Your hands are covered in scratches, the kids will not go near the puppy after five o'clock, and you have started to wonder whether something is wrong with your dog.
Nothing is wrong. Mouthing is normal, it peaks around thirteen weeks, and it passes. But how you respond in the next few weeks decides whether it passes quickly or drags on.
What we cover
Who is Emily Larlham
Emily Larlham, better known online as Kikopup, is a professional dog trainer based in San Diego with a YouTube channel of more than four hundred free tutorials and hundreds of thousands of subscribers. She has taught seminars across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, including a lecture on raising puppies for the Association of Pet Dog Trainers here.
She coined the term Progressive Reinforcement Training after watching phrases like positive training get used by people who were still using intimidation. Her definition is specific in a way most training slogans are not.
Teaching by reinforcing and training desired behaviors, interrupting and preventing undesirable behaviors without the intentional use of physical or psychological intimidation.
Emily Larlham, on Progressive Reinforcement TrainingTo be clear: she has no branded five-step method for puppy biting, and we are not going to invent one and put her name on it. These are five things drawn from what she teaches and from the veterinary literature.
1. Understand what the biting actually is
Most people assume teething. VCA, in a handout written by two veterinary behaviourists, says otherwise: nipping and mouthing in young dogs is generally a form of social play, and teething is more likely to show up as gnawing on your furniture.
The timeline is useful. PetMD puts the peak at around twelve to thirteen weeks, and the AKC says mouthing typically decreases between four and six months. Teething runs alongside it, with baby teeth falling out from around three and a half months and forty two adult teeth in place by about six months.
The other half is bite inhibition, the skill of controlling how hard the mouth closes. Puppies begin learning it from their littermates, which is part of why VCA recommends they stay with the litter until seven or eight weeks. As VCA puts it, because all dogs can and will bite at some point, this lesson is vital for human safety.
Larlham is emphatic that this is not something to wait out passively. Every time a puppy is reinforced for putting teeth on skin, she says, a bite reinforcement history is being built, and ignoring it fails because it is self-reinforcing.
2. Interrupt and redirect, with one catch
The core move is simple. Call the puppy away from whoever is being bitten, in a bright and interesting voice, then point them at something they are allowed to have.
Here is the catch, and it is a piece of Larlham's advice almost nobody mentions. Redirect onto a toy already on the floor. Do not fetch a new one from the kitchen bench, because the pattern you would be teaching is that biting a person produces an exciting new toy.
She also suggests keeping only three to six toys out at a time and rotating them, since a floor covered in toys teaches a puppy that anything on the floor is fair game.
Something legal to bite
ChewMelo™ Dog Chew Treat Toy
Grooved rubber you can push treats into, in three sizes. PetMD suggests chilling or freezing a chew toy to take the edge off sore gums. Keep one in the freezer and one on the floor where you can reach it without getting up.
Shop ChewMelo™
From $34.90
3. Remove your attention, calmly
When redirection does not land, stand up, take your hands out of reach, and wait. Resume when the puppy is calm. If they follow and keep going, step over a baby gate and give it thirty seconds.
The framing is the important part. Larlham is explicit that this is not punishment. You are not punishing the dog for biting, because that can make them more aroused. You are removing the reinforcement while you train an alternative response.
In practice that means no drama. No shouting, no shoving, no grabbing the collar. You stand up, the fun stops, the fun comes back when the teeth are off you. Boring is the point.
Quick tip
- Larlham is clear these exercises are for adults only, because children often teach puppies that mouthing is a brilliant game without meaning to. Give the kids a job that does not involve hands, like dropping treats on the floor.
4. Check whether they are simply exhausted
If the biting is worst at a predictable time of day, usually late afternoon or evening, this is your answer.
The AKC puts it in five words: overtired puppies are often mouthier puppies. PetMD adds that a puppy who cannot seem to respond and just keeps biting may need encouraging to nap. Larlham calls it the witching hour.
Puppies sleep far more than most first-time owners expect. The AKC puts it at eighteen to twenty hours a day, PetMD gives a wider twelve to twenty. VCA frames it the other way, noting a two month old puppy's bursts of energy account for only about four to six hours of the day.
Quick tip
- Work out when the bad hour is, then give the chew or take the walk half an hour before it starts. Larlham's advice is to pre-empt the witching hour rather than work through it.
5. Train the situation before it happens
This is the step that separates people who get through this in a fortnight from people who are still bleeding two months later.
If your puppy always bites your feet on the stairs, do not wait for the stairs. Set it up as a training game. Approach the stairs, mark and reward the absence of biting, go up a step, mark and reward again. You are paying for the behaviour you want in the exact situation that normally produces the one you do not.
Larlham teaches this as training an incompatible response. Start with the least exciting version, a hand reaching towards the puppy, and mark and treat before the mouth opens. Build up only as the puppy succeeds. A puppy sitting calmly cannot simultaneously bite your sleeve.
Tug has a real role here, and Merck and VCA both back it. Merck states that, contrary to what people used to believe, energetic play such as tug does not necessarily produce play aggression, and lists it among the constructive outlets for a mouthy puppy. VCA calls it an acceptable outlet for pulling and tugging that is not your clothing.
The rules are not optional. VCA says the game stops the moment teeth touch skin or the puppy gets over-excited. The AKC suggests short bouts and keeping the puppy's feet low. Larlham's version is cleanest: always have a cue to start and end the game, and never let the dog start it.
A structured game with rules
TugPaws™ Dog Bungee Tug Toy
A bungee section absorbs the jolt so the pulling stays smooth rather than snapping. Best for older puppies and adult dogs, played short and low, with a clear start and stop. We found no evidence that tug toys are good or bad for teething specifically, so we will not claim either.
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$79.90
What to avoid, and the yelping question
Alpha rolls, scruffing, holding the muzzle shut, shouting. The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior names staring, shouting and forceful manipulation such as alpha rolls among the techniques a good trainer avoids, and RSPCA Australia says dominance-based methods cause fear, pain and distress. VCA adds the practical objection: pain can cause aggression, and some puppies read a physical correction as rough play and bite harder.
The AKC makes a point worth sitting with. Yelling at your puppy can itself be a reward, because to a puppy any reaction is a reaction.
Then there is yelping. It is not wrong, it is unreliable. The AKC recommends it repeatedly, and repeatedly warns that it gets some puppies even more worked up. PetMD's veterinary behaviourist does not mention it at all. Larlham lists it as an option, warns it can have the reverse effect, and says you must teach the alternative behaviour first. If you try it, sound like you are in pain rather than angry, and if the puppy gets more excited, fall back on standing up and walking away.
If the bite is different in kind rather than degree, that is another matter. PetMD advises contacting a behaviour professional if the biting comes with holding on under pressure, a tense body, deep growling or head shaking. The AKC suggests getting help if there is no progress by six months. RSPCA Australia points Australians towards reward-based puppy school and, where needed, a qualified behaviourist.
For everything else, our signs of a bored dog and enrichment guide cover the outlets side, and the rest of our chew toys and puzzles sit in the toys, feeding and enrichment collection.
Watch
Emily Larlham on stopping puppy biting, from her Kikopup channel. Nine minutes, and watched more than two million times.
Common questions
At what age does puppy biting stop?
PetMD puts the peak around twelve to thirteen weeks, and the AKC says mouthing typically decreases between four and six months. If it has not settled by six months, get help.
Should I yelp when my puppy bites me?
You can, but it is unreliable. The AKC recommends it and also warns it winds some puppies up further. If yours gets more excited, stand up and walk away instead.
Is tug of war bad for puppies?
No. Merck states that energetic play such as tug does not necessarily produce play aggression, and VCA calls it a useful outlet for a mouthy puppy. It needs rules: you start it, you end it, and teeth on skin ends the game. Keep it gentle and low with a young puppy.