Monday, July 19, 2010

Biting and Chewing on hands...

This is a super common complaint - especially with a puppy. Your hands are always moving and they smell like you so they are very stimulating to a puppy. I have found that the best way to handle this is to just ignore it. You don't want to reward the puppy for chewing - examples of unknowingly rewarding your puppy for this behavior include: pushing the puppy away, pulling or tugging your hand away, swatting at the puppy, telling the puppy to stop or yelling at the puppy. All of these make it seem like a game!

Just let your hands go limp. The puppy will try to keep chewing on your hands for a few seconds, but if you just let your hands be limp and boring your puppy will stop. Once he stops, you can continue the activity your were doing. If he starts chewing or biting again, your hands go limp again. After a few repetitions of this your puppy will realize that everytime he tries to mouth or bite your hands, you stop playing. Your puppy will phase out this behavior.

The theory behind this method is that you are rewarding your puppy by playing and interacting with him when he isn't biting or chewing. When he bites, all of that positive interaction goes away when you make your hands be limp and boring. This is positive reinforcement at a very basic level.

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