Teaching a puppy to stop biting

Bringing home a puppy is something that you will think of as an adventure but what you really need to realize is that it takes a lot of responsibility to take care of a puppy and to provide it with proper training. While you think you should be enjoying your puppy on day one, you're wrong ... training should really start the moment you bring him home. And while playing with your puppy, just remember that everything that you do with your puppy will instill behavior that will go on until your puppy becomes an adult.

The puppy training should be consistent throughout its life so that the behaviors that are allowed with the owner are also allowed with people that enter the home. If the behavior would be an embarrassment or could cause harm or annoyance to the person entering the home the owner must not allow it with himself, otherwise the dog will be confused as to what behavior is proper to do with people.

Biting

An usual issue that has to be prevented through training is biting. Puppies like to bite because they are still trying to explore their world and sadly, people at times get the burden of this attention. Never ever hit or slap a puppy while training it to stop biting as they might take it as though you are playing with it. Leave the rough-housing to the dogs.

Another way to train a pup to stop biting is by not playing any aggressive games such as chasing, wrestling or tug of war. Even though some of these games can be fun for you and your dog, it will encourage an aggressive behavior which should not be acceptable especially when you have guests coming to your house.

One of the greatest ways of training a puppy not to bite is by letting out a sharp "Ouch" when the puppy tries to nibble or bite and then removing eye contact and turning away from the pup. This is the same technique that dogs use with each other ... letting the other dog know and be aware that what it did hurt and will not continue to play that way.

This will make the puppy understand that he will be given a negative reinforcement when it bites and will not be given attention like he thinks it would. On the other hand, if your puppy calms down and does not try to bite, give him a treat to reward him with attention and praise so that the right behavior is reinforced.

If and when the puppy bites down on the hand, the owner should place a finger inside the mouth of the pup and let it stay under the tongue holding down the bottom jaw for about ten seconds. Make sure that the pressure is firm enough so that the pup cannot run away for the whole ten seconds. This will show the puppy that he will be given a negative reinforcement and that the behavior he did is unacceptable.