Puppies are among the best pets you can have at home. They can help your children grow up into warm, responsible, and loving individuals. However, as a puppy owner, one thing you have to deal with is biting and chewing. If you wonder how to stop a puppy from biting my child, you have every right to be worried, as dog biting is a bad habit that needs to be stopped as soon as you observe the behavior.
It may not be of much concern to you as an adult, but it should if you’ve got a child or children. Your puppy, even though small, is a dog, and dog bites can introduce dangerous bacteria into the body. To prevent this, or at least minimize its frequency, here are tips on how to stop a puppy from biting children.
Table of Contents
1. Get Chew Toys For Your Puppy
Biting is normal behavior for puppies. Your new puppy is trying to learn and understand the world and your pet’s mouth is very important in achieving this.
Also, it’s a part of their growth process, so your puppy will always want to bite on something. Chew toys are ideal toys for your pet to bite instead of your child’s skin.
There are many types of toys you may wish to get. Some are animal-shaped, ball-shaped, bone-shaped, and many more. They also perform various functions such as; treat toys, chew toys, interactive toys, etc.
See our top 10 best toys for Goldendoodle puppies list for more information on various toys. These toys selected on the list are great for all puppies not just Goldendoodles as they come in different sizes and styles.
When purchasing chew toys, you have to consider the size of your pet. Your puppy would need something small enough to carry in the mouth. Furthermore, it would help if you got a chew toy with a flavor and smell that will attract your pet to the toy.
Another benefit to preventing your puppy from biting your child out of boredom is that these chew toys will also help improve your dog’s dental health.
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2. Withdraw Your Pet
In some very serious cases, you might need to withdraw your pet. What this means is allowing your dog limited access to your child.
Once your pet attempts to bite your child, withdraw him, and keep him in a secluded space. It mustn’t be your child. All biting behaviors on human skin should be discouraged. Ideally, put him in a dog crate where he won’t be able to get out to bite and harm your child. See some tips on how to choose a dog kennel for an aggressive dog if you decide to go for this option.
Repeat this anytime he starts biting, and it’ll help him understand that it’s bad behavior. Dogs are animals that like attention. Your pet won’t enjoy being locked away in a crate and may whine or cry, but you shouldn’t fall for it.
Crate training a pet requires you to be disciplined, and your child’s safety is important. Your pet will learn given time.
3. Keep Your Puppy Busy
If your pet is busy, he won’t have the time to bite your child. If he gets worked out with regular pay sessions and games, he’ll even be too exhausted to attempt it.
Therefore, include various sessions in his daily schedule to keep him busy by exercising. Don’t get too strenuous if he is not old enough, as his bones may still be delicate if he is a very young puppy. See this post on how to take care of a dog’s joints.
You may also want to try activities like swimming which are great for exercise and can tire out your pet without adding too much pressure on the joints. If your pet doesn’t know how to swim, you can see this post on how to train a dog to swim with swimming tips for dogs.
Also, you should purchase interactive toys that will spike his curiosity or take him out to the yard and watch him run around. If you are worried, he may run off or get lost; you may want to use an enclosure such as a playpen or a pet gate. See a list of the best indoor puppy playpens here.
You could also try playing indoor games with your dog if you don’t have time to go out. Boredom is a serious problem with dogs and your dog might be biting out of boredom. See our post on rainy day games to play with a dog for games you can play indoors.
Also, take note of how your child behaves around the puppy. Some innocent actions might provoke your puppy. Your child is inviting your puppy to bite if he strokes and pats him constantly all the time.
Therefore, your child shouldn’t engage in activities that are aimed at forcing your dog to play; instead, let the dog play on his own or rest by himself if he is not in the mood for games.
4. Avoid Physical Punishment
Your puppy might have dog behavior problems like aggression which is the reason why he is biting. In such a situation, the last thing you want to do is to physically punish your dog, as you’ll only be escalating the problem.
Do not hit him. Aside from aggression problems, dogs can hardly understand why they’re being punished. So if you hit your dog because he bites, he won’t know that’s why you’re punishing him. He won’t stop biting and might instead bite more as a defensive measure.
Yelling at your puppy will do no good too. Whatever instructions you’re giving should be said with a calm voice.
5. Reward Good Behavior
Just as you correct your pet when he bites, you should also reward him when he does something good.
Dogs love food and will quickly understand that they need to perform the required action to get more of this tasty piece of food.
Therefore, giving him treats is a way of expressing your happiness with his behavior, and it’ll encourage him to continue such behavior.
Most especially, you should reward your dog when obedient. For example, if he obeys your commands like come, sit, stand, stop etc.
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You can easily reward your pet by giving him his favorite dog training treats. However, it would be best if you dropped them into his mouth; throw them, and let him fetch them.
You can even use items like treat launchers that send the treat a bit far so your pet does a little exercise to get them.
When your puppy bites, he won’t get any treats. So if he wants to continue getting them, he’ll stop biting.
6. Visit Your Vet And Get Professional Help
As mentioned earlier, sometimes the cause of your puppy biting your child might be due to some behavior problems like aggression.
According to VCA Hospitals, your dog might be biting your child or other family members because of conflict aggression, defensive aggression, status-related aggression, and possessive aggression, amongst others.
As you can see, there are various forms of aggression that could be causing this unwanted behavior.
Therefore, in such cases, you might need medication to calm your pet down. So, if you have tried all the techniques and it seems impossible for your pet to stop biting, take your pet to see a vet for a proper examination.
Furthermore, you can also enroll your pet in a puppy training class managed by a professional. There, your pet will socialize with other dogs and learn good behavior.
Also, see this video with a few more tips on how to prevent your child from being bitten or nipped by a dog.
Conclusion
If you’ve been wondering “how to stop a puppy from biting my child,” the dog bites prevention tips discussed above will help you find a suitable solution.
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