Mouthing and Biting

Mouthing is displayed by nearly all puppies and is normal exploring type behaviour. Puppies play with each other using their mouths and establish bonds and figure out who is boss. However, it is not appropriate for puppies to mouth people and if owner’s do not correct the behaviour it can become a more serious problem.


Some owners are encouraging their puppy to mouth without realising it by giving the puppy physical contact, eye contact, laughing, talking to the dog, or playing tug of war with their hands.


Treatment Meth

  • Teach your puppy what is appropriate to chew on – chew toys, bones, raw hides, kongs. Never people!
  • Distract you puppy with an appropriate chew toy to redirect his mouthing onto this instead of your skin
  • Avoid rewarding the behaviour. Completely ignore the dog, turn away, fold your arms, do not make eye contact or speak to the dog.
  • You could take this a step further by getting up and leaving the room every time the puppy mouths you. This gives the puppy a time out from your attention
  • Give a correction such as a verbal correction – a loud sharp “ah ah” or “no!”
  • Many puppies instinctively know they have bitten too hard when they hear a yelp. Imitate a pup’s yelp by making a high pitched short sharp noise when he mouths too hard, then turn and ignore the puppy.
  • Use calm assertive handling around the puppy. Do not encourage the puppy to nip or mouth by getting him over excited with squealing and fast movements. Teach children not to act like this as it encourages puppies to nip and mouth.

Featured Course: Frantic to Focused

This comprehensive course takes you step by step on how to get your dog from a frantic dog to a focused dog on walks. EVEN around other dogs.

Learn more

Popular Ebook: Training Matters

Looking for information online can be so confusing as there is so much conflicting advice. In Training Matters, we explain not just the how of dog training, but the why, so that you know what to do and why to do it this way.

Learn more

Join the Dog Matters Academy!

REACTIVITY SERIES

Dog Matters. All Rights Reserved © 2023

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links in this website are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I may earn a small commission. We only recommend products and services we endorse and using our links does not affect the purchase price for you, in fact it may save you money. Thank you for your support.

Follow Dog Matters: