Teaching Bite Inhibition

Whenever I visit a client for the first puppy socialisation consultation I am often asked what I think the most important behaviours to teach a puppy are. While it is of course important to teach your puppy some basic behaviours, and then progress to the Canine Good Citizen Scheme, by far the most important behaviour you should start teaching your puppy from day one is bite inhibition. Simply put, this is the ability of a dog to put his mouth gently on something without applying pressure. In other words, inhibiting the strength of his own bite.

Generally puppies taken from the litter before 8 weeks will need more training on bite inhibition, whereas a puppy that stays with its littermates for longer (the ideal is 10 weeks), will learn bite inhibition to a greater level because it will have had more opportunity to learn through play fighting with littermates.

Why Is Bite Inhibition Important?

Dogs are our companions, our sidekicks, best friends, but we mustn’t forget that all dogs are born with a formidable defence, their teeth. When a dog feels threatened, fearful, anxious, or is hurt, it can react by using its teeth. Teaching bite inhibition from a very early age creates a dog with a “soft mouth” this will greatly reduce the likelihood of any serious damage, if an unfortunate or unpredictable event should cause a dog to bite.

How Puppies Play & Learn

When a puppy wants to play with another puppy, his innate approach is either hit, pounce, bite, or otherwise start roughhousing with them. Often this includes growling in as deep a voice as a little puppy can muster. If the other puppy wants to play, she responds in kind: biting, pouncing, hitting, growling, etc., and the game is on.

On the other hand, if the second puppy is inadvertently bitten too hard by the first puppy, she will let out a high pitched “yelp” and jump away, which the first puppy correctly interprets to mean: “Oops, I bit too hard, and now she won’t play with me.” When this happens play will discontinue briefly while the second puppy “licks it wounds” then play will resume.

Through continued trials and errors in play fighting like this the first puppy will learn that biting with too much force ends play. However, he also soon discovers that when he plays gentle the other puppy doesn’t yelp and run away but instead responds in kind by hitting or biting back, thus rewarding the first puppy with the play time he wanted.

Human Canine Play

The most common question new puppy owners have is “My puppy won’t stop biting me during play, what should I do?”

My response is always the same. “Play more, but with rules.”

Puppies use their mouths to explore and learn about their environment. Just as your puppy was previously playing with his littermates exploring and learning, he is now exploring and learning with you.

Puppies love to play, so the best way to teach bite inhibition is through play. So let’s take a look at the steps involved.

Teaching Bite Inhibition

The best way to teach bite inhibition is to apply a systematic approach incorporating 3 steps. All this training will be done through short play sessions of three to five minutes. Always end each play/train session on a positive, when your puppy is playing nicely, and reward with a kong stuffed with a few treats.

1. To inhibit the force of bites
2. To eliminate the bite pressure
3. To reduce the frequency of mouthing

1. Inhibit force of bites

You are going to work on a “pain’ scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most painful bite and 1 being the least painful bite. Initiate a play session with your puppy and actually give your puppy opportunity to nip and bite your flesh. When your puppy bites you at a pain scale of 10 immediately “yelp”, your puppy should release his bite, as soon as your puppy releases, remove your attention - no eye contact, no verbal contact, no physical contact - discontinue play briefly, walk off and have a 10 second “time out” with your back turned to your puppy and arms folded. After 10 seconds turn, call your puppy to you and resume play.

Next, when your puppy bites you at a pain scale of 9, repeat the above procedure, and so on, until you reach pain scale 1.

What do I do if my puppy doesn’t release when I yelp?

Some puppies are simply more tenacious in their desire to play, and get carried away through the excitement of play. If your puppy doesn’t release his bite when you yelp, then immediately but calmly extricate your flesh from his mouth, remove your attention, discontinue play, walk off to another room, close the door, and leave your puppy to think through the consequences of his actions. Don’t leave your puppy for more than 1 minute, return to the room, call your puppy over and resume play.

With some puppies you may have to take the leave the room approach several times before your puppy gets it. But if you are calm and consistent in your approach, your puppy will learn.

What do I do if my puppy follows me as I walk off?

If your puppy should follow you as you walk off for a 10 second “time out”, then you have two options you can use to ensure that your puppy is not able to follow. You can either tether your puppy to a steady item of furniture, or you can use a barrier. For example if you are playing with your puppy in the kitchen then you could have a baby gate on the kitchen door.  In this scenario you would have to make sure you play close to the (open) gate so that when you “yelp” you can quickly walk off and close the gate behind you. If you tether your puppy you simply walk off to a distance that is well out of reach. Whichever option you choose, you will do the same as above, turn your back, fold your arms, and wait 10 seconds, the only difference is you won’t call your puppy to you, instead walk back over to your puppy and resume play.

2. Eliminate the bite pressure

Many of my clients query the difference between force of bite and bite pressure. When inhibiting force of bite you are allowing your puppy to bite you, so you are allowing pressure to some degree. When eliminating bite pressure, you will work toward zero pressure. When you reach zero pressure you will be able to offer your fingers to your puppy and he will hold your fingers in his jaw but apply no pressure, to the extent that you will be able to swiftly remove your fingers and have no scratches.

So, to eliminate bite pressure, you will work on a “pressure” scale, with 10 being the most pressure and zero being no pressure. Initiate a play session with your puppy and actually give your puppy opportunity to hold your flesh and apply pressure. When your puppy applies pressure at scale 10 immediately “yelp”, your puppy should release his pressure and mouth, as soon as your puppy releases, remove your attention - no eye contact, no verbal contact, no physical contact - discontinue play briefly, walk off and have a 10 second “sulk” with your back turned to your puppy and arms folded. After 10 seconds turn, call your puppy to you and resume play.

Next, continue with this approach in all your play sessions with your puppy and gradually move down the scale so that eventually you yelp at scale zero, no pressure. When you reach zero on the pressure scale your puppy will have learned that human flesh is just too sensitive, and if he wants rewarding play to continue he must not apply any pressure during play.

Don’t rush these steps, be patient, calm, consistent, and progress slowly.

3. Reduce frequency of mouthing

Once you have reached zero pressure the next step is to reduce the frequency of mouthing. To do this you will teach your puppy the cues “leave” and “take it”.

Teaching “leave” helps your puppy to acquire doggie zen; learning impulse control… to receive I first have to “leave”.

You can start teaching the cues “leave” and “take it” before completing step 2, but initially teach these cues separately from bite inhibition play sessions.

Use feeding times to teach the cues “leave” and “take it”, you will be feeding your puppy four times a day, so at each mealtime hand feed your puppy with half of the kibble. Give your puppy a few pieces of kibble to get some motivation going, then take a piece of kibble and close your hand in to a fist and hold your closed hand face down within reach of your puppy’s mouth. Ignore any attempts your puppy makes to get the kibble, just wait for him to back off slightly, as soon as your puppy backs off mark the behaviour with a “click” and reinforce the behaviour by rolling the piece of kibble to between your thumb and index finger and giving it to your puppy.

Keep repeating this at each feed time, and when your puppy is offering the backing off behaviour reliably (80% of the time), add the cues. So take a piece of kibble and close your hand to make a fist, hold your hand out to your puppy and as your puppy backs off, add the cue “leave”, then “click” and reinforce the behaviour; say “take it” as you give your puppy the piece of kibble.

After 5 repetitions, switch from giving the cues as the behaviours occur, to giving the cues before you want the behaviours to occur.

Once you have repeated this successfully; giving the cues before the desired behaviour, with 80% reliability, during three separate feeds, you can start to incorporate these cues in step 3 to reduce the frequency of mouthing.

Initiate a play session with your puppy and whenever your puppy mouths your flesh, give the cue “leave”, as soon as your puppy backs off “click” and reinforce the desired behaviour by offering a toy and say “take it”. Keep repeating this during play sessions and gradually increase the criteria - so whether your puppy mouths your flesh, or your clothes, give the cue “leave”, when your puppy backs off “click” and reinforce by offering a toy or a treat (mix up your rewards to keep your puppy guessing), saying “take it”.

Keep repeating this during play sessions, over time you will shape your puppy’s behaviour so that he no longer mouths you during play.

As with all training, be patient, calm, and consistent, teaching bite inhibition will ensure your puppy grows in to a safer adult dog.

A few notes:

Whichever method you use to give your puppy a “time out” during play, whether walking off, or walking off and leaving the room, take care to make sure you only return to your puppy to resume play when your puppy is not barking, whining, or acting over-excited.

If your puppy does bark, whine, etc., then wait for a brief pause in this behaviour (this can be seconds), before you give any attention, and then quickly resume play.

If during any play session you feel your puppy is just too excited, then apply a “time out” and when you return, redirect your puppy’s attention to a favourite toy and leave him to play in a safe area by himself.

As you progress and your puppy starts to release with reliability when you “yelp” you can begin to train the “sit”, “wait” before you call your puppy to resume play.

When you are not able to play with your puppy, supervise explorations around the home, or you simply need to get on with chores, then it is much safer to crate your puppy. This gives your peace of mind, but more importantly it teaches your puppy to either safely entertain himself - stuffed kongs are great for this, or settle down and rest.  Crate training is a great management tool for toilet training, house training, and prevention of separation anxiety.