How To Deal With Puppy Biting
There are actually a number of ways to deal with this. You can use one, several or a combination of these. Some work better than others, depending on the individual puppy. The first thing to keep in mind is that by using Learn to Earn type work and hand feeding your puppy’s entire ration of food during training, you already create more focus, patience and politeness around hands. Learning to sit and focus with closed mouth and polite responses earns rewards, anything else will not get a response or will send you away.
Helping puppies get used to being touched, restrained and collar grabbed by pairing those things with nice experiences and rewards helps them tolerate handling and reduces the desire to bite. This also prepares them for veterinary examinations or other situations where you may have to restrain your dog. It is far easier to teach this when they are small – trying to do it with a large adolescent or an adult is not fun!
I like to be touched – pairing the following with treats: touching ears, nose, opening the mouth, rubbing shoulders, touching feet, touching and lightly tugging the tail, touching under and around the tail (preparing for the thermometer), touching delicate private parts (for cleaning and veterinary examinations), touching around the eyes and opening them (prep for eye drops), scruff (for vaccinations), rubbing along the body, squeezing the ruff gently (preparing for vaccinations), squeezing the feet gently and flicking the nails (preparing for nail clipping or an IV drip), practicing firmer or more rough touch (preparing a dog for those who are less gentle or children who might grab more). We also want touch to be calming and not exciting. Touch can be over stimulating for some dogs so removing ourselves and trying again later is important if any over stimulation or too much excitement occurs. Alternatively we can try working at a lower energy level. We want handling to be associated with calm and relaxation. We can then also use this to help dogs relax in more stressful situations using touch.
Collar Grabs – pairing the following with treats: touching the collar, grabbing the collar, holding the collar, restraining with the collar… ideally all done when a puppy is already sitting (or lying down) and ideally when they are already calm to start with, then progressing to only rewarding when they sit if they are standing or moving. We want this to happen even if they are running around – we want the collar grab to mean sit and get calm. Collar grabs can be highly useful in calming a dog when taught this way.
This helps teach dogs the following: collar is held for lead on/off, don’t play “you can’t catch me”, how to be caught and restrained if the lead breaks – even by a stranger (the game is built up to allow others to do this too), collar holding does not mean struggle or bite the hands, the vet may have to hold the collar, if hands come toward you quickly it doesn’t mean get scared or that you will be hit – it means hands bring nice rewards.
Waving sleeves/feet/shoes and laces/trouser bottoms/shuffling feet – pairing these with treats initially simultaneously and then by presenting the item first and then rewarding. The item then “predicts” the reward.
Using place training and/or a pen to teach that patience and calm brings rewards, energy and biting sends me away – it is very effective if things are going wrong to remove yourself from your puppy and only when true calm is restored (not just waiting to have another chew on you!) that you return. A pen is a great place to do early training as you can simply step out of it without having a puppy chase your heels. This too easily turns into a game that is accidentally rewarded when you cross a room.
For those who don’t have room for a pen, tether training is highly effective and I like to include this anyway. It is a great way of teaching patience and that sometimes life is boring. Learning how to wait is just as useful for a pet dog as for a service dog. Tether training is a great half way house to being off lead and I feel is more useful at teaching invisible boundaries than a crate, baby gate or pen. It is also a great way to teach dogs that you may go out of sight and to be on their own by playing a game of “what brings me back” and it teaches dogs to learn not to pull on the lead as we start to reward when they are relaxed and on a loose lead. It is also great for teaching dogs about ignoring energy and that they don’t get to join in with everything unless invited which we do by making it into a game – calm and quiet brings rewards, not demanding behaviour.
Rolling treats as you walk along – this helps if your puppy is still persistent at times or if the lead is a tempting tug toy, or if you really do have to get away from your puppy and have missed the opportunity of tethering or using the pen at that particular moment. Roll/scatter the rewards along the floor and away from you, a little ahead of you if your puppy is on the lead.
Distractions and Treat Pouches – practicing just taking your hand in and out of your treat pouch and rewarding with the other hand can help dogs learn not to jump up and into the treat pouch. This also helps them start on distraction training. You can also take a bag of higher value rewards in and out of the treat pouch while rewarding with the other hand. Initially we do this simultaneously after which we then produce the distraction and then give the reward.
The yelp – this can work but is not my first recommendation because it all too often has the exact opposite effect. It can all too easily arouse a dog and increase the biting/mouthing behaviour. When used it should be really surprising for the puppy, enough that he or she stops what she is doing immediately and at that point we have to be quick enough to reward. Most people will inadvertently deliver a yelp at the wrong pitch or without enough surprise. If this method is used and there is an effective response, it is then important to stop activities and walk away – game over. Allow the puppy to have a think and calm down for a while.
Holding the bitey end away from you – this can also work if you are able to hold your puppy firmly and securely and safely. The puppy’s back will be towards you and his mouth away from you. Some puppies really squirm and teaching them that restraint and calm are important is also an essential part of puppy training. Dogs that don’t allow restraint or aren’t taught restraint and to get calm when held at this age can be the ones that will bite hard later on in life if they get stepped on or need to be restrained for some reason such as during veterinary treatment. We have to be very careful holding puppies near our faces – if they can access or nip at our faces and we flinch away, it is all too easy for a puppy to learn in that one instant – biting a human face will make them move away!
Check out Emily Larlham’s videos for a nice visual which covers a number of these ideas. Although she often uses a clicker she will also use the word “yes” as a marker word. For most people getting started and for first time dog owners, the marker word “yes” is usually easier than trying to handle a clicker as well.
Specific reminders for preventing chewing on sleeves, laces, trouser legs etc:
For many things, I prefer to use multiple rewards at a variable rate. Multiple rewards make it much easier for people who aren’t trainers to achieve success as they don’t have to be so perfect with their timing. Multiple rewards also help keep behaviours in place, for example, prolonging the sit or the down and when delivered at a variable rate they become even more effective. Multiple rewards are especially useful when rewarding alternative behaviours for things like emotional issues because we often can’t see where that emotion starts and ends.