Module 5 — First 30 Days Academy™
The biting phase everybody panics about
About 6 minutes
Around week two in your house, the sweet puppy turns into a set of needle teeth attached to a body. Parents of small children usually message us at exactly this point, convinced they have an aggressive dog. They do not. This is how puppies learn where the edges are.
What to do with your hands
Go still. Pulling your hand away triggers the chase reflex and turns a nip into a game. Hands still, chew toy into the mouth, and carry on.
If the teeth come back, the game ends. Stand up, step over the gate, count to ten, come back. The lesson is not that biting hurts, it is that biting ends the fun.
Why yelping usually backfires
The advice to yelp like a littermate works for some puppies and makes others wildly more excited, because a high-pitched noise is what prey makes. If the biting escalates when you squeak, stop squeaking.
Check the clock before you check the training
Nine times out of ten the worst biting happens in the late afternoon and evening, and nine times out of ten the puppy is overtired. Before you work on the behaviour, try a nap. It is remarkable how often that is the entire answer.
With kids
Children run and squeal, which is the exact combination that makes a puppy chase and bite. Teach one rule: when the puppy gets mouthy, stand up and fold your arms like a tree. Practise it as a game before the puppy is even home, so it is a reflex rather than an instruction shouted across the room.
Before you move on
- —A chew within reach in every room
- —A gate you can step over to end the game
- —The tree rule practised with the kids
- —Nap enforced before the evening witching hour
- —Nobody using hands as a toy — including the teenager