Are your hands sore because your puppy uses them as chew toys? Fortunately, with regular dog training, you can stop puppy play biting so your puppy doesn’t chew on your hands or inappropriate household items. Let’s go over some training methods you can use at home.
Method 1: Making the most out of your puppy’s meals
Feed one of your puppy’s meals every day out of a food stuffable toy such as a Kong. Using a Kong turns every mealtime into a fun game, where they can chew on their toys instead of on you.
Method 2: Watch and confine
What do socks, clothing, pillows, and phone chargers have in common? To a puppy, they are all chewable items that can become tempting targets when they are left alone.
To help stop your puppy from chewing up your prized possessions, you should keep them tethered in a stationary area or put them in their crate when you are unable to closely supervise them.
Method 3: Encourage your puppy to play with toys
You can reduce puppy play biting by using positive reinforcement to encourage appropriate toy play. Anytime your puppy picks up an appropriate toy, you should offer them attention by petting and praising them. Rewarding your puppy when they play with an appropriate toy will teach them good behaviors and encourage lasting positive habits. Let’s go over this method in more detail with a playbiting exercise.
- Have your puppy tethered in an area of the house, such as to a sturdy table leg.
- Put several appropriate chew toys within your puppy’s reach. This can include Nylabones, Benebones and Kongs.
- Wait until your puppy chooses to play with one of these toys (it shouldn’t take very long) and play and praise them for as long as they keep their mouth on the toy.
- Stop praising your puppy as soon as they take their mouth off the toy.
- However, if your puppy decides to chew on something inappropriate, like a table leg or your clothes, pick up their toys and go out of their line of sight.
- After around 30 seconds, come back with the toys and start over from step 2.
We are here to help
We hope that these training methods help to stop your puppy’s playbiting. Would you like help teaching your dog high level obedience commands? You can also contact our Pet Behavior Team for a free consultation, where we can chat with you and provide a personalized recommendation that meets your needs. We recommend you check out our puppy training blog or our Tik Tok channel.
Beyond the Dog Sarasota offers personalized one-on-one training sessions, including training at your home and local Sarasota neighborhood. We also provide board-and-train programs, and virtual training programs to clients nationwide, as well as in person training programs at our other locations in Tampa Bay, Houston and Dallas.
We use scientifically proven training methods, backed by over 20 years of hands-on experience. Beyond the Dog Tampa Bay is led by our co-founders, Dr. Kristyn Echterling-Savage, a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), and Sean Savage, a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) and Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA).
