How to Train your Dog

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Bad Habits - Nipping & Biting

The playful but painful habit of nipping at people's heels and biting starts as a game, but can well become a social nuisance and nearly always ends up with the dog becoming too cranky to be kept with any pleasure. Usually it starts with the wrong kind of rough games - one very common and stupid one being holding the dog's muzzle in play. I suppose we have all seen the man - it is nearly always a man who grabs the dog by the nose in a hard grip, then shakes it about a bit, no doubt thinking this shows he is used to dogs.

The nose is one of the most sensitive parts of a dog and he naturally, and quite rightly, resents the rough and painful treatment. If he is a nice dog he nips the offending hand to say 'keep off', and if he is tough he takes a lump out of it.

A tug of war with an old cloth is a sure way of making your dog a nuisance. He enjoys it, and everyone thinks he is cute in the early days, so later on how can you expect him to learn it is wrong to pull every bit of cloth in sight, including skirts and trouser cuffs of visitors?

Do not leave very young children and puppies together.

If by chance the child hurts the puppy he has only limited ways of retaliation, and the most likely one is a nip which could be painful and harmless, but equally could be dangerous.