Nipping
When a dog is nipping or mouthing they are doing what their DNA has been programmed to do for millenia. Puppies learn a lot with their mouths when they are playing with their siblings. If your dog is no longer a puppy and you are not happy with this type of behaviour, you need to teach them that it is not acceptable in a human world to put their mouths on you.
Typically as a puppy all play stops dead in its tracks and the puppy is put in its crate for a few minutes if they begin to nip or mouth. This isn’t cruel behaviour, it shows the puppy there are consequences in the human world for treating us like another puppy or dog.
As a dog trainer for almost my whole life I generally don’t put my hand near a puppy’s mouth during play until they are about 2 years old. At 2 they know that when my hand is by their mouth it is for food, first aid or brushing their teeth. Those are safe ways of teaching your puppy that my hand is for helping not hurting.
A dog is never too old to learn that behaviour is unacceptable in our world. The same things that work for 10 week old puppy’s work for 10 year old dogs. Consequences for their actions happened while they were with their mom and siblings, why can’t they continue with you…
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