The critical learning stages for a young dog are from birth until about a year old. There are many puppy behaviors a dog owner should address. A dog owner must work with their puppy to prevent those unwanted behaviors from appearing as an adult dog. Sometimes these puppy behaviors seem cute and harmless but once an adult dog they become bothersome and rude. It is best to prevent them all together to have a polite, sweet doggo.
Jumping
What Does Jumping Mean?
When a puppy wants attention from someone, this is what they will do! A puppy will get on the very edge of their back toes and jump, jump, jump! All they want is attention from their person. For this behavior, the person is actually the most at fault! When a puppy starts jumping on a person and they say “Aww, how cute!” and start petting them, they are encouraging the behavior! Not so cute when the puppy turns into a 100lb dog and knocks you over!
What Should You Do About Jumping?
As stated above, if a puppy jumps and you give them attention then you are rewarding them for the behavior. So the puppy will always and forever think that jumping means good things come. To eliminate the behavior, when a puppy jumps up, simply turn away from the puppy and say “off”. If the puppy keeps jumping, keep turning away from them and keep saying “off”. As soon as the puppy has all four feet on the ground for more than a couple seconds, start rewarding them with a verbal “good off!” and pets. If they start to jump again, repeat the process!
How Do You Know The Training Is Working For This Puppy Behavior?
As the puppy starts to understand that not jumping means more attention, they will start to jump on you less and less! You will start to notice you are turning away and say “off” less than when you started the training. Eventually, you may even notice the puppy come up to you and wait in a sit-stay for some pets and lovin’!
Nipping
What Does Nipping Mean?
This is a play behavior in puppies, but a somewhat rude behavior. When puppies are little and they bite each other the mama dog should be correcting them for the rude behavior. If a puppy does not have a mom or a younger mom, then they may not learn not to do this. Some puppies will use this to start play or get attention from their human.
What Should You Do About Nipping?
There are a few things you can do when it comes to nipping. One thing is when the puppy nips is to do a sharp “eh eh” or make a fake yipping noise. The noise making has the same effect as if a puppy brother or mother was not enjoying the play biting. When you make the noise and the puppy stops and looks at you, give them lots of verbal praise and love.
Another good method is to exchange for a toy. When you are playing with your puppy and they are focusing on nipping you hands, when they do say “uh oh” and quickly get a stuffy toy in front of their face. If they choose to bite that engage in a small tug game.
While playing, if the nipping gets persistent and they’re not stopping, simply say “uh oh”, get up and walk away. Every time they nip, repeat this action so they will start to associate the nipping with you leaving them. They want attention anyway and you would be giving them the opposite of that.
Do not push the puppy away repeatedly or make yourself super wiggly. This actually encourages the behavior because the puppy will think you are playing back! Then the puppy will think you just want to play harder and they may nip harder.
How Do You Know The Training Is Working For This Puppy Behavior?
Eventually, the nipping will stop all together but before then it may just lessen at first. Keep up with the tips above and eventually it will go away. You may also see them switch from a nipping behavior to mouthing before it stops all together.
Mouthing
What Does Mouthing Mean?
Just like biting, mouthing is a type of play behavior in puppies! Puppies play with each other and their mother by mouthing. It is when a puppy puts their mouth on something but does not apply pressure. This simulates bite-grab when dogs play-fight for fun. A lot of the time, puppies think this is acceptable to do to humans.
What Should You Do About Mouthing?
If a puppy is mouthing, and you do not want that behavior at the time, say a firm “eh-eh”. When they stop mouthing and look at you, reward with verbal praise and pets! If this does not work, you want to make yourself as boring as possible.
The puppy knows this is a play behavior and they want to play with you. So if they are mouthing and not stopping, simply say “uh oh”, get up and walk away. When they have had a minute break, rengage the puppy in play. Every time they mouth, repeat this action so they will start to associate mouthing with lack of attention.
Whatever you do, do not push the puppy away repeatedly or make yourself super wiggly. This again, encourages the behavior because the puppy will think you are playing back! Be as boring as possible when teaching puppies not to mouth.
How Do You Know The Training Is Working For This Puppy Behavior?
At first you may notice that the puppy just mouths with less pressure, this is because they may think the level of pressure is inappropriate. Just like how a mom dog will correct them for mouthing too hard. After that, the mouthing should go away entirely!
Chewing
What Does Chewing Mean?
When it comes to a puppy chewing it can mean multiple things. Sometimes the puppy is teething so their mouth hurts. The chewing motion helps relieve some pain. Other times the puppy is bored! A bored dog is a destructive dog!
What Should You Do About Chewing?
The biggest thing to do when it comes to chewing is to be proactive. Puppies are learning so they do not know the difference in what they can and cannot chew. So clean up! No shoes, socks, or slippers on the ground. Also restrict the puppies play area until they are older. If you cannot supervise the puppy, put it away in a crate.
Next, have lots of chew toys for the puppy. Teach them what their toys are and that they are acceptable to chew. A great way to do so is to have a toy bin. All puppy toys go into the bin and they collect the same smells by being together in the bin. This way the puppy will always know what toys are theirs by the smell.
If you catch a puppy chewing, do not yell at the puppy. Calmly say “eh eh” and get the puppies attention, then redirect them to a toy that they should be chewing. You do not want to startle the puppy when they’re doing something wrong because it can lead to fear issues later in life.
How Do You Know The Training Is Working For This Puppy Behavior?
The chewing will stop! Obviously! The puppy will learn what is their toy and what isn’t. If you keep up with the mental stimulation and provide lots of good chew toys, you should have a chew free home. More on mind games, check out Exercising Your Dog’s Mind.
Barking
What Does Barking Mean?
Attention please!!! Most of the time if a puppy is facing your direction and is barking repeatedly, they are looking for attention. They want something from you and they’re using their voice to do so!
What Should You Do About Barking?
The best thing to do for this would be to start to teach your puppy “shush”. When the puppy starts to bark excessively, say “shush!”. When the puppy stops barking and focuses on you, immediately say “good shush!” and then love them up. This teaches the puppy that if they stop barking, I get a reward of attention! This is a great trick to start to help prevent alert barking at the front door when the scary mailman comes to the door.
If your puppy is super persistent and will not shush when shushed, try the uh oh trick. Say “uh oh”, get up and walk away. They will start to associate their repeated barking with you leaving the room.
How Do You Know The Training Is Working For This Puppy Behavior?
With some time, you will notice the response to the “shush” command. You will even notice that the attention barking ends completely. You’ll get a peaceful and quiet puppy!
More Puppy Behaviors: Housebreaking and Crating
When it comes to puppies, housebreaking and crating are very complex and longer processes than the other behaviors here. For more information on either take a look at Perfectly Potty Trained Puppy and Take The Stress Out Of Crate Training Your Puppy.
Don’t Forget About The “Extinction Burst”
Training is not as easy as it sounds. There is this crazy thing called the extinction burst. For a long while you will notice your training is going great with no issues then.. The puppy realizes they are not getting what they want so they try extra, extra hard. So for the above behaviors, the puppy will start jumping up more. Or nipping more and harder. They’ll mouth more and harder. Barking will happen all day long.
Push through it! Do not stop the training or give up! An extinction burst is actually a positive sign you are doing the right thing in training! The puppy is just testing you and trying to see what they can get away with before giving in. Be stronger than the puppy and show them you are the key to structure and obedience. With time, all these puppy behaviors will be just that, puppy behaviors that are long gone from your well behaved dog.