Puppy biting - the painful truth
NB: This graphic is a recreation of a photograph of a poster I saw uncredited on social media, so the original idea/design isn’t mine but it is an excellent one!
Puppy biting or mouthing is probably the number 1 thing I get asked for help with.
The reason for this is pretty straightforward - firstly, all puppies bite, so it’s incredibly common (and normal!) for owners to deal with this, and secondly, it hurts, and so it often feels like a very unpleasant and pressing issue.
Anyone who has owned a puppy will be able to recall the weeks and months they spent getting nibbled and chomped, and can probably recall a list of items or clothing that had to be binned after their puppy got their teeth on them. Puppies need to chew, and are inclined to mouth (ie. have a bit of a chomp!) - but why? And how do you get through it?!
Why puppy mouthing occurs
As I say, puppy mouthing is incredibly common, and totally normal. If you observe a litter of puppies and the way they interact with each other, you’ll notice that there’s a lot of mouth-action going on! Think about human babies for a second - we know that human babies are liable to put things into their mouth, and we know that this is part of their process of learning about the world around them through their senses. It’s all exploration, and puppies do much the same thing. The difference between puppies and human babies is that while human babies can also make use of their hands to explore, puppies only have their mouths to grab things, hold things, and otherwise interact with their environment.
Beyond this, it can also come down to overstimulation, excitement, frustration, boredom, pain, and teething. Looking at this list, it’s easy to see why all puppy parents are going to experience mouthing at various points - because it happens a lot for a load of different reasons! If you think about situations in which you might see babies crying or toddlers having a bit of a tantrum, you can imagine the same of your puppy, just replacing crying or tantrums with mouthing.
How to handle it
I get it - being nipped or nibbled hurts. It can feel extremely overwhelming and unpleasant to have to constantly fend off unwanted chomps, and it’s understandable to feel frustrated and irritated as a result. With that in mind, it’s extremely important that we are able to exercise good judgement and empathy in this scenario, and remember the reasons why we might be getting biting occurring. None of them have any malicious intent behind them - after all, we’re talking about a baby animal here who is simply getting to grips with the world and with being alive, not trying to make you annoyed or unhappy! There’s no place here for labels such as ‘aggression’ or ‘guarding’, your puppy is being a normal puppy and will grow out of mouthing eventually, with a little help from you using the following advice…
Keep a diary
Firstly, try to consider why you might be getting mouthing. It helps to keep a diary or fill out a daily tracker, and in fact this is something that I provide all my puppy class attendees with so that they can keep track of their puppy’s home habits easily and make adjustments to their routine. A daily tracker can be as simple as you like, all you need to do is make a note of when and where you’re getting certain behaviours or activities so that you can connect the dots later.
So, you could track feeding times, sleeping, walks, play, toileting, and of course mouthing, and begin from there to build up a picture of when and why we’re getting instances of mouthing. It could be, for instance, that we’re seeing a lot of mouthing in the afternoon when it’s been a while since puppy had a nap, so therefore you could work out that they may be getting a little overtired and need to be given some time and space to rest at that time of day rather than a game!
One important tip is to aim to minimise handling whenever puppy is more likely to be a bit overtired, overstimulated, bored/frustrated, or in pain from their teeth. Keeping an eye on your tracker will help you to understand when to keep your hands to yourself, and to start thinking about the next point…
Provide appropriate outlets
Bearing in mind once again that mouthing is going to happen, we need to make sure that we’re providing plenty of opportunities for puppy to express this need, especially whilst teething!! This means having plenty of chews on hand of different types and textures, and making sure that we’re giving puppy plenty of opportunities to choose the best things to chew on rather than things you don’t want chewed, eg. yourself or the coffee table! It’s generally a good idea to have a safe area where puppy can rest and be by themselves if you need to leave them for a very short period (eg. to nip to the loo), and whether this is a crate, a pen, or a room of the house with a baby gate on the door/s, make sure that this space only has things puppy should be chewing, and that things like table or chair legs are blocked off.
This all goes hand-in-hand with your diary - have a look at the times of day when puppy is most mouthy, and consider how you can build in time for something like a stuffed kong or teething chew toy in their pen or crate. If you can pre-empt times when they might otherwise get a bit mouthy and give them a positive outlet for that need, you’ll more than likely avoid the issue before it even arises.
Mouthing protocol
Understanding the potential reasons for mouthing and mapping your puppy’s routine are going to be the best tools you can implement when it comes to mouthing. Beyond this, however, we can also make use of a ‘protocol’ for when we’re getting unwanted mouthing to help communicate to puppy that it’s not something that we like! After all, as noted, we’re going to be dealing with mouthing at times whether we like it or not, so it’s important to know how to handle it when it does occur.
It’s key that we make sure that any mouthing doesn’t get reinforced - or in other words, we don’t inadvertently do anything that makes puppy more likely to do it again! This even includes what we might consider to be ‘negative’ reactions, such as telling puppy off or pushing them away. Believe it or not, even stuff like that can reinforce the mouthing behaviour that we dislike, as it’s giving puppy a reaction that can seem quite fun to them! So, when we get mouthing occurring (and as established, it will happen), what should we do?
The best thing you can do to communicate to puppy that mouthing = boring and unrewarding is to immediately get up and leave the room for 20-30 seconds or so. Don’t do anything, don’t say anything, just leave. This isn’t intended to be a punishment, just a clear way to say to puppy that teeth on skin means the fun stuff stops. It won’t take long for puppy to make the connection that mouthing means their fun human goes away, and so they’ll start to learn how to keep those teeth to themselves. Consistency is key here, so stick to your guns!
Common questions answered
Q: When will my puppy stop biting?!
A: This varies massively from puppy-to-puppy, and as it’s dependant on so many factors, it’s impossible for me to give any real estimate that would suit absolutely everyone. However, consider that teething usually occurs anywhere between 12-28 weeks, and that big urge to chew can last up to a year of age. By around a year of age, your puppy should have matured enough to understand to keep their teeth a bit more under control, but be aware you may still get some mouthing from time-to-time even past a year! Your dog will always be interested in chewing things even as an adult, so make sure to provide them with lots of nice chews throughout their life.
Q: My puppy growls when they bite / grab onto me / my clothing - should I be concerned / is this aggressive?
A: No, definitely not! Vocalisation is perfectly normal, and just means that puppy is having fun and getting into their ‘game’. You may well notice this same vocalisation when you play together using a toy, or when you watch puppy play with other dogs. Some dogs are more vocal than others, and it’s not anything to be worried about.
Q: Would it be better / more effective to use an aversive technique (eg. spray of water, loud noise) when puppy bites me?
A: No, not at all! Simply, why punish puppy and make them frightened for expressing a very normal, healthy behaviour when we can show them very easily that it’s better if they don’t do this just by exiting the room? It may feel like a bit of an uphill battle at times, but learning is always taking place. What we don’t want to teach puppy is to be afraid of us!
It’s also important to bear in mind that behaviour, however unwanted, is always information for us. Mouthing can tell us a lot - is puppy tired, in pain, bored, frustrated, over-excited, and what can we do to remedy these things? Ignoring the root cause of the mouthing and punishing the biting might eventually suppress some of its expression, but our dog is then likely to seek out other ways to express these issues or feelings, and we probably won’t like those either!
Any further questions on mouthing? Pop them in the comments, or if you’re interested in getting hands-on help from me, check out my Puppy Home Sessions, bookable here! Otherwise, I really hope you found this post helpful and are encouraged to know that you’re not alone in dealing with puppy biting, and that it will get better!