Dog stop bitting : Paining for me

Bringing home a new puppy or dog is always an exciting time and should not be ruined by some of the behaviors that may exist.

Introducing a new dog to your home should be a fun experience for both you and your dog. One of the first challenges you should look after is discouraging inappropriate behavior by your dog, or to put it more positively, you should be encouraging appropriate behavior by your dog. One very common behavior in most breeds is that puppies love to bite and mouth almost everything around them in their new surroundings. Puppies instinctively bite and mouth each other puppies when playing, and they will do this humans as well because the see them as just another member of their pack. As puppies and dogs have thick skin under their fur, they really don’t feel any great pain from another dog biting and mouthing them. Humans, however, do not have the same thick skin, so it is important to teach your puppy not use their sharp teeth on humans for any reason.

The first step in training your puppy to stop biting is to reduce its natural biting reflex. Puppies normally learn to stop biting from their mothers and other puppies in their litter, but since your puppy now depends on you to teach it the things it needs to know, you will be the one to teach it. Biting might seem cute and harmless when your puppy is still very young, but it won’t be cute or harmless when your dog is mature and much stronger. It is for this reason that puppies should be taught to control and stop their biting before they reach the age of four months.

When puppies play as they love to, they are constantly biting and mouthing each other. If your puppy is given the opportunity to socialize and play with other puppies and older dogs that are already socialized, this will greatly help to inhibit the biting reflex. If one puppy becomes too rough when playing, the rest of the group will punish him for that inappropriate behavior. By using this type of socialization, your dog will learn to control its biting reflex.

There are other benefits to proper socialization as well, including teaching your dog to not be fearful of other dogs, and to work off their excess energy and get exercise. Puppies that are given the opportunity to play with other puppies learn important social skills and most often to become better members of the human family they are part of. Puppies that get less socialization tend to be more destructive, more hyperactive and will often exhibit other problem behaviors.
Puppies that lack socialization will often develop fearful and aggressive behaviors.

Dogs will often react aggressively to a new situation. This is more often the case especially if they are not properly socialized. The most effective way for a dog to become a good member of its community as well as the household it lives in, is to be socialized with other people, especially children. Dogs will usually make a distinction between their owners and other people, and between children and adults. Because of this, it is important to introduce your puppy to both children and adults.

Generally you should try and expose your puppy to young children as possible. Before it reaches four months of age is best. The main reason for this is that mothers of young children may be unwilling to allow their children to approach or be approached by large dogs or older puppies. This factor will be especially true with large breed dogs, or with breeds of dogs that have a reputation for aggressive behavior.

A very effective way to teach your puppy not to bite is to teach it to trust and respect you. This will be a very important thing in all aspects of training your dog and being able to correct any bad behaviors that may develop.

To gain trust and respect from your dog, you should use positive reinforcement. If your puppy bites you or something you don’t want it to, distract it. Offer your dog a chew toy or bone or something that you want it to chew on. Then reward your puppy when it does chew on the ‘chewable’ item. Make sure your dog knows when it does something that you want it to do. It is important to never hit or slap the puppy.

Punishment through physical means is the most sure fire way to breakdown any trust and respect that your dog has for you. Trust and respect must form the basis of an effective training program. Scolding or hitting a dog will not stop it from biting – it will simply scare it and confusion.

Training a puppy not to bite early on is a key part of any training program. Biting behaviors that are not corrected when your dog is young and impressionable will only get worse as it gets older. It may have seemed like harmless behavior when your puppy was a young dog, but biting by older dog can be dangerous and destructive behavior.

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