Is Puppy Biting Aggressive?

aggressive puppy biting

When you brought home your new puppy you were likely thrown into the deep end and discovered the unpleasantness of all the chewing and puppy biting.

You may be wondering:

Did you bring home a puppy or a land shark?

Is my puppy’s biting aggressive?

How can I stop puppy biting and chewing?

You may have even turned to Google or other sources for help on what to do. You undoubtably found a lot of conflicting information which made things more confusing. Things like “make a high-pitched noise to get your puppy to stop”, “your puppy is asserting dominance”, “your puppy needs to know who is boss”, “hold your puppy’s mouth closed”, “squirt your puppy with a spray bottle”, and an array of other “solutions” to stop puppy biting.

If you’ve tried any of these, you may have mixed feelings about the methods suggested or you unfortunately found they didn’t work.

I’m going to point you in the right direction with advice on what you should do and help keep you away from things that might make the puppy biting worse.

Is puppy biting a sign of aggression?

Puppy biting may seem aggressive at times, but it’s not aggression. Puppies explore with their mouths. They are teething, which is painful. Puppies also have a natural need to chew. All these things cause puppies to naturally want to put things in their mouth. So, while your puppy might seem like they are displaying aggressive biting, at times, it is not aggression.

What are ways to stop puppy biting and chewing?

Our quick and easy tips to reduce puppy biting are:

Put management in place in

the form of gates, crates, and/or expens

Have a variety of toys

Ensure you have plenty of long-lastingedible chews

Redirect your puppy’s biting to an appropriate toy or chew

Techniques you should avoid:

Holding your puppy’s mouth closed

Making a high-pitched sound to stop the biting

Pushing your puppy on their side (known as alpha rolling) to teach them you are boss

Physically punishing your puppy to teach them a lesson

These are some of the pieces of advice puppy parents receive from Google, social media, Facebook groups, and even veterinarians. Not only do these techniques not work, but they also often insight more biting and even create an over aroused puppy. These suggestions also have a probability of creating behavior fallout in the form of aggression- they very behavior you are concerned about.

We can’t skip the puppy biting and chewing phase. There is no way to avoid it, but we can make it this stage of puppyhood more manageable.

puppy bitingHere are just a few of my favorite products to help during the puppy biting and chewing stage:

  • Puppy KONGs- have at least 3
  • Marrow bones
  • Bully Sticks
  • Nylabone Pacifier
  • Petstages Stick Chew
  • KONG Wubba
  • Cow Hooves

Feeling a little overwhelmed with your puppy? Book your free Discovery Session to find out how we can help you achieve your goals. Yes, I could use help.

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