My puppy bites! How do I stop it, and are dark room timeouts effective?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern! Biting is a normal puppy behavior and will subside with time most likely. A couple of things you can do to help stop this behavior is to stick your thumb in Tommy's mouth every time he bites and hold your thumb in the mouth until he finds it annoying. If he comes back to bite after, repeat this again and again. Eventually, I find that the puppies will just walk up and lick your hand after a while because they do not want your thumb being stuck in their mouth. If that does not work, you can use a spray bottle filled with water and spritz Tommy in the face while saying "off" to help deter the behavior. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Lucky is a puppy and this behavior is typical in a dog his age. This behavior tends to subside or drastically lessen over time as a puppy ages. For the biting, I find that whenever a puppy bites my hand, I place my thumb under the tongue and hold it there until the puppy is annoyed and then release. I repeat this over and over until the puppy loses interest in biting. You can also use a spray bottle filled with water and every time Lucky jumps up or begins biting, you can lightly spritz him in the face and say "off!" to help deter the unwanted behavior. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Depending on how they're presented, the toy or treat "distractions" may be interpreted by Toffee as rewards for his behavior! Isolating a dog means absolutely nothing, because has no way to associate the isolation with his actions. Any correction must be given within ONE SECOND of the misstep in order for the dog to make the connection. You can say a firm "NO!" but be sure there is no emotion in your voice. If yours is an excited "no," it will just get him more hyper. Then immediately go into another room and shut the door. After a time he will understand that his biting results in REAL isolation from his people. If you need further assistance with this, you can click on the prompt to initiate a consult. Good luck!

If this behavior is undesired, I would look into using a spray bottle filled with water and spritzing him in the face while saying "off!" at the same time. I would also consider using an empty can filled with coins and then tossing it on the floor so it makes a loud noise to startle him so that he stops the behavior. He needs to realize that this is undesired behavior and that these negative things happen whenever he does this behavior. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. I find that flipping puppies that misbehave on their back in your arms or on the ground and holding them in place for a minute or two helps. I've had some fairly aggressive puppies that this trick worked well with. Also, saying in a stern voice "off!" or "stop!" when the unwanted behavior happens can help correct this as well. I would also consider incorporating a spray bottle filled with water and using this every time the puppy becomes aggressive. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your question. Below are techniques that I recommend to try and stop this behavior. Puppies can have aggressive play behavior which can be corrected. These are the techniques I find the most helpful. If these do not help, then I would recommend seeking a behaviorist to discuss training Indie. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. 1. When Indie bites your hand, insert your thumb into her mouth and grip under the jaw with the remaining fingers and pinch your thumb lightly against the fingers under the jaw in the soft spot of the underside of the tongue. Hold this so that she cannot get away and do this until she finds it annoying and stops biting. She will likely start licking you. Keep up with this technique and it should help. 2. Use a spray bottle filled with water and lightly spray Indie in the face while saying "off!" when she does this behavior 3. Keep a leash on her at all times and when she acts up, grab the leash and give a firm tug downward and say "off!". 4. It is important that you also reward the good behavior and give her a treat for when she stops the behavior. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further. Please take the time to mark this question as helpful or not as it helps us to improve on the quality of our answers to other pet owners. Thank you kindly!

It’s important to not accidentally reward attention seeking behavior by giving attention. If Sweety is trying to bite, give her a toy or something to chew on. You can then praise her for chewing on the correct thing. If she’s being persistent you should then remove yourself or her from the room. It may seem like it’s not working for awhile but in time she’ll learn that biting doesn’t get attention.