Are you currently in close combat with a boisterous puppy that doesn’t seem to understand that nipping people is bad? Is your puppy more likely to take a playful bite at your hand, leg or ankle? There’s really no sleepless nights nor expensive stuff needed to get the dog to lay off the biting habit. Here are a few tips on what you could do with your adorable but sadly annoying land shark.

In training puppy not to bite, you will need to be more firm in your word most of these days. Something that needs to stop must not be even encouraged in the first place. Your puppy needs to learn that putting its mouth to a human is a no-no. Some dogs actually have no qualms when owners put their hand way within the scary row of teeth, because the owners know the dog will resist clamping down. Some dogs are adults when they enter a household, and they bear the habit of biting, but through consistent training can overcome it.

In dealing with more depth to puppy biting, experts suggest a method wherein the biting puppy is startled. Just as the puppy digs into your skin, surprise the puppy with a quick, high-pitched, and loud noise. This is an exact copy of the noise the dog would make if its littermate bit it. You would know if it was performed properly of the dog instantly withdraws its mouth with a bewildered look on its face. At this point, offer the dog a toy that it can chew on (then praise it if it takes the ball). The successive actions just described will make the dog realize that there is no approval from you for biting you, but there is for taking the ball. You may need to do this several times to get the dog to realize the bigger picture. If making the noise makes the dog more excited instead of stopped, try a different tack.

Another move you can make is to simply leave the dog’s presence, or leave the room when the puppy bites. This is a method kids being plagued by nipping may want to try it. Applied a couple of times, the puppy learns every time that if it insists on biting, it loses friends and playmates.

As you help your puppy to see that biting is not an acceptable behavior, you will need to stop playing tug of war with it, or chase, wrestling, or other things that will excite the dog and make it go after you. As everybody knows, physical punishment does not add anything constructive to the solution of this behavior issue.

Putting into action these tips for stopping puppy biting may seem like an uphill battle. But as the leader of the pack, you will of course carry them out with patience, determination, consistency, and hardwork, which means the teaching won’t last longer than what you think!