When a group of puppies play with each other, they use their small pointy teeth to pull and hold ears, feet, skin and pretty much anything else they can get a hold on.Because their teeth are so sharp, nature gave them the ability to learn to quickly be gentle with each other and so reduce the incidence of injury.
It is critical that a puppy is allowed to experience play biting in order to teach bite inhibition (only to produce soft bites).
A dog that lashes out and punctures skin has no bite inhibition, he has no control threshold, however a dog that has been taught bite inhibition is unlikely to ever cause puncture wounds or serious injury to another.
When you get our new puppy home, he will wish to continue the kind of game he has been used to playing.If you prevent your puppy from all biting straight away, he will not be able to learn bite inhibition, as he won’t gain the required practice.
In order to teach your puppy you must first recognise your puppies different bite pressures and initially only respond to the hardest.
Your response should be to stop play instantly (only for a few seconds) and realistically imitate a puppy yelping in pain.
Your puppy will immediately let go and check to see if you're okay.
By stopping, your puppy looses the reward of play.He will learn that biting too hard is unrewarding and he will make an effort to bite more gently next time.
Restart your game and if he comes at you again equally as hard then give him a longer 'time out' away from you leave the area and go make a cup of tea until you are ready to resume play. If your puppy is particularly persistent and tries to follow when you leave, you can use a house line to stop them.
Remenber dogs have no concept of time so his punishment only needs to be for a few minutes, chucking him out in the garden for a hour is a pointless punishment.
The more you treat these play sessions a 'training' sessions the faster your puppy will learn that bitinghard is unacceptable and as your puppy begins to play more gently you can start to teach him not to bite at all by gradually and systematically responding to softer and softer pressure bites, until your puppy no longer uses his mouth on your skin to play at all.If he does touch you with his teeth, simply terminate the game and withhold all attention for a short while.
If you are not playing when he starts to bite you then he is demanding attention and trying to instigate a game.Games should begin when you say, not your puppy.
If this happens the same rules apply, get up and leave the room and remember to give him more attention for being good. Once bite inhibition has been learnt, more suitable games such as hide and seek or fetch are recommended.
Children tend to be the biggest victims of ‘the puppy teeth.’This is because they often are unable to monitor the game and respond appropriately when it starts to tip over the threshold.
Play fighting should never be encouraged between dogs and children (other than when teaching bite inhibition to very young pups and only when properly supervised) as it can be very difficult to control an adolescent dog during play.
Some dogs may have already learnt that mouthing is particularly rewarding and therefore any attempts to stop the ‘game’ are likely to be unsuccessful.Withdrawal of attention is the only suitable response that is required.
Small dogs, particularly Terriers love to grab trouser legs and long dressing gowns, often damaging numerous clothes in the process.They grab hold because they are ultimately rewarded by resistance when you try to carry on walking which creates a game of tug-o-war! Simply stand still and ignore your puppy completely (this includes speaking, touching and looking).If you puppy no longer gains the reward he wants he will get bored and look for some other mischief.Then you can give him something you do want him to do, throw him a tug toy to shake or a ball to fetch – change the play to a more suitable form and on your terms.