Ever found yourself puzzled by a young pup's behavior during vet visits? I certainly was when a four-month-old trainee of mine was hastily branded as aggressive. Together, we'll uncover the stark differences between fear-based reactions and genuine aggression in puppies, as I recount a story that serves as a cautionary tale for all pet owners. Misinterpretation of natural responses can lead to serious consequences, emphasizing why it's crucial to discern a puppy's genuine temperament and why veterinarians without behavior training might not always be the best source for advice in these matters.
On the journey of raising a puppy, mouthing and biting are obstacles every pet parent encounters. This episode is packed with insights on how to navigate this tricky phase, focusing on nurturing gentle play and teaching bite inhibition without resorting to punishment. I'll share my personal strategies that have helped countless puppies and their humans coexist happily. We'll go through the importance of appropriate training tools and techniques that can transform potentially problematic behaviors into opportunities for bonding and learning. Whether you're a seasoned dog owner or new to the world of puppies, these shared experiences will equip you with the knowledge to foster a positive and safe environment for everyone involved. #151 How to Stop Puppy Biting: Dog Training Today will Will Bangura, CAB-ICB, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FFCP
If you need professional help please visit my Dog Behaviorist website.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Most of the time I'm working with dogs that have
severe behavior problems likeaggression, reactivity, fears,
phobias.
So it's always a treat when Iget to work with a young puppy
that doesn't have any of thoseproblems.
It's basically a blank slate.
So imagine my surprise whenI've been working with a four
(00:24):
month old puppy and when I wasworking with the pet parents,
they asked me what do you thinkabout the puppy?
And I said I think it's afantastic puppy.
I really like its temperament,I really like its demeanor.
It's not crazy over the top.
It's also not a couch potato,because when you get a couch
(00:45):
potato, a lot of times thosedogs have fears, anxiety, stress
.
Those are dogs that might turnout to have a lot of fear issues
and maybe fear aggressionissues and on the other end, the
dogs that are really hyper andjust really crazy over the top.
Those dogs can be a handful totry to work with.
(01:09):
So I get a message from theclient that says hey, can you
give me a call?
My vet is very concerned andsaid that my dog has aggression.
What?
All that will explain it.
We've got a lot to unpack andmore in 60 seconds.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Raised by wolves with canine DNA and his blood.
Having trained more than 24,000vets helping you and your fur
babies thrive, live in studiowith will bangura answering your
pet behavior and trainingquestions.
Ladies and gentlemen, pleasewelcome your host and favorite
pet behavior expert, willbangura.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Good day dog lovers.
I'm Will Bangura.
Hey, thanks for joining me foranother episode of dog training
today.
Yeah, I want to talk about thisclient of mine that has a four
month old puppy who I thoughtwas just fantastic as far as its
temperament and demeanor.
I didn't see a aggressive bonein that dog's body.
(02:33):
So I was really shocked to hearfrom the client that the vet
has big concerns, that they tookthe dog into the back to try to
do some work with a dog andthey couldn't even barely handle
the dog.
The dog was horribly aggressive.
Well, let's talk about the restof the story, because it just
(02:57):
did not make any sense.
It did not make any sense to mewhatsoever until I start
talking to the client and theyexplained to me that in the exam
room the veterinarian or one ofthe vet staff took their hand
and wrapped it around the dog'ssnout and held it tightly and
(03:23):
made the dog yelp.
Now you might be asking why didthey do that?
Well, one of the challenges,one of the problems that this
puppy has, is puppy biting.
Now, this is not aggressive,this is playful, this is normal
behavior.
This is what puppies do,especially at that age, and this
(03:47):
is why you don't use punishmentbecause it scared the dog,
because it showed that dog thatthese people, the veterinarian,
the vet staff they're scary,they're dangerous, they're a
threat, they hurt.
(04:09):
They hurt the puppy, Of course,the puppy.
Imagine you're a puppy.
You're a brand new puppy,you're four months old.
Maybe this is your second visitto a veterinary office.
It's scary.
And rather than make the puppyfeel safe and give treats and
(04:33):
love and praise and take 30seconds to have a positive
experience with this puppy, theygo straight in with punishment,
cause the puppy to yelp, yeah.
And so then they took the puppyaway from the pet guardians,
(04:55):
took it in the back, where nowit doesn't even have the pet
guardians for it to feel safe.
It doesn't surprise me at allthat the dog became aggressive.
The thing about this, thoughthat aggression, that aggression
was provoked.
That aggression would not havehappened if it wasn't provoked.
(05:21):
And it was provoked by the vetstaff by causing fear, pain and
intimidation with this dog.
And then they took the dog intothe back, away from its pet
parents, which caused more fear,and they probably still had the
(05:42):
dog on leash.
Maybe they had a couple peoplecoming towards it, and you know
when you perceive a threat, andin this case it wasn't just
perception, they were realthreats, cause they showed
themselves to be a threat withvery poor handling skills.
(06:02):
The puppy is not aggressive,but now I've got the wife
freaking out because she'sconcerned that the puppy's
aggressive.
And you know it's tough becausewhen you see your veterinarian
(06:24):
and they've got that white codon, it's like they're God.
Now I've got all the respect inthe world for veterinarians.
Listen, they've got to learnmedicine for many different
species.
They've got one of the hardestjobs in the world and they can't
talk to their patients.
They can't talk to theirpatients.
(06:44):
But you need to understandsomething.
Just because it's a veterinarianand they work with animals does
not mean that they knowanything, anything about
behavior and training.
They may know less than yournext-door neighbor.
(07:06):
Look, they don't go to schoolto learn animal behavior and
training.
They go to school to learnabout medicine.
They're lucky if they get asemester course on behavior and,
trust me, that's not whythey're there.
That's not why they decided tobe a veterinarian.
(07:27):
That's not what they areinterested in learning and
chances are they forget all ofit after they graduate.
Now there are some veterinariansthat have taken it upon
themselves to learn a lot aboutbehavior and there are some
great vets when it comes tobehavior, but it's a crapshoot.
(07:52):
It's the spin of the roulettewheel.
I do not attempt to practiceveterinary medicine because I'm
not a veterinarian.
And if you're a veterinarianand you are listening to this,
look, if you don't havespecialized training in behavior
(08:12):
and training animals especiallywhen we're dealing with more
severe behaviors like fears,phobias, anxiety, reactivity and
aggression if you don't havespecialized training in that,
please stop giving advice andrefer your patients to somebody
(08:32):
who's certified and qualified todeal with this.
If nothing else, refer them tothe veterinary behavior that you
may have in your state or anadjacent state.
I say adjacent state becausethere's so few of them.
But this is a huge problem.
(08:54):
Look, I understand the vetshave a job to do.
They don't have all day to beable to positively reinforce
everything that they're doingwith a dog.
They've got to work quickly.
However, what they don't needto do is proactively do
(09:17):
something that causes fear, painand intimidation in an animal
and then, when that animalbecomes defensive, label that
dog aggressive.
No, that's not what's going onhere, folks, not what's going on
(09:37):
here at all.
But puppy biting can be aproblem, and that's what I want
to talk about.
What we don't want to do.
We don't want to take our hand,put it over the dog's snout.
It's muzzle and squeeze that.
I know a lot of people do thatand maybe there are some dogs,
(09:58):
maybe there are some puppiesthat worked for, but there's a
risk.
There's a risk and there's thepotential for damage and fallout
.
Any time you use punishment,folks, when you use punishment,
(10:19):
we're talking about somethingthat's unpleasant.
Shouldn't we be making thesevet visits really positive?
The last thing that I want totalk about is the last thing
that I would think anybody wouldwant to do would be to cause
any level of fear, pain orintimidation.
That just shows very poorjudgment on the staff at that
(10:43):
vet hospital, and that's whylisten.
If you've got dogs that haveanxiety, fears, phobia, stress,
reactivity, aggression, pleaselook for a fear-free, certified
veterinarian if you have one inyour area.
They understand how to workwith these dogs and do it in a
(11:04):
way that will really mitigatethe fear, the anxiety, the
stress and aggression.
If they would have handledthings differently, that dog
would have been a joy to workwith.
I spent several hours with thedog the other day.
It's a wonderful puppy but itmouths and it's excitable to a
(11:28):
certain extent.
It's not over the top, but itmouths A normal behavior for
dogs.
They communicate with theirmouths Like we communicate with
our hands.
We touch people.
They reach out and touch allkinds of things with their mouth
Normal dog behavior.
But you know, we have taken dogsand we've brought them into our
(11:53):
world.
We've brought them into ourhomes and even if it's a puppy
and it's puppy playbiting, itcan hurt, right.
Those teeth can be razor sharp.
They can cause punctures, cuts,tears, and it's not that the
puppy wants to be aggressive.
It's not that the puppy wantsto hurt anybody, they're just
(12:16):
playing.
And a lot of times puppies willlearn good bite inhibition when
they're young, when they're inthe litter, and they learn
canine socialization betweenthree and five weeks of age.
But not every puppy gets whatthey need and sometimes we need
(12:38):
to teach bite inhibition.
We need to do everything we canto prevent as well as stop
puppy biting.
Now, typically I like to callpuppy biting mouthing.
Yeah, I like to use the wordmouthing because whenever you
say biting, everybody assumesit's aggression and it's not.
(13:01):
Oh, they can be aggressive,don't get me wrong.
I'm sure that puppy did getaggressive with the vet staff
and for good reason.
They threatened the puppy, theyhurt the puppy, they were scary
, they showed the puppy thatthey could not be trusted.
I don't blame the puppy fordoing what it did.
(13:23):
Like I said, very poor choiceson the veterinary staff and I'm
sure they are fantastic when itcomes to physical medicine, but
they need to stay away from thebehavior side of things unless
they know what they're talkingabout, and it's apparent they
don't.
I've said it over and over andover again when you use
(13:48):
punishment, you are doingnothing but adding more anxiety,
more stress, more fear to theproblem.
Animals do not go into fight orflight unless they perceive a
threat.
In this case there was a realthreat.
That was normal behavior,defensive behavior.
(14:15):
But we've got to address thispuppy mouthing and it can be a
real problem.
The folks that are the petguardians for this puppy have a
nine-year-old boy and you knowwhen you've got kids and they
get nervous about petting apuppy because the puppy's doing
puppy biting, puppy mouthing, orthey're trying to pet or give
(14:37):
treats and you know those littlerazor sharp teeth cause some
pain for the kid and then maybethey start making high-pitched
noises, no, and they move theirhand away really fast.
And you know, dogs have preydrive, and when you, sometimes,
(14:58):
when kids are making noises andmoving fast, it's like they're
prey, it's like they're anotherdog that we want to maybe play
with, either or and it canexacerbate the problem we have
to ask ourselves what ishappening.
What is happening right beforethe puppy starts mouthing.
(15:21):
Look, behaviors do not happenin a vacuum.
It takes a trigger.
Now, granted, puppy mouthing,puppy biting is a normal
behavior, but there is some kindof stimulus that occurs before
the puppy starts mouthing andbiting.
Were they petting the puppy?
(15:43):
Were they giving treats?
Were they playing with a ballor a con, or were they playing
with a rope toy or another toy?
How excitable was the puppy?
How calm or how excitable wasthe puppy?
How calm or how excitable werethe humans that were interacting
(16:05):
with the puppy when the puppystarted mouthing, when the puppy
started biting?
And when the puppy startedmouthing and or biting, puppy
biting, what did you do?
Were you calm or did you getexcitable?
Did you move your hand awayreal fast, which just elicits
another bite?
Typically, we've got to beextremely calm and freeze like a
(16:34):
tree if we've got a dog or apuppy that's doing mouthing,
play biting, not aggressivebiting, play biting.
The more excited you are, themore your energy is up, the
faster your movements are, themore apt that puppy's going to
be to do puppy biting, mouthing,playful biting and mouthing.
(16:56):
So we've got to be really calm,very calm and very slow
movements, and we've got to havesome strategies when the puppy
begins mouthing, when the puppybegins biting, play biting.
What are we going to do?
Well, first of all, let's getourselves set up for training.
(17:21):
What kind of tools andequipment do we need?
Well, we need to get acomfortable, fitting harness on
the puppy and we need to get aleash.
We also want to have a treatpouch and we want to have a
clicker If you're using clickersor markers in your training,
which I think you should and inaddition to that, you need to
(17:45):
have super high value foodrewards that the puppy
absolutely loves, its favorite,and you need to have a couple
different appropriate toys thatthe puppy can chew on that have
different textures.
Now, one of the first thingsthat you can begin to do is
(18:07):
start engaging with the puppywith appropriate toys and show
that puppy what it can have inits mouth.
It's okay to have in its mouthand you need to be carrying
around a toy or two with youbecause you never know when that
puppy might start doing puppybiting, play biting, mouthing.
(18:29):
And if the puppy starts playbiting, if the puppy starts
mouthing, I want you to thinkabout what were you doing right
before that.
Did your behaviors, did yourmovements get the puppy overly
excited?
Maybe you need to calm thingsdown a little bit.
(18:56):
But the first thing that we needto do if the puppy's mouthing
and biting is we need to givethe puppy an alternative, and
your timing is critical.
So as soon as the puppy wantsto begin to mouther, bite, you
need to pull out that toy andgive it to the puppy.
Now, don't have just one, havetwo.
(19:17):
Puppy might let that go andstart wanting to play, bite and
mout you again.
Well, if you got two toys now,you got a second one to give it.
But swapping out trading,giving the puppy something
appropriate to chew on and evenbefore then and on a regular
(19:38):
basis, playing with the puppycalmly with appropriate toys
that it can have in its mouth.
Now, one of the ways thatpuppies learn good bite
inhibition how hard they bite iswith I mentioned it with the
other puppies in the litter.
If they bite the mother dog, orif they bite one of the puppies
(20:02):
too hard, the puppy or themother lets out a yell, yep, and
that's a signal.
That's a signal to the dog hey,you bit too hard.
We can begin to use that samecommunication to help the puppy
understand that they're bitingtoo hard on us, the humans.
(20:25):
Now the first thing that I wantto do again is teach the puppy
what's appropriate to have inits mouth and to make sure that
I've got that available for thepuppy, make sure that I've got a
couple of appropriate toys onme as well, and if the puppy's
going to bite in mouth, I'mgoing to give the puppy
(20:47):
something appropriate to have.
So those are two things One,proactively introducing the
puppy to appropriate toys,playing with it, showing the
puppy that, hey, this is good,you can have this in your mouth
and it's fun.
And then, secondly, having acouple toys with you so that
(21:08):
when the puppy tries to mouth,when the puppy tries to play
bite, you can grab that toy andgive it to the puppy so that
they can have an alternative intheir mouth.
And then the third thing wetalked about was using what the
mother dog does and what theother puppies do in the litter.
(21:28):
If one bites too hard, yelpingYep To try to teach bite
inhibition.
So every time, if you can'tintervene with an appropriate
toy and the puppy starts toreally bite you, well, don't
pull your hand back, don't movefast.
They're just going to chasethat.
But let out a yip Yep and seewhat happens.
(21:51):
Usually it surprises the puppyand they stop.
Now they might go back into itquickly and you may have to give
another yep.
Patience, consistency andalways timing are absolutely
critical.
Now we need to talk about usingpositive reinforcement.
(22:16):
We need to talk about capturinggood, calm behavior and
reinforcing that.
If I've got a puppy that'slying down, if I've got a puppy
that sits, if I got a puppythat's being calm, if I've got a
puppy that's chewing onsomething appropriately, I want
to capture that behavior asoften as possible and I want to
(22:38):
reward that, because what getsrewarded is the behaviors that
the puppy's going to gravitatetowards.
Now what else can we do ifwe're doing those things and
they're not working for us?
Typically, when the puppies aremouthing and biting, we're
(23:00):
playing with them, one of thethings I recommend if you're
struggling with this.
As soon as the puppy starts tobite, as soon as the puppy
starts puppy mouthing, get upand walk away.
Stop the play, stop the fun,get up, walk away slowly Every
(23:24):
time the puppy begins to moutheror do the puppy biting?
I want you to stop doing whatyou're doing.
Walk away from the puppy.
Start teaching the puppy thatthe fun stops when it starts
biting.
Now, behaviors don't go awayquickly, especially when these
(23:47):
are normal reflexes that any dogis going to do.
This is programmed in theirgenetics to bite and use their
mouths.
We were asking them to stopdoing something that is the most
natural thing in the world forthem to do.
And if you use punishment, ifyou use techniques or tools that
(24:16):
cause fear, pain andintimidation, you are risking
real aggression, becauseaggression is a result of a dog
that's fearful.
Aggression is the result of adog or a puppy that feels
threatened and they feel likethey have to go into fight or
(24:36):
flight.
And if they can't get away, ithappens a lot when they're on
leash.
They may be more reactive oraggressive because they can't go
into flight.
They don't have an option otherthan going into fight.
Making sure that you haveappropriate things for the puppy
(25:00):
to chew on.
Giving the puppy an alternative, trading my hand or my feet for
an appropriate chew toy, alwayshaving those chew toys with me.
And if that's failing to do myyelp and if the dog doesn't
respond to the yelp then I startwalking away.
(25:21):
Play ends.
But you've got to be consistent.
This behavior is not going tochange in a day.
It may take several weeks or amonth, maybe longer.
The more consistent you are,the more that your timing is
(25:43):
good, the more that you'reproactively working with this
behavior.
Don't just wait.
Don't just wait for it tohappen and be reactive.
We're literally teaching mouthmanners to the dog, to the puppy
.
You need to spend a few minutesa couple times a day playing
(26:10):
with the puppy and employingthese strategies if the puppy
goes into playbiting, intomouthing.
But we need to be usingpositive reinforcement
Punishment.
You risk a lot.
Look what happened in thissituation.
(26:31):
Now, does that happen in everysituation?
No, it doesn't, but it happensin a lot of situations.
The thing that that puppyneeded at the vet's office was
support, was a supportive,loving, safe, trusting
(26:55):
environment where the actions ofthe people around that puppy
showed that puppy that it's safe, that it's positive, and that
would have never happened.
So today I went ahead and Iwrote a very comprehensive guide
(27:16):
on how to prevent and how tostop puppy biting.
If you want to get more detailsabout how to stop puppy biting
and even how to prevent puppybiting, go to my website at
dogbehavioristcom and when yougo to my website, go ahead and
(27:39):
go to the menu and look for thearticles.
And when you click on articles,then look for the article on
puppy biting and you'll findthat at dogbehavioristcom.
(28:00):
Well, ladies and gentlemen, thatmusic means we are just about
out of time.
I'm Will Bangura.
You've been listening to dogtraining today.
Do me a favor, please.
If you love what we do, give usa five star review.
Hit that like button.
Please share this with yourfriends and families and also
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Hit that subscribe button sothat you never miss an episode
(28:23):
of dog training Today.
Hey, and visit my website atdogbehavioristcom.
If you've got a problem withyour dog and you're looking for
help, you can get all the helpyou need at dogbehavioristcom.
I'm Will Bangura.
Have a great week, everybody.
I'm out of here.
Most of the time I'm working with dogs that have
severe behavior problems likeaggression, reactivity, fears,
phobias.
So it's always a treat when Iget to work with a young puppy
that doesn't have any of thoseproblems.
It's basically a blank slate.
So imagine my surprise whenI've been working with a four
(00:24):
month old puppy and when I wasworking with the pet parents,
they asked me what do you thinkabout the puppy?
And I said I think it's afantastic puppy.
I really like its temperament,I really like its demeanor.
It's not crazy over the top.
It's also not a couch potato,because when you get a couch
(00:45):
potato, a lot of times thosedogs have fears, anxiety, stress
.
Those are dogs that might turnout to have a lot of fear issues
and maybe fear aggressionissues and on the other end, the
dogs that are really hyper andjust really crazy over the top.
Those dogs can be a handful totry to work with.
(01:09):
So I get a message from theclient that says hey, can you
give me a call?
My vet is very concerned andsaid that my dog has aggression.
What?
All that will explain it.
We've got a lot to unpack andmore in 60 seconds.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Raised by wolves with canine DNA and his blood.
Having trained more than 24,000vets helping you and your fur
babies thrive, live in studiowith will bangura answering your
pet behavior and trainingquestions.
Ladies and gentlemen, pleasewelcome your host and favorite
pet behavior expert, willbangura.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Good day dog lovers.
I'm Will Bangura.
Hey, thanks for joining me foranother episode of dog training
today.
Yeah, I want to talk about thisclient of mine that has a four
month old puppy who I thoughtwas just fantastic as far as its
temperament and demeanor.
I didn't see a aggressive bonein that dog's body.
(02:33):
So I was really shocked to hearfrom the client that the vet
has big concerns, that they tookthe dog into the back to try to
do some work with a dog andthey couldn't even barely handle
the dog.
The dog was horribly aggressive.
Well, let's talk about the restof the story, because it just
(02:57):
did not make any sense.
It did not make any sense to mewhatsoever until I start
talking to the client and theyexplained to me that in the exam
room the veterinarian or one ofthe vet staff took their hand
and wrapped it around the dog'ssnout and held it tightly and
(03:23):
made the dog yelp.
Now you might be asking why didthey do that?
Well, one of the challenges,one of the problems that this
puppy has, is puppy biting.
Now, this is not aggressive,this is playful, this is normal
behavior.
This is what puppies do,especially at that age, and this
(03:47):
is why you don't use punishmentbecause it scared the dog,
because it showed that dog thatthese people, the veterinarian,
the vet staff they're scary,they're dangerous, they're a
threat, they hurt.
(04:09):
They hurt the puppy, Of course,the puppy.
Imagine you're a puppy.
You're a brand new puppy,you're four months old.
Maybe this is your second visitto a veterinary office.
It's scary.
And rather than make the puppyfeel safe and give treats and
(04:33):
love and praise and take 30seconds to have a positive
experience with this puppy, theygo straight in with punishment,
cause the puppy to yelp, yeah.
And so then they took the puppyaway from the pet guardians,
(04:55):
took it in the back, where nowit doesn't even have the pet
guardians for it to feel safe.
It doesn't surprise me at allthat the dog became aggressive.
The thing about this, thoughthat aggression, that aggression
was provoked.
That aggression would not havehappened if it wasn't provoked.
(05:21):
And it was provoked by the vetstaff by causing fear, pain and
intimidation with this dog.
And then they took the dog intothe back, away from its pet
parents, which caused more fear,and they probably still had the
(05:42):
dog on leash.
Maybe they had a couple peoplecoming towards it, and you know
when you perceive a threat, andin this case it wasn't just
perception, they were realthreats, cause they showed
themselves to be a threat withvery poor handling skills.
(06:02):
The puppy is not aggressive,but now I've got the wife
freaking out because she'sconcerned that the puppy's
aggressive.
And you know it's tough becausewhen you see your veterinarian
(06:24):
and they've got that white codon, it's like they're God.
Now I've got all the respect inthe world for veterinarians.
Listen, they've got to learnmedicine for many different
species.
They've got one of the hardestjobs in the world and they can't
talk to their patients.
They can't talk to theirpatients.
(06:44):
But you need to understandsomething.
Just because it's a veterinarianand they work with animals does
not mean that they knowanything, anything about
behavior and training.
They may know less than yournext-door neighbor.
(07:06):
Look, they don't go to schoolto learn animal behavior and
training.
They go to school to learnabout medicine.
They're lucky if they get asemester course on behavior and,
trust me, that's not whythey're there.
That's not why they decided tobe a veterinarian.
(07:27):
That's not what they areinterested in learning and
chances are they forget all ofit after they graduate.
Now there are some veterinariansthat have taken it upon
themselves to learn a lot aboutbehavior and there are some
great vets when it comes tobehavior, but it's a crapshoot.
(07:52):
It's the spin of the roulettewheel.
I do not attempt to practiceveterinary medicine because I'm
not a veterinarian.
And if you're a veterinarianand you are listening to this,
look, if you don't havespecialized training in behavior
(08:12):
and training animals especiallywhen we're dealing with more
severe behaviors like fears,phobias, anxiety, reactivity and
aggression if you don't havespecialized training in that,
please stop giving advice andrefer your patients to somebody
(08:32):
who's certified and qualified todeal with this.
If nothing else, refer them tothe veterinary behavior that you
may have in your state or anadjacent state.
I say adjacent state becausethere's so few of them.
But this is a huge problem.
(08:54):
Look, I understand the vetshave a job to do.
They don't have all day to beable to positively reinforce
everything that they're doingwith a dog.
They've got to work quickly.
However, what they don't needto do is proactively do
(09:17):
something that causes fear, painand intimidation in an animal
and then, when that animalbecomes defensive, label that
dog aggressive.
No, that's not what's going onhere, folks, not what's going on
(09:37):
here at all.
But puppy biting can be aproblem, and that's what I want
to talk about.
What we don't want to do.
We don't want to take our hand,put it over the dog's snout.
It's muzzle and squeeze that.
I know a lot of people do thatand maybe there are some dogs,
(09:58):
maybe there are some puppiesthat worked for, but there's a
risk.
There's a risk and there's thepotential for damage and fallout
.
Any time you use punishment,folks, when you use punishment,
(10:19):
we're talking about somethingthat's unpleasant.
Shouldn't we be making thesevet visits really positive?
The last thing that I want totalk about is the last thing
that I would think anybody wouldwant to do would be to cause
any level of fear, pain orintimidation.
That just shows very poorjudgment on the staff at that
(10:43):
vet hospital, and that's whylisten.
If you've got dogs that haveanxiety, fears, phobia, stress,
reactivity, aggression, pleaselook for a fear-free, certified
veterinarian if you have one inyour area.
They understand how to workwith these dogs and do it in a
(11:04):
way that will really mitigatethe fear, the anxiety, the
stress and aggression.
If they would have handledthings differently, that dog
would have been a joy to workwith.
I spent several hours with thedog the other day.
It's a wonderful puppy but itmouths and it's excitable to a
(11:28):
certain extent.
It's not over the top, but itmouths A normal behavior for
dogs.
They communicate with theirmouths Like we communicate with
our hands.
We touch people.
They reach out and touch allkinds of things with their mouth
Normal dog behavior.
But you know, we have taken dogsand we've brought them into our
(11:53):
world.
We've brought them into ourhomes and even if it's a puppy
and it's puppy playbiting, itcan hurt, right.
Those teeth can be razor sharp.
They can cause punctures, cuts,tears, and it's not that the
puppy wants to be aggressive.
It's not that the puppy wantsto hurt anybody, they're just
(12:16):
playing.
And a lot of times puppies willlearn good bite inhibition when
they're young, when they're inthe litter, and they learn
canine socialization betweenthree and five weeks of age.
But not every puppy gets whatthey need and sometimes we need
(12:38):
to teach bite inhibition.
We need to do everything we canto prevent as well as stop
puppy biting.
Now, typically I like to callpuppy biting mouthing.
Yeah, I like to use the wordmouthing because whenever you
say biting, everybody assumesit's aggression and it's not.
(13:01):
Oh, they can be aggressive,don't get me wrong.
I'm sure that puppy did getaggressive with the vet staff
and for good reason.
They threatened the puppy, theyhurt the puppy, they were scary
, they showed the puppy thatthey could not be trusted.
I don't blame the puppy fordoing what it did.
(13:23):
Like I said, very poor choiceson the veterinary staff and I'm
sure they are fantastic when itcomes to physical medicine, but
they need to stay away from thebehavior side of things unless
they know what they're talkingabout, and it's apparent they
don't.
I've said it over and over andover again when you use
(13:48):
punishment, you are doingnothing but adding more anxiety,
more stress, more fear to theproblem.
Animals do not go into fight orflight unless they perceive a
threat.
In this case there was a realthreat.
That was normal behavior,defensive behavior.
(14:15):
But we've got to address thispuppy mouthing and it can be a
real problem.
The folks that are the petguardians for this puppy have a
nine-year-old boy and you knowwhen you've got kids and they
get nervous about petting apuppy because the puppy's doing
puppy biting, puppy mouthing, orthey're trying to pet or give
(14:37):
treats and you know those littlerazor sharp teeth cause some
pain for the kid and then maybethey start making high-pitched
noises, no, and they move theirhand away really fast.
And you know, dogs have preydrive, and when you, sometimes,
(14:58):
when kids are making noises andmoving fast, it's like they're
prey, it's like they're anotherdog that we want to maybe play
with, either or and it canexacerbate the problem we have
to ask ourselves what ishappening.
What is happening right beforethe puppy starts mouthing.
(15:21):
Look, behaviors do not happenin a vacuum.
It takes a trigger.
Now, granted, puppy mouthing,puppy biting is a normal
behavior, but there is some kindof stimulus that occurs before
the puppy starts mouthing andbiting.
Were they petting the puppy?
(15:43):
Were they giving treats?
Were they playing with a ballor a con, or were they playing
with a rope toy or another toy?
How excitable was the puppy?
How calm or how excitable wasthe puppy?
How calm or how excitable werethe humans that were interacting
(16:05):
with the puppy when the puppystarted mouthing, when the puppy
started biting?
And when the puppy startedmouthing and or biting, puppy
biting, what did you do?
Were you calm or did you getexcitable?
Did you move your hand awayreal fast, which just elicits
another bite?
Typically, we've got to beextremely calm and freeze like a
(16:34):
tree if we've got a dog or apuppy that's doing mouthing,
play biting, not aggressivebiting, play biting.
The more excited you are, themore your energy is up, the
faster your movements are, themore apt that puppy's going to
be to do puppy biting, mouthing,playful biting and mouthing.
(16:56):
So we've got to be really calm,very calm and very slow
movements, and we've got to havesome strategies when the puppy
begins mouthing, when the puppybegins biting, play biting.
What are we going to do?
Well, first of all, let's getourselves set up for training.
(17:21):
What kind of tools andequipment do we need?
Well, we need to get acomfortable, fitting harness on
the puppy and we need to get aleash.
We also want to have a treatpouch and we want to have a
clicker If you're using clickersor markers in your training,
which I think you should and inaddition to that, you need to
(17:45):
have super high value foodrewards that the puppy
absolutely loves, its favorite,and you need to have a couple
different appropriate toys thatthe puppy can chew on that have
different textures.
Now, one of the first thingsthat you can begin to do is
(18:07):
start engaging with the puppywith appropriate toys and show
that puppy what it can have inits mouth.
It's okay to have in its mouthand you need to be carrying
around a toy or two with youbecause you never know when that
puppy might start doing puppybiting, play biting, mouthing.
(18:29):
And if the puppy starts playbiting, if the puppy starts
mouthing, I want you to thinkabout what were you doing right
before that.
Did your behaviors, did yourmovements get the puppy overly
excited?
Maybe you need to calm thingsdown a little bit.
(18:56):
But the first thing that we needto do if the puppy's mouthing
and biting is we need to givethe puppy an alternative, and
your timing is critical.
So as soon as the puppy wantsto begin to mouther, bite, you
need to pull out that toy andgive it to the puppy.
Now, don't have just one, havetwo.
(19:17):
Puppy might let that go andstart wanting to play, bite and
mout you again.
Well, if you got two toys now,you got a second one to give it.
But swapping out trading,giving the puppy something
appropriate to chew on and evenbefore then and on a regular
(19:38):
basis, playing with the puppycalmly with appropriate toys
that it can have in its mouth.
Now, one of the ways thatpuppies learn good bite
inhibition how hard they bite iswith I mentioned it with the
other puppies in the litter.
If they bite the mother dog, orif they bite one of the puppies
(20:02):
too hard, the puppy or themother lets out a yell, yep, and
that's a signal.
That's a signal to the dog hey,you bit too hard.
We can begin to use that samecommunication to help the puppy
understand that they're bitingtoo hard on us, the humans.
(20:25):
Now the first thing that I wantto do again is teach the puppy
what's appropriate to have inits mouth and to make sure that
I've got that available for thepuppy, make sure that I've got a
couple of appropriate toys onme as well, and if the puppy's
going to bite in mouth, I'mgoing to give the puppy
(20:47):
something appropriate to have.
So those are two things One,proactively introducing the
puppy to appropriate toys,playing with it, showing the
puppy that, hey, this is good,you can have this in your mouth
and it's fun.
And then, secondly, having acouple toys with you so that
(21:08):
when the puppy tries to mouth,when the puppy tries to play
bite, you can grab that toy andgive it to the puppy so that
they can have an alternative intheir mouth.
And then the third thing wetalked about was using what the
mother dog does and what theother puppies do in the litter.
(21:28):
If one bites too hard, yelpingYep To try to teach bite
inhibition.
So every time, if you can'tintervene with an appropriate
toy and the puppy starts toreally bite you, well, don't
pull your hand back, don't movefast.
They're just going to chasethat.
But let out a yip Yep and seewhat happens.
(21:51):
Usually it surprises the puppyand they stop.
Now they might go back into itquickly and you may have to give
another yep.
Patience, consistency andalways timing are absolutely
critical.
Now we need to talk about usingpositive reinforcement.
(22:16):
We need to talk about capturinggood, calm behavior and
reinforcing that.
If I've got a puppy that'slying down, if I've got a puppy
that sits, if I got a puppythat's being calm, if I've got a
puppy that's chewing onsomething appropriately, I want
to capture that behavior asoften as possible and I want to
(22:38):
reward that, because what getsrewarded is the behaviors that
the puppy's going to gravitatetowards.
Now what else can we do ifwe're doing those things and
they're not working for us?
Typically, when the puppies aremouthing and biting, we're
(23:00):
playing with them, one of thethings I recommend if you're
struggling with this.
As soon as the puppy starts tobite, as soon as the puppy
starts puppy mouthing, get upand walk away.
Stop the play, stop the fun,get up, walk away slowly Every
(23:24):
time the puppy begins to moutheror do the puppy biting?
I want you to stop doing whatyou're doing.
Walk away from the puppy.
Start teaching the puppy thatthe fun stops when it starts
biting.
Now, behaviors don't go awayquickly, especially when these
(23:47):
are normal reflexes that any dogis going to do.
This is programmed in theirgenetics to bite and use their
mouths.
We were asking them to stopdoing something that is the most
natural thing in the world forthem to do.
And if you use punishment, ifyou use techniques or tools that
(24:16):
cause fear, pain andintimidation, you are risking
real aggression, becauseaggression is a result of a dog
that's fearful.
Aggression is the result of adog or a puppy that feels
threatened and they feel likethey have to go into fight or
(24:36):
flight.
And if they can't get away, ithappens a lot when they're on
leash.
They may be more reactive oraggressive because they can't go
into flight.
They don't have an option otherthan going into fight.
Making sure that you haveappropriate things for the puppy
(25:00):
to chew on.
Giving the puppy an alternative, trading my hand or my feet for
an appropriate chew toy, alwayshaving those chew toys with me.
And if that's failing to do myyelp and if the dog doesn't
respond to the yelp then I startwalking away.
(25:21):
Play ends.
But you've got to be consistent.
This behavior is not going tochange in a day.
It may take several weeks or amonth, maybe longer.
The more consistent you are,the more that your timing is
(25:43):
good, the more that you'reproactively working with this
behavior.
Don't just wait.
Don't just wait for it tohappen and be reactive.
We're literally teaching mouthmanners to the dog, to the puppy
.
You need to spend a few minutesa couple times a day playing
(26:10):
with the puppy and employingthese strategies if the puppy
goes into playbiting, intomouthing.
But we need to be usingpositive reinforcement
Punishment.
You risk a lot.
Look what happened in thissituation.
(26:31):
Now, does that happen in everysituation?
No, it doesn't, but it happensin a lot of situations.
The thing that that puppyneeded at the vet's office was
support, was a supportive,loving, safe, trusting
(26:55):
environment where the actions ofthe people around that puppy
showed that puppy that it's safe, that it's positive, and that
would have never happened.
So today I went ahead and Iwrote a very comprehensive guide
(27:16):
on how to prevent and how tostop puppy biting.
If you want to get more detailsabout how to stop puppy biting
and even how to prevent puppybiting, go to my website at
dogbehavioristcom and when yougo to my website, go ahead and
(27:39):
go to the menu and look for thearticles.
And when you click on articles,then look for the article on
puppy biting and you'll findthat at dogbehavioristcom.
(28:00):
Well, ladies and gentlemen, thatmusic means we are just about
out of time.
I'm Will Bangura.
You've been listening to dogtraining today.
Do me a favor, please.
If you love what we do, give usa five star review.
Hit that like button.
Please share this with yourfriends and families and also
please subscribe.
Hit that subscribe button sothat you never miss an episode
(28:23):
of dog training Today.
Hey, and visit my website atdogbehavioristcom.
If you've got a problem withyour dog and you're looking for
help, you can get all the helpyou need at dogbehavioristcom.
I'm Will Bangura.
Have a great week, everybody.
I'm out of here.
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