07/06/2024
Good morning 11 week old puppy parents!!!
Time to talk about teething now that your puppy has been with you for 3 weeks.
My puppy bites my hands, my legs, my children's legs - anything he can get his mouth on. What is going on?
At around 12 weeks, the baby teeth begin to fall out, and the permanent teeth begin to erupt. Puppies chew to relieve the pain and discomfort from new teeth coming in.
Do not reward behavior you do not want, and do not let others reward it either. If your puppy is chewing on your hands or any other body part, yelp a high-pitched shriek like a puppy makes, pull your hand away, redirect the puppy to a safe toy that they can chew on instead.
What are acceptable chew toys, and which ones should be avoided?
Because dogs tend to chew nearly everything, nearly everything has been found to cause problems. This goes for rawhide, pigs' ears, other parts of animals (e.g., the "bully stick," which is the dried or cooked amputated p***s of a bull), bones, synthetic toys, tennis balls, etc. Some of these objects have caused gastrointestinal blockages or intestinal punctures, which often require surgery and can be life-threatening; others have blocked the throat, causing dogs to asphyxiate.
Bear in mind that some objects that are safe to ingest may still not be very good for your dog's teeth. Most veterinary dentists recommend against allowing puppies and older dogs to chew anything hard, because hard objects can break teeth, both baby and adult. Hard objects would include objects made of nylon, as well as bones and antlers.
Do not leave tempting items like clothes, shoes, or children’s toys where your puppy can reach them. At the same time, provide lots of safe chew toys. Keep chew toys “fresh” by rotating them and having only a few out at any one time. Supervise your puppy so he does not have the opportunity to chew something he shouldn’t.
What not to do
Never discipline or punish your puppy after the fact. If you discover a chewed item even minutes after he’s chewed it, you’re too late to administer a correction. Animals associate punishment with what they’re doing at the time they’re being punished. A puppy can’t reason that, “I tore up those shoes an hour ago and that’s why I’m being scolded now.”
Some people believe this is what a puppy is thinking because he runs and hides or because he “looks guilty.” “Guilty looks” are canine submissive postures that dogs show when they’re threatened. When you’re angry and upset, the puppy feels threatened by your tone of voice, body postures and/or facial expressions, so he may hide or show submissive postures. Punishment after-the-fact will not only fail to eliminate the undesirable behavior, but could provoke other undesirable behaviors, as well.
Other reasons for destructive behavior
In most cases, destructive chewing by puppies is nothing more than normal puppy behavior. Sometimes it is because of other reasons.
Examples include separation anxiety, fear-related behaviors and attention-getting behavior.
