How to stop my puppy biting and nipping?
Question by Jordan: How to stop my puppy biting and nipping?
Ive got a labrador retriever which is 10 weeks old and currently it keeps biting and nipping. I know that this happens for puppies because they’re teething but how do i calm them down from doing it to me?
Best answer:
Answer by Renna
With clueless puppies it’s a lot harder to reinforce good behavior and get rid of bad behavior such as biting. Since they’re teething it’s a natural thing for them, even if they have tons of chew toys. Your hand just tastes better. Getting violent or even staring at them and saying “no” doesn’t ever solve the problem.
What I do is put my finger on their tongue while they’re trying to bite my hand. Not force it down their throat, obviously, but enough to make them uncomfortable so they let go of my hand. Just act very calm and do that repeatedly when your puppy bites you, and soon they’ll learn that it’s an unpleasant feeling and stop biting for good. I did this to my puppy when he was young and now he’s had absolutely no problems what so ever. If you jerk your hand away they’ll start thinking it’s a game, so the best option is to make it their decision to let go of your hand.
Hope this helps. 
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Here’s a great article on teaching bite inhibition
http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/archives/bite.txt
Puppies bite and nip when they play with their litter mates. When one of them starts getting too rough, the other will let out a loud yelp and end the “game”. The rougher puppy learns that when it nips too hard, the fun ends.
Use this same principle when playing with your puppy.
You might feel a bit silly, but when the puppy starts playing too rough, yelp loudly and turn away from the puppy, ending playtime. The puppy will learn that it won’t get any further attention from you while it’s nipping and biting.
EDIT: Just to clarify, the point of this exercise is to show the puppy that he will not get to play as long as he is biting and nipping. When he doesn’t bite, continue playing with him while praising him. Positive reinforcement like this WILL work. This behavior IS exhibited in young puppies playing with their litter mates; it is in no way a human psychological command.
Negative reinforcement like pinching will only result in a puppy that is either terrified to play with its owner, or a puppy that is aggressive in response to the aggression demonstrated by its owner.
Hi from France ♫
You can’t !.. Baby dogs are like baby humans, they need to play for well grow … All animals plays in fact.
Have a great day,
Cat.
Yeah, do the yelping thing. The puppy completely understands that this is hurting you and will then stop because it loves you so much and doesn’t want to hurt you….::rollseyes::
Every time the pup bites you, pinch its ear, hold it’s tongue or pinch the scruff of it’s neck and tell it no. The only understand clear black/white commands. Not human psychological ones.
It concentrates on play biting, what about teething or fear biting?
Puppies do play with each other and bite, i never said they didn’t, it is how they test dominance. The puppy who is weaker/yelps automatically assumes submissive status. The other puppy yelping is only responding to being bitten, it is not correcting the other one and letting it know that biting is unacceptable.
When a pup misbehaves in a litter setting, the mother will bite down on the pups neck ‘pinching’ it. Will these puppies grow up to fear other dogs and get aggressive around other dogs for fear of being pinched? No of course not.
If the puppies only correction is that it does not get to play then that is a pretty weak correction.
Positive reinforcement on its own does not work, period.
Balance reinforcement (positive and negative) works best it is based on the fact that; Good behaviour – rewarded. Bad behaviour – punished.
Teething hasn’t started yet and won’t start until 4 months old. It is best to correct this behavior sooner rather than later.
When they start bitting say no very sternly, if they dont stop clap your hands together very loundly and say no, if this doesnt work flick them in the nose (not too hard) and tell them no. Also try to get some teething toys to soothe the pain and some normal rope toys and rubber ones. They also make this bone called the chilly bone at petsmart that you can freeze and it will soothe their gums.