Do You Have a Mouthy Puppy? Is your puppy constantly nibbling on your hands, feet, legs, and arms? If this sounds like your puppy then you’ve come to the right place! Welcome to The Ultimate Guide on How To Stop A Puppy From Biting And Nipping!
I’ve raised 4 guide dog puppies in training, worked with and trained countless other 7 week to 18 month old guide pups, and also fostered more than a dozen young puppies. Believe me when I tell you I know a little bit about mouthy puppies and their little dagger teeth.
I’ve suffered a few puncture wounds in my time. However, every little nip has really just been a normal part of puppy behavior and there are a few things I’ve learned to do to help minimize the damage to my hands and feet.
Puppy sitting Toby a yellow Lab puppy in training. Just like all of our pups he liked to bite and nip.
How To Stop A Puppy From Biting And Nipping
We hear this question all the time. How do I get my puppy to stop biting my hands? My puppy is great, but he’s always biting me. How do I get him to stop biting? My puppies teeth are so sharp! What do I do to get him to stop his mouthy behavior?
Here’s an exact quote from one of our readers:
…My wife and I just adopted a beautiful female yellow lab. Stella is 8 1/2 weeks old and we’ve had her just over a week. I want to bounce some questions off you from what I’ve read on your site, as Stella is driving us crazy…Biting. To go along with the chewing, she’s gotten more than a touch nippy. Heck, she’s snapped at my face while I was holding her a couple of times. Again, no corrections or ignoring is helping…
–Stella’s Dad
That was actually just one of a laundry list of questions Stella’s dad had about Stella the bouncy 8 1/2 week old Labrador Retriever puppy. So the question is how do you stop puppy biting.
A mouthy, bitey, nippy, puppy is perfectly normal and I would actually be surprised if you were not experiencing some growing pains with a nippy puppy. As I said earlier I’ve been raising puppies for a while now and some of the others in my group have been puppy raisers for 25+ years and raised a dozen or more puppies in the guide dog program. Every time I see them with a new puppy I inevitably see little dagger like puncture marks on their hands and wrists. Even a seasoned puppy raiser usually ends up with some collateral damage from these playful guide pups.
There is some good news. Most puppies can be trained to regulate and minimize their biting pretty easily. You can teach your puppy how to have a soft mouth and work on teaching him bite inhibition. Here’s some tips on things you can do to minimize the amount of puncture wounds you receive from your little vampire…I mean bundle of joy 
Tips On How To Stop Puppy Biting
One of the reasons why puppies stay with their litter mates until they are 7-8 weeks old is so they learn bite inhibition. If you’ve ever observed a litter of puppies playing you probably noticed that some puppies will get a little too playful with biting and nipping.
When puppies are playing, biting, and nipping each other play time stops when one of the puppies lets out a yelp and walks away. Over time puppies will learn that biting too hard ends playtime and will learn to soften their mouths. After all puppies don’t ever want play time to end…do they…
This brings us to our first tip on how to stop a puppy from biting:
- Make your puppy think he is hurting you when he bites by letting out a puppy yelp! Basically you are trying to replicate the same behavior as one of the other puppies in the litter. So, let out a nice yelp to briefly startle your puppy and stop playing with him. This will teach your puppy that when he bites to hard playtime ends. Ending playtime is key when you do this because I’ve seen and experienced puppies that think the yelp is just part of the game and if you continue handling or playing they sometimes get more excited and come back with an even harder bite.
- Redirect your puppy biting by slowly removing your hand from his mouth and replace with one of his dog toys. This is probably our favorite technique. Whatever inappropriate item your puppy is biting whether it be your hand, arm, feet, or face (like in the example from our reader) slowly remove the item from your puppies jaws and replace with his favorite dog toy or chew then leave him alone to play with his toy for a while. We have found that it’s a good idea to have lots of different textured toys as your puppy will most likely get bored if all he has is a bunch of plush toys. Our collection consists of plush toys, nylabones, various KONG toys, bully sticks, sterile bones, and other dog toys and chews.
- Try using Bitter Apple Spray. So how would you use Bitter Apple Spray to deter a mouthy puppy? If your puppy is in that nippy mood then spray a little bit of Bitter Apple Spray on your hand and then let him put his mouth on your hand. Most puppies will usually take a few bites/licks of your hand then start smacking his chops licking his jowls trying to figure out where that horrid taste came from. After doing this a few times your puppy will figure out that putting his mouth on your hand results with an icky taste in his mouth. Most pups hate the taste of Bitter Apple Spray, but some actually like it so this will not work with all pups. One more word of caution…if you’ve already received a few puncture wounds from your pup’s little vampire teeth then you might not want to get Bitter Apple in the sores because I know from experience that it stings like heck!
- Give your dog a command. If you’ve been working on basic obedience then giving your puppy a command will sometimes get him to stop biting and go into obedience mode. We teach our guide dogs puppies “Leave it” pretty early on and once they know what it means a quick “Leave it” will get them to stop. However, even just telling your puppy to “sit” or “down” (if they know these commands) could easily break their nippy mood.
At about 4-5 months our puppies lose all of their tiny dagger teeth and they are replaced with adult teeth. It’s also around this time that our pups usually stop their mouthy, biting behavior.
One more word for the wise. NEVER SLAP OR HIT YOUR PUPPY! Your puppy will probably think one of two things: 1. You are playing and he’ll come back trying to bite you even harder. or 2. He will learn to fear you and your hands. Hitting your puppy will most likely lead up to even bigger behavior problems down the line.
If you think your puppy is being overly aggressive or none of these tips are helping with your puppy you should seek a local professional dog trainer and set up an in-home training session so the trainer can experience your puppy’s behavior first hand.
Always remember when raising and training your puppy to be consistent, persistent, and patient. Puppies can be a lot of work, but the work you put in now will show when you’re pup becomes a well-behaved full grown dog.
I hope those tips on how to stop your puppy from biting helped. What about you guys? Do you have a puppy who likes to bite? What have you done to help keep his biting at bay? Tell us all about your experiences in the comment section below.
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About Colby
When Sampson was a puppy and he bit us, we would pull our hand away and place it over his nose (no slapping, just a gentle hand over his nose) and a NO BITE. I can feed him a treat from my mouth.
Delilah came to us much later and I’m still struggling to teach her not to snap when she takes a treat. I do make a loud noise, but I will have to work on a yelp like sound and stop what I’m doing. Right now I usually just say “Gentle” and if she snaps, I pull the treat away and offer it again without saying anything. I’m hoping we can break her of this habit.
Great post Colby!
Thanks Jodi! We worked with Stetson since he was a puppy and he’s still a bit snappy when taking a treat. We did teach him the word “Gentle” when taking treats and that does the trick, but if we don’t tell him gentle he’ll put your whole hand in his mouth.
Exactly. I would like her to get to the point where I don’t have to say Gentle, how long does it take?
Well…Stetson is still snappy unless you say “gentle”. He’s 6 years old now so I don’t think that is ever going to change. All of the other dog’s I trained for the guide dog program have had soft mouths. I must have done something wrong when I raised Stetson
I needed this article a year ago! Yegads, was Kuster a biter! I tried the yelping technique, and that just incited him into a frenzy. So, when he started biting, I just put him in the crate or ex-pen and walked away. I think the best weapon in our arsenal was Morgan. She was a great puppy nanny and I think he learned more about bite inhibition from her than anything else. We were also one of the lucky families that got a puppy who liked the taste of Bitter Apple! I really thought he’d drive me insane.
The funny thing is, I didn’t realize he’d stopped biting for a long time. One day a few months ago, I was playing with him with one of his favorite toys. He accidentally missed the toy and bit me. I saw stars, but he let go right away and seemed very concerned about me. I realized that it had been a long time since I’d felt his teeth on me. Once he started teething, the biting went away and never came back, fortunately!
Sorry I’m a year late
Linus was the same way when we tried the yelp technique, but it has worked with some of the other dogs. The pups do learn a lot from the other dogs. Now that Linus is older he’s very good at teaching the puppies what they can and cannot do. He regulates play time and makes sure everyone is behaving properly. It’s funny to watch, but I think it’s part of his herding instincts.
I haven’t had a puppy who liked Bitter Apple Spray yet, but I’ve heard from many others who have pups that do like the taste just like Kuster.
Most of the puppies I’ve raised usually stop biting, mouthing, nipping around the time they finish teething and all of their adult teeth come in…usually around 4-5 months of age, but before that I usually come away with a few battle scars.
I have tried many of the above suggestions for curing a playful biter. My current dog was resistant or oblivious to most of the traditional methods, so we had to get creative:
I have found that when a puppy bites it is normally on the hand between the thumb and index fingers. So, when I was training my pet many years back, I found a quick and gentle way of curing bites. When he would nip at and/or bite at my hand, I would simply slip my hand a little farther into his mouth and with the same hand, GENTLY grasp his lower jaw suppressing his tongue.* The puppy found this uncomfortable, and soon realized that he didn’t like hands (and consequently other human body parts) in his mouth. It didn’t scare him and he wasn’t afraid of me or my hands. He just associated discomfort with HIS ACTION of biting. I am happy to say that after a few training sessions he hasn’t offered to bite or nip at anyone in 9 years.
*This may seem like asking for another bite. However, when I was the one who chose to put my hand deeper in his mouth, he didn’t like that because it wasn’t his idea
. Therefore, his mouth will open up wider(instead of biting down) as he tries to get rid of the gentle pressure.
Hope this will be of help!
Thank you for sharing your experience with your puppy and his biting.
Great Article Colby,
My Springer never had the nipping problem, he was more of a chewer. The bitter apple spray worked wonders. At first I tried to put any type of hot sauce on things he would chew that he shouldn’t, turns out he loves Tabasco sauce which is what I had use to previously get an old roommates dog from eating that chlorine dispenser in the pool. Hot sauce on chair legs or other things he wasn’t supposed to chew on turned into marathon licking sessions. Live and learn I guess, this underlines the fact that no 2 dogs are the same. Even the old squirt bottle didn’t work on Yzerman. He loves the pool and in my house in AZ we had a sprinkler on the pool. Turns out he would go nuts and misbehave just to get squirted with water. The first dog trainer I had didn’t believe me and I had to go next door and buy a bath towel once she was done trying to ‘correct’ him. Live and learn as the saying goes. Best of luck in all future endeavors,
Martin and Yzerman
Hi Martin and Yzerman! Thanks for sharing your experiences. Yep, each dog is a little different. Some like Tabasco some like the Bitter Apple Spray. Like you said: “Live and learn”
Thanks for stopping by!
Over the years of having puppies, I’ve also used Jodi’s “no bite” reaction. One of the more effective ways to stop this, was to gently circle my hand around the puppy’s mouth, put my face close to the pup’s face and to growl ….think how you’d make that yelping sound: a quick, 1-3 second noise and just deepen your voice so that yelp becomes a quick growl sound. The reasoning behind this was me thinking, “If I were the dog mom, how would I tell my pup to knock it off?” I’ve always used the “no bite” approach first, typically followed by re-directing the puppy’s attention to a chew toy, saying as I offered it, “This is what you chew.” The growling technique was the second option when the first wasn’t effective.
We’ve never tried the growl technique. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve reviewed your every single blog post..and it was awesome..will be back to read this blog soon.
Hi Colby, Great article. My Boston Terrier nipped a lot when he was a puppy. I tried the yelping technique but that made him more excited. He’s almost 2 now and still nips occasionally, but he seems to be slowly outgrowing it. Thanks for the bitter apple tip. It worked great on furniture but I never thought of using it on my hands.
Thanks Steve! As I mentioned if you have any puppy bites then the Bitter Apple Spray on the hands will definitely sting. I usually use it most on my hands and on the leash. It seems the little guys love to bite on their leash as well.
Thanks for stopping by!
Colby
Great point about making the dog think that they are hurting you. My wife did this with our dog and I thought that she was crazy. However, he quickly quit the biting.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. You never know what will work with your puppy. Linus used to get excited when we tried to get him to think we were getting hurt by whimpering or crying. However, the technique did work with some of our other pups.
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve had a puppy (our currents dogs were rescued at three years), but I recall yelping and replacing. That always worked. It works with little kids and teenagers, too. A mama’s tear, properly utilized, are powerful things.
I don’t have kids, but I’ve heard a lot of things that work with puppies also work with children. I’ll keep that in mind if/when I ever have kids.
Hi, I am very new to puppy ownership, we have a 7 week 3 day old 1 quarter GSD and 3 quarter Sibe, male. He is very nippy when he gets excited, but I have found a couple of solutions to this problem. 1. A low “att” sound and substitution, putting something else in front of his mouth. Partly our fault if we don’t have an alternative to bite. 2. He doesn’t like the squirt bottle, he barks at it, then attacks it then submits to it. Now after a day or so, he lays down flat and submits if we hold it and play. It’s hard not to laugh at him when we use it. But he knows exactly why it’s there. Huskies learn very fast. I’ve had to learn fast too! 3. This works to calm him down if he’s getting a bit too excited. We have a wooden shiny floor, he couldn’t grip on it. Was falling over banging himself and was getting down about playing – totally miserable in fact. All the floors downstairs are hard and cold, apart from the messy lawn which he finds all sorts of mischief on to put in his mouth. It took me a few hours to figure out why he was getting so down. But when I clicked I got a roll of stairs carpet, unused from a friend. Then I have a large hard wearing bed for his bigger cage when he’s older, and an old mattress topper. With all these spread out in the room he can play really comfortably and gets grip etc. He perked up instantly. But got happy and excited again and nipped. But I found if I walked into the kitchen with a cold stone tile floor he stopped playing and sat or lied down, and you can approach and stroke him and touch him everywhere without a nip or fuss. Also having soft surfaces in the room like an island surrounded by hard slippery wooden floor means he has no interest atm of getting in the safe but difficult to manage nooks and crannies in the room, ie behind the sofa etc. One thing I am not sure of, I use the anti bite spray, he doesn’t like it but I won’t put it on my hands as I don’t want to get it on his toys, blankets etc as I don’t want him to associate the taste with the toys I want him to bite on. Togo loves playing with material, it’s harder to stop him biting our clothes and getting the occasional nip through the material. I have been worried about him sniffing up my dressing gown as I really really do not want a nip there! Lastly, from day one I have been able to open his mouth and put my hands in to get stones etc out. He lets me do this with no fuss, I’d like to keep it that way, so the idea of putting my hand further into his mouth when he bites is something I don’t think I will be trying, I don’t want a negative reaction when I want full control of him and to be able to touch him everywhere.
It’s really important to stop your puppy biting and nipping as early as possible. Our friends have a Labrador that is now 10 years old and whenever I (or anyone else) goes into their house the dog continually nips and licks your hands. The owners then shout at the dog, but the poor dog doesn’t know any better as he’s never been told it is wrong since he was a pup!
Thanks for sharing the story. That’s too bad that they aren’t willing to train their dog. Maybe you should send them over to this page
Hi !
I’ve read and tried ALL the techniques mentioned here now for the past 4 weeks and my puppy has shown NO signs of improvement! In fact it’s getting so bad that I am seriously considering getting rid of her as she is no enjoyment to me or the other members of our family. Can someone PLEASE help ! I cannot afford a professional dog trainer to come visit in my home so ANY other suggestions apart from those already listed here would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you
Hi, Sorry you seem to be having no fun with your puppy. Our new puppy was a bit nippy. I used two books to research before I got him and one of the sections in one of the books suggests three ways to stop a puppy biting. The first is ignoring (stop playing, avoid eye contact etc), the second was a squirt bottle and the third was holding his mouth shut. It suggested trying only one for two weeks minimum at a time before moving onto the next. I don’t support all the methods here or in the books, but if it works without causing distress then all well and good. I tried the ignoring thing for a day and could see it just wouldn’t work. A husky is quite independent so it didn’t care. I moved straight to a squirt bottle and it is working really well. I only have to show it to him and he stops. Or shake it and the noise makes him stop. My mum has a Labrapoodle who has just turned one. She hasn’t managed to stop the nipping either so she wears a gardening glove. My general rule with my Togo is to carry something else to nip in one hand (normally a rubber squeeky toy) and a squirter in the other and he is fine. Chopping and changing methods could be confusing, a squirter with a very very very mild vinegar solution in it works really well. I don’t speak or say no, and you have to get the correction within 1 or 2 seconds or they don’t know what it is for.
Try one method and be hard and consistent without shouting or causing distress. I’d be very suprised if you can’t fix it.
Thank you for your suggestions. Every puppy is different and it always seems that one training method that works well with one puppy doesn’t always work with the next.
I’m sorry you’re having problems with your puppy biting and nipping. Martin has made some great suggestions in the previous comment.
I know you already mentioned that you cannot afford a professional dog trainer, but would it be possible to enroll your puppy in a group training class? Group training classes are less expensive and it could give a trainer a chance to see your puppy’s behavior first hand.
We have two grown Weimaraners and we have went through the puppy stages with them. I love the detailed write up you give the readers and new pet owners that can help and guide them to solving this problem. Puppies love to chew including on your hands. We would always use the redirecting method with our pups. If they were interested in biting or chewing on anything not allowed including our hands or feet, we would get their toy or bone that they could chew and replace it. We would do this 100 times if that’s what it takes.
The redirect method is the first thing we always do when working with our puppies who like to bite. I almost always have some type of toy or chew in my pocket when I first start raising and training a young puppy. Redirecting definitely saves you from a few puncture wounds. Thanks for stopping by!