How rough is too rough for puppy play?
Eloy Maggio
2025-06-22 05:39:35
Count answers: 12
With puppies, this is rarely aggressive behavior in which the intent is to do harm. You must also teach your puppy to be gentle with hands, and that nipping results in unpleasant consequences for her. Teach your puppy that nipping turns off any attention and social interaction with you. After a nip, look your puppy right in the eye, and yell, “Ouch!” as though you’ve been mortally wounded, then ignore her. At first, you may need to pet or scratch your puppy for short periods of time, since the longer she’s petted, the more likely she is to get excited and start to nip. Nipping and mouthing hands can also be discouraged by loosely holding your puppy’s lower jaw between your thumb and forefinger after she’s taken your hand in her mouth. If she closes her mouth on your hand again, repeat the procedure. Remember that any of these three methods will probably not be effective unless you work hard to teach your puppy the right behavior by offering her an acceptable chew toy. Attempts to tap, slap or hit your puppy in the face for nipping or jumping up are almost guaranteed to backfire.