Puppy biting is almost always just a play behavior. It’s a lot like kids: puppies make mistakes and cause boo-boos when they start playing excitedly. Accidents happen more often when they’re tired.
Another instructor was saying she was thinking of puppy biting as a “defense” behavior. That would be true of feral (wild) puppies. Much more often, puppy biting is a natural part of sociable puppy playing.
The puppy without an inhibited bite needs to learn that biting human flesh, even in play, is NOT going to be reinforced!
I don’t intentionally yelp or yell at pups who bite, but I do want to deliver an immediate consequence – even with soft bites -- so that pups get a clear and consistent message about where teeth do and don’t belong. Keeping a puppy playpen (a gated area, or a crate with an open top) in your puppy play area makes it easy. Keep it black and white at first, and if the puppy bites a person at all, stop playing with him. Cheerfully put him in the crate with his chew bones for a minute or two (or more if the puppy then shows me that he was ready for a chew and rest anyway).
If everyone follows this rule consistently, puppies quickly learn that biting people ends their fun.
Then, you can begin to add more complicated concepts such as, don’t bite me even when I’m playing with your teeth or even when I’m feeding you treats, or even when we’re playing tug. After the dog has learned to stop biting, we naturally start to slack off in our delivery of "consequences," and so the pup learns that some "gentle mouthing" in some situations is tolerated.
I teach pups to lick treats – food reinforce to the tongue, not to the tooth nibble – from my hands. If your click timing isn't great, that's okay, just make sure you don't release the treat to a tooth grab, but only hand it over when the dog is using lips and tongue to get it. I'll post a video here showing you how to do that.
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Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books
It helps to begin with if you treats promote licking, like peanut butter or liverwurst.
I reinforce vigorous tug, retrieve and hand targeting games in a variety of ways, and these all help a dog to learn how to use his teeth effectively. When I first begin to teach hand targeting, I might allow a tooth hit my hand, but I rapidly build (and change) the criteria so the dog learns that a nose in my palm earns a click and a treat, whereas a bare tooth on my hand does not. After the dog has learned hand targeting (nose to palm), a bare tooth touching my hand during hand targeting exercises would cause me to end the game. Pups in my practice learn to handle their teeth carefully and appropriately very quickly.
A puppy who has learned to avoid placing teeth on humans will actively work to avoid bumping into people with his teeth. He will intentionally hold his mouth open when you play with his lips and teeth. He will consciously avoid grabbing a finger when you feed him treats or when you play tug. He will avoid a tooth grip even when you play games that involve sticking fingers in his mouth.
If your puppy is still making mistakes in these departments, it's normal! Just give him a clear but friendly "teeth end the game" consquence. Later, if you want to teach the adult, bite-inhibited dog a service tug (to tug off your sweater or socks) he will have excellent foundations that help him understand to grip the fabric, but to avoid teething the flesh below.
