Teaching Bite Inhibition To Your Labrador Puppy

The right way to stop your puppy biting

All puppies bite. And biting hurts! Puppies have very sharp teeth and they bite really firmly. Often making fierce growling noises whilst they do so. If your new puppy is sinking his teeth into your skin on a regular basis, you’ll be wanting to stop him right now.

You may be tempted to correct your puppy firmly for biting, after all, he needs to know it is wrong to bite people! You may have heard that there is a training process is called ‘teaching bite inhibition’. A process that will help you put an end to biting, even though it takes a little longer. Or you may have been warned that ‘politically correct’ advice to ignore a puppy when he bites is pathetic trash.

Conflicting advice is very confusing, and the best way to be confident in what you are doing is often to drill down to the reasons behind each approach.

Advanced bite inhibition

Your puppy’s mother teaches them early bite inhibition. However, because your puppy’s mom has a thick fur coat to protect her from your puppy’s teeth, she is not as sensitive to his bites as you are. So when your puppy comes home, you need to do a little work to get your puppy to ‘inhibit’ his bite sufficiently that he doesn’t hurt your human skin with his sharp teeth.

This ‘human sensitive’ or ‘advanced’ bite inhibition ability is an important feature of your puppy’s development. And studies suggest that if good bite inhibition ability is not acquired by the time a puppy is around five months old, it may never be achieved.

Stopping your puppy biting!

Some people, including some experienced dog breeders, will recommend that you simply stop your puppy from biting by firmly correcting him each time he does so. Some will even advise physical punishment. “It works” they will tell you. And it does. So this might seem like a sensible course of action. But there is a problem here. Suddenly stopping puppies from biting may give you a fast result, at the expense of some more important aims.

One problem with correcting a puppy for biting is that the puppy quickly learns to be selective about who he bites. This is very important in families with children where puppies will often bite children ferociously, long after they have learned that biting grown ups has an undesirable and even painful consequence.

This may not bother you if you don’t have kids, but many experts also agree that suddenly stopping a puppy from biting may cause problems down the line by interfering with the process of acquired bite inhibition. Being completely prevented from even gentle biting, may mean that the puppy does not learn just how much force is safe to use on people.

Why is bite inhibition for puppies so important?

The trouble is, stopping biting is not the same as learning to control biting. The concern is that preventing the puppy from learning advanced bite inhibition may cause him to harm a human. Perhaps much later in life, when his bite is much more powerful and potentially dangerous.

“But”  you may say “if you have taught him not to bite at all, why would he bite someone in the future”? The answer is that there are triggers for biting, that may cause any dog, no matter how nice, to bite. Those triggers are fear, and pain. Many dogs that are injured, will bite for example. Many perfectly nice dogs that are trapped and tormented by a toddler, will eventually bite.

We can do our best to make sure that our dog is never injured or tormented, but we cannot always be sure of protecting him. One day he may be hurt or badly teased, his growl of warning may be ignored. Small children are especially vulnerable in this kind of situation, as they fail to recognise the intention of a growling dog.

If your dog is forced to defend himself, he may do what dogs do in this situation, and bite. And if you are tempted to mutter ‘serve them right’ remember dogs who injure kids are likely to lose their lives. Or at the very least, their homes.

Most dog bites are not serious

Although many people get bitten by dogs, fortunately, most dog bites are not serious. The APDT estimates that 99% of dog bites are at level 1 or 2 on the ‘bite scale’. The reason for this is that most dogs do have good bite inhibition.

Your job then, is simply to make sure that your dog falls into this category of ‘most dogs’.  So that if he is ever put in the awful situation of having to defend himself, he is able to pull his punches and give a mild warning bite.

Essentially, by teaching good bite inhibition to our puppies, we are doing what we can to ensure that their bite is always inhibited. And never the bone crushing, devastating bite that a fully grown dog is capable of. And we can do this, by finishing off the job that your puppy’s mother started some weeks ago.

How to teach your puppy bite inhibition

What you will be doing is providing your dog with numerous opportunities to find that really painful bites are not rewarding for him. This means ending any game or cuddle, and if necessary removing yourself from his presence. Some puppies will stop biting if you squeak, squeal or yelp, and many people recommend that you do this.

By all means try this. But be aware, the noise has no effect on some puppies and is encouraging to others.  Your main trump card is the thing your puppy wants more than anything else  –  your attention. The rule for the first month is

• Withdraw all attention from the puppy for very hard bites
• Allow less painful biting and mouthing

This is teaching him to reduce the force or pressure that he applies with his jaws.  As a rough guide, aim for eliminating all painful biting by around three months of age

Persistence and repetition in stopping your puppy biting

Persistent repetition is the key. This is a process, not an event. If you correct the puppy for biting, be careful not to frighten him so much that he stops biting altogether. He needs to work through this learning process. Most experts now agree that it is better not to use correction at all for this process.

Once you have withdrawn your attention for a short while, offer the puppy a toy to bite on or play with. Or let him sit on your lap and chew on a toy whilst you hold on to the other end. In this way you are showing him alternative ways to disperse his enthusiasm for putting his teeth to work

Reducing jaw pressure in puppy bites

Over the next few weeks, you’ll need to move your goalposts. And become much more sensitive about how hard your puppy can bite. Until by about four or five months old, he is no more than gently mouthing at your hands. At this point, all force or pressure in his bite should be eliminated.

The final stage of teaching bite inhibition

Of course, mouthing is not acceptable in an adult dog. And the last phase in our training puts an end to mouthing. You can use the same system as above, but if your dog is persistent in his enthusiasm for getting his mouth around your fingers, you may find it helpful to clicker train him not to ‘mouth’ whilst you handle him.

• How to play with a puppy
• How to cope with an overexcited Labrador