1st April 2021
My puppy the velociraptor!
Yes, that’s right your puppy is a biting dinosaur and it’s hard to believe that your puppy’s biting is a normal behaviour.
During lockdown and the phase, out I have moved my puppy training and support online to help families settle their new members of the family into their homes. It is very hard to find puppy classes at present due to the restrictions in place but there are still plenty to be achieved at home.
One of the main topics I help with at present is BITING!
Your puppy has started its life generally with mum and its litter mates learning how to communicate and play-bite. If this gets too rough mum is on hand to teach your puppy or its brothers and sisters simply stop playing or bite harder back. When they have come to live with our family it is only natural for your puppy to replicate the behaviours and games from my previous family. In steps being a parent again with teaching what play is acceptable and what happens if it gets too rough – stop! You can also teach your puppy to play games with you and without.
Puppy’s explore through their teeth and spend a great deal of playing and chewing. It really hurts when the exploring is then on our hands or clothes especially with the razor-sharp teeth also. You could shout louder, run fast, cross your arms or even give your puppy a toy to chew instead but often these choices work for a while but not long-term. Noise can excite your puppy into prey drive as much as the movement and even ignoring the behaviour can cause your puppy to get really annoyed with you.
The best way is to pair these chewing opportunities with moments during your day especially now with most of us still working at home. Instead of your puppy getting up to mischief on a work call it would be the perfect time to set up a chewing time. Allowing your puppy to chew and bite appropriate items such as using Kong’s, non-bleached chews, raw carrots etc. Chewing and biting on appropriate items helps your puppy to be happy and it’s a form of mindfulness also.
Having a good routine in place for your puppy is key to overall balance of their core needs and helping them to be happy. This also includes sleep time which can also be a cause of over biting you and the children when they are overtired.
The key is to understand the strengths of the breed and work with these not against and also get to know the little personality in front of you. They are all different like us and go against the textbook of dog training at times.
All puppies are velociraptors and seek professional advice to find your balance of core puppy needs and razor sharp teeth not on you.
