10 Tips to Stop Puppy Biting, Nipping and Mouthing

If you have a young puppy, it’s a safe bet you’ve wondered how to stop puppy biting, nipping or mouthing. Those sharp little teeth hurt, and sometimes it may feel like your puppy is more alligator than dog.

You’re not alone — this is one of the most common frustrations we hear from puppy parents, especially in homes with kids. It comes up every week in our positive puppy classes.

The good news is, you can stop puppy biting and nipping if you take the right approach when they are young.

Puppy biting, nipping and mouthing are three of the five most common puppy behaviors for a reason. Your puppy does these behaviors because they are learning how to use their mouth without using their teeth on people.

Most people make a big mistake and simply tell their puppy “no!” I’ve also seen people giving their puppy a verbal reprimand or doing things like holding the puppy’s mouth shut, pinning them down or spanking them. We do not condone ever pinning a dog down or spanking them, but those and the other actions will not stop the puppy biting. In fact they will cause it to become a bigger problem.

Instead of those things teaching your puppy how to use its mouth without using its teeth, these actions will often cause a puppy to use its mouth and teeth more.  If your goal is to stop puppy biting, you are barking up the wrong tree.

Before we share the secret on how to stop puppy biting, nipping or mouthing you, I want to first make sure that you understand why these are such common behaviors.

Human children explore the world with their hands guided by their eyes. When a child is young, it does not have the dexterity of movement to simply reach out and grasp an object.

Instead they do something called zoning; sweeping their hand back back-and-forth towards the item until they make contact. This clumsy approach gradually transitions into the advanced motor functions that allow us to have more precise use of our hand, arm movement and fingers. It’s a process that doesn’t happen overnight; it takes time and practice.

Imagine if you reprimanded a child for reaching out this way and knocking things over. Of course it sounds ridiculous when we put in a human perspective, but sadly people do that with dogs all the time.

Here are some of the most common mistakes people make when trying to stop puppy biting and nipping.

• making a loud ouch or yelping sound.
• holding the puppy’s mouth closed with your hand
• swatting the puppies nose or head
• yelling or verbally chastising the puppy
• grabbing the puppy’s mouth with both hands and holding it open
• pinning the puppy down until it submits
• folding the puppies lips over its teeth and pressing down

None of these methods will stop puppy nipping. But many of them will actually cause the problem to get worse and some of them will damage the relationship you have with your puppy.

So the next time your puppy nips or bites you, remember they are not doing it intentionally, there’s a reason for the behavior.

Common Causes of Puppy Biting, Nipping and Mouthing

Before we go over the tips to stop a puppy biting you, it’s important to know that there are some factors that can cause these behaviors.

• Overstimulated. Letting the puppy get too excited. When a puppy’s energy gets too high, they lose some of their motor skill control.

• Lack of sleep. Puppies need to sleep anywhere from 14 to 20 hours a day based on their age. Puppies who are overly tired are often the most mouthy. In fact lack of sleep is probably the number one cause for puppy nipping.

• Humans wrestling. When puppies play together, they use their mouth. So if a human is wrestling with a young puppy, it is almost a case of entrapment for puppy nipping.

• Giving attention. Anything your puppy is doing when you give it attention or right before you give it attention, is exactly what you are telling your puppy got them the attention.

It’s important to note, that dogs and puppies look at all attention the same. “Good boy,“ and “bad dog!” Are both rewarding for your puppy. So telling your puppy to “stop” usually won’t work the way you think it will.

Your dog or puppy’s goal is to gain your attention when they are engaging with you, and they are not really particular about what type of attention they get. While many people think that yelling at their dog stops the behavior, it’s only more likely to continue again in the future.

Repeat that a bunch and you will have accidentally trained your pup to do exactly what you don’t want, nip you.

Now that you understand the “why,” let’s go over exactly what you can do to stop puppy biting and nipping.

10 Tips to Stop Puppy Biting, Nipping and Mouthing You

If you want to make sure that your puppy develops good mouth manners, there are a number of things that you can do.

Set Up Puppy play dates
This is the number one way to stop puppy nipping and biting. In fact, puppies learn more about not biting by playing with other puppies for one hour (but not all at once, more on that later), then if I were to come to your house and work with your puppy for 24 hours straight seven days in a row.

And critically, these play dates must be with other puppies. Adult dogs do not count. Here is why.

Puppies give off a fair amount that adult dogs will smell and recognize. This pheromone tells the adult dog “this is a young puppy that doesn’t know what it’s doing.”

So the pheromone essentially protects your puppy from getting corrected by adult dogs for biting too hard. This is done to keep the puppies safe when they are young.

But if you only have your puppy around adult dogs, your puppy is practicing biting the adult dog and not being corrected for the behavior. Overtime, this creates a behavior pattern and you will end up with an adult dog with incredibly poor mouth manners.

Adult dogs also have tougher skin so they don’t feel the nipping and biting as much as another puppy would.

Get Them More Sleep
First off, make sure that your puppy is getting enough rest. Your puppy will gain strength and stamina as they develop but young puppies around eight weeks old often are sleeping almost the entire day.

If you are taking your puppy out for an excursion, keep it brief. Don’t stack multiple errands together or multiple visits to friends.

Keep out of the house trips singular. Go run an errand, visit another puppy, have a short play date, etc. But after that one actitity, go home and let your puppy rest.

And when I say let your puppy rest, make sure that they are in a location that is free from distractions. A puppy is not going to sleep or rest if they are in a room full of kids or people who are very active.

Anyone who has taken our puppy classes knows that we are huge supporters of setting up a long-term confinement area. This is a small fenced in area in a spare bedroom or a quiet place in your house away from the action.

After going out for an adventure, put your puppy back in the long-term confinement area and leave it alone undisturbed for at least 20 to 30 minutes so they can rest. If they can see you, they most likely will not settle down.

A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself how long it’s been since your pup has had a nap anytime that you’re experiencing a puppy nipping problem.

Drain Their Energy (The right way)
Letting puppies play at too high a level of intensity is one of the top three most common mistakes young puppy parents make.

In our puppy classes, we tell puppy parents to imagine that their dog has an energy range of 0 to 10. Zero is your puppy asleep, 10 is as crazy as your puppy ever gets.

Anytime your puppy passes level five energy, the midway point, you should give them a break. If they’re playing with another puppy, do a treat out and wait for both puppies energies to get down to a level two or so before you let them engage again.

I understand this may seem like a lot of work now, but the dividends are much bigger later. If you consistently interrupt your puppy every time it gets to 50% of their energy energy range, eventually your puppy will learn to self regulate.

We have seen puppies who have graduated from our program playing with one other and then separate when the energy gets to 50% because their parents helped guide them away, over and over when they were a young puppy.

Another general rule of thumb is to keep your puppy play dates to five minutes per month they are aged.

A two month puppy should only play for 10 minutes in a stretch. A three month puppy can go to 15 minutes and so on.

Eliminate Confusing Communication
I like to tell my clients that your puppy is practicing everything it does. This includes desired behaviors and those that are undesired like puppy biting and nipping.

If you let your puppy bite your hand thinking it is playing with you, you are setting your puppy up to fail. Instead, any time that your puppy makes contact with your skin with its teeth, you should immediately stop engaging with it.

Not the second time, or the third time, the very first time, every time.

Stand up, hold still and give your puppy no attention or interaction.

This is a consequence that helps the puppy eventually associate, “if I touch my human with my teeth, all play immediately stops.”

Play the Puppy Tug Game
You can combine the previous tip with a common puppy play activity that most puppy parents do wrong. Tug-of-war.

Many puppy parents play tug-of-war with their puppy both intentionally and unintentionally.

Sidenote, if your puppy has a sock, shoe or other inappropriate item, instead of trying to take it from your puppy physically, hold a high value treat up to their lips and don’t say anything. When your puppy drops the item to get the treat, say “yes” if that’s your marker word, then pop the treat in your puppy’s mouth. Instead of picking up the item, toss a couple of other treats on the ground a few feet away from your puppy.

When your puppy turns to gobble up those treats, pick up the item and replace it with something of equal or greater value like a bully stick, chew toy, etc.

To use the tug of war game to stop puppy biting or nipping, play the game with your puppy with two rules.

1) don’t let the energy get above 50%. Anytime the energy gets to 50%, drop the item, stand up and ignore your puppy until the energy gets down to a level one or two again. Once that’s the case you can resume.

2) Anytime your puppy touches its teeth to your skin, drop the object, stand up and ignore your puppy again.

This has to be the first time your puppy touches its teeth to your skin. If you do this consistently, your puppy will learn “I can only play the tug game if I keep my teeth to myself.”

Redirection
Always have a narrow shaped Nyla-bone in your back pocket, an antler or other appropriate dog chew toy.

When your puppy starts trying to nip at you, and you know that they don’t need a nap / they are not over excited, pull out your toy and twirl it around their head. If you just simply hand it to your puppy, they’re not going to be interested. You have to gently tease them and play a short game of keep away with a lot of motion to get them interested in the object.

Once your puppy makes contact with the object, play tug-of-war for a few seconds before you let your puppy win. This usually will cause your puppy to take their trophy away and lay down and chew on it.

You have now successfully redirected your puppy towards an appropriate play item. This is one of the more common puppy nipping tips you will use.

Another sidenote. Never give your puppy any thing to chew on unless they are allowed to have it in all capacities. A puppy cannot tell the difference between an old beat up shoe and your brand new Nikes.

Have Appropriate Chew Options Near
Make sure there are always a good 6 to 10 appropriate items on the floor in any area that your puppy hangs out in.

If your puppy does not have access to these items, they’re not gonna get into a habit of chewing them and they’re going to look for something else to chew on like your furniture or you.

I understand having a clean house is important, but you have to give your puppy options to chew on if you don’t want them to chew on inappropriate items.

Carrot Time
Carrots make a wonderful chew option for young puppies. I always encourage our puppy class parents to introduce baby carrots or carrots chips to them when they are young.

Not only are these wonderful chew items, they have cancer fighting properties to them.

Bonus tip: once your puppy starts teething, you can freeze the carrot before giving it to your puppy to numb their gums.

Remove temptation
It’s surprising how many people don’t think about this option. If your puppy likes to chew on your shoes, make sure they don’t have access to them.

If your puppy is biting at the leash (be careful that can also be an indication of frustration) you can replace your nylon leash with a chain leash provided it’s not too heavy for your puppy.

When your puppy is in a nippy or bitty mood, don’t try to stick your hands near their face. Sometimes you need to pick and choose the times to interact with your puppy.

Last resort
I mentioned this one earlier but I’m going to put it here too because this is most often the reason for puppy biting; not getting enough sleep.

If your puppy is not able to redirect and none of the other tips have worked, it’s most likely a case of being overly tired.

If they’re attacking your ankles, walk into your long-term confinement area, scatter a half dozen treats on the floor and when your puppy is distracted gobbling those up, exit the fenced in area and leave the room.

Provided that you have properly trained and conditioned your puppy for the long-term confinement area, they may protest for a minute or two, but usually will be taking a nice little siesta shortly after.

One final note about puppy biting and nipping. You were going to make the most progress on teaching your puppy mouth manners before they hit five months.

The number one way (by far) to teach what is called “bite inhibition” in puppies is playing with other puppies, we would recommend you have at least one puppy play date a week until they hit five months of age.

It’s important to continue them after for other reasons, but if your goal is to stop puppy biting, set up those play dates as often as you can. The puppy play partner should be within one to two months of your puppies age, higher or lower.

Remember to keep the puppy play dates the appropriate length of time. Five minutes per month they are aged. Give treat outs as often as necessary when the energy gets over 50%.

The more treat outs and breaks you do now, the less you will have to do later.

We hope you find these puppy nipping tips helpful. But if you have tried all of these tips and suggestions and are still having a puppy biting or nipping problem, you may want to have one of our dog trainers or puppy class instructors visit your home to help you get things on track.