2-4 month Puppy Bite Inhibition....A repost from 04-15-13

The following is a post that I wrote when Coco was about 3 months old.  I know it will be helpful for the families who have little children and new puppies.   Please note that if you have a question about anything like this, you could use the search bar on this blog.  Enter the word, "biting" and many posts will come up discussing this topic.

Also, if you have any question about how to raise a brand new puppy you can read through the posts beginning in February 2013.   I wrote a post for every step of our puppy training of Coco...as it happened....So that I would have a record for all my future customers.   This method came from a lot of reading and first hand experience.  It is much easier than regular crate training.  I used that method with Toby 13 years ago, and it was so much more work and more setbacks.   But a pen with Ugodog worked great with Coco, and Misty was even easier.   So I know from first hand experience that this is the easiest way to raise a puppy.

But enough talking....here is the post about nipping...... 

Ever since we got Coco, one of the more annoying things about play time has been her mouthing and biting.

11 weeks old puppies can be very nippy!

When an 8 week puppy goes to its home, it has been use to puppy playing.  Puppies naturally mouth and bite eachother in their regular playtime.  A puppy will yelp if one of his littermates bites too hard.  This is a good thing, since this allows puppies to learn 'bite inhibition'.  A puppy begins to learn how to have a soft bite, and eventually not mouth at all.







At 11 weeks Coco was still biting quite a lot in her playtime.

But it is not soo cute, when you bring a puppy into your home and she wants to bite and mouth you like her puppy siblings.  When we bring Coco out to play with us, she usually starts mouthing us and biting.  It can be really annoying!   So we distract her with a toy and encourage her to chew on that.

Even then when she gets rambunctious she can really start biting hard.   I have taught my kids to yelp loudly when she bites on them.  If she bites hard, we yelp and walk away from her.  Sometimes we just put her back in her confinement pen.  Playtime is over, and she has to live with the consequences of her biting. 

I have also noticed that it is very helpful to take our energetic puppy on a brisk walk around the block at least once in the day.  This has reduced a lot of the rambunctious puppy play biting.

Over time Coco's biting has become much softern.  But we eventually do not want her to mouth us at all. 
Dr. Ian Dunbar says that biting usually peaks at 3 mths old and should decline after that.   Coco is 15 weeks now, and her biting has gotten quite a bit better.  But she is still learning.  At this time we are becoming much more firm with her about it.   We also need to take longer walks with Coco.  Now that she is having more confinement for her outdoor potty training, longer walks are a must.

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