Did you recently get a puppy?
If you did you might be going through your puppy mouthing and biting stage.
In that case watch this video I'm gonna explain you how to deal with it and how to stop puppy
mouthing. Coming up !
Hi I'm Geraldine from Finn and Paddy and Co dog training giving you weekly
dog training tips helping dog owners so that less dogs end up in shelters.
So today I wanted to talk to you about puppy mouthing because if you got a new puppy you
might be going through that stage where your puppy is actually biting or mouthing your
hand and it's actually quite annoying.
First the good news is that puppy mouthing is absolutely normal it's the way that puppies
play explore the world and also if they are going through teething they do need it.
However it is very important that you actually deal with it and that you eventually stop it.
And there are actually 2 different stages to deal with puppy mouthing and biting.
The first one is to teach your dog bite inhibition.
What is bite inhibition?
Well dogs need to learn that bites cause pain and hurt.
And they do that initially when they're babies before you probably got your puppy he was
playing with his litter mates and they were playing and sometimes they're playing roughly
and what happens sometimes they bite and they bite too hard and what happens in that case
the puppy that's been hurt just yelp and just go away.
So that's the first way that puppies learn bite inhibition with other dogs.
But it's very important as well that they learn it with humans and it's very important
that puppies learn bite inhibition with humans before they're 6 months old.
And by the way I don't know if you noticed but puppies have really sharp teeth but their
jaws are not that strong and why is that it's actually to learn bite inhibition because
it's gonna hurt a lot but thank God they're not going to be able to do much damage.
And that's why it's a good time to actually learn bite inhibition.
So what you need to do when playing with your puppy and if he is playing too rough with
you and he's biting you a bit too hard you need to do exactly what one of his litter
mates would do you need to yelp and actually stop playing.
And what is very important here is actually that it is a progressive process.
So you need to decrease the tolerance.
So at the beginning you only yelp when your puppy really hurts you and then you decrease
over the time so what your puppy learns is that humans are really extremely sensitive
and that he really needs to control his pressure.
And if necessary I want you to take one step further and actually put your puppy in time out.
So if actually when you stop playing with your puppy he comes back and bites you even
more and harder I want you to put him in time out.
What does it mean you literally go away eventually even leave the room stand up leave if your
puppy is on your lap you just put him away and you just stand up and you don't look at
your puppy and you literally ignore him for a few minutes.
And he's gonna learn that oh I was playing oh and I bit a bit too hard and then she stopped
playing that's not fun for him so he's gonna learn.
And by the way another important thing don't ever let your puppy mouth your clothing.
Why because if your puppy mouths your clothing you can actually not give him feedback if
it hurts or not because you're not going to feel anything so very important avoid letting
your puppy mouth your clothing.
And then once your puppy actually understands bite inhibition and is able to control his
jaw you need to switch to the second step.
What is the second step it's actually to stop your puppy mouthing at all.
So I don't want you to tolerate your dog mouthing you at all.
So when your puppy actually is gonna bite or mouth you I want you to say no and redirect.
What does it mean you're going to give your puppy something that it's actually ok to mouth
or bite and in that case the best thing is actually a chew toy.
And chew toys are very important for your dog especially if he's going through the teething
period so you need to find out there's different kind of chew toys some dogs prefer soft ones
rubber ones.
So you can have chew toys like this one Kong it is my favourite and my dogs as well because
they're heavy chewers and it lasts very long but maybe a bit too strong for a puppy.
You can also have a bone like this a rubber bone a rope very good as well a bit softer.
And then you have a cuddly toy it's actually part of teaching your puppy inhibition as
well because it does the same so when your dog is actually chewing on it a bit too much
with his teeth, it squeaks, it is the same and you shouldn't actually let your dog tear
those toys apart but a lot of dog owners actually don't know that.
I think Bruce wants the Kong because usually I put treats in it and he loves it and
he's looking for the food but he's not gonna find it - ok
come on take it just take it.
Who wants this nobody no it's gonna make too much noise anyway - no what you want everything
go on.
No not that one, that's for me.
So you really need to find the kind of toys that you puppy actually likes.
And another thing that is really good at this stage is actually to teach your dog the leave
it command because it can really help because you're going to ask your puppy to leave your
hand and actually offer something else instead it could be a chew toy or it could be a reward
a treat.
And if you don't know how to teach your dog the leave it command I made a video about
it a few months ago so make sure to check it out and I will see you in that video.
Bye