When those needle-like teeth make contact with your skin and your puppy bites hard, you start understanding the need for bite inhibition training. We call it play biting, especially in puppies, because it is mostly a play behaviour not meant to cause pain.

From puppyhood, dogs get a pleasant feeling from something touching their palate and have to use their mouth to hold or manipulate objects. All the more reason to make sure you only take your puppy home after it has spent its first eight weeks of life with its littermates.

Through playing together, they will have already learned that biting too hard is painful and ends the fun.

You should copy this when you take your puppy home. When your puppy bites you while playing, just produce a loud “Ouch!” and walk away, so the fun ends.

Wait a minute and go back to your puppy with a tug toy it can bite on. This will teach it that it only gets to enjoy what it likes doing when it bites the right thing, not you. Only when a dog is being trained would a trainer tell you to encourage play biting.

It’s also time to teach your puppy that trying to use its mouth to pry a treat out of your hand is inappropriate.

Let the puppy know you have treats, show it they’re in your hand, then close your hand. Most puppies will now go mad trying to open it, using their mouth and possibly their paws. Don’t worry. Let them do it as long as you can keep your hand closed.

The second your puppy finally gives up and takes a step back to think about its next move, open your hand to dispense the treat. Don’t look away or you might miss the chance and create confusion in your puppy’s head. In one fell swoop, you’ve taught your puppy to think, to stop biting and to overcome frustration.

Of course, most of you will be reading this and wondering if there’s still a chance to teach your older dog this. Yes you can. You will need more patience and more time. Excitement and rough play can trigger off most dogs, and some football players too, to start biting, so keeping the excitement to a minimum will reduce the frequency of biting.

If you wish to read more about how to teach puppies and older dogs what is expected of them without ever raising your voice or punishing them, go to www.dogtrainingmadeeasy.org. Contact Dogs Trust Malta by calling 2142 1500 or 7771 1100 or by e-mail at office@dogstrustmalta.com.

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