Puppy biting is one of the most
frustrating things to deal with. And a lot of people feel like they've
tried absolutely everything and it seems like their puppies just
still want to bite them. But we're going to talk to you today
about a few things that we actually do without knowing it, that actually provoked the dogs
to nip and bite at us today. I'm going to go through a few steps
with this little black lab puppy, Hank, who's been struggling a little bit with
his family thinking that he can nip and bite everything. My name is Kayl McCann. Welcome back to McCann dogs. In our training facility, we have helped tens of thousands of
puppy owners with their puppy training. And, um, we see a lot of the people
making the same mistakes. And one of the best ways to get rid of
puppy nipping is to learn how to actually avoid getting into the
issue in the first place. The biggest mistake that people make
when they have a puppy biting problem is they don't even realize that they're
actually doing things for the puppy that provoke them to bite. So today I'm going to talk to you about
a few common things that people do accidentally that caused the puppy
to nip and what you should be doing differently to have better success. Now let's talk about the first thing
and that is playing with our puppies. Now, a lot of people make the
mistake I'm making right now. And I get right down on the floor with
a puppy and they let the puppy jump at their face and let them go crazy. And when puppies like this
and they're up near your face, it's really common for
them to try and fight. So I don't want to be playing with
my puppy if I'm having a puppy, um, issues this way. So I still do want to play, but I'm going to play in a bit
more of a controlled manner. So I'm going to change my
body posture a little bit, and I'm going to play with them. I'm going to gently push
them way a little bit. I might wiggle my fingers and pull
them away just to provoke some play, but then I'm going to teach
him that I want him to be calm. So I'm going to put my hand in his
collaring in a steel piece of food here, and I'm just going to work
on getting him to settle. Good boy. Nice. So I am preventing the biting
from happening by teaching
what I wanted him to do instead. So once he's finished this treat, I'm going to try and provoke
play again and again, before he gets too ramped up, I'm going to have him settle and we're
going to learn to be able to play together, but in a bit more of a controlled manner. Ooh, that was a chewy one. Ready, playtime, playtime. Now he wants to play with the lines. I'm just gonna move it. Try to provoke him with me instead pup, pup, pup, pup, pup. Yay. Good boy. Settle. Yes. Good boy. Now, I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. I don't have the food in
my hand when I'm playing, because this is a very
food motivated puppy. And if I was to hold the food in my hand, he would just want to follow it around
and he wouldn't actually play with me. So I have it just handy off
to the side so I can grab it. That was so good, mr. Very nice. So short little spurts of play, keeping your body posture up a little
bit taller so that you stay safe. Notice I have a little leash on him, so I have great control and I'm teaching
my puppy how to play appropriately. Now another common place that puppies
end up doing a lot of nipping and biting is when we go to hook their
leash onto their collar. So before I even practice that, I need to condition my puppy to be very
comfortable with me putting my hand in his collar. So when I do need to hook that leash up, he's very confident with that. So I have food in my hand
here with my free hand, I'm just going to put my hand in his
collar and I'm going to reward him and we call this collar grabbing. And again, the word grabbing sounds pretty scary, but we're making it pretty fun because
we're associating some treats here, right? So I'm going to bring them over. I'm going to try that again. I've engaged them with some food. I'm gonna grab his collar. Yes. Good boy. And I'm going to practice this tons
and tons and tons of time so that he is super comfortable with
seeing hands come in. Yeah. And then understanding good things happen. Now, once you practice grabbing the collar, the next exercise is to work on
being able to attach the leash. We find them a lot of puppies
get really crazy in this moment. So I'm going to show you a little trick
that we do to help calm the puppies down. So if I am approaching him, even if I've led him out of this crate, what I can do is take a couple of treats
and I can just toss them on the ground just to get them a bit busy. I can get my leash ready. And as soon as I get his focus again, I can lure him into a sit. Yes. Good boy. And then as he's sitting
and eating his treats, I can hook his leash on. Yes. And then I'm going to reward him again. But when I feed him, I'm going to lure him back
into that sitting position. Good boy. Yes. Good. And I can try taking his leash off. Yes. Good boy. And then putting his leash on. Yes. Good Again, try and keeping him in that sit. Good boy. Good for you. Yes. Yay. Excellent. And then when I'm ready, OK! Good Boy. So I can start to train my
puppy to maintain a sit as
his leash goes on and off. Oh my goodness. Yes. All for rewards. And you can see how quickly Hank says, I like this game, mom, you putting this, treat this leash on me. Yes. Good boy. Now, as we were shooting here, Hank happened to find one of my slippers. And I want to just walk
you through what to do. If your puppy does steal something
that they're not supposed to have. And this is a really common place. Then when we try to take things from them, they want to nip and bite at us. Now you'll notice we have
this little line attached. We call these house lines
and this is to enable and us, us to have control over our puppies. We can't just run away
and steal and wreck it. So what I don't want to do is just
walk up and show him some food, because I don't want him to think
that chewing slippers equals treats. So instead, I'm going to take the line. I'm just going to immobilize. I'm going to pull them away from the, slipper. Good boy. And then I'm just going to have him
settle and be calm for a second using the line. Yes. Good boy. Good. Now I'm going, just going to have the slipper out. Nope. Yes. Good boy. And I'm just actually
put my foot on the line. Good boy. Good boy. Oops boy. And we're going to redirect him. Oops. Yes. Good boy. Good. Oh, you're going for the treat. Good boy. Yes. Good boy. Oops. Yeah. Good Boy! So I just use a little verbal, a tiny little leash direction. Oh my goodness. And then lots of praise and genuine reward
when he's making good choices can be walk by it. Oh my goodness. He is such a good, oops. Oops. Yes. Good baby. Do you see how quick the timing is? The moment he goes for the slipper, I need to address, I need to address it. Good boy. I need to address it right away and
then get him doing something else. Now it's really common when we get a
puppy that we want to have them up on the couch with us and up on the bed with us, we can have a big snuggle fest, but this is actually a really common
place for puppies to do a lot of nipping and biting. And the reason for that is that we
have them up sort of at our level, the puppy's sort of feel, you know, a little bit big for
their britches at times. And they're more prone to being a little
bit more wild and crazy and do some nipping and biting. So, um, rather than having them up on the couch, especially if you're having problems
or puppies being a little bit crazy, like this one, teach your puppy how to be
calm and relaxed when you're
sitting with your family on the couch by giving
them something else to do. So instead, I'm going to teach Hank
how to lay calmly here. Now you're going to do this when you
don't actually want to sit down and watch TV. You're going to do this when you have
a few moments to do some training. So I have my leash on, I have some treats and I'm just going
to lure him into a down position. Yes. Good boy. And I'm going to reward him there. And then I'm just going to sort
of sit up tall for a second. You'll notice he popped up
and he wants to leave the bed. So I'm going to use a bit of food
to lower him back into position. Good boy. I actually start to teach an on
your bed command on your bed. Good boy. Yes. And I'm just going to reward
him for hanging out here. Yes. There we go. Good boy. And as he continues to hold position, I'm going to reward him. Good boy. Yes. Teaching him that. Hanging out on this bed is a really good
place for him to be when the family's all in the living room. I can't get my treats out. Fast enough. Thank you max. Here we go. Look because the lure him into a down
again and luring and into a down because I don't want to reward him
for jumping up near me. Yes. There we go. Now in the beginning, my rewarding is going to
happen really frequently. So he doesn't have an opportunity
to get up and move away. But as he, yes, as he starts to get the hang of this, I'm going to start to deliver
my food a little bit slower. So again, I got the puppy up, so I'm going to lure him back
into position before rewarding. Yes. Good boy. And then the whole key to success here
is to make sure that I release him. So it's my idea that he gets up. Okay. Hey, so short little spurts, lots of times. And you're gonna find it very, Oh, look at that very quickly. Your puppy's going to say this
position is pretty darn cool. What a good babe. Yes. Now I have a bit of a
wild puppy on my hands. So as I talked to you
about the next point, I'm actually just going to give Hank
a little bone here and this is to help teach him to be calm and relaxed
so that as I'm speaking to you, I don't have a puppy that, you know, isn't a situation there where
he needs to be disciplined. I'm staying ahead of the game and I'm
giving him something to distract him. So he portray some good behaviors. Now, the next thing that I wanted to mention
is that a common misconception or understanding about nipping and biting
is that dogs are going to grow out of it eventually. Or another thing that
we hear a lot is that, Oh, well, it didn't really hurt that much. You know, he's just mouthing my arm. So that's okay. And um, we have one really easy, really rule to follow
when we're teaching puppy, dog biting. And that is no mouths
on skin clothes ever, no matter what, no matter how hard, how soft we want to be really
black and white with our rules, with your, our puppies, because it's much easier for them
to understand our expectations. It's very false to think that
puppies will grow out of it. They're babies. And they're learning how to control
things investigating with their mouths. That's what they do is as puppies. And we need to let them know
that when it comes to humans, you know, your family members, your kids, your friends, that using their mouth on
humans is just not okay. So we know having high
expectations is important, but we also know that dogs
really do well with consistency. And you know, if we're trying to stop puppy biting, we need to consistently stop puppy biting. So that means if there's
certain situations that
your puppy is more prone to biting, it's important that everybody's on
board to prevent that from happening. So, you know, if you're getting a lot of puppy nipping
with different family members during playtime or whatnot, then you want to try to
avoid those situations. So your puppy is not rehearsing, making poor choices. Another common time that puppies tend to
do a lot of nipping and biting is when we've gone out, we've come home from work and we greet
them at the door and they're really excited way. So rather than when I come
home from work or out, I don't want to come in the door and
let my puppy be loose and greet him in a really crazy manner. That's going to provoke him
to be overexcited and biting. Instead, I'm going to leave my puppy in
a crate so that as I come in, I can be calm. I can approach my puppy and I can let
them know that being calm and quiet is a good thing. Good, good. Yes. And again, when you come home, don't make a big deal out of it. Be nice and calm because we don't want
the puppy being overexcited in their crate. Oh my goodness. You're so good. And that at this point I
could calmly take him out, hook his line on and we can
go for a little potty break. The purpose of this video is to give you
guys more tools on how to prevent puppy biting in the first place, by making better choices about how
we're interacting with our puppies. Now, if you'd like to check out some more
videos specifically on puppy biting training, check out that playlist right there. Now, if you'd like to train with us on a
more regular basis to help you with your puppy training, you can check out our supported online
puppy class called Puppy Essentials. And you can find the link below
in the description on that note. I'm Kayl. This is puppy Hank happy training season.
