How do I make our puppy stop biting my son?

Answer 1

How to train your puppy not to bite - - -


Fully one-third of all dogs do not even make it through the first year with their original owner. Irritating puppy behaviors often become intolerable habits when an owner does not address the behaviors early on.

Mouthing is a completely normal canine activity that often will not go away with age and can become harder and more painful to correct as adult teeth emerge.

All puppies bite, mouth, and challenge each other and their humans, but some much more than others. It is up to the owner to define the boundaries of acceptable behavior to the pup as soon as possible. Often the behavior will not "wear off" and if one doesn't do something about it before the adult teeth come in, the dogs may be 'relinquished' to another 'party'-
which means they will probably die.

The rule:

No teeth can touch the skin or clothing of a human.

Train an incompatible behavior:

When the pup licks, give it a name like "kisses" and encourage it with high-pitched praise. When the pup uses its teeth on you, make a loud abrupt and startling sound which is a mammalian 'interrupt'.

He will likely be so surprised that he will stop mouthing, momentarily at least. At the
instant he is not mouthing (ie. as soon as he stops), praise him as you do for licks. Timing
is everything. You want to extinguish the mouthing and replace it with licking.

Your reactions are:

Licking or 'not biting' --- lots of gooey praise.
Any teeth --- large startling sound right in his face.
At six weeks of age, the puppy should learn this lesson in only a few days if all individuals
who interact with him practice it consistently.

Justification:

The reason for replacing the mouthing with something else (i.e. licking) is because one cannotsimply suppress such strong innate behavior as mouthing. The mouthing may occur repetitively unless you 'train' an incompatible behavior. For example, you cannot lick and bite simultaneously without biting your tongue.

Sometimes force methods such as squeezing muzzles, ect. backfire in that they suppress
behavior for awhile but then it comes back full force at unexpected moments. You should use an interrupt action to stop the immediate behavior followed by a reward for
the cessation of the biting.

Train the humans:

Bite-inhibition is much harder to achieve if even one person allows the puppy to bite, so restrict access to those people who can implement the training method correctly.

Children, nine-years-old or younger, are probably not capable of performing this
procedure effectively and consistently, so caretakers should keep the younger kids and canines separated until the canine has been bite-inhibition trained by adults.

When the behavior of others weaken your own efforts, the dog can become confused.
Inconsistency can build frustration and avoidance behavior in canines which can lead to aggression.

Recruit puppy playmates:

It can also help if the pup has littermates or littermate substitutes to help him practice bite-inhibition as other pups are the best teachers of all. They will squeak and refuse to play if a pup's bite is too hard.

However, do not expect all adult dogs to correct this behavior since many will allow a much harder bite before correcting the puppy, if they correct at all.

Find a kindergarten puppy class. It is worth traveling for a good one. A good class would include off-leash puppy socialization in an enclosed area. The easiest way of all if it works:

With some dogs, simply ignoring the undesired behavior and giving NO feedback, either positive or negative, will eventually cause the canine to drop that behavior from their repertoire.This process is known as extinction. This approach may take a long time and it may be difficult for some people to ignore puppy mouthing for the duration.

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

I don't know how old your son is, but a really effective way to get a dog to stop mouthing is to use "dog language." When littermates bite each other too hard, they yelp at each other loudly to show that's not ok. Tell your son that whenever the dog's teeth touch him, to suddenly yell "Ow!" really loudly and run from the room and shut the door. That should startle the dog and teach him, in his own language, that teething is not ok. If the "Ow" is sufficiently dramatic and startling (and used consistently), it should only take a few times for the dog to learn. But keep it up! The dog will probably try just barely touching your son with his teeth, or only mouthing *really* gently, but your son should stage the same show EVERY time, no matter what. Good luck!

Answer 3

Nicole is correct. The first year with ANY puppy is difficult, but with proper training, you can have a well behaved friend for life. Hitting the dog will make it fear you and then you may have other problems, such as aggression, fear biting, submissive urination, etc. I would strongly suggest boundaries. If the child can not be kept away from the pup until he has "teethed", try spraying the child's skin with bitter apple spray. The dog will not like the taste.

Answer 4

If the leg is injured then by not getting her medical treatment you are storing up bigger vets bills in the future. if she can't walk properly then the chances of her getting arthritis or even becoming totally lame are much increased. Which could mean weekly vets visits when shes older. If the dog is a puppy then you have between 10-14 years of vets bills to come. if you can't or won't cope with them then maybe think about getting her a new home where she will be given treatment.

Answer 5

In the water bottle you can mix a small amount of vinegar use a water bottle with a pump on the end and each time the puppy bites squirt it. You can also you a soda can filled with coins.

Answer 6

Take the puppy to puppy training school. There *you* will get trained on the proper discipline of your puppy. Puppies bite. They need to be taught not to.

Answer 7

Tell your son to stop pissing off the puppy. If he's the ony one being bit I'd venture to guess there has to be a reason.

Answer 8

Since it is a puppy there is a chance to train it. Call Pet Smart or your local Large Pet Store they specialize classes in all training.

Answer 9

never smack a dogs nose.. it can damage their sense of smell and it's just cruel... get a rolled up newspaper and everytime the pup does the wrong thing smack it on the butt and say NO but u have to do it when the pup is in the act not after .. it doesn't hurt but makes a loud noise to scare it plus it will get to know what the word no means .

Answer 10

well puppies go through a stage when they get new teeth in. just like babies, they like to bite to relieve the pain. it is only a matter of time before he will grow out of it... dont worry its totally normal!!