Your puppies need for biting is a perfectly natural and essential phase to go through, especially when they are teething. With this being said, however, it is not acceptable to have your pup chewing on you, or anyone for that matter.

Puppy biting or nipping starts out as a bit of fun, but needs to be controlled quickly to avoid ongoing problems. Most puppies can be trained to regulate and minimize the biting fairly easily. The sooner you get started educating your puppy not to bite, the easier it will be. Remember, the younger the pup, the “softer” the bite.

Proven Techniques:

If you catch the biting, just try to redirect the biting from your flesh to a toy or chew bone. For very young puppies this method is often all you need do. As soon as your pup starts to bite your hands just let out a firm “No!” and replace your fingers with a chew toy.

Make your puppy think he is hurting you each time he has a nip at you. This method replicates the way dogs sort out this biting amongst themselves. When puppies are biting and nipping each other it only stops when one puppy lets out a yelp. We can use this natural way dogs learn by letting out an “Ouch!”  every time your puppy bites. The trick is to startle your dog using your voice, and then pull away and stop playing with your puppy for a while. Your pup will soon learn that when he begins to bite, his friend goes away.

In bad biting cases, as soon as your puppy latches onto your hand say “No!” and quickly put your thumb inside his mouth under his tongue. Your other finger will be under his chin and pinch down, but not to tightly. This will feel uncomfortable to your puppy and he won’t be able to bite you.

If your puppy has an even more severe biting problem, try putting on a pair of gloves and apply a foul tasting substance to them. Your dog will soon understand that if he bites you, it won’t be very pleasant! This method produces a strong negative association to your dog every time he decides to bite you. Some dogs are smart enough to realize that when you take your foul tasting gloves off, it is fine to bite you again.