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Puppy
play biting: How to teach a teething puppy not to bite
It is a painful problem that every puppy owner faces:
play biting. Puppy owners are far too familiar with the feeling of an adorable
fuzzy puppy clamping on to their sensitive skin with those tiny, deadly and
razor-sharp puppy teeth. But play biting is a natural thing for a puppy- she is
trying to use her mouth to learn about the world around her. It starts with the
other pups in her litter. They bite when they play fight but when one pup bites
too hard the other pup will yelp loudly and stop playing. From the beginning puppies
are learning the boundaries of biting and it is a lesson that needs to continue
when they leave the litter to join their human family.
Biting too hard is a behavior that needs to be corrected
right from the beginning if the puppy is going to be able to have good
relationships with other people and dogs. Founder of The Academy For Dog Trainers Jean
Donaldson published an article in 2007 for the Calgary Humane Society about aggressive behavior in canines. She educates about acquired bite inhibition (ABI) which “is
the degree of pressure a dog exerts with his jaws when he bites, and likely the
most significant prognostic indicator in aggression.” Puppies must be taught
not to put force behind their bite because according to Donaldson “ABI has
proven virtually impossible to modify in an adult dog.”
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