Puppy Biting – STOP Puppy Biting Using The Jerry Seinfeld Method

February 15th, 2012
By Eric Letendre

My wife thinks I’m a little weird.

She does not understand how I can watch an hour of Seinfeld every night.

“Don’t you get sick of it?” she asks.

I don’t know what it is but I never do get sick of watching the show. Even though I can almost recite each word of the show and know what is going to happen I keep watching it.

Did you know that the show almost did not get on the air when Seinfeld told NBC that he wanted to “do a show about nothing.”

Why do I tell you that?

Because that is the secret to stopping puppy biting.

Listen, I have been in the dog training game a lot of years and I know that puppy biting is one the biggest problem faced by puppy owners. I know that new puppy owners scour the internet looking for advice on how to deal with this extremely common behavior problem.

I know that new puppy owners ask their vet for advice, friends, family members, and dog trainers.

Much of the advice conflicts. One “expert” will tell the new puppy owner to slap the puppy on the snout when they bite. Another will recommend sticking their finger down the pup’s throat. Alpha roll overs, squirt bottles, and scruff shakes are all guaranteed to stop puppy biting.

The puppy keeps on biting and many of these techniques can lead to aggression.

Here is how you STOP puppy biting using the Jerry Seinfeld Method.

You see, you do nothing.

Let me explain.

Your puppy bites you for one main reason – it is how they interact and play with each other.

Your pup wants you to play with them. They bite and you react to the biting. You push, slap, scruff shake or some other technique that was taught to you.

Giving attention to the behavior reinforces the behavior. The more you react the more the dog bites. Did you ever notice that the more you try to stop the biting the worse it gets.

That is why puppy biting is such a problem.

Our actions actually reinforce the biting behavior.

The best thing to do is to keep a leash on your puppy in the house. Once your pup starts to bite you simply take the leash and secure it to something sturdy and then do nothing.

Okay, you did one thing. You secured the leash, but then you ignore the dog. Do nothing to the dog, simply withdraw your attention and wait for your pup to calm.

You see, this works so well because when the puppy starts to bite you take his freedom away by tying the leash to something secure. You then do nothing to the pup and wait. You don’t give your pup the opportunity to chomp on your hands.

You withdraw your attention and wait. Once your pup calms you turn the attention back on.

Puppy biting really has to more to do with giving the behavior attention than anything else. Turn off the attention and the behavior goes away.

Sound good?

Try it and you’ll see that the beauty of this is in the simplicity.

Or as Richard Back said:

“The simplest things are often the truest.”

Sincerely,

Eric Letendre

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