What To Do When Your Dog’s Biting Continues into Adolescence

Biting is typical playful behaviour when your puppy is under six months of age. But when the behaviour continues into adolescence, it becomes painfully annoying. However, excessive play biting in adolescence doesn’t indicate that your pet turns into an aggressive adult dog. Yet there have been instances when it has contributed to aggressive behaviour.

As aggressive dog training experts, we discuss reasons and tips on what to do when your puppy’s biting behaviour continues as they age.

Your Pet’s Needs are Not Being Met

Food, water, shelter, love and some playtime are all your pup needs. But, depending on your pet’s age, breed, and temperament, these necessities may not satisfy what their actual mental and physical stimulation requires.

The first step you should take to stop their biting is to find out how you can provide your pet with a more physically and mentally enriching day.

Aggressive Dog Training Tips

• Dedicate 5 to 10 minutes daily to train your dog on basic obedience, tricks, or anything else you prefer
• Provide mental enrichment options
• Give them enough physical exercise such as a daily walk outdoors, a game of fetch, or playing a game. Ensure it is enjoyable for you and your dog.

Your Reaction May be Reinforcing the Behaviour

You need to find out the underlying cause of this issue to resolve it. Consider the reaction you give when your dog bites, as this can be encouraging and make your pup think it’s a good thing. On the other hand, you may be doing something scary that risks losing your dog’s trust and causing more severe issues.

For puppies, biting is a way to attract attention and explore their surroundings. Check if these factors are still serving as a stimulation.

Here are some ideas to control the behaviour:

• Avoid talking to or looking at your pet when they start biting
• Don’t engage with your pup with your hands while they’re biting
• Stop any attempts by providing a physical barrier, such as your leg.
• If it becomes too challenging to ignore your pet, go to another room or behind a gate. Ensure that your dog doesn’t see this as a fun game

When your pup knows their attempts to seek attention are not working, they may come back with a more intense approach. However, you must stay consistent and avoid giving up.

Biting is Reinforced as a Natural Instinct

If the above tips are not working, this might be the answer to your problem. Some dog breeds have an instinct to chase, grab, bite, and stalk. These inherent traits make them excellent as police dogs, herding dogs, and military dogs. Although this is seen mainly in herding breeds, you can see these natural instincts in your pet.

If biting comes naturally to your pup, they only need a way out for the inner drive instead of eliminating the trait, which is unrealistic.

Here are some aggressive dog training ideas fordogs with biting as an inherent attribute:

• Include a flirt pole in their daily routine
• Run a toy on the ground, allowing your pup to catch it sometimes
• Play tug of war with some rules:
  • End the game if your dog grabs your hand instead.
  • Teach them to leave the pull when you ask them to
  • Play with a sturdy tug toy

Playing within the rules lets your pup understand that biting people or other animals isn’t good behaviour. At the same time, you are also giving them a way to let their instinct come out.

We Offer Personalized Aggressive Dog Behaviour Training

No pet owner wants a dog that bites, lunges, or scares others. An aggressive dog doesn’t mean you have a violent pet. Most of the time, all that they need is a little help.

We specialize in aggressive dog training, helping you successfully deal with their excitement and emotions after finding out the root cause of biting. Our dog trainers have experience in rehabilitating the most challenging aggressive behaviour problems.

We train aggressive dogs and puppies by setting the foundation to teach pet parents to manage their behaviours with ease. Our primary focus is to build confidence and trust between dogs and their owners and help improve the relationship.

To know more about how Alpha Paws takes a natural approach to dog training, call us at 905-830-9500 or toll-free at 1-877-868-7297. You can also fill out our form to book a virtual appointment for your pet.