Q&A: Puppy Biting and Leash Training?
Question by Paul S: Puppy Biting and Leash Training?
Hello, I got a puppy a few weeks ago. He likes to bite,and hates having his leash put on him.
What should I do to get him to stop biting, and to get used to having a leash?
Best answer:
Answer by Yogi and Me
I got 2 words for you..OBEDIENT CLASS. You can also get training tips from the ASPCA website, pedigree, dogster, any dog website can give you info.
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As far as the biting, make sure he has lots and lots of different things to chew on. Flavored things, plush things, hard things. A good variety will keep him from getting bored. If he bites you yell “OW!” or “NO!” (even if it doesn’t hurt). Then turn away from him and refuse to look at him for a few seconds. Your puppy will notice that you’ve stopped paying attention to him and want to know why – he does not want to lose his best friend’s affection! If you spend too much time scolding him, he may start to nip to get your attention. Then you can substitute whatever he’s biting with a chew toy and give him lots of praise when he chews the right thing.
For the leash, take it a step at a time. Put it on him, give him treats and praise, then take it off. After a few times of that, put it on and walk him around the house for just a minute, with the same treats and praise. Gradually build up until he gets used to it.
Every time he bites then you yell a sharp, high pitched “OUCH” and immediately stop playing/petting/anything you may be doing with him and walk away. He’ll learn quickly that biting means end of game (this is what his litter mates would have done, and it DOES work!)
As for the leash, i would make it a daily part of your lives for now. Pick it up frequently, carry it around, clip it on or off frequently, walk him around the house with it, walk him outside with it (of course), play short games in the yard with it on, etc. He just needs to get used to seeing and using it. Make it fun for him and occasionally feed a few little treats while he’s clipped. Don’t use it for any corrections and be gentle, no harsh jerking or pulling. He’ll get the hang of it.
I think you should go to one of those obedient school classes. I took my puppy there and she was a complete different dog when she graduated
they actually teach you how to talk to your puppy so it listens to you.
All puppies will bite and chew your body parts or clothing. It is just what puppies do. Their sharp, needle-like teeth can cause quite a lot of pain, and clothing can easily be damaged. It makes sense that we want to teach puppy that this is unacceptable as quickly as possible. What’s more, if puppies are allowed to continue this behavior, by the time they are adolescents or adults they could cause some serious damage!
That’s not to say that having a puppy’s mouth on you is necessarily a ‘bad’ thing. Puppies need to learn what we call ‘bite inhibition’, which is a soft, inhibited bite. Why? All dogs will bite under certain circumstances, particularly if taken by surprise. The dog that learns bite inhibition can bite without causing any real damage.
First, some theory. Don’t worry, it’s not long and boring!
You want to use “Negative Punishment”. Sounds awful, doesn’t it? But don’t worry, Negative Punishment simply means that behavior is decreased because we took something away as a consequence of that behavior.
A ‘time out’ is a Negative Punisher when the target behavior is decreased. Time outs are one of the most humane and pet-friendly punishments we can use, when used with thought and care.
Puppies bite at our hands and clothing because that is the way that puppies like to play. It is fun, and they enjoy our attention. They particularly like it if we try to fight them off of us. Have you ever seen two or more puppies playing? They like to fight each other with their mouths and paws.
Normally, other puppies teach our puppy not to bite too hard by squealing in pain. When we take our puppy from the litter, these other puppies aren’t around to teach proper bite inhibition any more. Some people advise trying to emulate a ‘puppy squeal’ to discourage biting too hard.
I don’t know why, but people just don’t seem to be very convincing with their squeals, so I don’t recommend it as a training technique. What’s more, some puppies seem to enjoy it when their human squeals and will get more excited, resulting in more biting. This is obviously not what we want puppy to do! If you can squeal and your puppy immediately stops biting, then this is an acceptable technique. Monitor the behavior long-term, though, to make sure biting too hard is decreasing.
A different, yet highly effective aproach is to say ‘ouch’ in a neutral tone of voice (not loud, not high-pitched and not angry) then walk out of the room, shutting the door behind you for 30 seconds. This marks the exact behavior you are trying to punish, then gives a time-out as a consequence.
It may take puppy a little while to figure out the link between his biting and the time-out, but the marker will make it clearer. It is important to say ‘ouch’ in a neutral tone of voice, and say it exactly at the moment that puppy bites too hard.
Notice that I said “exactly at the moment that puppy bites too hard”? We don’t want to discourage young puppies from biting altogether, this would be bite prohibition. We want to teach puppies to inhibit their bite.
Time-outs should not be excessive. A long time-out can be stressful and lead to other unwanted behaviors. 30 seconds is more than enough and seems to be quite effective. Don’t look back at puppy or try to push puppy away when you say ‘ouch’. Simply get up and leave, closing the door behind you.
If you have family or friends in the room then it might be easier to lead puppy out of the room and shut him out for his time-out. However, this doesn’t seem to be as effective to me.
Remember, it is only punishment if the behavior decreases. Continuing with a punishment which is unclear or ineffective is a waste of time and borders on abuse (although, it would be hard to do damage with a 30 second time-out). Consider your timing, consistency and whether or not there is anyone else in puppy’s life who is not following through with this protocol consistently. It is important that you explain the rules to anyone who plays with puppy
Well I am going to guess here since you don’t mention your puppies age, or breed. The puppy teeth fall out between 4 and 6-months-old, so trade your fingers for toys and bones. Use garden gloves if you need to when training. Some people cry like a puppy when the puppy bites. I point at the puppy snap my fingers and say “no biting” when the puppy behaves, I say “good boy”. Leashes are about timing. When they are first little I put the leash on the puppy and try and call the puppy to me. I put the leash on the puppy and have the puppy follow me (in my fenced back yard) dragging the leash. I start leash training in the back yard, and when they can handle the stress of all the scarry things in my back yard, they can graduate to the street. You can practice with the leash around 3-months-old, but really the puppy gets better with the leash around 4 to 5-months-old. When my puppies go for a walk, they don’t like it at first, but when they get home, I make a big fuss, and clap and praise them, so they start to like it because they are going to get a big fuss when they get home. If the puppy is pulling on the leash, I stop and say “wait” and I wait until I want to walk again, and then I say “go” when I am ready to go again. You are supposed to walk at your pace, and then if the dog is tugging on the leash, make them “wait”, you have the right on your walk to stop and look at a flower, or look at a tree, or just count to ten, or change the batteries in your walkman, so the puppy has to learn to “wait” for you, and then when you are ready to “go” say “go” and start again. Remember to praise the puppy when he is doing good and say “good boy”