Puppy biting is one of the most frustrating things to deal with.
And a lot of people feel like they've tried absolutely everything and it seems
like their puppies just still want to bite them.
But we're going to talk to you today about a few things that we actually do
without knowing it,
that actually provoked the dogs to nip and bite at us today.
I'm going to go through a few steps with this little black lab puppy,
Hank,
who's been struggling a little bit with his family thinking that he can nip and
bite everything.
My name is Kayl McCann.
Welcome back to McCann dogs.
In our training facility,
we have helped tens of thousands of puppy owners with their puppy training.
And,
um,
we see a lot of the people making the same mistakes.
And one of the best ways to get rid of puppy nipping is to learn how to actually
avoid getting into the issue in the first place.
The biggest mistake that people make when they have a puppy biting problem is
they don't even realize that they're actually doing things for the puppy that
provoke them to bite.
So today I'm going to talk to you about a few common things that people do
accidentally that caused the puppy to nip and what you should be doing
differently to have better success.
Now let's talk about the first thing and that is playing with our puppies.
Now,
a lot of people make the mistake I'm making right now.
And I get right down on the floor with a puppy and they let the puppy jump at
their face and let them go crazy.
And when puppies like this and they're up near your face,
it's really common for them to try and fight.
So I don't want to be playing with my puppy if I'm having a puppy,
um,
issues this way.
So I still do want to play,
but I'm going to play in a bit more of a controlled manner.
So I'm going to change my body posture a little bit,
and I'm going to play with them.
I'm going to gently push them way a little bit.
I might wiggle my fingers and pull them away just to provoke some play,
but then I'm going to teach him that I want him to be calm.
So I'm going to put my hand in his collaring in a steel piece of food here,
and I'm just going to work on getting him to settle.
Good boy.
Nice.
So I am preventing the biting from happening by teaching what I wanted him to do
instead.
So once he's finished this treat,
I'm going to try and provoke play again and again,
before he gets too ramped up,
I'm going to have him settle and we're going to learn to be able to play
together,
but in a bit more of a controlled manner.
Ooh,
that was a chewy one.
Ready,
playtime,
playtime.
Now he wants to play with the lines.
I'm just gonna move it.
Try to provoke him with me instead pup,
pup,
pup.
Yay.
Good boy.
Settle.
Yes.
Good boy.
Now,
I'm gonna let you in on a little secret.
I don't have the food in my hand when I'm playing,
because this is a very food motivated puppy.
And if I was to hold the food in my hand,
he would just want to follow it around and he wouldn't actually play with me.
So I have it just handy off to the side so I can grab it.
That was so good,
mr.
Very nice.
So short little spurts of play,
keeping your body posture up a little bit taller so that you stay safe.
Notice I have a little leash on him,
so I have great control and I'm teaching my puppy how to play appropriately.
Now another common place that puppies end up doing a lot of nipping and biting
is when we go to hook their leash onto their collar.
So before I even practice that,
I need to condition my puppy to be very comfortable with me putting my hand in
his collar.
So when I do need to hook that leash up,
he's very confident with that.
So I have food in my hand here with my free hand,
I'm just going to put my hand in his collar and I'm going to reward him and we
call this collar grabbing.
And again,
the word grabbing sounds pretty scary,
but we're making it pretty fun because we're associating some treats here,
right?
So I'm going to bring them over.
I'm going to try that again.
I've engaged them with some food.
I'm gonna grab his collar.
Yes.
Good boy.
And I'm going to practice this tons and tons and tons of time so that he is
super comfortable with seeing hands come in.
Yeah.
And then understanding good things happen.
Now,
once you practice grabbing the collar,
the next exercise is to work on being able to attach the leash.
We find them a lot of puppies get really crazy in this moment.
So I'm going to show you a little trick that we do to help calm the puppies
down.
So if I am approaching him,
even if I've led him out of this crate,
what I can do is take a couple of treats and I can just toss them on the ground
just to get them a bit busy.
I can get my leash ready.
And as soon as I get his focus again,
I can lure him into a sit.
Yes.
Good boy.
And then as he's sitting and eating his treats,
I can hook his leash on.
Yes.
And then I'm going to reward him again.
But when I feed him,
I'm going to lure him back into that sitting position.
Good boy.
Yes.
Good.
And I can try taking his leash off.
Yes.
Good boy.
And then putting his leash on.
Yes.
Good Again,
try and keeping him in that sit.
Good boy.
Good for you.
Yes.
Yay.
Excellent.
And then when I'm ready,
Good Boy.
So I can start to train my puppy to maintain a sit as his leash goes on and off.
Oh my goodness.
Yes.
All for rewards.
And you can see how quickly Hank says,
I like this game,
mom,
you putting this,
treat this leash on me.
Yes.
Good boy.
Now,
as we were shooting here,
Hank happened to find one of my slippers.
And I want to just walk you through what to do.
If your puppy does steal something that they're not supposed to have.
And this is a really common place.
Then when we try to take things from them,
they want to nip and bite at us.
Now you'll notice we have this little line attached.
We call these house lines and this is to enable and us,
us to have control over our puppies.
We can't just run away and steal and wreck it.
So what I don't want to do is just walk up and show him some food,
because I don't want him to think that chewing slippers equals treats.
So instead,
I'm going to take the line.
I'm just going to immobilize.
I'm going to pull them away from the,
slipper.
Good boy.
And then I'm just going to have him settle and be calm for a second using the
line.
Yes.
Good boy.
Good.
Now I'm going,
just going to have the slipper out.
Nope.
Yes.
Good boy.
And I'm just actually put my foot on the line.
Good boy.
Oops boy.
And we're going to redirect him.
Oops.
Yes.
Good boy.
Good.
Oh,
you're going for the treat.
Good boy.
Yes.
Good boy.
Oops.
Yeah.
Good Boy!
So I just use a little verbal,
a tiny little leash direction.
Oh my goodness.
And then lots of praise and genuine reward when he's making good choices can be
walk by it.
Oh my goodness.
He is such a good,
oops.
Oops.
Yes.
Good baby.
Do you see how quick the timing is?
The moment he goes for the slipper,
I need to address,
I need to address it.
Good boy.
I need to address it right away and then get him doing something else.
Now it's really common when we get a puppy that we want to have them up on the
couch with us and up on the bed with us,
we can have a big snuggle fest,
but this is actually a really common place for puppies to do a lot of nipping
and biting.
And the reason for that is that we have them up sort of at our level,
the puppy's sort of feel,
you know,
a little bit big for their britches at times.
And they're more prone to being a little bit more wild and crazy and do some
nipping and biting.
So,
um,
rather than having them up on the couch,
especially if you're having problems or puppies being a little bit crazy,
like this one,
teach your puppy how to be calm and relaxed when you're sitting with your family
on the couch by giving them something else to do.
So instead,
I'm going to teach Hank how to lay calmly here.
Now you're going to do this when you don't actually want to sit down and watch
TV.
You're going to do this when you have a few moments to do some training.
So I have my leash on,
I have some treats and I'm just going to lure him into a down position.
Yes.
Good boy.
And I'm going to reward him there.
And then I'm just going to sort of sit up tall for a second.
You'll notice he popped up and he wants to leave the bed.
So I'm going to use a bit of food to lower him back into position.
Good boy.
I actually start to teach an on your bed command on your bed.
Good boy.
Yes.
And I'm just going to reward him for hanging out here.
Yes.
There we go.
Good boy.
And as he continues to hold position,
I'm going to reward him.
Good boy.
Yes.
Teaching him that.
Hanging out on this bed is a really good place for him to be when the family's
all in the living room.
I can't get my treats out.
Fast enough.
Thank you max.
Here we go.
Look because the lure him into a down again and luring and into a down because I
don't want to reward him for jumping up near me.
Yes.
There we go.
Now in the beginning,
my rewarding is going to happen really frequently.
So he doesn't have an opportunity to get up and move away.
But as he,
yes,
as he starts to get the hang of this,
I'm going to start to deliver my food a little bit slower.
So again,
I got the puppy up,
so I'm going to lure him back into position before rewarding.
Yes.
Good boy.
And then the whole key to success here is to make sure that I release him.
So it's my idea that he gets up.
Okay.
Hey,
so short little spurts,
lots of times.
And you're gonna find it very,
Oh,
look at that very quickly.
Your puppy's going to say this position is pretty darn cool.
What a good babe.
Yes.
Now I have a bit of a wild puppy on my hands.
So as I talked to you about the next point,
I'm actually just going to give Hank a little bone here and this is to help
teach him to be calm and relaxed so that as I'm speaking to you,
I don't have a puppy that,
you know,
isn't a situation there where he needs to be disciplined.
I'm staying ahead of the game and I'm giving him something to distract him.
So he portray some good behaviors.
Now,
the next thing that I wanted to mention is that a common misconception or
understanding about nipping and biting is that dogs are going to grow out of it
eventually.
Or another thing that we hear a lot is that,
Oh,
well,
it didn't really hurt that much.
You know,
he's just mouthing my arm.
So that's okay.
And um,
we have one really easy,
really rule to follow when we're teaching puppy,
dog biting.
And that is no mouths on skin clothes ever,
no matter what,
no matter how hard,
how soft we want to be really black and white with our rules,
with your,
our puppies,
because it's much easier for them to understand our expectations.
It's very false to think that puppies will grow out of it.
They're babies.
And they're learning how to control things investigating with their mouths.
That's what they do is as puppies.
And we need to let them know that when it comes to humans,
you know,
your family members,
your kids,
your friends,
that using their mouth on humans is just not okay.
So we know having high expectations is important,
but we also know that dogs really do well with consistency.
And you know,
if we're trying to stop puppy biting,
we need to consistently stop puppy biting.
So that means if there's certain situations that your puppy is more prone to
biting,
it's important that everybody's on board to prevent that from happening.
So,
you know,
if you're getting a lot of puppy nipping with different family members during
playtime or whatnot,
then you want to try to avoid those situations.
So your puppy is not rehearsing,
making poor choices.
Another common time that puppies tend to do a lot of nipping and biting is when
we've gone out,
we've come home from work and we greet them at the door and they're really
excited way.
So rather than when I come home from work or out,
I don't want to come in the door and let my puppy be loose and greet him in a
really crazy manner.
That's going to provoke him to be overexcited and biting.
Instead,
I'm going to leave my puppy in a crate so that as I come in,
I can be calm.
I can approach my puppy and I can let them know that being calm and quiet is a
good thing.
Good,
good.
Yes.
And again,
when you come home,
don't make a big deal out of it.
Be nice and calm because we don't want the puppy being overexcited in their
crate.
Oh my goodness.
You're so good.
And that at this point I could calmly take him out,
hook his line on and we can go for a little potty break.
The purpose of this video is to give you guys more tools on how to prevent puppy
biting in the first place,
by making better choices about how we're interacting with our puppies.
Now,
if you'd like to check out some more videos specifically on puppy biting
training,
check out that playlist right there.
Now,
if you'd like to train with us on a more regular basis to help you with your
puppy training,
you can check out our supported online puppy class called Puppy Essentials.
And you can find the link below in the description on that note.
I'm Kayl.
This is puppy Hank happy training season.