Jim has been having a problem with his Labrador  terrier mix puppy biting too hard, here is his question:

“We have a 4 month old lab/terrier pup. When he gets playful he bites too hard — never aggressively but it hurts! How do we teach him to play without biting?”

I can offer Jim (and readers to this site) the following advice…

Biting and mouthing are both part of normal play and development for puppies.  The problem is, if boundaries are not set at an early stage, the dog will never know when the play is getting too rough, which can cause serious problems in later life - especially if the dog is a large breed.

My advice is to take a two pronged approach.  When growing up in a pack, or with their siblings prior to being taken to their new homes, puppies learn how far they can go through play.  When the play gets too rough, his brother, sister or mother would yelp to signify he was hurting them.  This is what you have to recreate.  Whenever he bites (whether it hurts or not), the person he has bitten or mouthed should give off a shrill “ouch” sound and turn away.  You should immediately notice the puppy stop biting and perhaps perform some form of appeasing behavior like nuzzeling.

If the “yelp” and turning away has not completely stopped the biting, then you will need to yelp and remove yourself from play.  What I mean is, once you have yelped, you either leave the room entirely, or stop any interaction with your pup for at least a minute or two.  No eye contact, no words, nothing.  He will soon associate inappropriate biting and mouthing with not getting to play, and so the behavior should improve.

There are a couple of things you can do to set him up for success with this training:

1. Do not confuse him by “play fighting” with him where you let him bite you or your clothes.  If you play any adversarial games, use a rope or tug toy, so that any biting is associated with that item
2. Puppies do need to chew and bite when they are teething, so make sure he has a chew toy that he can gnaw at.  try stuffing a kong toy with peanut butter and freezing it.  He will love the cooling sensation on his gums and have the added bonus of the tasty peanut butter