The number one question anyone with a puppy asks is “how do I STOP my puppy biting me, my feet, my hands, my kids, my clothes, my face”. It’s important to understand that it is necessary for puppies to bite. What you do in response is going to set your puppy up for life success. If you don’t have a youngster, there is still a lot of great dog training to be learned from puppies, and you might even discover that you could be the reason your friend’s puppy bites. Visit Episode 18 to download a journal to track puppy biting.
In the episode you'll hear:
- Why it is good that your puppy bites (stick with me on this).
- What is an acquired inhibited bite.
- How I learned about bite inhibition and what biting teaches puppies.
- The 5 Levels of Puppy Biting and what is “CODE RED”.
- 8 things people do that contribute to biting.
- Susan Garrett’s Puppy Biting Protocol.
- What is appropriate when greeting a puppy.
- When the likelihood of biting will escalate.
- How to set you and your puppy up for non-bitey success.
I have a Cattle Dog Mix who does nip a bit. He was a rescue and since I have had him he has slowed down on the nipping. It doesn’t bother me and it he grabs my hand I learned to Freeze because his teeth only hurt from the scrapping when you pull away. For some reason, probably activity related, he loves to nip my 12 year old grandson, who calls it biting. I tell him it is nipping and not to react, or pull his hand away. Any suggestions on nipping. I know it is instinctual for Cattle Dogs.
This does not seen to be a problem with the older, teenaged grandkids and my dog is very gentle with my 17 month old grandson, who I have been taking care of 2 days a week for over a year. That little one can do anything and my dog tolerates it, or moves away. Even when the toddler plays with Ollie’s toys. Ollie grabs his toys away from anyone else. Thank you.
This is working brilliantly. And you’re right. I’m not very good at yelping like a puppy. Practice, practice, practice!
We are also playing your crate games. Thank you!
Hi, my four year old English setter had 6 pups and I currently have 4, 10 week old pups. We have started calling them the piranhas. Thank you for this podcast and I’ll be shortly listening to the next one.
I have already started to assess the situation and they are usually tired or hungry. We are at the play, eat, sleep, poo, repeat stage. However, I have found that what you wear a big factor in the encouragement of biting, when I’m leaning in to the playpen, to put their leads on, if I have sleeves they get pulled, with no sleeves they don’t bite me.
Although, I do have one that likes to bite my feet, so I’m going to apply your approach starting now.
Thank you so much for the access to your podcasts, they are invaluable.
Love Denise.
Thank you Denise, we’re so happy you’ve found this helpful for those little piranhas ❤️
This is my first time hearing your podcast. Great job, covered everything.
Feel like I’m a little late to these podcasts but so glad I stumbled upon them!
Hi, I have an 11week old labradoodle. He is very gentle usually and quite fearful. I know he mostly bites to tell me how much he loves me and that he wants to play and he has never broken the skin, but when he gets excited the bites go from mouthing to nipping and snapping. I’ve tried the ‘ow’ and the yelp, but they really make him worse, he starts growling back and grabs on harder. My instinct is that it frightens him, but he is my first dog, so I gave the protocol a couple of goes in case it was just him thinking it was play but he never stopped biting and was aggressive. So my question is, what things could I do to let him know I don’t like the bites that aren’t saying Ow or yelping and would hopefully not scare him into fight or flight response. At the moment we are doing time out which I know you say not to do.
Still my favourite one that I recommend.
My puppy is 6 months and obey quite nicely, BUT when he sees people’s he get overexcited and start little biting I listen to your podcasts but it doesn’t answer my concerns, is there training lessons I mist?
I volunteer training at a local shelter. For the past 3+weeks I have been working with a 5mo APBT, who had an issue with bite inhibition. The 1st time I met her I received several bites, many breaking the skin. I kept a tally, & used Susan’s bite inhibition guide thruout our 1st session, & she improved greatly, to the point that after 20 min no more bites broke the skin, & were mostly “oops, my bad”. I work with her twice a week, for ~60-90min, starting with a “zoomies”, tug, potty session, then going for a short walk. I mix in playing IYC, “collar grab”, “intentional tugging”, “bring me”, & short recalls, in different areas throughout our walk. For several visits, after the first, I received no hard bites, they all seemed like “oops, my bad” level. This past visit, she seemed like a kid on way too much sugar. She is not aggressive, or growling, just over excited, bouncing off the walls, & I received many “bites” breaking the skin. It seemed nothing would calm her. I gave her a 10min break, while I bandaged my wounds, then went back & talked quietly to her outside her kennel, & gave her treats for being calm, & giving a sit or down when asked. I went back in & got her leashed up, & we went on with our normal routine, with no further hard bites.
I don’t believe this issue will be able to be resolved in the shelter situation, with multiple people working with her, different styles, not seeing certain people for several days. I think what would be best is for a breed specific rescue, & foster home with experience with bite inhibition issues take over her care. I don’t think she needs a behaviorist, yet, but I could certainly see a problem in the future if this isn’t dealt with now, especially due to her breed. She is a wonderful, adorable puppy otherwise, & I want her to have a long, happy life. Looking for any thoughts, & hoping I am reading her right.
I understand the concepts to apply here to curb the biting. However, what do you do when you are carrying your puppy to go to the bathroom, and she starts biting. Do you still just freeze on the spot?
Any suggestions for a deaf dog?
My 9 week old uses our clothes like a chew toy … just keeps grabbing and grabbing and tugging. Not so much our hands . We will put her away when she gets like this so that she and us calm down. I know this is new to us and her so we keep trying.
What about adult dogs who didn’t learn as puppies not to bite? A lot of guys think it’s great to wrestle, play rough, get dogs amped, from puppies on up. This leaves family members, girlfriends, children, etc dealing with dogs who bite, play too rough with them. How do people handle training these adult dogs?
We have a 10 week old golden retriever puppy who bites a lot. In this podcast you said a puppy bit you 30 times in a day. I will count tomorrow, but I think our puppy bites me at least 50-75 times in a day. Your video is super informative and helpful. I wish I had learned this before we got our puppy. Hopefully we can quickly learn and apply all we need to, so that our puppy won’t hurt our son or us (he’s hurt me a number of times).
Michelle a number of resources on this podcast but Podcast #16, and #18 are super supportive on creating a full plan. Don’t forget to record keep the “thing before the thing” and apply your new learning consistently to the puppy.
Great content and love your fun way of presenting these. Thank you. Just need to get a puppy now to test your theories 😀😀
I love your podcasts, they are so helpful, thank you so much ! X
I love your podcasts, and this one was particularly useful. Thank you.
Love these podcasts! I listen while I walk my pupper!
Thank you so very much! I have a standard poodle is hyperexcitable all the time! And she grabs and holds on, but no pressure marks. It’s more annoying than painful. But I’ve been unable to break her of this. I am going to immediately regroup and try your protocol. She follows me everywhete, when I sit down or go to the bathroom, she grabs at my hands and wrists. I hope this works as well as I hope! Thanks again.
I have a 11 months old gsd who used to bite quite a lot. Sometimes he would come behind me while I was walking in the house and bite my calves leaving some painful marks!
This has stopped when he was about 6 months old. However, sometimes he reaches for my hands softly while grooming. He also sometimes tries to bite us when we release him from the lead in the park. We are currently playing the grab the collar game every day which should help.
Can we apply these same principles of episode 17 on our 11 months old gsd or is he too old for this?
Thanks
I love your podcasts! They are very informative! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Excellent sharing it with my new Puppy people,Thank you