Ouch! Why are you biting me?

Puppies that are hungry can become agitated and excessively bitey as they attempt to make themselves feel better.  Check with your vet that you are feeding a good quality diet that is sufficient for your puppy’s needs.  

Many new owners forget to increase their puppy’s food rations as their puppy grows, especially if the puppy has a thick coat so they cannot easily see the body condition, with the result that the puppy gets desperate for more food.

Puppies left alone for too long or with too little to do or too little exercise can become over-excited during any interaction.  This can cause them to play-bite intensely whenever they come into contact with someone.  

While it is understandable that a puppy with too little to do makes the most of opportunities when someone appears, the excessive play-biting can have the effect of making owners less willing to interact, causing the problem to become worse.

The solution lies in finding more for the puppy to do, with more opportunities for off-lead free running exercise, games and training throughout the day so that energy is used up and the puppy becomes more calm and content.

Puppies that are over-tired will often begin to play-bite without thinking and their bites can get hard and careless.

Puppies frequently get over-tired if there are children in the household who may be keeping a very young puppy actively awake and engaged well past the time when it would normally have been resting and sleeping.  

Tired puppies can get very irritable and snappy, just like over-tired children.  The solution is to ensure your puppy gets frequent opportunities to sleep and rest throughout the day.  This will usually result in softer mouthing and calmer play.

Some people will recommend yelping loudly when a puppy bites you.  If the puppy is shy this is likely to worry them and afraid to try playing with humans again in the future.  If the puppy is bold, they can become over-excited by the noise and may bite harder as a result.  Either way, this technique rarely works.  Instead, focus on praising them for biting toys so they learn how to play with humans in a way that we enjoy.

If a puppy is punished for trying to play-bite a person, he can become confused and distressed.  A very young puppy is trying to learn human ways and learning that you become angry and aggressive when he invites you to play can have damaging repercussions for your future relationship. 

The problem for the puppy is that they still need to find an outlet for their desire to play.  If punishment has stopped them wanting to play with humans they will find other, less acceptable ways to play, such as chasing the children or cats, pouncing on shadows or digging in the garden.

So punishment may, in some cases, help prevent your puppy play biting, but the side effects often go unnoticed until they develop into a full-blown behaviour problem at a later date.  Far better, instead, to teach your puppy to play with you with toys and, later, let him know that it hurts when he play bites your fingers by moving away and disengaging.