Bonding with Your Biting Puppy

If you’re like many new puppy owners. Your immediate reaction to your puppy gnawing on your fingers is to immediately stop the behavior.

Many are afraid that allowing a puppy to chew on fingers, hands, or toes can encourage the eventually fully grown dog to bite people when older.

However, your puppy’s mouthing behavior can be a great opportunity to bond with your puppy and show them healthy limits.

Your puppy naturally uses their mouth to explore the world around them. So it’s unsurprising that your fingers are worthy of some exploration.

Although biting can be frustrating. Remember that you cannot and should not stop your puppy from biting or mouthing altogether as this can lead to problems later down the road.

Instead, try to consider your puppy mouthing on you as a bonding experience. Permit your puppy to gently mouth on your fingers but remove your hand whenever they bite too hard.

This will help teach your puppy that biting hard on your person will result in playtime stopping for a bit (around 10 seconds). So they will be more likely to gently explore your hand.

Do not allow your puppy to bite you when they are too excited or energetic because they will be more likely to bite you harder, which is bad for everyone involved.

Also, if you are stopping playtime for several seconds after a hard bite, make sure that your puppy cannot reach you to continue jumping on you or chasing you.

Consider using a leash to tether them to a specific spot to allow you to move out of range while working on their biting.

Remember that if you train them correctly, your puppy’s biting behavior will eventually stop as it grows older.

Be patient with your puppy and meet them where they are. Keep calm and enjoy your dog’s puppy years.