biting | Gochee Labs

🦈 Puppies can go from cute to piranha in a second flat! They especially like flappy ears, wagging tails, squeals from children, pant legs, quick fingers, bare feet and frilly dresses.

🖐 Did you know pulling your hand away quickly activates the prey drive too and may actually encourage MORE biting. This is why it’s important to give an OUCH, swap a toy for your hand or foot, remove yourself from play and/or put pup down for a nap. 🦷 Puppies bite while they are exploring, playing, teething, overstimulated, bored, tired, etc...

⚠️ Labradors were bred to retrieve. It’s their love language and a huge part of who they are! This means they will have a natural desire to chew, carry things in their mouth, chase moving objects...every aspect of retrieving. This can be compounded with the teething phase as they add biting to the mix. Biting, chewing, shredding, tearing are natural behaviors and can be at their peak during the 12-20 weeks of teething. If we don't provide a way for those needs to be met, your puppy will find a way to meet them. Puppies have natural needs and when those needs are met, it reduces their desire to bite.

Those needs include:

1️⃣ Physical stimulation: exercise, 15-30 minute adventure walks, playtime.

2️⃣ Mental stimulation: puzzles, training.

3️⃣ Social stimulation: interaction with other animals.

4️⃣ Environmental stimulation: challenges and changes in their living space.

5️⃣ Sensory stimulation: sight, scent, and sound differences in their living space.

6️⃣ Food stimulation involves feeding a variety of food and feeding out of a variety of slow feeders, Licki Mat Tuff Buddy, meaty bones, etc.

🍖 To satisfy their natural desire to chew, provide a variety of chews. This includes Nyla bones, yak chews, antlers, pizzles, hoves, stuffed Kongs, tripe chews.

🧸 Puppies will favor different toys (rope, rubber, soft, etc.) depending on their teething stage. Keep a variety on hand and swap them out as they change stages.

🎥 Record interactions when your puppy is biting. Rewatch them in slow motion so you can observe any triggers.

📝 Keep a journal of the times your puppy is in a biting mood. They are typically most mouthy first thing in the morning or right before an overdue nap. Reserve chew projects for those times.

Be prepared and have a solid biting inhibition plan in place. It's important for you and your puppy's happiness and well-being!

HOW TO SURVIVE PUPPY TEETHING
For additional biting training, refer to Puppy Culture DVD's Disc 2 section 11/12

🔊 If puppy biting is out of control or you are not finding results with the above techniques, seek professional help before the issue becomes a habit or destructive pattern.

Force-free, fear-free, positive reinforcement dog trainers we recommend.