How to Stop Puppy Biting and Mouthing

Why Puppies Bite

Puppies explore the world with their mouths the way human babies explore with their hands. Mouthing and biting is completely normal puppy behavior and is not a sign of aggression.

Puppies also learn bite pressure through play with their littermates. When one puppy bites too hard, the other yelps and stops playing. This teaches the biter that hard biting ends the fun. This process is called bite inhibition.

If a puppy was separated from the litter too early (before 7-8 weeks), they may have missed this critical lesson and bite harder than normal.

For more on this topic, see our guide on Crate vs. Playpen: Which is Best for Your Puppy?.

The Yelp and Withdraw Method

This mimics how puppies learn from each other:

1. When the puppy bites your hand hard, let out a sharp, high-pitched “Ouch!” or yelp.
2. Immediately stop all play and interaction. Go limp. Turn away.
3. Wait 10-15 seconds. If the puppy calms down, resume gentle play.
4. If they bite hard again, repeat the yelp and stand up and walk away for 30 seconds.

For more on this topic, see our guide on How to Stop Nuisance Barking: Finding the Root Cause.

The lesson: hard biting = the fun person leaves.

Redirection

If the puppy is in a mouthy mood:

1. Before they bite your hand, offer a rope toy or chew toy.
2. Engage in a game of tug with the toy.
3. If they drop the toy and go for your hand, the game immediately ends (stand up, turn away).

What NOT to Do

• Do not hold the puppy’s mouth shut. This is frightening, can cause injury, and teaches nothing.
• Do not flick the nose. This causes fear and can lead to hand-shyness.
• Do not pin them on their back (alpha roll). This outdated technique is based on debunked dominance theory and causes anxiety and defensiveness.
• Do not use bitter spray on your hands. This does not teach the puppy anything about bite pressure; it just makes your hands taste bad.

The Timeline

Mouthing usually peaks around 4-6 months during the worst of teething and begins to subside as the adult teeth come in. With consistent training, most puppies learn appropriate mouth manners by 6-8 months of age.