Pet Behavior Topics

Biting & Play Biting

No one expects their cute little pup to grow up into a dog who bites. But if you don’t take the opportunity NOW to teach your puppy "bite inhibition", you are asking for trouble at least, and at worst you are risking injury and/or a lawsuit and/or euthanasia for this dog. Please don’t skip this very important daily puppy training exercise, and please start as early as possible in your pup’s life!

Bite Inhibition

If you watch a litter of puppies playing, you will notice that they spend much of their time biting and mouthing each other. Because your pup has very sharp teeth and a weak jaw, his harder bites or mouthing hurt his littermates - so they yelp and refuse to play with him for some time. Soon the pup learns that play time ends when he bites too hard. Because an adult dog has duller teeth but a very powerful jaw, Bite Inhibition (a "soft mouth") is one of the most important lessons your pup can learn while his sharp baby teeth are still in. You and your children should mimic this puppy play behavior in daily life.

There are two phases to training Bite Inhibition:

Phase 1: Practice several times daily for 3-4 weeks. (Best for pups up to 12 weeks of age but if you've never done bite inhibition exercises, this step can be used for older pups who have varied mouthing pressure) Allow pup to mouth/playbite. When he exerts slightly more pressure than usual, say "Ouch!" just loud enough that he stops in surprise, and immediately stop playing for a few seconds. Now allow him to mouth again and repeat the "Ouch!" and stop playing steps several times until he ONLY mouths softly. If your pup is not responding to the "Ouch!", simply skip it and just stop playing and/or get up and move away for a minute, then start again. Your pup will quickly learn that fun ends when he mouths too hard.

Phase 2: (Only after Step 1 has been practiced for a MINIMUM of 2, and preferably 4 weeks) Now, any and every time his teeth make contact with human skin, say "OUCH!" and immediately stop playing. Get up and leave, and/or ignore the pup for a minute or two. Your pup should now start to believe that humans are very sensitive and cannot stand the incredible pain of any tooth contact to their skin. The point of these bite inhibition exercises is to first teach your pup to have a "soft mouth", and then to teach him that the instant his teeth touch human skin, play time is over. Remember, if your pup doesn’t respond to the "Ouch" or seems to get more riled up, just skip it and simply stop playing or interacting in any way for a few minutes.