Puppy biting: what works, and what makes it worse

Why does my puppy bite my hands?

Because he has no hands of his own. A puppy investigates the world with his mouth, and play with his littermates worked exactly the same way. What he still has to learn is how much force he may use. That is bite inhibition: the ability to control the pressure of his mouthing.

The ASPCA, the American animal welfare society, describes how puppies pick it up in the litter. Bite too hard and the other puppy yelps and stops playing for a moment. The game itself is the reward, and the game ends. That is the same logic you use at home.

The word you will keep running into is 'mouthing': your puppy takes your hand in his mouth without biting down properly. That belongs to normal play. It only becomes a problem as he gets bigger and does not learn to soften it.

What do you do the second your puppy grabs your hand?

Keep your hand dead still instead of pulling it away, and remove all attention in one move: no eye contact, no touching, no talking. Biting now earns him nothing. If he keeps pushing, stand up and leave. Come back with something he is allowed to chew instead.

1. 1Hold your hand still. A hand that shoots away is a moving toy. The ASPCA warns against jerking your hands or feet back, because it encourages your puppy to jump forward and grab at you.
2. 2Remove all attention. No eye contact, no touching, stay silent. That is how Ohio State University's College of Veterinary Medicine describes it. Anything that looks like a reaction may be exactly the reward he was after.
3. 3Ignore him for ten to twenty seconds. If he keeps going, get up and move away, for the same ten to twenty seconds. Does he grab your trouser leg or ankle? Stop moving your feet and offer him a toy. If you have nothing to hand, freeze until he lets go, and reward that.
4. 4Tighten the rule only once the bites soften. When your puppy no longer bites hard, the time-out applies every time you feel his teeth. The ASPCA then uses thirty to sixty seconds of being ignored, or leaving the room. Make sure that room is safe for a puppy left alone for a moment.
5. 5Come back once he is calm, with a toy. Offer it when your puppy has settled, after a simple sit if you like. That gives him something to grab that is allowed.
6. 6Drop the wrestling games. Choose non-contact play, such as fetch or tug with a solid toy.
7. 7Stop before it goes wrong. The more excited your puppy is during play, the more likely he is to use his mouth. So end the game while it is still going well.

The timings in the plan come from the ASPCA, which uses them after a yelp. We use them here for the silent version too.

Why punishment does the opposite

Slapping or hitting a puppy for playful mouthing can make him bite harder, the ASPCA warns. It can make him afraid of you, and it can even cause real aggression. AVSAB, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, recommends reward-based methods only, for behaviour problems too.

Does yelping 'ouch' stop a puppy biting?

Sometimes. For one puppy the behaviour stops; for another it gets worse, because a high-pitched noise makes him keener. So treat the yelp as a test rather than a fixed rule. If the biting intensifies or your puppy flinches, stop using it straight away.

Ohio State attaches clear conditions. It should be a high-pitched yelp: loud enough to interrupt the behaviour, but calm enough not to scare your puppy. If your puppy looks fearful or cowers, drop it. If the mouthing increases afterwards, drop it too.

1. 1Look at your puppy first, before you try anything. Is he jumpy, or quick to duck away from noise? Then skip the yelp altogether. Skip it too if he is stiff, growling or pulling his lips back: the ASPCA warns that yelping as if you are hurt can intensify the biting in that case.
2. 2Try it once. Give a short, high-pitched 'ouch' the moment you feel teeth, and let your hand go limp, as the ASPCA describes.
3. 3Watch what he does straight away. Does he duck away, look frightened or make himself small? Then stop yelping, next time too. You do not want your puppy startled by a noise you make.
4. 4Does he jump up, bark, or bite harder? Stop as well. Ohio State writes that some dogs take the 'ouch' as fun and attention.
5. 5Does he let go or pause? Then it works for your puppy. Keep it rationed: the ASPCA advises no more than three times within a fifteen-minute period.

The silent version (hand still, attention gone, out of the room if needed) carries neither risk: there is no noise to frighten your puppy or wind him up. If in doubt, choose that one.

Play biting, over-arousal, teething or fear: how do you tell them apart?

Look at his body, not at his teeth. A playing puppy usually has a relaxed body and face. If he stiffens, pulls his lips back or growls as well, it may be a temper tantrum or fear. And a puppy who tears around late in the day and bites harder than usual may be over-stimulated.

Zoomies or just play?

Tearing around the room need not be a problem. LICG, the Dutch information centre for pets, describes the 'mad half hour': running laps, throwing a toy in the air and pouncing on it. That is play, it matters to your puppy, and LICG's advice is simply to sit back and enjoy it.

It is different when harder biting comes with it, and when that happens around the same time every day. AniCura writes that biting which only happens in the evening may be part of the 'zoomies', and that zoomies come up when a puppy has had too little or too much stimulation during the day. Write down for a week when the hard moments fall and what kind of day it was. After a busy day AniCura suggests a calm walk; after a dull day, a short training session.

How long does a puppy keep biting?

Expect months. Around six months teething is finished, and with it one reason to bite falls away. Then adolescence arrives, and that can bring the nipping back for a while. It does not mean you missed anything: it comes with the age, and the plan stays the same.

Chewing belongs to teething: VCA takes the view that it eases the discomfort. Banning your puppy from chewing is therefore not an option. All you steer is what he chews on.

From six months: adolescence

According to the RSPCA, adolescence in dogs can start any time between six and twelve months, and ends somewhere between eighteen and twenty-four months. In that period dogs can appear less obedient, and they become increasingly motivated to explore, interact and run. Some dogs then start jumping up, scratching or nipping out of frustration.

• Same plan, bigger dog. Hand still, attention gone, offer a toy. Your dog is now bigger and stronger, so set it up in advance: a gate in the doorway and a toy within reach.
• Do not tell him off. About adolescent dogs who play too roughly with other dogs, the RSPCA writes that telling them off only makes the problem worse. Use a happy voice rather than a reprimand.
• Give structure. The RSPCA advises structured play and exercise sessions, such as searching games, scent puzzles and long walks in quiet areas.
• Rest matters too. Growing and learning is tiring, the RSPCA writes about puppies. Let your adolescent rest regularly as well.

What about a training class?

A good puppy class helps. We do not run one ourselves. AVSAB states that puppy classes can start as early as seven to eight weeks, provided your puppy has had at least one set of vaccines at least seven days before the first class, plus a first deworming, and stays up to date during the course. Talk to your vet about the vaccination schedule. For an older dog there are adolescent classes. Pick a school that works with rewards only.

What is a puppy allowed to chew on?

Veterinary dentistry works to one rule of thumb, according to VCA: do not let your dog chew anything that will not bend. That rule is about fractured teeth, and it rules out hard things such as bones, antlers and hard nylon. Rawhide, pigs' ears and tennis balls fail a different test: blockages and choking.

• What does work. Ohio State lists a stuffed, frozen rubber toy and durable soft toys as chew outlets.
• The bend rule, against fractured teeth. Do not let your dog chew anything that will not bend. VCA counts nylon, bones and antlers as too hard.
• The second list, against blockages and choking. VCA names, among others, rawhide, pigs' ears, other dried animal parts, synthetic toys and tennis balls. They can lodge in the throat or cause a blockage in the gut, which often requires surgery.
• Supervision still applies, even with toys that pass both tests. VCA writes it out: no toy is one hundred per cent safe.
• Offer several options during teething. Chewing seems to ease the discomfort of erupting teeth, VCA writes. So your puppy is going to chew regardless.
• Do not leave your shoes lying around. LICG points out that a puppy can learn that way that shoes are lovely to chew.

Our sources disagree here. Ohio State lists rawhide and nylon chews as perfectly usable outlets. On this point we follow VCA, because its advice names the specific risk. If you are unsure, put it to your own vet.

What if there are children in the house?

Agree the rules with the children before the puppy comes home. Minder Hondenbeten, a themed website run by the Dutch information centre LICG, has ten golden rules for that. The site is supported by the Dutch agriculture ministry and Utrecht University's veterinary faculty, among others. Four of those rules bear directly on a puppy that bites.

• Leave a dog alone while he is eating or sleeping. If he is startled awake, he may snap. At his bowl he may want to defend his food.
• The dog's bed belongs to the dog. That place is his: he has to feel safe there and be able to withdraw in peace.
• Do not lie on or under a dog. A child lying under the dog has their face right by the teeth. A child lying on the dog can hurt him.
• Play safely: no tug and no wrestling games for children. In those games the dog uses his teeth, and that can go wrong. Search and fetch games are better.

Tug: fine for you, not for your child

At first glance the sources disagree here. The ASPCA offers tug as a good alternative to wrestling. A toy then sits between your hand and his teeth. The Ten Golden Rules tell children not to, and point them at search and fetch games instead.

Both are right, about different players. The rule for children exists because the dog uses his teeth in tug, and that can go wrong. So keep tug with the adults, and give the children search and fetch games. Stay with them while they play.

When your puppy hangs off a sleeve or trouser leg

Agree on this with the children beforehand, and rehearse it once without the puppy.

1. 1The child stands still. Rule two of the Ten Golden Rules: do not run away from a dog, because he may give chase, often as a game.
2. 2The child calls an adult. Rule ten: a child should not try to solve a problem with the dog alone.
3. 3The adult offers the puppy a toy and calmly separates puppy and child. AniCura calls calm play, and ending the game calmly, the best solution.
4. 4Does it happen around the same hour every day? Then keep puppy and children apart at that hour, with a gate for example. AniCura advises the same for children too young to learn not to react to puppy teeth.

Where does bite inhibition actually start?

In the litter. That is where a puppy learns from his siblings how hard he may squeeze, and where the work you finish at home begins. How many weeks he gets for it is not the breeder's free choice in the Netherlands: the law puts a floor under it.

A puppy may not be separated from its mother before seven weeks of age. The rule sits in the Besluit houders van dieren and is published by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO): for dogs, seven weeks, with exceptions only where the health or welfare of the mother or the puppy demonstrably demands it, for example rejection, aggression or illness.

Seven weeks is a floor. An Italian study in Veterinary Record compared 70 adult dogs taken from the litter between thirty and forty days old with 70 taken at two months. According to their owners, the early group more often showed destructiveness, excessive barking, fearfulness on walks, reactivity to noises, possessiveness over toys and food, and attention-seeking. That was most marked in dogs from a pet shop.

What to do with this: ask the breeder how old your puppy will be when he leaves the litter, and do not take home a puppy younger than seven weeks. How to build the weeks after that is covered in puppy socialisation and the first 30 days with a new dog.

When is biting no longer play biting?

When fear or threat enters the picture. Stiffening, lips pulled back, growling or ducking away can be signs of fear or frustration. The ASPCA writes that repeated biting out of frustration is not something a puppy simply grows out of, so get help with it. The same goes for biting that worsens after weeks of practice.

Do not punish a growl. AniCura calls growling communication: dogs do not growl without a reason. If your puppy growls when you come near his food or toys, respect that and keep your distance. If he growls at moments you cannot explain, call your vet. AniCura also strongly recommends a puppy training class in that case.

Start with your own vet, to rule out physical causes. Your vet can refer you to a veterinary behaviourist: a vet who has specialised in behaviour. Choose someone who works with rewards only.

More on the early months in puppy house training and puppy socialisation. Everything about young dogs sits together under Puppies. Looking for daytime care for your puppy? See our daycare.

Frequently asked questions about a puppy that bites