05/22/2026
Every puppy owner should read this!
Today our breed expert Carol Price looks at
BITE INHIBITION IN DOGS
What is it – and how does your dog learn it?
One of the most important lessons all young dogs have to learn, as they grow, is bite inhibition. In other words, when biting is, or is not, an appropriate behaviour, and how to limit the force of their bite when they use it. It is part and parcel of any dog emerging into a more socially successful adult, be this with humans, or fellow dogs.
Dogs, conversely, who struggle more to control the force or readiness of their biting can develop more reactive habits. Or may live lives more riddled with conflict. Many, sadly, may also lose their lives because of their more dangerous behaviour – in the case of dogs biting people.
EARLIEST LESSONS
Puppies begin learning bite inhibition from the moment they grow their first baby teeth and start interacting with their littermates. And all the rough and tumble you see puppies display, where they constantly grab each other by the neck or pin each other down is really just rehearsal for real life, and testing out the limits of where aggression might get them.
What you really want to see is puppies who immediately stop their ‘play aggression’ the instant the puppy they are attacking yelps or squeals. It is the first sign of a dog who is beginning to understand when their aggression is less appropriate, or even a negative strategy if they want to continue their play. You also want to see puppies constantly swapping roles as ‘victim’ and ‘aggressor’. In other words, one moment a puppy is showing a more submissive posture, as another one pins them down, and then the next the roles between the puppies are completely reversed. Again, it is about a puppy learning to use greater social flexibility; that sometimes submission is the better strategy in the face of aggression from others. Especially if, later in life, those others are going to be dogs bigger and more powerful than themselves.
LEARNING FROM ELDERS
Puppies who are raised with other adult dogs have the additional advantage of more mature mentors to ‘put them in their place’ should they suddenly show ruder or less appropriate aggression towards them. Puppies and adults – as in my illustration – can wrestle and play with their teeth for ages, until suddenly a puppy does something to break the rules of more acceptable biting. Whereupon the adult dog stops the game and tells them off.
Adult dogs ‘telling puppies off’ or ‘putting them in their place’ should really just involve a growl or snap, or pinning them down. And nothing more violent that could make a puppy feel more frightened or threatened. Once again, it is about teaching a puppy that less appropriate aggression can have more negative consequences. And it is also something that only dogs, really, can most successfully teach other dogs.
When puppies grow up with other adult dogs they also learn, from them, how much can be experienced or gained in life – in the way of resources – without ever having to use aggression. And you want to keep this belief reinforced as much as possible in them as they mature into adults themselves.
BITING AND PEOPLE
I have only one rule when it comes to puppies nipping or biting people – which is that it is NEVER acceptable, if not taboo. So the instant it happens I give a puppy a word – hey! – which will serve as a more constant reminder in the future that they have crossed a line. After the ‘hey!’ I will then immediately invite the puppy to do something else instead, like sit and watch me, which I can then instantly praise and reward. Or give them something else to chew. If the behaviour persists I just walk away and halt all further interaction with the pup.
I just think this makes everything so much clearer for puppies, in terms of when bite inhibition is always required. This is particularly important with Border collies who, as a herding breed, can be a lot more ‘nippy’ and ‘bitey’ as pups than most.
I never understand owners who play manic ‘rough and tumble’ games with their collie puppies on the floor, and then complain that they bite them. Or people who let their puppies nip and bite them for a while, then suddenly get angry with them when they decide they want them to stop. All this does is confuse puppies and stop them learning the all important lesson that it is never acceptable to bite people. Full stop.
INNATE IMPULSES
I’d like to make it clear in this feature – and as alluded to at the beginning of it – that some collies just have a real struggle keeping their biting impulses under better control. There can be a genetic element to it, but it can also commonly just be a by-product of the lunge-nip reflexes collies possess as sheepdogs, which are activated by mental arousal and the instinctive drive in the dog to protect themselves.
And you have to better understand this impulse, and what most typically activates it in your dog, in order to better control it, and limit its more inappropriate use. Usually through greater awareness of situations likely to trigger the behaviour, and also better training.
THE RED LINE
There is only one kind of biting behaviour I view as frequently less curable in Border collies, and certainly far more dangerous. And that is when collies take to biting their owners or other family members. The danger comes not just from the less predictable nature of this behaviour - as can be typical. Or from the fact that the biting can so often quickly escalate in terms of frequency and severity. It comes from the fact that the dog has crossed a red line and no longer has any inhibition about biting the people they live with.
Sometimes dogs like these are facing intense stress, anxiety or frustration in the homes they live in, and when homed elsewhere to a place where their needs are better met, the aggressive behaviour stops. But at other times the problem lies deeper in the whole nature of the dog, and cannot be changed.
Meanwhile all aspects of aggression in Border collies is covered in the THIRD book (green cover) in my BREED APART trilogy: BEHAVIOUR – INSIGHTS, ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS.
All text ©Carol Price 2026
Carol Price books on Border collies:
In the UK from: https://performancedog.co.uk/?s=carol+price In the USA from: https://www.dogwise.com/ # and In Canada from https://4mymerles.com/collections/books In Australia from: https://gameondogs.com.au/ And in the Netherlands and Belgium from: https://mediaboek.nl/border-collies-a-breed-apart-book-1.html
The books are also available through most Amazon outlets
