Golden retriever puppies are the cutest thing in the world, their typical smile will melt anyone’s heart, but as all puppies they also like to bite on things. Biting at this young age is healthy to all pups, because it will strengthen and improve gums and teeth health.
In order to affectively stop golden retriever puppy biting, you must address this behavior by discouraging it, while encouraging other positive behaviors. However many people forget that this behavior although positive in many ways, can also lead to aggression and dominance issues in later years, and that’s why puppies should be tough to stop biting when they are still very young. If your pup were to be raised by it’s mother with other brothers and sisters, he would quickly learn that when he bits, he gets bitten back, a puppy around eight weeks old should already have learned not to bite.
The Early Days With Your New Puppy
Whenever you bring home a puppy who unfortunately did not learn he shouldn’t bite, it is important that you step up and teach him, but before going into that, bare in mind not to punish your puppy by hitting him when he bites, this may cause the pup to be afraid of you, and lead to phobias or aggression problems later on.
To effectively do stop golden retriever puppy biting you are advised don’t play games or engage in other activities with your puppy that might lead him to bite once again, some chase games for example motivate puppies to bite, playing tug of war as well, these games are good for dogs, but since your trying to teach your pup not to bite, playing these games while you do that will work against you.
Also important is consistency, like in any sort of training, consistency plays an important role in the learning process of your puppy, be sure to stay consistent through out the training you will give to your puppy if you want him to stay biting.
The Training
When starting to train your new puppy, it is a good idea to join with him in obedience and socialization classes, since most golden retriever puppies are very sociable, friendly and appreciative of human companionship and leadership, these kinds of training should go pretty smoothly specially with professional help and are one of most effective ways to stop golden retriever puppy biting.
Now on what comes to biting behaviors, there is inhibition classes for biting, these classes are often joined along with socialization classes, where the normal behavior of a mother is simulated by the trainer, showing young pups that biting isn’t acceptable. Socialization has other benefits as well, it teaches your dog to respond well to other dogs and people on the street, and this will also reduce any aggression behaviors it might had.
Right from the yearly days when you try to stop your golden retriever puppy from biting, it is easier to redirect this behavior by providing a toy the puppy can chew and bite. He won’t learn this right away, but there a way you can help, when your puppy is biting your finger and you say “No”, give him the toy, then he will be more likely to learn it faster that, the toy is okay but fingers aren’t.
Other technique sometimes used is to make a small noise like when your hurt, making this noise when the puppy bites you, this will show him that he caused you pain, much like puppies like to play but don’t like to cause pain on their little brothers and sisters, this will most times startle him enough to stop biting you leave you alone.
Training a young puppy to stop biting is an important part of the process when your puppy first arrives to it’s new home. Ideally your golden retriever puppy should have understand that biting is not okay, this will make the following years of it’s growth and training more pleasant and will lower the risk of future aggression considerably.