Some of the most common issues people have with their puppies or dogs are persistent play biting, destructive chewing, and jumping up on everyone! I’ll tell you how to solve all 3 of those problems in this section.
BITING Quick Overview: Redirect your dog’s attention and biting to something positive (like a chew toy) or with an impromptu training session.
The Details There are two main reasons puppies bite: because they’re teething and because it’s natural for dogs to use their mouths to engage with the world since they don’t have hands! So, be sure to always have plenty of chew and tug toys around to divert your puppy when biting occurs. Mix up different textures of toys to keep your pup interested. Puppy biting often can last up to 6 months, even with proper training so stay patient and encourage the right behaviors with your pup. Puppies who bite often have too much energy, so ensuring your pup gets enough exercise is vital to stopping a biting problem. The rule for puppies is that they can safely have 5 minutes of exercise at a time, up to two times a day, for every 1 month of age. So a 3-month-old puppy could exercise for up to 15 minutes at a time, 1 or 2 times per day.Too much exercise for puppies that are too young can potentially cause joint problems. Especially if they are a large breed dog or a breed that is prone to joint issues. To help prevent joint issues in younger dogs and alleviate joint issues in adult and senior dogs, we recommend a good helping of glucosamine and chondroitin like what you can find in Pupford joint supplements. Let’s cover what to do when your dog does actually play bite you. You have 2 options: 1. Show them the right thing to bite on, like this toy! Side note: there is no better time in a dog’s life to teach them a structured game of tug of war than when they are willingly using their mouth like this. 2. The other option is to initiate a standard training session. That’s why it’s important to have some bagged treats available at all times around your home so that you can quickly and easily get your dog’s attention off of biting, onto you, and into a training session. To initiate that training session: -place a treat at dog’s nose and have them sit -practice things like sit or lie down for example. In the first instance, where you encourage your dog to play instead of bite, you are bringing up your dog’s energy and showing them it’s fine to bite but to only bite on things that you give permission for. In the next example, you’re breaking out the food treats and initiating a more traditional training session. Simply by using food, a dog is encouraged to reduce their playing in exchange for more docile behavior like sit or stay. When a dog’s mind is centered on food, they’re usually much less likely to want to play (or play bite). CHEWING Quick Overview Redirect your dog’s attention and biting to something positive (like a chew toy) or with an impromptu training session. The Details So, maybe your dog isn’t just chewing on you. What if they’re also chewing up all of your stuff?! Well, if they’re successfully getting hold of things that they’re not supposed to chew, that’s a pretty clear sign that you’re not controlling your dog’s environment well enough. Step one is figuring out how you can better supervise your dog and control their environment. By far the best way to do that is to literally tie them to you with a leash so that you can be right there to notice and redirect them when they do start to go after an off-limits item. So how do you redirect them? By getting their attention! For example, by using a lure, or by making an upbeat vocal sound. We’re not going to yell or even pull the item away unless it’s a safety hazard and you absolutely must get it out of their mouth right away. See, pulling things away doesn’t really teach them. You want your dog to make the choice to leave the item alone, and come to you or do something else instead. The same principle of redirecting applies with biting but this time, instead of leaving my flesh alone, I want the dog to leave an object alone! “leave it” , understand that the only way to teach your dog a “generalized leave it” is to practice with a multitude of items over many months.
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