Mouthing, Nipping and gentle biting is your puppy’s way of initiating play.

Puppies and their littermates will often nip or mouth each other as a form of exploration. Your puppy’s biting behaviour is therefore common. 

However, whilst harmless in their younger years, it is best to install good behaviour in your pup by attempting to suppress nipping and mouthing before teething occurs.

Attempts to stop your puppy from mouthing are more likely to be effective if you have an alternate behaviour to offer your pup as a means of distraction from their current form of play (mouthing)

Our top tips to prevent puppy biting and mouthing are; 

• Redirecting your pup to a suitable toy to chew. Purchasing a range of toys which you can offer your pup on a rotational basis will allow them to remain engaged and subside puppy biting. 
• Giving your puppy a short timeout in a secure low distraction area. This will allow your puppy to calm down and rectify their behaviour.
• Removing all attention from your pup. This will allow your puppy to make the connection between their mouthing play and a loss of your attention and play.
• In the instance your pups mouthing becomes too rough, a high pitched yelp can be used by yourself to indicate to your puppy that the play has caused pain. This tactic models itself of the idea a fellow littermate would make a similar high pitched sound.

If mouthing, nipping or biting becomes a problem for your pup, or you require further assistance, both our puppy training packages address mouthing behaviour and our Qualified Dog Trainer would be happy to help.