Persistent Mouthing and Ankle Biting.
Some puppies will learn the house rules of no biting very quickly whereas others may be a bit more persistent and challenging. A biting puppy can be immensely frustrating not to mention painful. They have very sharp teeth and it can really hurt.
One of the questions we commonly get asked is how to I stop my puppy ankle biting or chasing my toddler across the room.
There are various reasons that play biting can become more of an issue, some of which include:
A household with Young Children: the sound of excitement from young children can cause the puppy to become over excited. Their body language of running aways waving their arms or high pitch squeals when the puppy play bites can inadvertently reward the behaviour encouraging the puppy more and more.
Lack of consistency: every body in the house needs to give the same signal to the puppy that play biting is not OK by using the body language described in the previous video and not engaging with the puppy during mouthing.
Gambling Reward: if the puppy receives reward by even one person visiting the house or living in the house, they will repeat the behaviour all the more knowing they will eventually be rewarded.
Not Everybody has Left the Room if the Puppy is being Persistent: Once arms have been folded and you have turned away from the puppy, if the behaviour continues you must leave the room for a few seconds and only fuss the puppy on re-entry when they remain calm. If this still doesn’t work and the puppy is continuing to bite, every one in the room must walk out so the puppy can receive NO interaction from anyone.
Teaching the house rules shown in the previous video when dealing with play biting REALLY DO work if every one plays their part consistency . If you start with this from day one your puppy should learn super quickly that biting is a no go.
This video shows you a selection of real life situations especially with children of how to remain calm around the puppy to discourage the puppy from biting. Movements need to be kept slow and calm, noise needs to be kept to a minimum and remember eye contact is still attention for your puppy so when you are not interacting with their behaviour remember to look away as well.