Stop Puppy Biting - Train Your Puppy to Stop Biting on You
87Why Do Puppies Bite?
Puppies like biting everything, including you and your prized belongings.
Unlike us, puppies do not have opposable thumbs, so they manipulate stuff with their mouths in the same way that we manipulate stuff with our hands. To a puppy, everything is new, interesting, and exciting. This means that puppy will try to bite, play with, and chew just about anything that he sees.
Smell and movement are especially irresistible to a puppy.
In addition, puppies have the infinite energy of youth. Like the Energizer Bunny they can keep going, and going, and going. After a nap, their engines rev-up from SLEEP to GO faster than you can catch your breath and shout "no bite!".
Here are some puppy obedience training tips to help stop your puppy from biting.
1. Stop Puppy Biting - NILIF
NILIF stands for Nothing in Life is Free. It is a great way to train your puppy, build a strong bond with your puppy, and remain sane in the presence of your bouncing ball of fur.
NILIF is simple - all you need to do is ask puppy to do something for you first before you give puppy anything in return. This includes all food, dog toys, freedom, and yes, even your affection.
First, train puppy to do some very simple commands. Here are three simple commands -
- Look. Look simply asks puppy to give you eye contact for a short amount of time.You can train this one by showing puppy that you have a piece of food. Say look and bring the food up to the level of your eye. Puppy will naturally follow the movement of your food enhanced hand and look at you. As soon as puppy looks, mark the behavior (Good!) and reward puppy with some food from your other hand.
- Touch. Touch asks puppy to gently touch your hand with his nose. Again, let puppy see that you have some food on your hand. Then close your hand and move it a short distance away from puppy. Say "Touch". Puppy will naturally follow the food. At first, puppy may try to mouth or lick on your hand. Don't do anything until puppy touches your hand with his nose. Then mark the behavior (Good!) and reward puppy with some food from your other hand.
- Sit. Sit is a useful evergreen command. Even after your dog has matured into an adult you will still find this command very handy. To train a Sit, show your puppy that you have some food in your hand. Close your hand and move it over and above your puppy's head. Your puppy will naturally want to follow your hand which will cause him to turn his head up and naturally move his rump down into a sitting position. Some dogs will move backwards instead of sitting. That is fine. Just keep repeating until you get a Sit but don't keep repeating the verbal command. Only say"Sit" once. As soon as puppy sits, mark the behavior (Good!) and give puppy a treat from your other hand.
Once puppy understands these simple commands, always ask him to do something for you, before you do anything for him in return.
- Ask for a Look before giving puppy affection or tummy rubs.
- Ask for a Sit before you open the door for puppy to go on his daily walk.
- Ask for a Touch before you give puppy his interactive food toy.
This teaches puppy that the best way to get what he wants is to do what you want first. Next time puppy bites, non-mark the behavior (Ack-Ack) and give him an alternate command (e.g., Look). This gets puppy to stop biting and to look at you instead.
2. Stop Puppy Biting - Drag Lead
Sometimes puppies get so excited while playing that they are no longer able to listen to you. In general, you want to step in and have a play break before this happens. However, you may sometimes miss your window of opportunity and puppy becomes so excited that he will not stop biting.
In such situations, it is extremely useful to have a drag lead on puppy. By using a lead you can easily control and stop puppy from biting.
Often, when a puppy bites, our instinct is to try and stop him by using our hands and arms. We push back, shout, and move a lot. All this hand and arm movement will only get puppy even more excited because he thinks we are playing with him. Furthermore rapid movement may trigger a dog's prey drive and get him to bite more, and bite harder.
To stop a puppy from biting, it is important to stay calm, don't shout, and not move in a fast and erratic fashion. Instead, just calmly pick up the drag lead and move your puppy into a quiet area where he can calm down.
Make sure to only use a flat collar with the drag lead. Do not use a training collar such as a choke chain or a prong. Such collars should only be used during supervised walks and should be removed at the end of the walk. I also cut the loop of my drag lead so that it does not catch on furniture or objects in the house while puppy is running around.
3. Stop Puppy Biting - Lots of Exercise & Play
Puppies are extremely energetic and curious. As such, they often need a lot of activity and play time. If you do not provide interesting and supervised activities for them to do, they will figure out their own activities which will rarely appeal to our human sensibilities. Bored puppies will start chewing on books, curtains, furniture, and people.
To reduce puppy biting, make sure to provide puppy with a lot of physical and mental stimulation.
Interactive food toys are a big favorite with my dogs. Instead of presenting food to them on their silver dog bowl, I put all of their food into interactive food toys. In this way, they must work every day for their food. This gives them both physical and mental stimulation.
Daily walks will also help to drain a puppy's energy. Make sure that your puppy has had all of his shots before taking him to areas where there are other dogs and where there is poop from other dogs.
Puppies also love playing with other puppies. Nothing burns quite as much energy as a fun puppy chase and wrestling session. Make sure that all your puppy's play-mates are balanced, healthy, and have had their requisite number of shots.
Other fun puppy games include soccer, catch, fetch, tug, and flirt pole.
Does your puppy have a biting problem?
See results without voting4. Stop Puppy Biting - Rules and Routine
Puppyhood is the best time to teach a dog new tricks. Puppies learn quickly, and they remember what they learn.
Set up a routine for your puppy as early as possible and also start enforcing a set of house rules.My puppy routine includes food time, play time, walk time, chew time, and most important of all - sleep time. Puppy sleep time is when I get some much needed time-off away from Energizer puppy. *Hooah!*
In the beginning, it is best to institute more house rules and to address them consistently. In this way, puppy does not develop any bad habits which will be hard to break later on.
My dogs have the following house rules -
- No getting on furniture.
- No biting on people or people stuff.
- No pawing on people.
- No guarding of toys or food.
- No bullying of other dogs.
When it comes to puppies, an ounce of prevention is definitely worth more than a pound of cure.
Congratulations on getting a new puppy! Remember to have fun and take lots of puppy pictures.
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I have a beautiful Shiba, and she certainly has lots of the behaviors you have described. She is definately a handful. But she captivates me. You have given me some good ideas and advice. Isabelle screams when she meets or sees new people and other animals. It is very annoying and we wish we could stop her from that. she also howls, which is a more pleasant sound. We have a 10year old Chihuahua, that she loves, but to say the least doesnt like her. She doesnt give up though, even though the chihuahua bites her, she yipes then goes back for more. She has started humping so I need some good ideas how to stop that. She bites my teenage boys feet and pants, and when he tries to pick her up she growls and snaps at him. She now a year old and I have spoiled her but have trained her to sit, lay down, dance, and shake paw to hand. I love this dog and want her to behave, but when I let run threw the house she runs to every room and grabs something and wont drop it when I tell her to she runs from me. I know I'm doing something wrong, Please Help?????
Hello Jessica,
The best way to help a dog with biting issues is to first identify why the dog is biting. Often, dogs bite out of fear, especially when they feel they are cornered.
One of the best ways to deal with fear aggression is to slowly desensitize the dog to people using distance, focus, and rewards. Desensitization exercises help the dog to re-associate people with positive experiences so that ultimately he will no longer fear it.
Given the bite power of the American Staffordshire Terrier it is probably best to get help from a professional dog trainer. A trainer will be able to observe the dog in real-time, read his body language, and identify what exactly is triggering the aggression.
One of my dogs, a Shiba Inu, was very mouthy and reactive to other dogs. Getting help from positive reinforcement trainers helped me a lot in terms of retraining him.
Hello ILUVIZZY11,
Yeah Shibas really can be a BIG handful. But as you say, they are also very funny and lovable. :)
Like your girl, my Shiba also loves stealing things and starting a catch-me-if-you-can game. The thing that was most helpful for us in terms of stopping his behavior is the drag-lead.
When Shiba Sephy was young, I put on a long drag lead whenever he was in the house. If he starts his stealing game, I would just step on the drag lead and them put him in timeout. He stopped stealing after a while because he learned that he could not get away with it.
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-biting-how-to-stop
Drag leads should only be used with a regular flat collar (not a training collar) and only under supervision.
Here are some other things that helped with my Shiba when he was young -
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-training-tips-and-
Let us know how it goes. Big hugs to your Shiba. :D
hiya i have 2 jack russells both girls lady is 4 and bonnie is 6 months old, bonnie is constantly play biting with lady and it concerns me that lady is going to get stressed as bonnie has only been with us a week what can i do to stop her any help would be appriciated i have tried saying no to her but she just carrys on thanx claire x
Hello Claire,
When I got my new Sibe puppy (she is now about 7 months old) she did the same thing to my two adult dogs.
One thing that really helped with her is to put a drag lead on her (only with a flat collar and not with a training collar). Whenever she was overdoing it with my other dogs, I would non-mark her (Ack, ack) and lead her away using the drag lead. Then I would engage her in doing something else.
I also set up a very fixed schedule for puppy so that during rest time she is tethered in the kitchen with a frozen Kong (under my supervision). That way my other dogs have some peaceful time as well.
When I am not home, I usually put puppy in her crate so that she can't get into trouble. :)
Here are a few more things that I do with puppy -
http://shibashake.com/dog/second-dog-introducing-a
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-training-tips-and-
Hugs to your dogs.
My dog is fishes.
my pup Roxy is very cute but she bites and I can't help her anymore this training prosses is kind of working I wish there was an easier way!!!
Hello Catrina,
It gets better with time.
Usually, the most difficult time of training is at the beginning. Once our dog learns her boundaries and gets used to her routine, things will get a lot easier.
Good luck and hugs to Roxy. :D
hi my puppy is only 11 weeks old and we have almost had him for three weeks. He was perfect for the first week aand a half. His name is bruno and he is a german shepherd dog. Everyone loves him but recently my dad went away on a business trip and he went nuts, now he is non stop biting and chewing and barking back when we tell him off, what should we do? he also has a knack for biting feet
Hmmm, that is very interesting.
It sounds like perhaps your dad is the one that sets up structure and routine for the dog so he is probably a bit stressed and testing his boundaries with the changes.
In general, what has worked out best for me and my dogs is for everyone in the family to use the same training methods and set up the same rules and structure. Consistency is very important for dogs.
Following the NILIF (Nothing in Life is Free) program helps a lot.
http://ezinearticles.com/?NILIF---Nothing-in-Life-
Also, I have found that it is best to stay calm when interacting with my dogs. If I get stressed, angry, or frustrated, they get even more crazy.
When my new puppy bites, I calmly non-mark her (No or Ack-ack) and I redirect her onto biting something acceptable, e.g. a chew toy.
If she continues to bite, then I withdraw all my attention from her by folding up my arms and turning away.
If she escalates her behavior and jumps and bites then I say time-out and calmly take her to the time-out area.
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-biting-how-to-stop
Here are some more things that helped with my puppy -
Hi We have a 15 week Malamute/Husky male called Teeko. He is good when we say sit which is before all meals. BUT.. he just won't stop biting. Everytime he starts we put him outside, but he just doesn't seem to learn that this is a punishment. What can we do ? He gets taken for walks, lots of ball play, lots of praise but still the biting. He is so nice when he's asleep. Even if we just want to have a pat he turns the head and starts chomping.
"Everytime he starts we put him outside, but he just doesn't seem to learn that this is a punishment."
For my dogs going outside is actually a fun experience so they don't see that as a punishment either. In terms of timeouts I usually put them in a boring low-stimulus place where there is nothing to do. My usual timeout area is the laundry room. I make sure it is safe in there, but there is nothing to chew on or play with.
Bite inhibition training is also very useful for my dogs. This teaches them to control the force of their bites.
http://shibashake.com/dog/bite-inhibition
Another thing that helped a lot with my dogs is following the NILIF (Nothing in Life is Free) program.
Here are some things that helped with my dogs when they were puppies -
Thanks for the tips, you confirmed my suspicion that my puppy bites when play sessions are overdue. This is my first dog (since I was a kid anyways) and I got him from a shelter that had no background info on him (e.g. Abuse, neglect, ect). He seems very loving but sometimes I worry he has other behaviors I am yet to see. Thankfully he is pretty young (18 weeks) and still impressionable.
Hello Sara,
Congratulations on your new puppy.
My Sibe puppy is now about 8 months old. She is a lot of fun and is always brimming with energy. She is also pretty food focused, which really helps with training.
What is your puppy's name? He sounds like a lot of fun as well. Definitely take lots of pictures and share a link here when you have the time. They grow up very quickly. :)
Hello! I have a super cool malamute/husky pup who is just 4 months old. He is really smart and playful, a bit stubborn, but I have patience. One thing though I am having issues is his biting...but only with me! lol. He lives with my and my fiance and he only mainly bites me. I have set rules, I taken away play time. I am very firm. but he still bites me when I walk. I sometimes wonder if its a "I love you so much I want to bite you" situation lol? if that even exists? the reason I say this is because I am his sole caretaker, I am with him 24/7.
I have tried the suggestions above, but still only bites me. Is it something that just goes away as long as I continue with my strict rules on biting? Any help is appreciated! :)
Hello Stef,
Have you tried using timeouts? When my Sibe puppy bites me, I non-mark her (Ack-ack) and give her an alternate command, e.g. Sit. If she does this she gets rewarded with affection and sometimes a treat.
If she continues with her biting I fold up my arms, stand up, and turn away from her, thereby withdrawing all my attention. Usually when puppies bite they are just trying to get attention and play with us. By withdrawing my attention I teach puppy that sitting calmly gets her attention and affection, but biting on me gets her ignored.
If she escalates her behavior and jumps and bites my clothes, then I say time-out and lead her to a boring timeout area. In this way she learns that when she jumps and bites she not only loses my attention but also her freedom in the house.
Hi, I have a 11 week old Pomeranian lately she's been very aggressive, yesterday she bit me in the foot!! What can I do to make her stop? Also, me and my fiancé are trying to potty train her but she still pees and poops everywhere!! She chews and drags the puppy pads!! Please help!
Here is more on how to stop puppy biting-
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-biting-how-to-stop
For potty training, I usually train puppy to go outside-
i was wondering when you put your dog in timout, do you close the door so he cant get out? If you do close the door how long do you keep him in there.
I have a 2 year old Pit Bull Terrier mix and just recently got her from a shelter. Things were going good for a while but now she is biting constantly... she bites on her bed, my clothes, and ME. I am covered in HUGE bruises all over and I don't know how to get her to stop. She is so loving and follows me everywhere but when ever I play with her this happens. She is high energy and i like to take her out for a walk and play but I have stopped playing cause of what she does to me. Im assuming she is just playing but i need this to stop. Ive tried just about everything "timeouts", sprays, giving her a toy instead, holding her mouth.... everything i have done has made it worse. HELP!!!
Hello Samantha,
What has helped with my dogs is bite inhibition training. Bite inhibition teaches a dog to control the force of his bites, especially when interacting with people.
http://shibashake.com/dog/bite-inhibition
As for playing, I always have very strict rules with my dogs during play. I also have many breaks in-between so that they learn to calm down and to listen to me, even when they are excited. As soon as I notice the dogs starting to get over-excited, I stop play and do some obedience commands.
http://shibashake.com/dog/dog-play-fun-games-to-pl
Finally, what has made the biggest difference with my dogs in terms of biting, is for me to stay calm and to always be consistent. Every time my dog bites, I non-mark and withdraw my attention. If he continues, I calmly say timeout and remove him to a timeout area. If he starts biting again when he comes out, he goes in for a longer timeout. Then I just repeat.
How often we need to repeat this will depend on the temperament of the dog. Stubborn dogs will require more repetitions.
Hello I have a deer head chihuahua who is a little over a year old. She is so adorable and lovable, whoever she has this one biting issue!! She's not aggressive at all. Well when we come in from being out at say the store or something. Naturally she is excited when we return. She'll do the whole run around crazy and jump on things but then as she's sitting on the couch or bed as you walk past she bites you. Not hard or aggressively but bites. My biggest concern is she loves children but when she first meets them she jumps up and bites their hand. It's kind of like her little greeting. Now she never hurts anyone while doing this but I hear " oh she bit me not hard but she just nibbled on my finger." Help!! I know she isn't hurting them but I still do not want her doing this. What if she does this and someone decides to be silly and make an issue of it. What can I do?
What has worked well with my own dogs is to do-
1. Bite inhibition training. This teaches a dog to have a soft mouth and to control the force of her bites.
http://shibashake.com/dog/bite-inhibition
2. I also teach my dogs that it is not acceptable to bite on people. As you say, dogs may inadvertently hurt seniors and children even when they are just trying to play.
Here are some of my experiences with puppy biting-
hi i just got a new dog and he is trying to bite people and he whines but he doesnt play that much also he is around 6 weeks old and a yorkie
My family just bought a 2 month old German Shepherd pup who just loves to bite me and my things but even my simple comand of 'NO!" doesnt work on him all that much.
Hello Marissa,
If my puppy does not stop biting after I non-mark her (No or Ack-ack), I follow-up with some action.
First, I withdraw my attention by standing up, folding my arms, and turning away from puppy.
If my puppy stops biting and calms down, I praise her and start giving her attention and affection.
If my puppy escalates her behavior, jumps on me, and bites my clothes, I take her to time-out.
Hi. I've read a great deal of your training advise and have found it very helpful. My 10 month old Shiba is a fantastic dog about 70% of the time and the other 30% he's a serious handful. Maybe that's a good ratio for a Shiba? He's the first dog that I've raised so I don't have much to compare him to and I'm kind of making things up as I go. He's learned quite a bit and bites far less than he used to (those puppy teeth were brutal) but he still chases and tackles the cat (when he's not grooming the cat) and unfortunately it causes my (ex) boyfriend to become enraged. He has far less patience than I do, and as a result he's much more frustrated by my Shiba's less than perfect behvior. This past week he tried to protect the cat, got bit, and then seized the dog by the scruff of the neck, lifting him high into the air. When I complained, he tossed the dog down the hallway. I was horrified. I can't risk having my dog injured by my loved-one and I broke up with him the next day. We've been together 3 years and have been living together the last 2. I realize this is not a relationship advise column, but what I'm looking for is a way to convince him (and future suitors) that the dog requires patience and that anger only heightens his bad behavior. I figured it was worth a shot to reach out to an outside source. I'm fiercely protective of my animals, and I fear that the next man might do even worse.... So here I am seeking human-animal relationship advise. Any words of wisdom welcome.
Hello Sasha,
You pose some really interesting questions.
1. Calm energy.
I think one thing that all trainers can agree on is that calm energy is important in dog training. One thing that helped when we got a Shiba, is that we both watched dog training programs together. Then, it becomes a joint activity, and we discussed the various techniques after the show. Discussing a program provides a nice, and less personal framework, for getting different people on the same page.
We also read various dog training books and discussed those as well.
2. Being calm and controlling our anger can be difficult.
I have a worse temper than my partner, so being calm does not come easily. However, I really love my dogs, and I could see that whenever I lost my temper, it really caused them stress. That really provided very strong motivation for me to change my ways.
Depending on temperament, I think some people may need extra help and motivation to manage their anger.
Did you talk to your bf after the incident? What did he say? Was he interested in discussing the issue?
What kind of relationship does he have with Shiba? Does he feed, walk, or play with Shiba?
3. Getting everyone involved
I do more stuff with the dogs, but I make sure to include my partner in doing things with them every day. He feeds them breakfast every day, and walks one dog in the morning. During the weekends he spends extra time with them. In this way, the dogs bond with both of us, and there is less of a my-dog-your-dog situation.
4. Getting a professional trainer.
Getting advice from an outsider and an expert can also help. Disagreements on bringing up a dog can often be taken personally when it comes from a loved one, or someone in the family. Often, it is easier to take such advice from an outsider.
Hope this helps. Would be interested in hearing your further thoughts on this as well.
Hi there. The boyfriend has very little interest in taking care of the dog. I was the one who wanted a dog (I waited 15 yrs!) and so I try to not burden him with day to day activities. He almost never joins us on walks (although I would have liked the company) and rarely feeds or teaches the dog. He does sometimes play ball with him, which the dog truly loves. Their relationship was rocky from the start... he was not prepared for the biting and sometimes feral nature of a Shiba puppy. Neither was I frankly, but I have an enormous amount of patience when it comes to animals. Not so much with humans....
At any rate, before aquiring a dog, we watched tons of Dog Whisperer and discussed every episode. After getting the dog, he decided that the show seemed unhelpful in the puppy phase, and stopped watching. I read tons of books on dog training and he occassionally skimmed one or two for choice bits.
He's very fond of informing me that he did "not want this animal."
Although there are times when they get along beautifully and he's very good with Maverick (the dog). But overall... it's been a rocky road between the two of them.
With regard to Cesar Millan (whom I greatly admire) - the alpha roll has only caused chaos in our home. Maverick responds horribly to it and the violence only escalates.
What I take away from the show is keeping my intention in my mind and trying to focus on my energy and what I want the dog to do or not do. It seems to work really well. I just can't seem to make the boyfriend believe this is a great way to connect with a canine.
And yes, we've discussed the incident quite a bit.
He claims the dog was in no danger and (after a rant about how it was a human's right to kill a biting dog) he insisted that he would always lash out when feeling cornered and attacked, but not with deadly force.
We can't really seem to agree on what transpired.
I would love to hire a private trainer but was out of work for 6 months and money is very tight right now, so I'm still reading up on dogs and more training advice. And looking for a new place to live.... As I've just grown so weary of the constant fights... most surrounding how to raise a dog. And then reminders about how he never wanted one. I'm sensing I need to find a new bf that truly loves dogs - and most importantly - can exercise restraint and extreme patience with them.
I notice that you're located in CA. If you can recommend a great (positive reinforcement) trainer in the LA/OC area, I'd be very curious to talk to them.
"the alpha roll has only caused chaos in our home. Maverick responds horribly to it and the violence only escalates."
Yeah, I had the same experience with Sephy.
"I'm sensing I need to find a new bf that truly loves dogs - and most importantly - can exercise restraint and extreme patience with them."
That is very well said. I think that is the crux of the issue.
"If you can recommend a great (positive reinforcement) trainer in the LA/OC area, I'd be very curious to talk to them."
I am actually in northern CA. I have only visited LA a couple of times, so I don't know the area well.
The trainers that I liked most either work in a well-run shelter, or are in charge of a good dog daycare center. In both these cases, they had a variety of balanced dogs that could work together with my dog.
Jessica 5 months ago
I have a 3 year old American staffordshire terrier and he is starting to bite people!! What can I do to stop this?