There is nothing quite as painful as a puppy bite and I have known people to become terrified of their sweet little puppies as a result. They appear to erupt into this frenzy and it can be scary as well as seemingly uncontrollable and unpredictable. Fear not, I am here to bust some myths.
We should as much as we can allow our puppies to play appropriately with other puppies and dogs. This should be managed and monitored. It isn’t up to humans to teach bite inhibition. Dogs learn this when playing as puppies in the litter, when interacting with mum and when playing as juveniles. We should not be encouraging them to nibble on our hands or to see our hands as a toy during play.
Why puppies bite
There are a number of reasons puppies nip, bite, and chew. This behaviour starts before they leave the litter—as soon as they begin to develop teeth. For puppies using their mouth is a way to investigate their environment and a way of connecting. We have opposable thumbs and hands and fingers to touch and grab with, to get attention with and to stay stop with. Our puppies don’t.
Within the litter they begin receiving feedback on their bite strength from their mothers and littermates.
When puppies play together, if one becomes over excited and bites, the litter mate will become very still and boring and then move away. Biting too hard stops play. Puppy learns that to be able to interact and have fun they have to rein it in a bit. We know now that a yelp from the littermate doesn’t stop an over excited biting sibling, it can drive them to be even more over excited, so the “ouch” method is not something I ever recommend.
Bite Mum too hard while eating, and the buffet will get up and move away.
Puppies love to chase and tackle and mouth each other, often biting around each other’s faces and mouths, they will pounce, tug and wrestle and this play teaches them the lessons that need to be learned to survive in canine society. It’s great for both their physical and mental development. Dogs don’t communicate with verbal language; they communicate physically, through body language and contact.
When well-socialized dogs find themselves in conflict, the interaction often looks and sounds very scary with teeth flashing and growling. More often than not, these interactions are brief, however, and both dogs walk away without injury. It is maladaptive for dogs to go out of their way to hurt each other.
It may sound scary but it’s often a lot of bluster, and a highly ritualized display. If one or more of the dogs is under-socialized, though, the interaction pattern can change and a player is likely to get hurt. It’s important therefore that we allow our young dogs to interact when they are young to learn to communicate properly.
Biting for Attention
We are really good at ignoring our puppies when they are doing nothing and giving them attention when they are doing something we don’t want them to do. Try to have a good routine for them whereby you are allowing them to explore different toys and chews, do a little bit of fun training with them, simple things like simply saying their name and popping a treat down for them. Allowing them to chase and catch little toys, playing on a non-slip surface and keeping them close to the ground. Exploring novel items and different surfaces. If they do start to get bity try to consider why this might be, what are their needs at that time. Remember that with many toys, we add the value and bring them to life. Look for one player toys such as Kongs that encourage our dogs to relax and play on their own and good two player toys, such as long tuggy toys.
Biting during the zoomies
All puppies get the zoomies either morning or evening or both. This is their body clocks settling in. See if you can do some “brain” work with them 20 minutes before this behaviour usually starts. Brain work is great for making our dogs feel calmly fulfilled and is more important that high energy physical exercise. At the time of the zoomies you can scatter feed them in the garden if they have had all their vaccinations or in the house if not so that they slow down to use their nose. Perhaps have them in a pen or behind a barrier in a safe place so that they can’t practice unwanted behaviours on you.
Biting due to Teething
Licking, biting and chewing all help our dogs to relax. Chewing on a bone can be a full body workout for our older dogs and help to keep their teeth clean. For our puppies it can really help to relieve the pain of teething. Encourage them to chew on a Kong toy. You could dip a flannel in low sodium gravy or baby food and freeze it for them to chomp on. The cold will help to take the heat out of sore gums. If using a frozen Kong or toy, run it under a tap before giving it to the puppy.
Biting due to Frustration
Like us our dogs can get frustrated if they are prevented from doing something they REALLY want to do. This can look very aggressive. Think about what might be frustrating your puppy. Are you holding them back from something? Are you restraining them or holding them uncomfortably? Think about the trigger and avoid it and if you can give your puppy something else to do, focus on or chew instead. Distract them with a fun recall cue or use the counting game to get them to their pen for a rest.
Biting due to being over tired
Our puppies need a good 18 hours rest a day. Make sure that they have time to settle away from the hubbub of daily family life. Set them up in a safe place where they can chill and chew and rest undisturbed. Like young children they sometimes don’t know when to stop so a good, balanced routine is important in helping them to learn how to settle and that it feels good to relax and spend time undisturbed.
Biting due to being over stimulated or excited
On a similar subject to the two above, too much stimulation, noise, touching, people rushing around, will increase excitement levels in our puppies until they reach boiling point and can’t calm themselves down. Try to keep daily life around the puppy as calm and peaceful as possible within the home.
Biting to say please stop touching me
Dogs can’t push our hands away with their hands so you might find that they turn and mouth our hands as we touch them, pick them up or when we are putting harnesses and leads on. This is their way of saying, please don’t touch. It is important that we build up introducing harness and brushes and leads really slowly in conjunction with treats and chews or licki mats so that they learn that being touched is a positive thing and not something to dodge away from and avoid. Equally, we must ensure that we never grab our dogs, sweep them up suddenly or keep touching them to redirect them or move the around. Much better to use a counting game or a treat magnet or a targeting game to make it fun to go where you would like them to go.
Biting due to hunger
And finally…. Make sure they have good nutrition, regularly throughout the day. They too can suffer from a drop in energy and blood sugar.
Biting due to being in Pain
Our dogs can get growing pains. They may also have tummy ache or a pulled muscle. They will chew and bite an area of themselves or they may suddenly and “unpredictably” bite you.
