If your puppy is biting you during play, it’s best to nip it in the bud. To do that, you’ll need to use obedience training and desensitization tactics while redirecting this natural urge to a toy.
Figuring out how to play with a puppy without encouraging biting is tough, but it’s a crucial skill.
Play-biting may not seem like a huge deal at first. Yet, things could change when your little friend grows to 100 pounds or so!
Why Is My Puppy Biting During Play?
Since your puppy is still growing, he might not know how to act around you just yet. However, knowing why he’s biting can help you curb the problem early on.
1. Your Pup’s Excited and/or Impatient
If you’re doing playtime right, your dog should find it exciting.
For one, your puppy may get over-excited about your reactions and toys or impatient when you’re withholding their play.
Unfortunately, this can backfire with bites.
After all, puppies have a lot of pent-up energy. Plus, they can get the zoomies when you’ve kept them sedentary for too long.
2. The Little Guy Is Teething
If your pup’s just growing his teeth out, it can be a very uncomfortable experience. Odds are, he’ll want to distract himself with anything: furniture, clothes, or your arm.
As teething is a natural process for puppies, you can only redirect his discomfort to the proper items: toys. There are lots of puppy-focused toys for canine teething needs!
3. The Puppy Is Sensitive to the Touch
Dogs can be extremely sensitive about their body parts.
Maybe you touched the pup somewhere sensitive while playing, and he’s just reacting the only way he knows.
4. Your Pup Is Just Learning With His Mouth
First, puppies explore with their noses, but they’ll naturally try to bite things, too. It’s a whole new world full of scents, tastes, and textures out there!
You might just be encountering a curious pup who hasn’t got the hang of things through socializing. He could also not know how powerful his bite is just yet.
7 Tips to Stop a Puppy From Biting During Playtime
Thankfully, all the reasons above have solutions, but it’s always better to tackle the issue as early as possible.
Whatever the root causes are, here are some of the specific steps you can take to fix play-biting:
1. Desensitize Your Pup Early
Being sensitive early on is normal. So, if you want to give your pup lots of rubs, you need to desensitize him first.
This is a basic training trick:
- Rub him all over or touch the sensitive spots, like paws, whiskers, and ears.
- Reward your puppy when he doesn’t move his head or try to get away.
2. Redirect His Attention to a Toy
It’s common for dogs to have short attention spans, especially when you’re playing with them. So, they can drop their toys and start biting you when there’s too much stimulation.
Remember that biting is natural, and you can’t eliminate it entirely.
Instead, you can redirect the pup’s attention back to the toy rather than your hands. Once his back to biting his toy, reward him with affection and treats.
If your pup isn’t interested in toys, no matter what you try, consider getting an auto-trainer.
Auto-trainers are toys that hand out treats when your dog does a certain action. It could also teach your puppy that biting toys instead of other household items means good things like treats.
3. Be Firm With Your Detering Commands
When the pup is biting you, give a loud, stern “no” command in a sharp tone or voice your pain. This should grab his attention and be shocking enough that he stops what he’s doing.
You mustn’t laugh or use your high-pitched playtime voice when doing this. Your dog must know that you mean serious business, so you can rectify this behavior.
Once he stops biting you, resume playtime.
4. Setup a Safe Active for Both of You
There are dog toys with long ropes attached to them out on the market. Alternatively, you can leash their favorite plushie if you don’t want to get a new one.
Just like how cats have their strung-up toys, dogs love this stuff!
You can play in your backyard and run around while dragging the toy behind you.
The key is keeping the toy moving a lot to grab his attention. Don’t let your dog bite into the toy long; you want him to keep chasing it as long as possible.
When you play like this, your hands and arms are far away from your dog. This way, you’ll know for sure he won’t accidentally bite you.
You’re not only using up your pup’s energy with this high-octane activity, but you can also squeeze in some exercise time for yourself!
5. Teach the Pup to Lead With His Nose
On the plus side, you can play with your puppy using treats to sneak some training while keeping it fun.
For one, you can teach the young fellow to lead with his nose.
Here’s how:
- Place the treat in your closed hand and move it around.
- Your pup should smell the treat and try to get it.
- Only open your hand as a reward when he touches you with his nose instead of his mouth.
6. Distract the Puppy With Obedience Training
You can try giving commands or telling the pup to do tricks in the middle of playtime.
If you’ve been training the pup diligently, he should always snap back to form as soon as you command him.
This can save you some harsh bites and interrupt his behavior.
7. Exercise Your Pupper Beforehand
If your new puppy just has too much energy, you can take him out for a walk before playtime. This tip can be particularly helpful if you’ve got a dog breed that needs lots of activity and stimulation.
After all, a cooped-up dog can be very irritable and keen on biting you. So, some exercise time can help curb down playtime biting, among other behavioral issues!
Paul has been creating content for the dog niche for many years. The information he shares comes his first hand experience growing up in dog lovers household and then owning multiple dog breeds of his own as an adult. Paul enjoys doing the hard research to collect, analyze and present our dogtemperament.com readers with the best answers to their questions.