Why do puppies bite?
Unlike us, puppies do not have opposable thumbs, so they manipulate stuff with their mouths, in the same way that we manipulate stuff with our hands. New puppies or young dogs will try to put everything into their mouths, because they are curious about objects and their surroundings.
Therefore, puppy biting is normal canine behavior.
Puppies also play with each other through play-biting. When a puppy bites too hard during play, his siblings may yelp and stop interacting for a short duration. Biting too hard on an adult dog (e.g. their mother), may also result in an undesirable consequence. In this way, puppies learn social rules and boundaries.
There is nothing wrong with dogs or puppies biting each other during play, but it is crucial to teach them to be careful with their mouths when interacting with people.
A puppy who is not taught this lesson, may become a danger to all the people around him, including his owners. Play-biting with humans, especially seniors and children, may cause accidental injuries and ultimately result in forced euthanasia.
If our puppy is biting us or others in an uncontrolled way, it is best for everyone not to engage in rough play with him. Also, do not play games that encourage biting such as Tug-of-War.
How to Deal with Puppy Biting
I deal with puppy biting by training my dog in three important areas –
1. Bite inhibition training
People have thinner and more sensitive skins than dogs do. Therefore, one of the first things that I teach my puppy is to control the force of his bites, especially when interacting with me and others.
2. Redirection and no-bite conditioning
When my dog bites on people, clothing, or unsanctioned objects (e.g. books, wires), I no-mark to let him know that it is an undesirable behavior. Then, I redirect his mouth onto something acceptable, and reward him for doing the right thing. In this way, he learns which objects are off-limits, as well as what he should do instead.
3. Excitement and self-control
An over-excited puppy, who lacks self-control, will tend to bite more often and with greater force. By managing my puppy’s excitement level and teaching him to control his impulses, I set him up for success, and reduce the number of instances where he engages in bad biting behavior.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
~~[Benjamin Franklin]
When dealing with puppy biting issues, I always try to stay calm but firm. I do my best to catch problems early on, and fix them before they escalate in degree and frequency.
If a dog is causing puncture wounds, or escalating his aggressive biting behavior, it is best to get professional help as soon as possible.
In this article, I discuss bite inhibition training and no-bite conditioning. For more on managing a puppy’s excitement level, please refer to Managing Puppy Excitement and Self-Control.
Bite Inhibition
Some dogs may have low bite thresholds. This means that they resort to biting or aggression even with fairly low, seemingly harmless stimuli.
One of my dogs, a Shiba Inu, can get mouthy when he is excited or frustrated, when I restrain him, when I stop him from doing something, and much more. Because of this, it is extremely important to train him to have good bite inhibition.
I start bite inhibition exercises as soon as I bring a puppy home. Even though puppy teeth are sharp, a puppy does not have the jaw strength of an adult, and is not capable of doing as much damage. Once my puppy has a soft mouth, I train him to stop biting on people.
Hand-feeding is a good way to teach our puppies to control the force of their bites. I hand-feed my puppy at least some of his kibble every day. If he bites too hard when getting his food, I do a sharp ouch or yelp, and ignore him for a few seconds. This teaches him that if he bites too hard, the food stops.
If my puppy is taking food from me gently, I praise him and keep the food coming. Often, I will combine hand-feeding with puppy obedience training and dog grooming sessions. Hand-feeding can also help prevent food aggression issues, so I continue this practice throughout my dog’s life.
We can also get Ian Dunbar’s book After You Get Your Puppy, for an overview of bite inhibition training.
Initially, Dunbar may come across as somewhat alarmist. We may feel that if we do not meet his somewhat unrealistic dog socialization and puppy training demands, things are going to go badly. I just try to ignore the alarmist talk, and focus on the bite inhibition and handling exercises, which are quite useful.
I am very thankful that my puppy (now adult dog) has a soft mouth. Because my Shiba Inu has good bite inhibition, we were able to solve many of his subsequent issues, which would have been difficult to deal with if he were biting at full strength.
When Our Puppy Bites …
When our puppy bites, it is important NOT to jerk our hand away. If we jerk away, we will likely get scratched. In addition, sudden and quick movements may make our puppy think that it is a fun game. This rewards the biting behavior, and encourages him to bite on us even more.
In the worst case, quick movements can activate a dog’s prey drive, and encourage aggressive behaviors. Therefore, it is important to control this reflex action, and stay still. In addition, I give a no-mark or yelp as a puppy might do to his litter-mates, when they are playing too rough.
I usually yelp when it is an accidental dog bite, for example when my dog gets his teeth on me while taking food out of my hand. Yelping is also appropriate for puppies that are still learning the rules. Otherwise, I use No for adult and adolescent dogs, who should know better.
After the no-mark, I always follow-up with a positive command, e.g. redirect him onto a toy.
1. Redirect Our Puppy onto a Toy
This technique is especially useful for an untrained puppy. It lets him know that it is ok to bite on a toy, but not ok to bite on people.
For example, my dog gets excited and starts biting when I scratch his tummy. Therefore, I used that as a training exercise to get him to bite on a toy, instead of on my hand. Since I can start the exercise anytime I want, I control the environment and make sure that I have multiple soft toys nearby for use. I make sure to reward my dog very well with food and affection when he redirects, so that I further reinforce the behavior.
A toy can also be useful for those cases where the puppy is losing control, and getting a bit too excited or frustrated. Giving him something to redirect his excitement or frustration at, may help to calm him down.
If I do not have a toy handy, I can also redirect by giving my puppy an alternate and simple command that he knows very well, e.g. Sit.
2. Withdraw Attention and Affection
Often, a puppy starts to bite at us because he wants to play or interact. Therefore, if my puppy does not respond to my redirect, then I withdraw my attention and affection. I do this by standing up, folding up my arms, and ignoring him. I make sure not to give any eye contact, not to talk, and not to engage him in any other way.
This is also called a timeout lite.
By doing this, my puppy learns that-
Out of control biting and jumping = No play, no attention, and no affection,
Gentle interaction = Play continues, food rewards, and extra attention.
Sometimes, my puppy may get too excited and escalate his behavior by biting on feet, or jumping and trying to bite on clothing. This is something that I absolutely do not allow because it can be very dangerous, especially with children and the elderly.
If my puppy escalates his behavior, I no-mark, say “Timeout”, and take him to a low stimulus timeout area immediately.
NOTE – In general, I try to set my dog up for success by managing his excitement level. In this way, I keep timeout-necessary episodes to a minimum.
3. Timeout
Most dogs value their freedom to roam around the house and backyard. Dogs are also pack animals, and like being with both human and canine members of the family. Since a timeout takes away both of these things, it is an extremely effective method of dog discipline.
When giving my dog a timeout –
- I make sure to put him in a really boring room, with no windows that he can reach. Currently, my dog’s timeout area is the laundry room.
- I check that the room is safe, and contains nothing that he can chew, play, or interact with in any way.
- Finally, I ensure that nobody gives puppy any attention during his timeout period.
It is better not to use a crate for timeouts. Crates are useful for transportation, management, and more. Therefore, I ensure that the crate is a happy place, where my dog feels comfortable going to for some peace and quiet, for sleep, and to chew on his favorite toy.
I find that a timeout is the most effective way to stop my dogs from biting. However, I only use it when my puppy is deliberately acting out, and not for accidental bites.
Initially, I start with a short 1 minute timeout. If my dog continues to bite right after he comes out, I return him to the laundry room for a much longer period of time (about 15 minutes). Be flexible with the timeout duration, and adjust it according to our dog’s age, temperament, and behavior. Some trainers do not believe in long timeouts, while others may ignore their dogs (timeout lite) for hours.
Do not use timeouts for training mistakes or lack of motivation.
How to Stop Puppy Biting
Some trainers suggest using aversive techniques to stop dog biting. For example, one suggested making my hand into a fist (so my fingers are safe), and then pushing my fist gently in when my puppy bites. This is uncomfortable for the puppy, and he will likely release our hand.
While it did get my puppy to release my hand, it did not reduce his biting behavior. In fact, my dog responds badly to any aversive methods. Doing this made him want to bite on me even more, because he got a reaction, and now has something (my fist) to fight with.
The same thing occurred with spraying water on his muzzle; he just started attacking the water bottle.
Ultimately, aversive techniques were not very effective with my dog, and caused even more behavioral issues. With aversive methods, it is difficult to trick a puppy into thinking that the bad stimulus is not coming from us. This can compromise a puppy’s trust and weaken our bond with him.
Instead, when my puppy bites,
- I first use a no-mark, for example, No or Ack-Ack to let him know that it is an undesirable behavior.
- Then, I redirect him onto a toy or give him an alternate command, for example Sit. If he stops biting and follows the command, then I praise him and reward him with attention and a fun game.
- If he continues to bite, I start with a timeout-lite by first withdrawing my attention. I do this by standing up, folding my arms, and turning away from him.
- If he escalates his behavior and starts to jump or bite on my clothing, then I quickly remove him to his full timeout area.
I always try to set my dog up for success by managing his excitement level. When he starts biting, I try to redirect and turn things into a positive learning experience. I only escalate my response when I absolutely have to, and I try my best to minimize those instances.
do you know how to stop the dog from barking also
i don’t know if this counts im only twelve and my parents want me to train the lab that we got i want 2 BE A vet when i grow up and is this trick going to help me (the yelp trick)with my black lab puppy
Hello Anonymous,
Congratulations on your new Lab puppy!
In terms of puppy training, I have found that with my own dogs, training is most effective when the entire family does it together. With my puppy Lara, it was important that everybody followed the same rules, and the same responses, so that Lara understands which behaviors are acceptable and which are not. When different people do different things, Lara got confused, stressed, and frustrated.
With puppy biting, this is what I did with puppy Lara-
http://shibashake.com/dog/how-i-trained-my-husky-puppy#bite-training
Here are some of my experiences with dog barking-
http://shibashake.com/dog/woof-woof-stop-dog-barking
Hi. I have a 1 1/2 yr old Male Shiba, and he loves chasing my cats. This is a big problem because his favorite cat to chase was a feral kitten I found outside, and she’s still just starting to be confident indoors, but I can see her reverting from being chased. I’ve had him for about 4 months now, and I’m still not really seeing any change. He gets put in time-out whenever he chases, but I can tell he doesn’t really understand why he’s in time-out, or even that time out is bad (he’ll just sleep a lot of the time) and then he’ll oftentimes just go right back to chasing as soon as he’s off time-out. I use the command “No, Leave it!” when he chases, and it seems to bring him back out of the chasing mode (most of the time), but how can I get him to not even start to chase in the first place? He has no problem with the cats, it’s not an agressive chase by any means (when he’s tired, he’ll curl up on the couch next to the cats without a problem) and he’s a very sweet boy, just loves chasing. What am I missing?
Hello Anonymous,
Yeah Sephy also loves to chase and he loves being chased. Chasing games are probably his favorite.
Shibas were bred to be hunting dogs, so they generally have high prey drive. This contributes significantly to their love of chasing.
In terms of cats, we don’t have any cats in the house, so I don’t have exact personal experience in this area. My old neighbors did have a bunch of outdoor cats, so I did cat desensitization exercises with Sephy when the cats are sunning themselves outside. I would bring Sephy out on-leash and stand a distance away from the cats (far enough away that he is still calm and able to listen to me). Then I get Sephy to do commands and stay calm. If he is calm and listens, we move one step closer and repeat. I also let him sit and watch the cats if he stays calm and is able to listen to me.
After a bit, Sephy got used to those cats and was no longer reacting to them. He would still want to chase new cats though, especially if they are active. Anything that runs triggers his prey drive.
Also, there are a fair number of cat + Shiba owners on the Shiba Inu Forum, so it may be helpful to post your question there.
thanks so much for the time you’ve taken to put together this site, I have a question about time outs. I started doing time outs when my puppy continues to bites and growl at us or at our other dog even after being corrected, but I’m not sure when to take him out of time out. as soon as I put him in time out he whines and whines and yelps. he is only 8 weeks but I wanna make sure he doesn’t develop any bad habits and I’m afraid that if I let him out of time out while he is whining and crying he will learn that if he whines and cries he will get his way. I know you mention that you only did very short time out at the beginning; did your dog whine and cry? and if so did you still only stick to the short time out or did you wait for your puppy to calm down before getting them out of time out..
please any help on this matter will be appreciated, I don’t want to cause more harm than good.
Hello Andy,
Puppy Lara did whine a bit in the beginning. In general, I don’t let my dogs out when they are whining because that rewards the whining behavior and next time, they will whine more. However, I am also careful with puppies who are still in potty training. Sometimes, they may just need to potty. In general, I don’t put puppy in timeout unless I am fairly sure she does not have to potty anytime soon.
Also, I try my hardest to set puppy up for success so the number of timeouts is minimized. For example, during play I have many play-breaks so that puppy refocuses on me and has the chance to calm down. As for biting, bite inhibition training is very helpful for all my dogs. Once puppy is a bit older and has learned some bite inhibition, I teach her not to bite on people.
When puppy Lara bites, I first redirect her onto a toy. If she redirects onto the toy, then she gets rewarded with a game. If she keeps biting on me, I non-mark her (Ack-ack) so that she knows it is an undesirable behavior. If she keeps biting, I withdraw my attention by standing up, folding my arms, and turning away from her. If she continues to bite, then I put her in a short timeout. Lara is now about 11 months old and I only used timeouts on her a handful of times.
Here are some of my experiences with puppy biting and puppy training-
http://shibashake.com/dog/how-i-trained-my-husky-puppy
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-biting-how-to-stop-puppy-biting
HELP! i have a 12 week old shiba named keiko. I got him at 8 weeks and he is terrible! i dont know what to do. He just bites and bites! He bites everything; hands, feet, face! Hes a smart boy and he knows 4 tricks already. He’s also terrible on the leash, he pulls a lot! Im loosing all hope and starting to feel extremely overwhelmed and upset. Please help!
Hello Alyssa,
I know what you mean. Sephy was also very mouthy when he was young and he was a terror on 4 paws. I think you may enjoy Sephy’s story.
With the biting, timeouts were the most effective with Sephy. This is what I do with him –
1. When Sephy bites on me, I non-mark him (No or Ack-ack), and redirect him onto a toy.
2. If he ignores the toy and keeps biting me, I non-mark and I withdraw my attention. I do this by standing up, folding up my arms, and turning away from him.
3. If he jumps on me and tries to keep biting me, I calmly say timeout and put him in a boring but safe timeout area.
Then I just repeat the process consistently every time he bites.
Other things that helped with Sephy –
– Bite inhibition training.
http://shibashake.com/dog/bite-inhibition
– Using a drag lead.
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training#draglead
Here are some of our experiences on leash-training –
http://shibashake.com/dog/leash-training-your-dog
Hi! We got a shiba two weeks ago, he is 10 weeks old now. So far so good, but he really is biting a LOT. We tried redirecting him onto a toy, but he always likes to get in a few last bites before he moves on to a toy. Saying “No” or making a high pitch yelp only makes him more excited, and he bites harder. Turning away from him when he bites doesn’t really work, since he will just bite the back of me instead of the front. Moving completely away and ignoring him doesn’t quite work, because he will follow me and then make a lot of puppy gremlin noises and bite objects near me. Also, his puppy teeth appear to be serrated, is this normal? Any suggestions for the crazy biting?
Hello Michelle,
Three things really helped me with Sephy’s biting –
1. Bite inhibition training. I did a lot of hand-feeding and reward based training. Bite inhibition training teaches him to control the force of this bites so that he doesn’t do much damage even when he does bite. It really saved me later on when I was having trouble with leash biting.
http://shibashake.com/dog/bite-inhibition
2. Calm. Shiba Sephy did a lot of excited biting. It was very important to keep him calm and keep him on a schedule. The high pitched yelp also sometimes made him more excited, so I switched to a lower, calm, Oww. If he ignores that, I stand up and ignore him. If he keeps biting, I calmly say timeout and take him to the laundry room. Exercise, working for all of his food, and the NILIF (Nothing in Life is Free) program also helps a lot.
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training
3. Timeouts. I start with really short timeouts, 30 seconds. Then I ask for a Sit before I let Sephy out. If he does not want to do it, he stays in timeout for a bit longer. Then I try again. If he starts to bite right away, I put him back in timeout for a longer period of time (couple of minutes), and so on.
Hmmm, I did not notice this with Sephy’s puppy teeth, but I was very occupied with his many crazy behaviors at that time. 😀 I would check with your vet about this.
Thank you so much! I will try some new techniques with Shiba Oliver, and try to keep him calmer to prevent biting. He likes to go crazy from time to time =)…….also, he had a vet appointment yesterday and I asked about his teeth, they said it’s normal for puppy teeth to be like this. I never noticed on other puppies, however I was never on the receiving end of so many puppy bites before to investigate =)
My shiba pup is only 8 weeks old so she obviously is going to be biting everything. But my concern is the way she plays with my mom’s sheltie who is very shy of other dogs because she got attacked years ago, and has been fearful of any dog since(regardless of age or size). My Shiba, Jada, will go over to my sheltie, Lady, just to check her out, but then Lady runs away like always, so Jada thinks that she is playing and starts to chase her. After a couple minutes Lady stops running and starts barking at Jada and kinda chases her back a little. But then Jada will get too playful and starts biting at her legs and face. I just dont want Lady to snap and start biting Jada back out of fear, which is unlikely(Lady’s tail is wagging most of the time, but its the agressive barking she does during that time that alarms me cause she never barks like that, but maybe thats just how she plays I guess) Lady has started to warm up to Jada a little bit but she still runs from her all the time. I did finally manage to get them eating at the same time, which has been impossible because Jada always tries to eat Lady’s food or just walks towards her a little and Lady will run away, so things are progressing, slowly. I just wanted to see if there is a good way to get Lady to warm up to Jada and not run every time Jada comes near her.
Some things that helped my other dogs warm up to puppy –
1. Supervision – I supervised them a lot especially in the beginning. In particular, I do not allow them to steal from each other, and there is also no bullying. If any of the dogs have had enough puppy-time, I make sure that puppy leaves them alone. Similarly, I make sure that the other dogs do not overwhelm puppy.
2. Group training and rewards – I also do some group training sessions with them. In this way, the dogs learn to work together and focus on me instead of on each other. I reward them very well for these group sessions. In the beginning, my adult Shiba did not really care for new puppy. But every time he came over to puppy, I would reward him and get them both to do simple commands. Very soon, he would always come over to puppy in the hopes of being rewarded.
3. Be very consistent and fair with both dogs – I make sure that all dogs follow the same rules.
Here are some of my experiences with integrating a new dog into the family –
http://shibashake.com/dog/second-dog-introducing-a-second-dog
Also – When do we get Lara pictures?!? When you post some, I’ll put some up of Kiba
We broke out the first interactive feeding toy day before yesterday. He’s already mastered it – and the work to get his food (he’s SO food motivated it’s just hilarious) keeps him out of trouble for about an hour which is nice.
What age did Sephy start humping at? We haven’t seen that yet, so I’m wondering when to expect it to happen. He’s being such a good puppy with only minor crises that I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
You are very lucky. Sephy was never very food motivated. He may be interested in a new food for a few days but he tires of it very easily. He is definitely a picky eater.
Hmmm, it was around 4 months or so. The behavior was more a reaction to my bad, fearful energy. I was very afraid of him during that time because of his out of control leash biting, so I think the humping was a symptom of that. Once I got over my fear, the humping also stopped.
http://shibashake.com/dog/shiba-pictures/new-siberian-husky-puppy
I have another batch which I will probably post next week. Now gimme some Kiba pictures! 😀
Thanks. 🙂 Another Sibe, wow! Three doggies must make for a crazy house some days. We’re trying to decide if puppy number two (in about a year) will be a girl Shiba or a Sibe.
Kiba’s doing better with the nipping. We did start using his puppy play pen for time outs. Sometimes he ends up in time out three or four times in a row, but it’s starting to make him shape up.
Really, he’s not too bad for a Shiba I think. Time will tell, but he’s now 12 weeks old and only makes us a little insane. 🙂
We started playing the kibble chase game to help him get some energy out. At meal times, since he’s not quite ready for interactive toys (hasn’t figured them out), we take a piece of kibble, ask him to sit, then fling it across our house (our living room/dining room/kitchen are all one long room) and let him chase after it. About half a cup of kibble and we have a tired and calm puppy!
He’s got sit and wait down pretty well and starts puppy obedience school in two weeks.
Glad to hear that Kiba is doing so well.
My Sibe puppy, Lara, thinks that doing a Down means pouncing on my hand. She still ends up doing a Down but one that comes with a hand scratch. I am trying various things to teach her that it is not the pounce that I want but the Down – lol. Puppies are always interesting.
Puppy is also super high energy. Today, she tired out my other two dogs and she was still going and going. I am definitely going to write an article on all this so that I don’t forget. The next time I think about getting a puppy, I can just hit myself on the head with the article! 😀
Let us know how obedience school goes. I had a lot of fun in those with both Sephy and Shania.