Puppy Training Biting How To Stop It
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012When you are puppy training, biting is one of the first issues that you will need to deal with. If you don’t train a puppy to quit biting then its possible that the biting may turn into aggressive as well as dangerous behavior as your dog grows. You may end up with an adult dog that fights, bites other dogs and maybe even is a danger to children.
It’s tempting to think of a little nipping as cute behavior and to laugh and pet the puppy if this happens. This reinforces the behavior, which means that if you do this, you might be rewarding them by showing them love and attention if they bite. This is the opposite of what you want to do, so it is very important to stop yourself from acting happy when the puppy includes biting in his or her play.
Remember that it is essential that everybody who is near to the puppy should be included in the puppy training biting techniques. Your puppy won’t learn, or will certainly learn much slower, if he is receiving different messages from different people in the family. Everyone, including kids, must understand that they must stop playing with the puppy any time that he bites them. They must stop giving him attention immediately.
On the other hand, there is no point in punishing the puppy for biting. A little nipping is natural when puppies are playing with one another, so of course this continues when the puppy is having fun with you or your kids. Your puppy will have trouble realizing that he has done anything wrong.
Stopping playing with the puppy is an essential rule, but there’s more that you can do while you are establishing good puppy training biting techniques.
When puppies are playing together, they will yelp any time that they are bitten too hard. This prevents the other puppy from biting them. So any time that your puppy nips your hand or foot, just yelp like his brothers or sisters would have yelped. Be sure to sound as similar to a puppy as possible.
When you do that, your puppy will probably let go so you can move away. Stop playing with him at once. Do not give him any more attention by talking or looking at him. Switch to doing something different that doesn’t involve your puppy at all. That way he will learn that you don’t like being bitten and if he wants lots of attention and play, he better not bite you.
You don’t have to stay away from him for too long. Puppies have a short attention span so everything is very immediate for him. The consequences of his behavior should happen right away, and after a few minutes you can go back to him if you want.
Obviously you will need to reward the good behavior too. Lots of people with dogs (as well as with kids) make a point of correcting them when they do something wrong, but neglect to reward them whenever they do something right. It’s like we take it for granted when they conduct themselves well. But a puppy will learn just as much from a reward as from a punishment.
So when you’ve been playing with him and he hasn’t bitten you at all, give him a reward for that. This form of puppy training biting that involves rewards as well as walking away will be the most successful strategy.
James Walker has written many articles on pet training. To learn about teaching a dog to fetch, please visit howtoteachadogtofetch.com
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