Dealing with
When puppies play with each other, they
use their mouths. Therefore, puppies usually want to bite or "mouth"
hands during play or when being petted. With puppies, this is rarely aggressive
behavior in which the intent is to do harm. Because
puppies are highly motivated to exhibit this type of behavior,
attempts to suppress it or stop it are unlikely to be successful unless you
give your puppy an alternative behavior. The goals of
working with this normal puppy behavior are to
redirect your puppy's desire to put something in her mouth onto acceptable chew
toys and to teach her to be gentle when a hand is in her mouth.
Encourage Acceptable Behavior
Redirect your puppy’s
chewing onto acceptable objects by offering her a small rawhide chew bone or
other type of chew toy whenever you pet her. This technique can be especially
effective when children want to pet her. As you or the child reach out to
scratch her behind the ears (not over the head) with one hand, offer the chew
bone with the other. This will not only help your puppy learn that people and
petting are wonderful, but will also keep her mouth busy while she’s being
petted. Alternate which hand does the petting and which one has the chew bone.
At first, you may need to pet or scratch your puppy for short periods of time,
since the longer she’s petted, the more likely she is to get excited and start
to nip.
Discourage Unacceptable Behavior
- You must also teach your puppy to be gentle with hands, and that
nipping results in unpleasant consequences for her. Teach your puppy that
nipping "turns off" any attention and social interaction with
you. After a nip, look your puppy right in the eye,
and yell "OUCH" as though you’ve been mortally wounded, then
ignore her. Leave the room if you must, but ignore her until she’s calm, then try the chew bone and petting method again. It’s
even better if you can coax your puppy into a sitting position using food.
It may take many repetitions for her to understand what’s expected.
- Nipping and mouthing hands can also be discouraged by loosely
holding your puppy's lower jaw between your thumb and forefinger after
she’s taken your hand in her mouth. Don't hurt her by squeezing too hard, just gently hang on so that wherever her mouth
goes, your hand hangs on. This will quickly become tiresome and she’ll
eventually pull away. After several seconds, release her jaw, but continue
to offer her your hand. If she licks or ignores it, praise, pet and offer
a tidbit. If she closes her mouth on your hand
again, repeat the procedure.
- A third alternative is to wear cotton gloves coated with a
substance with an unpleasant taste such as "Bitter Apple." In
this way, your puppy will learn that "hands in mouth taste bad."
For this method to work, every time she nips your hand she must
experience this bad taste. The possible disadvantage to this method is
that your puppy may learn "hands with gloves taste bad and those
without gloves don’t.
- Remember that any of these three methods will probably not be
effective unless you work hard to teach your puppy the right behavior by offering her an acceptable chew toy.
Jumping Up
When your puppy jumps up on you, she wants
attention. Whether you push her away, knee her in the chest or step on her hind
legs, she’s being rewarded for jumping up (even though it’s negative attention,
she’s still getting what she wants).
When Your PuppyJumps
Up:
- Fold your arms in front of you, turn away from her and say
"off."
- Continue to turn away from her until all four of her feet are on
the ground, then quietly praise her and give her a treat. If she knows the
"sit" command, give the command when all four of her feet are on
the ground, then quietly praise her and give her a treat her while she’s
in the sitting position.
- When you begin to praise her, if she begins to jump up again,
simply turn away and repeat step two, above. Remember to keep your praise
low-key.
- When your puppy realizes that she gets no attention from you while
she’s jumping up, but does get attention when she stops jumping up and
sits, she’ll stop jumping up. Remember, once you’ve taught her to come and
sit quietly for attention, you must reward her behavior.
Be careful not to ignore her when she comes and sits politely, waiting for
your attention.
What Not To Do
Attempts to tap, slap or
hit your puppy in the face for nipping or jumping up are almost guaranteed to
backfire. Several things may happen, depending on your puppy's temperament and
the severity of the correction:
- She could become "hand-shy" and cringe or cower whenever
a hand comes toward her face.
- She could become afraid of you and refuse to come to you or
approach you at all.
- She could respond in a defensive manner and attempt to bite you to
defend herself.
- She could interpret a mild slap as an invitation to play, causing
her to become more excited and even more likely to nip.
Never play "tug-of-war" or
wrestling games with your puppy if you’re having a nipping problem. These types
of games encourage out-of-control behavior, grabbing,
lunging and competion with you. These aren’t behaviors you want her to learn.
A Note About Children And Puppies
It’s very difficult for
children under eight or nine years old to practice the kind of behavior modification outlined here. A child’s first reaction
to being nipped or mouthed by a puppy is to push the puppy away with their
hands and arms. This will be interpreted by the puppy as play and will probably
cause the puppy to nip and mouth even more. Dogs should never be left alone
with children under ten and parents should monitor closely all interactions
between their children and dogs.
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