With your puppy’s sharp chompers, it can hurt when they start play biting you. So to save your skin, how can you stop your puppy from play biting?
The reason behind play biting
Your puppy isn’t doing this to hurt you at all. They just want to play! They’re trying to get your attention, because they’re bored to death. So don’t worry when your puppy starts doing this, it’s completely normal.
Ways to stop it
There are a few ways I’ll discuss how to stop this behavior, as well as one way I don’t think you should try to stop play biting.
Distract them
One way to stop the habit is to distract them with something. I don’t recommend giving them a toy, since this gives your puppy the idea that it’s okay to play bite. In other words, they think you’re rewarding them, and giving them the attention they’re asking for.
Ignoring
Instead try practicing some basic commands with them. You can practice the ‘sit’, ‘lay’, and ‘stay’ commands. I discussed these commands in a separate article. These commands can be useful in one of the categories I’ll be talking about below.
Another way to stop the biting is to ignore them. For example, if you’re on the couch watching TV and they start biting you, get up and walk away. Don’t look directly at your puppy, or even acknowledge them. Walk into a different room, and then circle back to the couch. You may have to do this a few times, but try to be patient. After a while your puppy will eventually stop with the biting, since they’re starting to understand that form of attention seeking isn’t working.
Time out
When I say time out, I don’t mean putting them in their crate. You shouldn’t put your dog in their crate out of punishment. You should especially not do this to your young puppy just because they want to play.
Instead, tell them to sit. This ties into the category I discussed above. When your puppy starts to play bite you, lead them over to an area of the room. Then tell them ‘sit’ and ‘stay’. Make them stay there for some time, no more than 2 minutes. Make sure to give them a treat after they’ve sat and stayed, as they are still following a command you enforced.