Keith Gilbert asked: Bringing a puppy home for the first time is an exciting time and an exciting feeling, isn’t it? The puppy that you hold in your hands will give you and your family much joy in the coming years. But at the beginning, it won’t be easy because of the bad habits you’ll have to get your puppy out of – like biting and mouthing.
You’ll probably soon notice that a puppy loves to nip and mouth you when you’re playing with it. This isn’t an unnatural activity; dogs sometimes mouth and playfully nip other dogs when playing with each other. Your puppy will probably do that same to you. But since you don’t have thick dog skin, this can be a painful, bad habit for your puppy that you will have to train it out of!
It is critical that you train your puppy out of the bad biting habits early. While it might be cute for a young puppy to nibble on your hand, it won’t be when he grows into an adult dog and can bite hard! Puppies usually learn to watch their biting with their mother and littermates. But since your puppy has been taken away from its mother and littermates, it’s up to you to teach it this important lesson!
Even though your puppy doesn’t have its mother and littermates to learn from, you can still teach it to inhibit its bite by having it play with other dogs. If you allow your puppy to socialize, roll, and tumble with other puppies and well-trained, older dogs, your puppy will be taught by the other dogs how much biting and nipping is too much.
It’s a good idea to let your puppy socialize with other dogs anyway. Through exposure with other dogs, your puppy will learn not to be aggressive or fearful of other dogs. Plus, playing with other dogs will work off a lot of your puppy’s energy and save you some work! If you don’t give your puppy enough socialization, it can turn into a more destructive, hyperactive dog.
Don’t wait too long to socialize your puppy and expose it to other dogs and the “real world.” The best time for training puppies is usually when they are very young – four months or younger.
An important way to prevent your puppy from getting in the habit of biting you is to gain its respect and trust. Respect and trust from your dog is the foundation of dog training and behavior correction.
Obviously, this means that you should never hit or slap your puppy. Physical punishment is the easiest way to break down the trust and respect your puppy had for you. Hitting your dog will only scare and confuse your dog.
Training your puppy to not bite people and other dogs is one of the most important components of a dog training system. If you don’t train your puppy not to bite, the problem will only get worse, not better, as time goes on, and can be a dangerous problem when your puppy grows into an adult dog.
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