Training your Boston Terrier not to bite is crucial in establishing boundaries your puppy will respect as they grow up. If your dog has a problem with biting or you’re wondering how to communicate to your dog that biting is unacceptable behavior, here’s everything you need to know about Boston Terrier biting.
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Everything You Need To Know About Boston Terrier Biting
Like other puppies, Boston Terrier puppies love to chew and bite. However, you need to stop your dog’s biting behavior as it can get dangerous. In this article, I’ll tell you what you need to do to stop dog biting. First, let’s take a look at the teething stages.
What are the Teething Stages of Boston Terrier?
Boston Terrier puppies’ teeth start appearing when they’re 2-4 weeks old. The inhibited biting — where puppies learn to control the strength of their bite while playing with their littermates and mother — begins when they’re 4-6 weeks.
During this period, they will also explore their social boundaries. If your puppy stayed with its littermates and mother until 8 to 10 weeks, it’ll have learned appropriate bite inhibition and social behavior. Between 3-6 months, adult teeth begin growing and your puppy will start chewing.
This is the age you should pay attention to because most puppies become mouthy. It’s also the perfect age to teach your puppy biting is not allowed. The sooner you teach them, the easier it will be to show your puppy not to bite when they’re excited or playing.
Why Do Boston Terrier Puppies Bite?
When your Boston Terrier puppy bites you while playing with them it’s because that’s the only way they know how to interact with you. What your puppy wants is for you to socialize with them. They’re doing this to get your attention.
If you react by moving your hands around your puppy, you’re encouraging them to play with you. Since the puppy has no hands, it uses its mouth to explore the world. That’s why everything ends up in its mouth, including your fingers.
Note that if the puppy bites another puppy too hard, the puppy will stop playing and the biter will apply less pressure. However, these boundaries only apply to puppy-to-puppy interaction. While the inhibition they learn helps, it’s not enough to teach your puppy how to interact with people properly.
How to Stop Boston Terrier Biting
It’s important to train your Terrier puppy not to bite when establishing boundaries and showing them the house rules they should respect while growing up. Below are some of the things you can do to communicate to your puppy that biting during playtime is not acceptable.
Be Consistent
Repetition is important as it helps your puppy learn quickly. Due to this, be patient, persistent, and remain consistent as your puppy learns how to stop biting. You also need to offer firm direction without getting angry when things don’t go the way you’re expecting.
Although it’s difficult to control your temper, you have to be careful because your dog can read your emotions and the way you react can make them anxious or confuse them. Stay calm even when they bite you. Additionally, bring on board everyone in your house including your visitors.
Let them know about your no-biting policy to avoid encouraging the biting behavior and to maintain consistency. Eventually, your dog will outgrow this behavior and may not bite you even when it puts its mouth around your fingers during playtime.
Don’t Encourage Biting Behavior
It’s easy to encourage biting behavior unconsciously. When biting starts, cease giving your puppy attention to prevent reinforcing the behavior. Also, avoid wrestling or rough-housing your puppy with hands. If you do this, your efforts of stopping the biting behavior will be wasted.
You’ll be sending the wrong signals to your pup as you will be telling it “go for my hands”. Instead, use a toy during playtime. Remember, all games should be gentle to allow your puppy to learn how to inhibit their bite.
Movements towards your dog should also be purposeful and calm while movements away from the dog should be smooth and immediate. This is because dogs are attracted to things that move.
Meet the Dog’s Needs
To teach your Terrier dog not to bite, do the following to ensure your puppy’s healthy development.
- Socialization: Socializing your puppy while it is still young can tame unwanted behaviors such as aggression and biting. However, don’t allow your puppy to interact with people if it hasn’t stopped biting.
- Exercise: Take your puppy for short daily walks lasting 30-60 minutes. You can also play fetch with your dog or go swimming. This is very important because puppies become aggressive when they aren’t getting enough exercise.
- Training: Puppies can bite when they’re bored. So engage them with a fun training session to deter them from biting. It’s also the perfect time to reward them for good behavior. If your pup begins biting, give it some tasty treats.
- Playtime: Play with your Terrier puppy using the appropriate chewing target or give them a soft, chew toy. This will help them stop biting. Just ensure the toy isn’t too small as your dog can swallow it.
Redirect the Biting Behavior
Although Boston Terriers need to chew while they’re teething, they need to know bones and chew toys are the appropriate chewing material and not people. To prevent bites, follow these tips to help you teach your puppy how to use the toy:
- Begin playing with your dog using the toy.
- When your puppy’s mouth grabs your hand, tap the toy, or your pup with it to redirect its attention to the toy.
- Your puppy will release your hand and turn its head to see what’s tapping them.
- Wave the toy so that they focus on it.
- Reward your puppy every time it engages with the toy.
- Allow your dog to grab and chew on its toy.
What to Do if Your Boston Terrier Still Bites
Generally, Terrier puppies stop biting. However, if your dog still bites, look for a dog trainer. Here are a couple of reasons why your dog might still be biting:
- Anxiety and Fear: Because of bad past experiences, your puppy can react in an aggressive and fearful manner.
- Attention-Getting: You could be giving attention to your puppy thus encouraging the biting behavior.
Conclusion
Boston Terrier puppies grow out of biting. Just follow the steps I have highlighted above and you’ll have a dog that no longer bites. Be patient as it takes more effort and time.
