You'll be surprised by the amount of puppy biting problems that can be solved
with training strategies that have nothing to do with puppy biting.
Every single week,
we help hundreds of students through their puppy biting training.
And after seeing enough dogs, you start to notice a pattern.
So in this video,
we're gonna talk to you about some of the choices that you're gonna make a
little differently in your day to day with your puppy that are gonna completely
change your nipping problem.
Now, this is the fourth video in our series,
but if this is your first time here, let me bring up to speed.
This is our new puppy vlog. Now as a dog trainer, for more than 20 years,
I have raised and trained a lot of dogs already in this series.
I'm gonna share with you some tips and tricks that I've learned along the way.
And I bet many of them you've never heard of I'm Kayl McCann.
This is eight-week-old mixed breed puppy Five Alive welcome
back to McCann Dogs.
Every week here on our YouTube channel,
we publish new videos to help you through the dog training process.
So if you're currently training a puppy and this is your first time here,
make sure you hit that subscribe button.
Now we have all kinds of videos here on our YouTube channel to talk about puppy
biting and how to address it in the moment.
Yeah, and today's video is not about that, though.
It is about the choices that you're gonna make that are actually gonna stop
puppy biting altogether.
This here is basically the secret to dog training and it is gonna help immensely
with your nipping and biting issues. You know,
if the puppy goes to make a poor choice and he has lots of times in the first
couple weeks that he's been at home,
I have been able to utilize the line to redirect him very easily when people
have nipping and biting issues and they don't have a leash, a line on the puppy,
they end up having to touch the puppy's body or try to get ahold of 'em or
sometimes because the puppies are jumping and nipping at us.
We end up pulling our hands away because we don't wanna get we don't wanna get
bit.
And that really changes your puppy's respect for you because they're not really
being addressed. And when I, you know,
bring my hands away and I'm trying to get ahold of them, well,
that becomes really fun. Doesn't it? That becomes really fun.
And it's very difficult for him to understand that biting is bad.
You can see when I engage with him like this, his instinct is to start biting,
but if I have the line, I can use that to utilize some more control.
I could use the line to slip my hand down into his collar and immobilize him
that way. Good boy. Excellent. And the quicker I can do that. Yes.
You're so smart. The quicker I can do that, the easier it will be to,
to be in control of my nipping and biting.
Now I will share with you a common place.
That Five Alive did initially do some nipping and bit,
and that was when I would actually go to attach his house line to his collar.
Initially, when we started,
he would get really excited by that and he would try to nip and bite at my
hands.
So the way that we worked through that is I would just teach him what I wanted
him to do differently.
So I would start off by just putting my hand in his collar and I would just
simply feed him for allowing me to do that. Yes.
Once he was comfortable with that, I would practice taking the line off,
putting the line on yes. And then rewarding him.
And we would literally practice this over and over and over again.
Take the line off, put the line on. Yes. And in order to get a reward,
I just wanted him to be calm and settled.
I don't care whether he sits or stands. Yes. Good boy.
I'm just gonna go through the process of putting his line on and off.
I need to teach him what he should be doing differently in that moment,
rather than leaving it to just nipping and biting. If I give him a job to do,
and show him what I want, he's much less likely to nip and bite. In fact,
he says, Hey mom, let's do this whole collar leash thing. This is cool.
And again,
I have a willing and excited puppy to get his leash on all because of how I
present this situation to him.
Another common place that a lot of people end up getting some nipping and biting
from their puppies is situations where we need to handle them.
It could be simple things like taking a hold of their collar, or, you know,
getting something outta their mouth, clipping their toenails.
And that is actually not an area that I've had a lot of issues with five with,
because right from the beginning,
I've trained him how to react in those different scenarios.
One of my favorite exercises that I'll do with him,
and I've done this to start conditioning him,
to allow me to clip his toenails is I give him a comfortable position that I
know likes to be in. So I've just lured him onto my lap here.
And then I practice, I have treats in one hand,
I'm gonna get a few more out here and I'm just gonna practice holding a paw,
maybe handling a toenail. Yes. And then rewarding handling a toenail.
Yes. And then rewarding. And I will do this far before. Yes.
Good boy. I ever get the toenail clippers out.
And this is to make sure that by the time I get the toenail clippers out, yes.
He understands what he should be doing. I could even hold a back foot. Yes.
Good boy. And I just take my time with this.
We literally do this for just a couple minutes every day. Every other day.
Yes. Good boy. And it really conditions him behave differently.
So rather than nipping and biting me during those moments, he says, oh,
there's that fun,
little exercise that we do where you feed me a bunch and you hold onto my
toenails. Yes. Good boy.
I wanna talk to you guys about the game of tug and out or tug of war.
What a lot of people don't realize is that this game has so much to do with
teaching your puppy about not nipping and biting you.
The really fun thing about playing tug is that it's a great way to get some of
this excess energy out. Just like I mentioned before,
this would be a great thing for me to do before we have a little snuggle
session, cuz I can get all this energy out.
The other thing that I can do is I can teach him about how he should use his
mouth while he's tugging and playing.
I might get my free hand and put it around his face or put my hand on his sides.
Oh you crazy dog. Now this growling and playing,
this is just because he's having a total ball right now. This is not aggression.
This isn't anything bad. He is just having a great time. And again,
he's trying really hard to keep his mouth on the toy. Not on me.
Now, when we first started, there was a few times where he would accidentally,
grab my sweatshirt or grab my hands. I would stop the game.
I would get him back on the toy. And then the game would begin.
And he learned through a couple tries that the game only continues if your mouth
stays on this toy. So it teaches him to be more careful around me. Now,
the last thing that's so awesome about tug of war is that it's an amazing game
to start implementing some rules.
Now you can see that Five Alive absolutely loves this fuzzy ball T he likes the
fuzz. He likes the ball and sometimes he actually would rather chew the handle.
Okay. That's fun too. So if you wanna get one of these toys for yourself,
make sure you check out the McCann store. The first rule is teaching the puppy,
not to grab the toy until you're ready.
So he's obviously already grabbed the toy.
So I'm gonna use the house line and the leash.
This is why the house line is so important. Good boy.
He gets to play when I start the game. Ready? Okay. Playtime.
Good boy.
So I say some type of phrase or word that means we're allowed to play and have
some fun. Good boy. Then I can start to teach him right from the beginning.
How to give things up to me. So while I was talking to you there,
I just snuck a little piece of food in my hand. And as he's playing, good boy,
I'm going to offer him a bit of a trade. Get this thing. Good boy.
You could start to give them a word that you want them to give up the toy on.
I like to say the word out,
so I'm simply gonna the word and then I'm gonna trade him for a treat. Good boy.
Good. Out. Yes. Good boy.
So I say the command and then I can give him a reward one second later for that
great timing. Yes. Good boy. Now,
if you're having any major nipping and biting issues,
it's really important that you listen to this next step because management's
gonna be really, really important. Now, a really obvious choice for management,
which I think a lot of people already know about is the use of a crate.
Now the use of a crate does not fix your puppies, nipping and biting issues.
But what it does do is it gives you an opportunity to avoid it from happening
because it allows you to not have to supervise them 24/7.
It's just is really important that if you are utilizing the crate,
which we suggest that you do,
that you are not using the crate as a form of discipline.
So the puppy does not go in the crate. If they are nipping and biting you,
that's not how it's going to be used. It's used more for prevention.
And that's a really important point.
Sometimes what happens is we put our puppies is in a scenario where we want them
to be calm and relaxed and snuggly and all, all these things with us.
But we have a puppy that is like ready to rip roar around the room and get
really excited.
And sometimes if you have a really energetic puppy being calm in that moment is,
is not really on their list of things to do.
I I'm actually doing that right now. You know, Five,
it was actually quite hyper before we first started this video,
knowing that I wanted to sit down here and talk to camera.
I just got a high value bone. So he actually has something that he could do.
If this bone was away, he'd probably be climbing all over me and doing,
you know, energetic puppy things. So I'm,
I'm using an opportunity to teach him what I want him to do instead by giving
him a job. So that's one option.
The second option could be actually changing your dog's energy level by doing
something active with them before you want them to do something calm.
And the reason why I bring this up is in,
if you're in scenarios where say you wanna have a little snuggle on the couch or
you wanna hold your puppy. And they're feeling really energetic,
that is a super common place for them to stop or common time for them to start
nipping inviting at you. But if you can tire your puppy out a little bit more,
if we want him to sit with us while we watch a movie or a couple shows,
we wouldn't just take him out of the crate or take 'em outside and then make him
sit with us because he'd be too energetic. We would train him first,
Ken and I might do some restraint recalls with them or some tricks or something
that's act. So by the time we sit down on the couch,
he's got some of that energy out and he's actually much happier to sit with us
and being a little bit more calm. So think about the state that your puppy's in,
that the mind frame or the energy level,
and either adapt that by adding some exercise into the mix before you're putting
them in a scenario or give them something to do, that's more productive.
So rather than nipping on you, they can be enjoying a nice little bone.
You'll notice I use a lot of treats in my training today,
but I know later on down the road,
that's not something that I'm gonna do forever and I will wean off of that.
And I know that's a big concern for people.
So if you wanna check out our video that talks all about that click,
that card right here, we help hundreds of new puppy owners with their puppies,
through our Puppy Essentials online program.
And if you wanna work with me and our amazing team of instructors,
make sure you check out the link for that course in the description below.
On that note, I'm Kayl. This is Five Alive, happy training.