew up with parents that raised Dalmatians, my very first dog, a Great Dane, was a HORRIBLE nipper. Now one might ask, “Can a Great Dane nip or would you just call that a bite?” Well let’s just say in either case, it’s not something you want going on for very long. She wasn’t into ankle biting (beneath her…literally!), but she was instead into hair, shirts and arms. She once grabbed the back of my shirt and ripped it off while we were in the yard…this left me standing there in my bra! She was doing one of her famous “drive by” nips. It was when she tried to nip my grandfather who was on blood thinners that enough was enough. I did a routine of putting the toy in her mouth and petting if she was being nippy, giving her Kongs to keep her busy if I wasn’t able to give her undivided attention and leash walking her outside to stop her from doing drive by nips. We were consistent and within a few weeks the nipping became nearly non-existent.
These methods will work. But it’s up to you to determine how you’re reinforcing nipping and interrupt that chain of behaviors and start implementing good behaviors.
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