There is no doubt that puppies are extremely adorable and make the hearts of not only dog lovers, but everyone beat faster. However, it often happens that a puppy bites. Due to the sharp teeth of the little four-legged friends, this is often quite painful and of course undesirable.
Why puppies bite and how you can wean your growing four-legged friend off this behaviour is explained below.
Puppies learn how to behave towards their peers by interacting with their parents and siblings. This includes, among other things, the development of the so-called bite inhibition.
Thanks to bite inhibition, dogs are guaranteed not to hurt other four-legged friends or people with their teeth. But when puppies are separated from their mother and siblings too early, however, they may not have yet learned that biting is taboo.
In this case, it is up to you to teach your little four-legged friend not to bite. This is very important. Dogs without bite inhibition are significantly more likely to be injured by dog bites than well-socialised and well-trained animals.
Besides a lack of bite inhibition, the change of teeth can also be responsible for puppies biting. Like humans, dogs are born without teeth. After a few weeks, the four-legged friends grow their milk teeth, which finally have to give way to permanent teeth a few months later.
The change of teeth in dogs begins around the fourth month of life and is normally completed after about three months.
During the change of teeth, puppies have a particularly strong need to use their teeth to chew and bite. This fact is not infrequently noticeable in the form of damaged clothing and furnishings. To avoid this, you must now consistently teach your puppy which objects he is allowed to bite and where his teeth have no business.
Provide your four-legged friend with chewing toys or suitable chewing snacks during the change of teeth, for example. This way he can satisfy his chewing instinct without you having to fear damage to your furniture or your shoes.
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With their help, you not only contribute to your puppy not biting into the wrong things. You also make an important contribution to a permanently healthy dog bite.
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One of the most important tasks in dog training is to break your puppy's habit of biting. Because while the bites of a young animal are still comparatively harmless, an adult dog can very easily cause serious injuries with its teeth.
Besides the use of chews and chew toys, consistency is the key to success in this context. If your puppy bites your hand or tries to grab your shoes, you must always react immediately and not make any exceptions. This is the only way your four-legged friend will learn not to snap.
For puppies without bite inhibition, it can help to behave a little like their littermate or friend. If the puppy bites you, yelp loudly and snap at it with your hand. This may sound strange, but it can sometimes help the young dog to get rid of the habit of unwanted use of its teeth.
If you are familiar with how clicker training works, you can also use a clicker to break your puppy's habit of biting. If your little four-legged friend refrains from using his teeth in a certain situation, you can reinforce this behaviour with the help of the clicker.
Young dogs sometimes tend to get excited when playing. Some puppies will bite you out of sheer exuberance. If this happens, you should stop the game immediately. Give your exuberant four-legged friend the cold shoulder for a few minutes. In this way, he will remember that he annoys his playmates by biting.
Against this background, you should generally refrain from playing too wildly with your puppy thereby inciting the young dog even more. Bear in mind that your four-legged friend will orientate himself with you. The more impetuously you play together, the wilder your puppy will behave and the more likely it is that it will bite you.
As you can see, to a certain extent it is normal for puppies to bite and you as the owner have to take appropriate training measures. Provided you do this properly and remain consistent, it should not normally be too much of a problem to get your puppy to stop biting in time.
In this context, please also bear in mind that a lack of bite inhibition poses a serious danger to the environment, at the latest in the case of an adult quadruped.
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