To a puppy, everything is new, interesting, and exciting. This means that our puppy will try to bite, play with, and chew just about anything that he sees.
In addition, puppies have the infinite energy of youth. Like the Energizer Bunny, they can keep going, and going, and going. After a nap, their engines rev-up from SLEEP to GO, faster than you can catch your breath and shout “Stop!”.
Sound and movement are especially irresistible to a puppy.
The more we shout and move our hands, arms, or feet around, the more likely our puppy will get excited, bite, jump, and act even more crazy.
A very important part of training my puppy involves managing his excitement level, and teaching him self control. By doing this, I set my puppy up for success, and reduce out of control biting and jumping, before it occurs.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
~~[Benjamin Franklin]
1. Nothing in Life is Free (NILIF)
NILIF stands for Nothing in Life is Free. It is a great way to train a puppy, build a strong bond with him, and remain sane in the presence of our bouncing ball of fur.
NILIF is simple – we just ask our puppy to do something for us first, before we give him anything in return. This includes food, toys, freedom, and yes, even our affection.
First, I train my puppy to do some very simple commands. Here are three simple commands –
1. Look
Look simply asks a puppy to give us eye contact for a short amount of time.
- I train this command by showing my puppy that I have a piece of food.
- I say “Look”, and bring the food up to the level of my eyes.
- Puppy will naturally follow the movement of my food-enhanced hand, and look-up at me.
- As soon as he looks, I mark the behavior (Good!) and reward him with some food from my other hand.
- As my puppy improves, I get him to look at me for longer, before rewarding the behavior.
2. Touch
Touch asks a puppy to gently touch our hand with his nose.
- Again, I let my puppy see that I have some food in my hand.
- Then, I close my hand, move it a short distance away from my puppy, and say “Touch”.
- Puppy will naturally follow the food. At first, he may try to mouth or lick at my hand. I ignore these behaviors and wait until he touches my hand with his nose.
- As soon as that happens, I mark the behavior (Good!) and reward him with some food from my other hand.
3. Sit
Sit is a useful evergreen command. Even after our dog has matured into an adult, we will still find this command to be very handy.
- To train a Sit, I show my puppy that I have some food in my hand.
- I close my hand and move it over and above my puppy’s head. He will naturally want to follow my hand, which will cause him to turn his head up and move his rump down into a sitting position.
- Some dogs may move backwards instead of sitting. That is fine. I just repeat the motion until I get a Sit. However, it is important not to repeat the verbal command. I only say “Sit” once.
- As soon as my puppy sits, I mark the behavior (Good!), and give him a treat from my other hand.
Once my puppy understands these simple commands, I ask him to do something for me, before I do anything for him in return. For example,
- Ask for a Look, before giving a puppy affection or tummy rubs.
- Ask for a Sit, before we open the door for our puppy to go on his daily walk.
- Ask for a Touch, before we give a puppy his interactive food toy.
This teaches our puppy that the best way to get what he wants, is to do what we want first. When my puppy bites, I no-mark the behavior (Ack-Ack) and give him an alternate command (e.g., Sit). This not only teaches our puppy what not to do (bite), but also what to do instead (sit).
2. Drag Lead
Sometimes, puppies get so excited while playing, that they are no longer able to listen to us. In general, I try to step in and have a play break before this happens. However, we may sometimes miss our window of opportunity, and our puppy becomes so excited that he will not stop biting or jumping.
In such situations, I find that it is extremely useful to have a drag lead on my puppy. By using a lead, I can easily control and stop his bad behavior.
Often, when a puppy bites, our instinct is to try and stop him by using our hands and arms. We push back, shout, and move-around a lot. All this hand and arm movement will only get him even more excited, because he thinks we are playing with him. Furthermore, rapid movement may trigger a dog’s prey drive and get him to bite more, and bite harder.
To stop a puppy from biting, it is important to stay calm, don’t shout, and not move in a fast and erratic fashion. Instead, I calmly pick up the drag lead and move my puppy into a quiet area, where he can calm down.
I use a flat collar with the drag lead. Do not use an aversive collar such as a choke chain or a prong. Such collars are risky. Some choose to use them during supervised walks, but they should always be removed at the end of the walk. I also cut the loop of my drag lead, so that it does not catch on furniture or objects in the house, while my puppy is running around. I only use a drag lead when I am around to supervise.
3. Lots of Exercise & Play
Puppies are extremely energetic and curious. As such, they often need a lot of activity and play time.
If we do not provide interesting and supervised activities for them to do, they will figure out their own activities which will rarely appeal to our human sensibilities. Bored puppies will start chewing on books, curtains, furniture, and people.
To reduce puppy biting, make sure to provide him with a lot of physical and mental stimulation.
Interactive food toys are a big favorite with my dogs. Instead of presenting food to them on a silver dog bowl, I put some of their food into interactive food toys. In this way, they are motivated to work on the toy, and they get mental and physical exercise while figuring out the best and fastest way to get at the food.
Daily walks will also help to drain a puppy’s energy. Make sure that a puppy has had all of his shots before taking him to areas where there are other dogs, and where there is poop from other dogs.
Puppies also love playing with other puppies. Nothing burns quite as much energy as a fun puppy chase and wrestling session. I make sure that all my puppy’s play-mates are balanced, healthy, and have had their requisite number of shots.
Other fun puppy games include soccer, catch, fetch, tug, and flirt pole.
4. Rules and Routine
Puppyhood is the best time to teach a dog new tricks. Puppies learn quickly, and are usually eager to please.
I set up a fixed routine for my puppy as early as possible, and also start enforcing a consistent set of house rules. My puppy routine includes food time, play time, walk time, chew time, grooming time, training time, and most important of all – sleep time. Puppy sleep time is when I get some much needed time-off, away from Energizer puppy. *Hooah!*
In the beginning, it is best to institute more house rules and to address them consistently. In this way, our puppy does not develop any bad habits, which will be hard to break later on.
My dogs have the following house rules –
- No getting on furniture.
- No biting on people or people stuff.
- No pawing on people.
- No guarding of toys or food.
- No bullying of other dogs.
Congratulations on your new puppy! Puppy time is precious and passes very quickly, so enjoy yourself and take lots of pictures. 😀
Hi! I have a huge problem with my 10 months golden retriever. When he is very excited he won`t stop jump and bite me. He started act this way when he was 6 months., and now it`s even worst. He is not doing this at home or in our yard but only when I`m taking him for walk. At home even when we are playing he won`t bite me at all. He can chase the ball for 15 minutes and without any reason he will start to bite my shoes, pants, and if I don`t react he will jump and bite my legs, and arms. I can`t calm him down at all, and I can`t just not react because it`s very painful. The other thing, that I just can`t leave him and walk away when I`m in the public place or far away from my home. I used almost every method and I totally don`t know what to do…I`m not using any prong collar, e-collar because I don`t believe in that kind of tools but I started to be really desperate. I was taking a toy with me to distract him but he doesn`t want a toy he prefers to bite my arms. I was using water spray, pet corrector and nothing. He knows all comments but when he is in this excitement mood he`s not listening at all. Sometimes he will sit, and after 5 seconds when I move he will start do exactly the same. And yes I`m giving him a lot of exercise, dog park, hiking. Unfortunately, I can take him to any public place or far away from my apartment. It`s so frustrated because he is really great puppy and I totally don`t know what is wrong. I fixed him 2 weeks ago, and actually he is more out of control then before. Any advice?
I went through a similar thing with my Shiba Inu. He would bite on the leash as well as jump and bite on me. More on our experiences –
http://shibashake.com/dog/train-your-dog-to-stop-biting-on-the-leash
http://shibashake.com/dog/pack-leader-to-an-aggressive-dog#walk
I have e a 13 month old English and American bulldog at night he starts to get mouthy, and he bites at my hands and it hurts now. He’s’ 56 pounds. I say no or leave it or I put him in his crate. When will he stop?
Hi, there!
We have an 8 month old gsd pup. And he refuses to stop biting. We tried bite inhibatition when he was younger and it worked for two days in which after a month of not being able to pet him I was able to have him calmly in my lap. After those two days, the technique lost its hold on him and he would bite harder than ever. Then, a hard bite would scratch but now that he’s older he has started to chew on my arms instead. He has a chewtoy he loves and never leaves and he gets a 25-30 minute brisk walk in the morning and three intense 15 minute play sessions otherwise. I exercise him before and after school timings. In the middle of the mayhem there were days in which his hosting stopped altogether after we moved and he was as calm as a sea breeze but then, without any prior warning, while I sat with him he turned his attention to NY face and began to mouth it. Being COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE I got up gave his leash a tug (his leash status on all day now because of this) and he did a nice sit and shake but got right back at jumping, biting and making a chewing motion on my arm. When we let him lose in the yard (which is normally only in play) he’ll run into the yard and then towards me and start jumping and biting. Other than this he’s a gem and I hate that this bit of him overpowers all the good things he does and has learnt. Any help is appreciated.
If I get my dog nurtured will he not be as hyper?
It wont necessarily cure his hyper nature. It’ll help REDUCE humping behaviour and give him one less need to fulfill and so reduce food intake. It may make him less aggressive towards other male dogs but his Hyper-ness is built up energy. Best outlet would be a long run or jog or a game of Frisbee. Something like a lure course or flirt pole would be great for the high drive and if done right, you can teach him to control his impulses. Neutering, if you go for it, is not always suitable for a puppy that’s too young and can cause a lot of problems too if at the wrong age and time. I think he’s too young, judging from the last comment you left. I’m sixteen, got myself in a similar situation with a German shepherd 😛
Hi I am a 17 year old who has gotten herself into some trouble but hoping someone could help me.. About 2 months ago I brought home a husky/lab mix 6 month old puppy. He was chained up all alone in my friends back yard and I just couldn’t take it so I offered to take him off of their hands and bring him home with me. I live on a large farm with fields and lots of room for the pup to play or so I thought. Smokey (the puppy), turned out to be a whole lot more misbehaving than I thought he was. He jumps, bites, scratches and destroys everything!! He really is a sweet dog I can tell he wants to be a good boy but I don’t know how to break these habits. For the past couple of weeks he’s been staying in a fenced area because he runs off and kills our chickens, I have been trying to get him to calm down enough to come in the house and sleep inside but he is far too hyper to even lay down without tearing the room apart first. My parents are threatening to give him away but I just feel like I owe it to this little guy to at least help him in some way, I’m desperate for help!!
What are you doing to “calm him down”? Young huskies need TONS of exercise and they need to be kept busy. They aren’t a dog you can leave outside alone by itself and they aren’t a dog that will lay around the house chilling. Even a fenced yard is often not enough and huskies are often not suitable for off-leash activities because they have an extremely high prey drive. (which you have already seen with your dog) If you want the dog to calm down, you need to spend a couple hours a day running, walking, playing, and training him. A young husky can easily knock out a 8-mile run like it’s nothing, and my dad used to take his husky on long runs like this to burn off her energy. Huskies are very smart and intelligent and get bored easily, so you need to keep him busy with training and activities.
hi,
love your page. we recently adopted a German Shepherd puppy… but WOW! didn’t realize how much energy these pups have! We also have a 8 year old mixed breed, but the 8 year old dog has just as much energy as the puppy haha! so my question is how do I train the puppy the house rules while my other dog is just as hyper. I don’t know how to control both dogs at once.
When I need focused training time with my puppy, we do it in a quiet place away from my other dogs. My dogs will hype each other up when they are together and in a playful mood. 😀
When I am teaching my puppy interaction rules with my other dogs, I keep my puppy on-leash and close to me so that I can easily and quickly control her if need be. I only use a leash under close supervision and only with a flat collar (absolutely no aversive collars). I talk more about how I use a drag-lead in the article above.
I set up a fixed routine, a consistent set of rules, and a consistent form of communication. I use management equipment such as gates, leashes, crates, and more, as necessary, so that I set all of my dogs up for success. If my other dogs are too distracting, then I train my puppy separately first.
I do not leave my dogs alone together until I am absolutely sure that there will be no issues.
More on how I help my dogs get along.
Hello,
I have recently adopted a 5 month old blue nose pitbull. He was taken from his litter at six weeks I’d what I was told. He is a good boy most of the time, but when he wants to play he likes to bite. When I first got him he had no bite inhibition, but has slowly learned a little. He can now mouth without always applying pressure but when he really wants to play he jumps on me and bite my arms with a good amount of pressure. He barks and jumps and bites. I know he is trying to play, but is being way to forceful. If I tell him no he gets more excited. If I put him in time out in his crate he calms down while he is in there and once let out starts again. If I ignore him he will sometimes stop or bite my legs and feet bc that’s all he has access to do. He won’t sit or listen well when he get in these spunky moods. Any suggestions on how to fix this?
My puppy will usually jump and bite when she is excited and has a lot of energy. The more excited she is, or the more energy she has, the more crazy she becomes.
When dogs jump and bite, we usually respond by shouting at them, pushing them back, or moving around a lot. This gets my dog even more excited, and further rewards her jumping/biting behavior, because she thinks that I am playing with her.
I help set my puppy up for success by-
1. Giving her structured and positive outlets for her energy. The more energy she spends doing obedience training, leash training, handling and grooming exercises, working for her food, etc., the less hyper she will be.
2. I manage my dog’s excitement level by throwing in many play breaks. We take frequent obedience breaks during play so that my dog can refocus on me, and calm down.
3. I set up clear play rules. If she breaks any play-rule, I no-mark and temporarily stop play. After I no-mark, I follow up with a simple command, e.g. Sit. In this way, she knows what to do instead and I can reward her well for it. More on what I do when my puppy bites.
4. I minimize timeout occurrences. I don’t do time-outs right away. I start by redirecting my puppy and giving her many many chances to do the right thing. In this way, I can reinforce/reward good behaviors and redirect something negative into something positive. More on how I do time-outs.
5. I set up a fixed routine and manage my dog’s environment so that she knows when is rest time, when is play time, obedience time, etc.
I talk more about some of the management techniques I use in the article above.
Hi There! I LOVE what iv read…. but I am eagerly on a knowledge quest…. My husband and I have two boys 7 and 3, a 4yr old female boxer pit-bull mix AND as of 2 days ago we adopted a 7 month old male husky! We have always wanted a big family and have been talking for a year about finding a new dog to make our family bigger! I told him when the time was right, the right dog would find us. And find us he did!!! This family had this dog who they couldn’t take care of and didn’t have time for. He sent me a pic of him and I seen a dog who was longing for a family to stand by him and give him the life he deserves. So early the very next day we dropped everything and drove seven hours to get him! We knew he would not be fully trained and have some bad habits but it became clear that these people literally paid no attention to him and taught him NOTHING. I am a little concern being he is 7 months old and didn’t even know his name that the other people had given him. That was my biggest shock. I am wondering about what he should know right now, and if he will have any developmental problems from the lack of stimulation and care. No matter what, hes my dog know, his name is Odin, and we are his forever family. He really is a good dog who is a huge lover and is sweeter than any person i have ever met, he wont leave my side, and we can all see a HUGE drive in his eyes and actions for learning. He WANTS to learn. He craves it. I just want to make sure i give him the tools he needs to do that properly. Even though he 7 months old and knows NOTHING do u think he has a good chance to change? and what would be the best way to go about this / what is THE FIRST THING i should start with!?! PLEASE help us! i have a whole list of behaviors and actions i have already witnessed that need help.
thank you for ANYTHING u can tell me!
I SUGGEST TRAINING AT PETSMART OR LOCAL BIG FRANCISER PET ONCE A WEEK. THEY LEARN TO INTERACT OUTSIDE YOUR ENVIROMENT AND OTHER DOGS. GOOD LUCK I LOVE MU HUSKIE THE BEST DOGS EVER
Congratulations on your new Husky puppy! I am so very glad that he has found such a good and happy forever home. 😀
He is still very young, and Huskies are an intelligent and independent breed, so he will probably learn fast. With a new puppy, I usually start by setting up a very simple but consistent system of communication (with a mark and a no-mark). Then I start teaching very simple commands, e.g. Look, Touch, Sit, which I outline above.
More on how I establish a mark and no-mark.
I also set up a very fixed schedule and a consistent set of rules. Consistency is very important, so I make sure that everyone in the household enforces the same set of rules, and in the same way. I also set up clear rules of interaction with my other dogs. I supervise closely to make sure that everyone is following the rules, and I manage my new puppy very well, so as to set her up for success. In this way, my dogs know exactly what to expect from each other, what to expect from me and others in the household, and what I expect from them in return. This creates certainty, which helps to reduce stress and conflicts.
More on how I introduce a new dog into my household.
I do not leave my new puppy with my other dogs alone or unsupervised until I am very very sure that there will be no issues.
Bite inhibition exercises and puppy socialization exercises have also been very useful for my dogs.
More on how I deal with puppy biting.
ASPCA article on puppy socialization.
Finally, I start small, go at a comfortable pace for my puppy, and always try to set her up for success. Learning is a lot more fun when it is positive and very rewarding. I start with the more important problems that I see first, and then work my way forward with each success. Of course the behaviors that I start with depend on the dog, her environment, routine, etc.
Big hugs to Odin!
Has Odin been to the vet for a check-up? I also visit the vet for all new dogs just to make sure everything is ok physically.
hi!!
I have recently adopted a husky puppy at a tender age of 40 days. Her mother is no more and i could really use some help with advice on their initial fooding habits and how do i get it to socialize. Also, i am getting the puppy home tomorrow, so could you please advice on what do i buy before hand for the puppy.
I have already bought a bed, some toys, a finger toothbrush, food bowls for water and cerelac, two boxes of cerelac and a brush with both metallic bristles and soft bristles. Should i buy a crate for her crate training? anything else i should keep in my.
I am a bit nervous, but i could not see the puupy in that state.
Please advice..
Hello KK,
Kudos to you for helping out a young puppy in need. I got my pups at around 8 weeks, so I don’t have experience with caring for younger puppies.
Where did you adopt the puppy from? In terms of feeding and care I would get help from your vet and a good responsible breeder.
Here are some things that I bought for my puppy.
In terms of socialization, this article from the ASPCA has some good information on socializing puppies.
http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/dog-behavior/socializing-your-puppy
Remember though that puppies do not have fully developed immune systems yet, and are more susceptible to diseases. Therefore, we want to make sure to socialize our puppy in a safe environment, and with other dogs/puppy that are healthy and have proper vaccination records.
More on dog socialization.
My dog Crystal is a year and a half and now she is a first time mom. We now have 2 of her baby pups and she plays with them but idk if she might be hurting them because it looks like she bites them and the pups start barking at her? They are about to be 2 months and are still smaller than her. Also how do I control the pups from crying whenever I see them and them wanting to go inside the house?
I am not a breeder so I do not have experience with this. I would try to contact a good AKC breeder (of the relevant breed) for advice on such matters.
Here is an ASPCA article on newborn puppy care-
https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/dog-care/newborn-puppy-care