It is wisely said that ‘Behind every puppy’s bite is a desire to learn. Teach them gently, for they are just beginning their journey.’ Puppies bite because that’s one of the only ways they know to communicate and express themselves in times of need. When playing with your puppy, you may often wonder “Why is my puppy biting me aggressively” while on the other hand, your puppy might be wondering “Why is my human not understanding what I’m trying to say?” A puppy’s bite may be sharp, but their heart is pure. It is important to guide them with love, so they’ll grow into gentle souls.
Knowing the difference between play biting and aggressive biting
When playing with a puppy, things can quickly escalate from play biting to aggressive biting. This is because when a puppy is in a playful state of mind, they can go from excited to over-excited at the speed of light.
Read here for tips to calm down a puppy.
While a little bit of excitement is natural during play, overexcitement can often lead to undesirable behaviors and increase the possibility of the puppy and/or the human getting hurt in the process. You can safely say that your pup is play biting if they’re showing the following signs –
- Grabbing your arm during play and nipping
- Wagging their tail softly while biting on to one of your body parts
- Softly nibbling
- Relaxed and playful body language
- Playful soft growls during play
- Relaxed facial expressions
- Ability to be redirected
- Positive response to correction
- Invitation to play through play bow, chasing, tugging etc
On the other hand, when your dog is biting with an intention to hurt, correct or communicate their frustration or displeasure, it could be counted as aggressive biting. Aggressive biting is usually accompanied by tense body language.
Aggressive biting is the immediate result of an incident that possibly made your puppy uncomfortable such as grabbing their snout, trying to snatch an item from their mouth, interfering while they’re eating, and so on. Here are some signs you must watch out for to be sure that your puppy is biting you aggressively –
- Biting with high-intensity
- Intent to inflict injury
- Stiff and tense body language
- Growling or snarling as you approach
- Whales of the eyes exposed
- Ears back
- Tail either tucked in or high up and wagging in quick motion (a wagging tail does not always mean happiness)
- Defensive behavior
- Unwillingness to play
Aggressive biting is the immediate result of an incident that possibly made your puppy uncomfortable
There may be times when your puppy’s excitement and play-biting behavior may overlap with overexcitement. This may lead to increased instances and intensity of biting in a short period and may look like aggressive biting. This typically happens in the mornings and evenings when your puppy is at the peak of their energy levels.
You may notice that your dog may be gently biting your fingers and may suddenly start biting you harder. Other signs may include jumping up and trying to grab your arm, chasing your leg and attempting to bite it hard when you’re walking, biting your fingers when trying to pet them and so on. Many a time, a puppy’s baby teeth may be so sharp that even if they’re gently nibbling on your skin, they may end up drawing blood.
Is it normal for a puppy to aggressively bite you?
During play, you might often wonder, “Why is my puppy going crazy and biting?” The frequency of this may increase with every play session, especially if the behavior goes uncorrected every single time.
Yes, play biting escalating to aggressive biting is quite normal in puppy interactions, especially when the puppy is in a playful state of mind. This is because puppies can transition from playful to hyper state at warp speed.
The influx of sudden energy may often leave a puppy feeling frustrated and riled up. This is when they start looking for an outlet to relieve all of that energy and the closest, most exciting thing in sight, often, is our hands and legs, which unfortunately end up being subjected to their razor-sharp canines.
On the other hand, if your puppy has developed a pattern of aggressively biting you after specific instances such as attempting to take something away from them, when they’re eating or when their paws are being held, the behavior needs attention and intervention.
This is because aggressive play biting can be redirected and controlled with effective redirection, training, and ample downtime. But, other forms of aggression need behavior modification and tackling the root cause.
3 reasons why your puppy is aggressively biting you
The type and intensity of play behavior a dog exhibits highly depends on their breed, temperament, age, socialization, health and environment. You could adopt two littermates and have completely different behavioral outcomes from both of them.
There are a multitude of reasons why a puppy may be aggressively biting you; ranging from minor discomfort to major behavioral issues. These reasons could be broadly classified into three major factors –
1. They’re teething
The teething phase typically occurs between the ages of three to six months. During this time, puppies lose their baby teeth and their permanent adult teeth begin to emerge. This process can cause a lot of discomfort, pain and frustration to puppies and may make them want to sink their teeth into everything in sight.
Unfortunately, our hands and legs act as exciting chew surfaces for them. And why not? Our hands are soft, they have our scent on them, they are constantly moving around our puppies and they have a bone in them!
2. They’re frustrated and/or overstimulated
Overstimulation occurs when a puppy becomes excessively aroused, excited, and overwhelmed by environmental stimuli or interactions. Unlike humans, puppies are not equipped to communicate their frustration through words. Thus, they resort to behaviors like excessive nipping, jumping, barking, etc. as a way to release pent-up energy.
How we respond to their behavior during such times is also important. If we respond to their overexcitement with frustration and/ or excitement, we may invariably add to their overstimulation and make things worse.
If your puppy has not learned appropriate bite inhibition it may lead to more forceful biting, especially when your puppy becomes overexcited.
3. They’re trying to communicate something
Some puppies may exhibit aggressive behavior as a way to communicate discomfort in a certain situation or to ward off threats. One such example would be when your puppy is chewing on one of their favorite bones and tries to bite you if you try to take it away from them. This can stem from insecurity or a desire to assert control over their possessions.
If your puppy is experiencing pain or discomfort due to an injury, illness, or underlying health issue, they may lash out aggressively when touched or handled. Lack of proper training and boundaries may also cause puppies to exhibit aggression.
If your puppy has not been taught bite inhibition, they may use aggression to communicate frustration. Eg, a dog that knows bite inhibition may gently snap at a child stepping on his tail. On the other hand, a dog that has no bite inhibition may inflict serious harm in a similar situation.
6 tips to handle your puppy’s bite-frenzy like a pro
Puppy biting and growling while playing is a common phenomenon that has to be worked through in due course of time. Make sure to set realistic expectations right from the start. Remember that irrespective of the quality of your training, your puppy will not completely stop biting you immediately. However, with appropriate bite inhibition training and the right kind of games and activities combined with some patience and consistency, it is possible to get this behavior under control.
As discussed above, there may be multiple reasons why your puppy might be aggressively biting you. These pointers discuss what you can do when the biting stems from play and overstimulation.
1. Provide outlets
A teething puppy is eternally on the lookout for outlets to sink their teeth into. When buying toys for your puppy, invest in a variety of textures, shapes and sizes. Puppies have a short attention span and endless curiosity.
A wide variety of toys act as excellent outlets for puppies to chew, bite and shred. They help tire out their jaws while mentally stimulating them. A puppy with a tired jaw and a weary mind is less likely to be riled up during play and exhibit aggressive or hyperactive behavior.
Vising the pet store every month can be quite an expensive affair. Thus, several pet parents opt for subscription-based models that home deliver a bunch of toys customized to their puppy’s needs and energy levels. Bark Box is one such model that delivers 2 toys, 2 bags of treats, and a surprise item—all in a theme exclusive to BarkBox subscribers.
When providing your bite-crazed puppy with outlets, it is important to strike a balance between toys that can provide physical and mental stimulation.
Toys like balls, plush toys, shred-friendly toys, rope toys etc. work well for physical stimulation as they allow puppies to engage in activities like fetch, shredding, chewing, tugging, etc.
On the other hand, interactive feeders, snuffle mats, puzzle toys etc provide pups with a good amount of mental enrichment while ensuring engagement for a longer period.
An outlet is not just important when your puppy is going through a bite-frenzy during play. It is crucial to keep providing your puppy with healthy outlets throughout the day to spread out their activity levels evenly and to make sure their pent-up energies have frequent releases. Frozen meals and layered meals in feeders are a couple of ways to ensure your puppy’s teething and stimulation needs are being fulfilled.
2. Mastering the skill of bite inhibition
Bite inhibition is the art of teaching a puppy to control the force of their bite. Dogs with good bite inhibition can play around with their jaw pressure when interacting with humans. In other words, they can bite softly as well as completely inhibit their bite.
This skill must be taught at an early age through appropriate play, interactions and training and must be reinforced through quality repetitions over time.
To teach bite inhibition, when your puppy bites too hard during play, yelp loudly in a high-pitched tone to mimic the sound of a puppy in pain. This mimics the way puppies communicate with each other when play gets too rough. Immediately stop play and ignore your puppy for a few moments to convey that biting too hard leads to the end of playtime.
The most important part, however, is when your puppy calms down, make sure to reward them with treats and play. The combination of correcting the undesirable behavior and reinforcing the right one will help your puppy grasp the concept faster.
3. Use a leash
A leash is not just a tool for walking and outdoor control. It is an excellent and underrated communication tool that can be used indoors too.
Have your puppy on a standard leash and collar anytime they’re active and moving inside the house. Having a leash on them before they get too riled up is important to get the timing of correction right.
Use the leash to create distance and calm your puppy down when they start biting you during play. Don’t wait till they get too hyper or riled up. Try to bring their energy levels down when you see early signs of hyperactivity through impulse control cues like Sit, down, stay and so on.
A leash would not only help cut down aggressive bite instances but will also make sure that your puppy does not walk away mid-training.
4. Redirection is key
To thoroughly accept and apply redirection techniques, you must understand that it is practically impossible for a puppy to completely stop biting, especially in their teething phase. The aggressive biting, however, can be effectively tackled with redirection.
You see, when your puppy is in an excited state of mind and they’re aggressively biting you, they’re not doing so out of vengeance. They’re just looking for an outlet. Being ready with one at such times would go a long way in saving you from their razor-sharp canines.
Pick toys that would enable your puppy to sink their teeth into them. Plush toys, rope toys, chew toys, etc make great redirection outlets.
5. The importance of time-outs
A time-out is wrongly perceived as a punishment. In reality, it is an effective way to calm a riled-up puppy down and foster healthy play. There may be times when your pup may be so high-strung that no amount of redirection, outlets, or training may work to calm them down. In such cases, all your puppy needs is a time-out for a few minutes.
A time-out is a brief period of isolation or separation from the current environmental stimuli. Several pet parents use the crate as a way to ensure isolation during time-outs. However, depending on how your puppy perceives time-outs, they may end up forming a negative association with the crate.
Thus, an alternative would be to tether your puppy to a piece of furniture, away from the people of the house and all their favorite things.
Limit time-outs to a few minutes. The goal of time-outs is to bring your puppy’s energy levels down during periods of overstimulation and aggressive biting. You do not necessarily have to wait for your pup to be as calm as a monk.
6. The “Gentle” cue
The gentle cue is an excellent behavior to teach a puppy to accept human petting without putting up a fight. Dogs interact with a variety of people throughout their lives – kids, dog-friendly adults, dog-fearing adults, old people, etc. It is important to socialize puppies from a young age to be accepting of human advances and touch. Here is a quick video that will take you through the concept and technique of “gentle” –
Don’t underestimate the power of ample rest
Did you know, that puppies, in their formative growing months, need to sleep for a minimum of 15-18 hours a day? They tend to have bursts of energy every now and then throughout the day, post which they need to rest it out.
Lack of ample rest can have several negative consequences on their health, behavior and well-being. It can lead to crankiness, irritability and hyperactivity, further leading to an increase in aggressive bite instances during play. Some other potential consequences of insufficient rest in puppies are –
- Poor focus and learning
- Weak immune system
- Increased stress levels
- Increased risk of accidents
- Behavioral issues
3 things not to do when your puppy is biting you aggressively
Aggressive biting can be frustrating to deal with, especially for first-time puppy owners. It is normal to arrive at your wits end when you see blood drawn out of your arm for the umpteenth time thanks to your little Dogzilla! Your puppy is learning from you every step of the way. The techniques you use to communicate with and train your dog go a long way in building trust and fostering a loving bond between the two of you. Your training can either make or break your relationship. Thus, while training your dog, make sure to never do the following three things with your puppy –
Use aversive techniques
Aversive techniques such as hitting your pup with a rolled-up newspaper, using a prong collar, yelling at your dog, punishing them etc may stop puppy biting for the time being, but they do nothing to teach your dog good manners or fulfill their needs.
When a puppy stops repeating instinctive behaviors out of fear of being punished, they may end up with a lot more frustration with no outlet to release. This may result in the problem at hand getting worse and coming out in a variety of other forms like destructive behavior, excessive vocalization etc.
Use physical force
When you use physical force tactics like the alpha roll, force shutting your puppy’s snout, pinning down the dog, etc. to get your dog to obey you, you’re only being a bully. Rather than gaining respect and love, you’re only teaching your dog to be more defensive and put up a stronger fight against you.
Correcting a puppy using physical force will only instill fear from a very young age in them. They may grow up to be fearful and anxious with deep-rooted behavioral issues.
Failing to seek professional help
The biggest mistake pet parents make is that they seek professional help after things have gone south; whereas professional help should be sought right from the beginning so that nothing goes wrong. Certified trainers and behaviorists will not only help you tackle the problem at hand better but also understand your dog’s body language and foster a more trusting and fulfilling bond with them.
“Why is my puppy biting me aggressively even though I feed him?”
“Never bite the hand that feeds you” – this quote does NOT hold true for a pup! Now don’t get me wrong, I am in no way questioning the loyalty of a dog! However, a dog’s mind does not function the same way as a human’s. They are not familiar with complex feelings of gratefulness, regret, guilt, etc.
Your puppy’s bite aggression at a particular moment can be attributed to a multitude of factors such as exploration, communication, teething, and so on, depending on what your dog is going through at that moment. It has nothing to do with them being “vengeful” towards the hand that feeds them.
In Conclusion
Recognizing red flags as they show themselves is crucial for humans to thrive in their environment. Puppy biting can certainly have some red flags too, which must be recognized early on. Puppy aggression is a call for guidance, not punishment. Behind every puppy’s growl is a heart longing for understanding. Approach their aggression with empathy, and you’ll find a loyal companion.