Your adorable little puppy has landed, and you've just found out they have teeth like needles.
There are several reasons why puppies bite, so let's break this down into "bite sized" pieces.
Your Puppy Bites Because He Is Tired
Puppies bite when they are tired. Puppies actually need a lot more rest than you probably realise, and once they are overtired, just like two-legged kids, they can get cranky.
How Much Sleep Do Puppies Need?
When your puppy comes to you at 8 - 10 weeks of age, he will need around 20 hours rest each day. Most people underestimate this by a huge margin, and mistake the puppy biting and general naughtiness as requiring more stimulation.
In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Your puppy is biting because he is tired. Puppies not only require rest to keep them calm, happy doggy citizens, it is also crucial to their physical development.
Manage this by making sure that your puppy has a safe spot to go to rest, where they are undisturbed by other family members – of either the two-legged or four-legged variety.
Where Can My Puppy Sleep?
A crate is ideal for this, and I would highly recommend crate training your puppy as the benefits are enormous. The only place I would purchase a crate from is Vebo - their crates are well made, heavy duty and reasonably priced. They also deliver Australia wide.
Make the safe spot a place where the puppy is happy to hang out - you can do this by feeding them in that place, offering treats there etc.
All this builds up positive associations so that puppy is happy to spend time there, and eventually makes the choice himself to go there to rest.
Once you notice that your puppy is starting to tire, pop them out for a toilet break and then put them in their safe spot – just like putting your toddler down for a nap.
The key here is to anticipate the behaviour and remove them before they can start.
As soon as your puppy comes home, watch closely to observe the patterns to his behaviour. When he does something undesirable, think back to the previous behaviour. Once you get to know your puppy, you can anticipate their next move, and redirect them to prevent the behaviour.
In part 2, we'll look at puppy misbehaving because he's bored.
You can find all our treats which are suitable for puppies here
You can buy our puppy chew bundle now, a thoughtfully curated collection of treats suitable for all puppies, which will help with redirection
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