Puppy Biting Why Do Puppies bite?
 
Since puppies are born without hands, the only way they have to explore the world is with their mouths. And you may have noticed that your puppy is quite the explorer. Everything goes into those little mouths, including your fingers, and those baby teeth are like little needles.
It's completely normal for puppies in their litters to bite each other in play. When they engage in this "bitey-face" game, we think they learn a little about how to inhibit the strength of their biting. 

How Do You Stop the Biting?
First, we have to make sure we have met their needs; have they had enough to do, are they hungry, tired, needing the toilet etc.

Some trainers will recommend that you hold your puppy's mouth closed, yell "No," or even push their cheeks into their teeth so that they hurt themselves. If you look at it from your puppy's point of view, this may teach them not to bite, but it also teaches them not to trust. They're not being malicious when they bite you, they are simply doing what they are instinctively programmed to do. There are much better ways to deal with it that don't involve hurting your puppy and making her fearful of your hands coming near her face.

When puppies are biting us in play, it's because they are trying to interact with us in the only way they know how. What they want out of the behaviour is for us to interact back. If you're saying, "No, don't, stop, cut it out!" and moving your hands all around to stay out of their reach, to the puppy you're simply playing back and encouraging them to go after those flying hands. They don't understand your words and moving targets are for chasing. The message you want to give your puppy instead is, do this instead of biting me and when you bite me, I will immediately STOP interacting with you.

Teach them what you would like them to do, rather that focussing on trying to stop biting,instead, teach them to sniff, lick and explore your hands, rather than bite them.

Practice stroking them, then immediately treat. so stroke three times on the shoulder, no bites, immediately treat and repeat. This helps puppies learn that stroking by humans is a good thing and even better if you dont bite them.

The yelp, you may have heard about the yelp method, we do not reccomend using this method anymore. This is where the puppy bites and you respon with a loud and sudden yelp, some puppies will respond to a yelp by biting harder because these pups interpret it as a "squeaky toy" game and others may become frightened of us.

Stop playing immediately. Don't wave your hands around, but do remove them from your puppy's reach. When your pup is calm, you can slowly offer one hand to her mouth. At this point many puppies will lick the hand. This, or any behavior that is NOT biting, should be rewarded with continued attention. But if you get another nip, move away from your puppy altogether. Let her know "that biting doesn't get my attention, it makes me go away."

This is not something that your puppy is going to learn right away. She is biting because it is something she was programmed to do. At birth it's as unconscious a behaviour to her as breathing. She has to learn first to connect to it as a voluntary behaviour that she can control. That's why the initial pull-away after the yelp is often followed by another bite (if your hands are within bitting distance). It will take a lot of consistent repetition before your puppy is able to get to the stage where she lunges to bite, but inhibits herself before making contact.

Children and Ankle-Biting
It's hard for young children not to squeal, dance, wave their hands around and run when puppy is nipping at them. This, of course, delights the puppy and encourages her to continue her "playing." In this case, or if your puppy is persistent and continues to bite at your ankles when you walk away from her, let her drag a lead or house line in the house (when supervised). After a biting incident, you can tether the lead to a doorknob and walk out of her reach, or bring your children out of her reach. When she has calmed down, slowly and calmly approach and offer a hand for a lick. Licks (or non-biting behavior) get praise and continued attention. Bites make the people go away again. Make sure to supervise children so that they don't turn this into a rousing "tag" game, winding the puppy up and frustrating her! Movements away from her must be immediate and smooth, and movements towards her must be calm and purposeful.

No Rough-Housing With Hands!
The most important thing you can do when your puppy is a little land-shark is to make sure that nobody in her world is rough-housing or wrestling with her with their hands. If this is happening, then no matter what else you do you are confusing her with a game that in essence tells her, "Go for my hands!" Most puppies love to rough- house, and you can still do it. Just substitute a toy for your hands. While she's going after the toy if clumsy puppy misses and bites your skin or clothing, you can stop, drop the toy and stop playing. That will also help teach her to be more careful with her mouthing.

The Bottom Line
If you do absolutely nothing, chances are your puppy will outgrow this stage on her own. But if you are consistent, persistent and patient, reinforcing calm behaviour and withdrawing attention for mouthy behaviour, you may survive your dog’s puppyhood with less tooth marks!