A puppy biting your hand or using your pant cuff as a chew toy – cute? Not so fast! Teaching a puppy what is OK to bite when they are young is the single most important item for any pup. Mouthing and biting is a normal part of being a puppy, but how cute will that be when they bite your hand – or a child’s hand – when they are an adult dog? Damaging dog bites are not cute! Puppies must be taught by people to control the force of their biting behavior so that they learn to have a soft mouth if they do accidentally grab onto a human (instead of a toy or food being offered). Then they should be taught to reduce the frequency of puppy mouthing, so that as an adolescent and adult dog they will not harm a person they are playing with – or their clothing!
The program outlined below is best for puppies who are up to about 18 weeks, while they still have their baby teeth, who have not yet learned to control their playful biting. If your puppy is under 6 months and not biting too hard (already has some self-taught bite inhibition), it can still be used – but for dogs older than 6 months that are play biting you, please consult a professional dog trainer.
For this program, it is important that EVERYONE who interacts with your dog, (e.g. everyone in your household and any visitors) follows the same rules. Children should be closely supervised to ensure that they are following the rules, too!
This puppy program is broken down into three steps, to be followed in order:
- No painful bites
- No pressure with teeth
- No mouthing at all
Puppies normally develop bite inhibition through interaction with their litter mates. When a puppy bites another puppy too hard, the second puppy will yelp and discontinue playing. In this way the first puppy learns not to bite so hard. This technique has you take the place of littermates, and teach in much the same way.
1. No painful bites.
In the same way you as humans must act like fellow littermate and let your dog know when he has bitten you too hard. In the first phase of training, if the puppy puts his mouth and/or teeth on you and doesn’t bite down, you can immediately redirect their mouth on to a toy and praise. BUT if the puppy uses pressure (they usually will at some point, they are testing everything out when they are young) so that you are feeling a pinch or more: yelp like a puppy just enough so your puppy notices – and then walk away and ignore him for about a minute.
Dogs vary in their sensitivity, so it is important that your yelp volume and intensity is appropriate for your particular puppy. If when you yelp your pup doesn’t seem to notice, or immediately comes back to bite you again, then next time try a louder yelp and move away more quickly. Similarly, make sure that you do not startle your puppy too much. If your pup cowers or runs away tail tucked between his legs when you yelp, then you are most likely yelping too loudly; next time try a quieter yelp. When you return after the minute of ignoring them, make sure you have a toy ready so they can bite the toy, which is good! Reward that good behavior with lots of attention and praise.
NOTE: Ignoring means no looking at your dog, no speaking to your dog and no touching your dog! If necessary you can leave the room for that minute (a ‘time out’) so that he has no chance of play-biting you while you are ignoring him.
It may be tempting to say an angry “no” and/or push the puppy away. However, this is giving them attention – even if it is “negative” attention. Attention is a reward! You don’t want to reward the undesired behavior.
2. No teeth on you.
Once your dog has learned that painful bites are unacceptable and has stopped doing them, you can progress to teaching that any pressure of his teeth against your skin is unacceptable. At this point, the yelp is NOT appropriate. If the puppy puts his mouth on you with no teeth pressure, either redirect onto a toy immediately, or (better) get up and away from puppy to ignore for 30 seconds, then return with toy to play again.
3. No mouth on you at all.
Once your dog has learned that he should not put his teeth on you, you can progress to training your dog that any mouthing of you or your clothing is unacceptable by stopping the game or attention when he mouths you.
Depending on the age and temperament of your puppy, the time it takes to reach step three will vary from a week or two to a few months. Here are some guidelines to help speed the process along:
- Never hit your dog (his nose or any other part of him) in response to his mouthing or play biting! Not only is this unnecessary but also it will likely encourage him to continue biting you, either in play or in self-defense.
- Do not forget to provide appropriate chew toys and bones for your dog and praise him for chewing on these. In this way your dog will learn not only what is UNACCEPTABLE but also what is ACCEPTABLE in terms of using his mouth.
- You may find it helpful to use a taste deterrent (available from pet shops) on your hands or clothing while you are going through this program. First make sure that the product is actually distasteful to your dog (some dogs like the taste of taste deterrents).
- Make sure your puppy is getting sufficient exercise both mental and physical. Play biting can be a result of being bored and having pent up energy.
Some people are reluctant to adopt a cat from a shelter because they are worried about ending up with a cat with permanent problems. Others are certain that shelter cats with problems really are wonderful cats who simply need love. And… sometimes they are both right. This inspiring story is from the wonderful Way of Cats blog and tells the story of how they fell in love with a kitten at a shelter who had very little chance of being adopted, because of developmental problems. Problems that were from horrible neglect as a tiny kitten. How lucky this kitten was to find them, and vice versa! “Every cat in a shelter has a problem.” Way of Cats writes, “But most of the time, it’s something quite easily fixed: the problem is they don’t have a home.” 
We are so grateful for all the amazing work that rescues and shelters do every day helping save homeless pets and finding them new loving homes. The Adopt-a-Pet.com family works hard “behind the scenes” to get those rescued pets seen by adopters, while the staff and volunteers at rescues and shelters are on the front lines: taking care of sick, hurt and abandoned animals getting them adoption-ready, taking them to events, scheduling meetings with prospective homes, and seeing the inspiring pay-off of a happy adoption. See below for one heart-warming happy adoption story sent to us by one of our rescue partners today! (ps. If you have a happy adoption story about a pet seen on Adopt-a-Pet.com, we’d love to hear from you too! Email us at 
notice that she was available, and now I have my girl. She was so happy to get out of the shelter and immediately bonded to me. I drove 3 ½ hours to pick her up – each way. She was so tired that she slept almost all the way home. She is calm and smart and a real catch. Two weeks into her new home, “Maddie” has already fit in with the other two pets, is almost housetrained, knows her name and comes when called (well, almost always). She is a real “guard dog”, seldom leaving my side, and sleeping on the floor at my side of the bed. She is healthy and playful and hasn’t chewed up too much of the household. She is a “giant” which unfortunately means she can reach the tops of most counters and tables, so we really need to use our brains. She plays constantly with our other shelter dog (5 years old) when they aren’t sleeping it off. She is calm and sweet and very smart.
