Puppies love playing, chewing and biting everything, exploring the world around them. Including their favorite people. Puppies bite our fingers, jump on our feet – they are exploring the human body using their mouth and teeth, since they don’t have hands.
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And this might seem cute when the puppy is just 2 months old or so, but when it turns 2 or 3 years old and gets big and strong, the fun is long gone.
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This is precisely why it’s so important to teach your dog to be careful with its teeth while playing with you.
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Puppies often learn to control their bite force while playing with other puppies. And if dogs can learn by interacting with other dogs, it means they can learn by interacting with people too.
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So, you don’t have to prohibit your dog from biting you in a playful manner, but if the dog painfully bites you while you are playing, make sure to cry out loudly and immediately stop the game❗️
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This action should make your dog stop biting. If crying out doesn’t help, you can also use a marker of unpleasant behavior (“No!”, for example), use a strict voice❗️
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Praise the dog if it stops biting you or starts licking you hand. Then continue playing. But remember to not play up to the point when your dog gets overly excited and loses all self-control✔️
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If crying out and the marker of unpleasant behavior don’t help, you can use a time-out technique. If your dog bites you really hard during play time, cry out and ignore it for 10 to 20 seconds.
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If it keeps attacking you, you can also send it to another room for the same 10 to 20 seconds, or just leave the room yourself.
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It’s crucial to demonstrate that powerful bites, even if playful, lead to stopping all the fun, and that playing politely is the way to go. After that, come back and resume playing.
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Have you ever faced this problem? Our #everydoggy app has lessons on many more issues that puppy owners struggle with. Check it out in our profile bio🔺
