Stop Puppies From Nipping

Nipping puppies are a common occurrence. Puppies play hard with their littermates and when you bring your puppy home he transfers this behavior to you. Those sharp little teeth really hurt, however, and this is a behavior that needs to be nipped in the bud.

Nipping puppy behavior has nothing to do with teething or dominance. It is simply puppy play behavior that has gone wild. Buying chew toys and offering them to your puppy won't do anything to deter them from mouthing people or teach the puppy to have a safe mouth around children. Safe chew toys are a great idea and important to have but they teach puppies how to chew on puppy toys instead of people things. They don't teach puppies not to bite people.

Mouthing and nipping is usually a sign that the puppy is hyperstimulated and wants to play. They simply need to learn to play in a gentler way. Nipping and mouthing on people and having the people tell the puppy that it HURTS teaches the puppy the critical lesson of "bite inhibition" so they can learn better control over their aim with their mouth. Bite inhibition is something that puppies also learn from their dams and their littermates. Their control over their biting usually improves over time if you properly and consistently reinforce the message that you send. Your puppy will get better emotional self-control and physical coordination.

This is exactly the same lesson that 2- and 3-year-old human children have to learn about playing with other children: be gentle or no one will play with you. The goal is to have the puppy become gentler and gentler with their mouth so that being soft with their mouth becomes a habit. Or a skill. It takes time to build a habit.

You teach a puppy to be more gentle with his mouth by shrieking with pain when he nips you. You need to overdo it. Really let your puppy know that it HURTS. Follow this by immediately leaving the room and closing the door so your puppy cannot continue the biting. Some puppies may try to run after you because they still want to play so be sure to leave the room and close the door. Start out by shrieking over a painful nip and work your way to up a shriek about any tooth-to-skin contact at all. By the time your puppy is 4 1/2-5 months old they should have a very soft mouth if you apply this method consistently. This is the same method that is taught in most puppy kindergarten classes.

You are basically doing the same thing that your puppy's mother or littermates would do when he nipped them. His mother and littermates would cry out and stop playing with your puppy if he bit them too hard. He would learn that if he played too rough there would be no more play.

If you are playing with a puppy who starts to become overstimulated or who shows signs of nipping you can take a time-out. Stand up, turn your back on your puppy, cross your arms and look away. Stand still, even if your puppy jumps on you. Don't acknowledge your puppy. Don't speak to him. Count to 30. If your puppy has calmed down you can praise him and resume play. If he hasn't calmed down by a count of 30 try another count to 30. If that still doesn't work you should calmly leave the room, with the puppy still in the room. If your puppy is still showing signs of being overstimulated you should do a time-out with your puppy in his crate for 2-5 minutes. These are ways of teaching your puppy emotional self-control. Your puppy learns to calm himself down in order to get you to play with him some more.

If you teach your puppy using these methods it should solve your problems with nipping and becoming overstimulated when playing. You want your puppy to grow up to be a dog who has good control of his mouth and teeth and who doesn't become overstimulated and accidentally bite.

Time-outs can be used effectively when your dog is getting out of control. If your dog is barking excessively a time-out in his crate for a few minutes may get his mind off barking. Sometimes a dog may bark wildly at a squirrel or something else outside. Your dog may be overstimulated at these times and a time-out can help calm him down. There are some good ways to try to discourage barking behavior but a time-out may be the only thing that breaks the barking sometimes.