Educating yourself on how to stop a puppy from biting and chewing can be a hard and frustrating task. This is especially true when your pup tears up your favorite pair of slippers or leaves teeth marks on you. However, if you want to stop your furry friend from biting your friends or your prized possessions there are a few principles that you need to grasp before you just blame their bad behavior on the fact that they are just energetic and mischievous puppies.
Let’s start with the fact that chewing and biting are both natural activities for any puppy. Because of this, you should approach the problem with a substitution. It is usually fruitless to try and completely stop your puppy from biting and chewing altogether. Instead, focus your puppy’s biting onto an item that they are allowed to chew on. A tasty bone or a suitable chew toy can be used and will allow your young dog to gnaw all they want without the negative effects.
It is a much easier endeavor to redirect biting or chewing than completely end it altogether. Your puppy is just doing what puppies do. It is nearly impossible to stifle this natural instinct but you can be successful if you direct this behavior to an appropriate item.
When confronting the issue of how to stop a puppy from biting you must also consider what is triggering the behavior. This rings especially true when they are biting you or other people in your house. If you do not take care of the problem early on in the dog’s development it can lead to aggression problems later, so the sooner you can take care of it the better.
There are certain actions that you can do without even knowing that it will likely lead to biting. A sudden movement or aggressive action, even while just playing around can instigate a reaction that involves biting. If you are in the midst of playing with your puppy and they start to nip or chew on you then it is a good idea to stop the activity at that point.
Puppies have a hard time distinguishing what is acceptable during “play time” and any other time. The habits they form or pick up while you are rough housing with them will eventually show up in their normal routine. It is never a good idea to let your puppy play overly aggressively.
When your puppy shows signs of biting or chewing the best thing to do is to redirect that behavior, as stated above, and separate yourself from them for a little while. This is especially effective if they are biting you or other people. If this just does not seem to be getting the job done then it may be time to implement a crate training approach.
Crate training can take some time and patience on its own but it has been proven to be a very effective way of solving a variety of different puppy problem, especially when other methods are not quite getting the message across. For more information on crate training puppies check out our previous blog article.
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If you have been asking yourself how to stop a puppy from biting or chewing then following these tips and tactics can help you get things under control. It is not exactly rocket science but it does take dedication and determination on your part to be vigilant in correcting the negative behavior and redirecting it in a positive way. Puppies are naturally playful and love to chew but you can train them to direct this instinct onto an appropriate item and not your shoes or fingers. |
| Russ Barker has lost a few pairs of shoes, some furniture legs, and other various household items to puppy teeth. Knowing that other puppy owners most definitely have the same problem he decided to dig up a little info on how to stop a puppy from biting. Russ is a devilishly handsome big wig at Dog Tag Art, a unique website that promotes animal identification through personalized pet tags that fit your pet's personality. With hundreds of different designs to choose from and the ability to upload a photo and create your own pet ID tags, Dog Tag Art offers customers an experience and service that cannot be found anywhere else, all in the name of pet protection. |  |
