# Puppy Bites When He Doesn't Get His Way



## cat_mac (Aug 25, 2016)

Hi all,

My little shorkie is getting so big, he's three months old today! We've been working on bite inhibition and he's pretty much got the hang of knowing if he bites too hard, the playing stops. However, one thing I've noticed is that if he doesn't want to do something, he'll start aggressively biting. The situations where this occurs the most is putting on his leash and if I pick him up when a play date with another (fully vaccinated and healthy) adult dog is over. It isn't like "he still thinks he's playing and he accidentally bit me hard" kind of biting, it's more like "no I don't want to do that, put me down right now" aggressive biting. Will he grow out of this and am I doing something wrong? I definitely don't want this to continue into the adult years!


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## Hiraeth (Aug 4, 2015)

My inclination is to say that he'll grow out of it and you're not doing anything wrong. Think of him biting like that as the same thing that happens when a child doesn't get their way and they start sobbing and throwing their fists around and hitting everything in sight. That's what your dog is doing. It's an emotionally immature response and he'll grow out of it as he matures.

The caveat to that is this - does he react normally when you pick him up at other times? He may just not like being lifted off of the ground. Do you leash him before you pick him up? His reaction to being leashed could also be a reaction because he knows leash means he's about to be lifted up. 

If he is totally okay with being picked up at other points, it's just a puppy temper tantrum.


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## cat_mac (Aug 25, 2016)

He's totally fine being picked up any other time. I was thinking that it might just be a tantrum too, thanks for the reply!


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## KrystalAnne1852 (Aug 23, 2016)

Agree with above, sounds like he's just throwing a fit letting you know he's not done playing


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

I'm not as optimistic as Hiraeth. I agree for the most part, but if you react to the bite [if it is hard], then he may learn that he can bite to get his own way. Sometimes, if you say Ouch! or if you yelp [like when you trained Bite Inhibition?], then a 'frustrated' biting pup will learn that this instance is another time Not to bite.

With larger dogs, this can be a bigger issue ... b/c nose ... or crotch can be at biting level ;-)


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## Hiraeth (Aug 4, 2015)

hanksimon said:


> I'm not as optimistic as Hiraeth. I agree for the most part, but if you react to the bite [if it is hard], then he may learn that he can bite to get his own way. Sometimes, if you say Ouch! or if you yelp [like when you trained Bite Inhibition?], then a 'frustrated' biting pup will learn that this instance is another time Not to bite.
> 
> With larger dogs, this can be a bigger issue ... b/c nose ... or crotch can be at biting level ;-)


My puppy freaked out just like the OP's as a puppy and is now 140 lbs at 14 months old and could easily kill me if he wanted to. He never learned that biting got him his own way because biting never got him his way. 

I also found that yelping just egged my puppy on and staying silent and weathering the storm was the way to deal with this obnoxious puppy behavior.


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## cat_mac (Aug 25, 2016)

Thanks again for the replies! My puppy is a Shorkie, so he won't get very big. Right now, I just ignore it and continue with what I was doing. For example, when he isn't done playing when play time is over, I just scoop him up anyways and move him on to his next activity (nap time, meal time, etc.). Same goes for the leash. He doesn't do it very often so hopefully I'll have a good update as he gets older.


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## RosieandLuna (Sep 20, 2016)

One of my pups is exactly the same. You "ouch", yelp, squeal, or anything like that and she wags her tail and bites harder! 
We say "No bite" very seriously and then ignore her. She's picking up a lot quicker that biting isn't acceptable this way.


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## ronp10 (Jul 2, 2016)

I was told years ago that biting is a way dogs show dominance and if you let your dog grow up when play biting that it would feel somewhat dominant over you. So as a precaution for me because I have large dogs I break my dogs from the play biting stage before when they are pups. I don't want my dog to grow and feel dominant over me when he is 100+ lbs - lol.


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## Effisia (Jun 20, 2013)

ronp10 said:


> I was told years ago that biting is a way dogs show dominance and if you let your dog grow up when play biting that it would feel somewhat dominant over you. So as a precaution for me because I have large dogs I break my dogs from the play biting stage before when they are pups. I don't want my dog to grow and feel dominant over me when he is 100+ lbs - lol.


This definitely was the prevailing thinking years ago, however, the idea of human/dog dominance has since been debunked. Biting in puppies is a lot of exploration. It's just like human babies who explore their new world with their mouths. Some of it is also the "software" they inherit of play hunting, which is why it's so important to keep a puppy with her littermates until at least 8 weeks - she learns some bite inhibition from them when they squeal if she bites too hard, for example. We as puppy owners need to continue that training not because of a dominance issue, but because we need our dogs to develop that bite inhibition. We also just don't want them biting as adults because that can be dangerous (especially with a dog who never learned bite inhibition).


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## Joao M (May 30, 2016)

I believe you basically have to teach your pupp not to bite. Walking away is avoiding the problem and not facing it IMO



RosieandLuna said:


> One of my pups is exactly the same. You "ouch", yelp, squeal, or anything like that and she wags her tail and bites harder!
> We say "No bite" very seriously and then ignore her. She's picking up a lot quicker that biting isn't acceptable this way.


For me this makes total sense and this was the way I though the dogs I had (and have).
I understand even minor corrections (like saying no seriously) are not mainstream in this forum, but it is another option should you wish to consider it.


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## hanksimon (Mar 18, 2009)

Since we're still talking about Bite Inhibition, as opposed to the more specific, biting to test for getting his own way, I'll amplify a bit.
About 30 or more years ago, Ian Dunbar wrote a specific, well-tested protocol for teaching a puppy to control hardness and then eliminate biting people. At that time, an over-excited adult dog that bit people [aggressive or not] could easily be euthanized. So, it was important to stop nipping and biting early on. But, a critical point was that if you only tried to 'stop' the biting, then in high excitement circumstances, a dog might draw blood or worse. Bite Inhibition training reduces uncontrolled emergency biting, b/c the dog learns to control the levels of biting, rather than don't bite vs. bite hard.

Two key points in the training is that you mark the behavior with a word, so that the dog recognizes the offending behavior. This can be a yelp, a word, an Ouch!, a curse, whatever you want. The advantage of the Yelp or Ouch! is that it gets the dogs attention, in addition to marking the behavior. Regardless of the breed, even Golden Retrievers, the young puppy doesn't understand and will bite you again. So, you repeat, and Then you apply 'punishment' by withdrawing attention [ignore]. Now you have a causal link - pup nips, so you mark it and ignore. As with any training, you'll have to repeat for the pup to begin to understand. If you stop after the first few nips, it won't work. You have to be consistent for about 3 days for some pups just to understand, then you'll start to see incremental progress over the next few weeks or months. Lots of folks on this forum throughout the past 7 years have posted about their success with this method. And, on Dogstardaily, you can read about Dunbar's Sirius puppy training, where I believe he gets 100% success. Recall that when he wrote this protocol, he was trying to stop dogs from being euthanized - It may not work with all dogs, but should work with the majority of puppies.

When you hear about people who turn, ignore, or timeout their puppies to stop nipping, they are using a modification of Dunbar's original method. For lots more detail look up "Bite Inhibition".


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## PatriciafromCO (Oct 7, 2012)

^^^^^^^^ for the above... wanted to add what you can work on in order not to put yourself or your pup in this position that causes the start of the behaviors. start outside of stimulus and distraction and work on high reward recalls. When the pup returns (reward) use the same touch that creates the biting in other activities (but don't follow through) then reward and release your pup and your done walk away. you can do this randomly through out the day.. work towards quit change response and as fast as they can get to you.. (can use backing up quickly to excite them to come faster at you) When they are playing or in the activities that they would not want to quick, recall, reward, touch, reward, then let them go back and play a little more... (learning that doing a check in doesn't mean their run is over) random and vary your training... something to work on with what your already doing and suggested


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