Puppy Biting Tips: An Interview with Erika Gonzalez Certified Dog Trainer | Pupford

Puppy biting can be extremely challenging and painful!! In this video interview with Erika Gonzalez, Professional Dog Trainer, she breaks down everything you need to know about puppy biting!

We discuss what your expectations should be, what NOT to do, and most importantly, 3 surefire techniques to help reduce puppy biting!

If you are struggling with puppy biting... do NOT skip this episode.

It is a bit longer than most episodes, but the information will transform your mindset with puppy biting and truly help you overcome this difficult behavior!

CONNECT WITH ERIKA

Erika's Website: https://www.fromdusktilldog.com/

Erika's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChGLy20lhLasdOZMOAILPsQ

Erika's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/FromDuskTillDog/

Erika's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fromdusktilldog

Erika's Podcast: https://anchor.fm/dogtrainingaudioex/

AUDIO PODCAST OF PUPPY BITING TIPS

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OVERVIEW OF PUPPY BITING TIPS

Before we dive into the episode... we need to cover one thing.

Your dog's needs must be met before you try to stop puppy biting. Those needs include:

• Physical exercise
• Mental enrichment
• Food and diet
• Healthy living conditions
• Interaction with other dogs/puppies

If you aren't doing those things above, then the rest of this article will be... well, useless!

We broke down this episode into a couple of distinct sections.

1. What should your expectations be for puppy biting?
2. Things you should NOT do when your puppy bites
3. And, 3 effective methods to help stop puppy biting

Related Reading: My Dog Is Driving Me Crazy! Do These 3 Things Today

WHAT SHOULD YOUR EXPECTATIONS BE FOR PUPPY BITING?

When it comes to puppy biting... it is normal.

Let me say that again...

PUPPY. BITING. IS. NORMAL.

This mindset is vital for how you approach puppy biting. If your goal is to make it "stop" within a day or two, you will be frustrated, angry, and disappointed.

As Erika puts it, "it can take weeks or even months" to overcome puppy biting!

And in most cases, your dog is not aggressive.

(Similarly, playing tug does not make dogs aggressive.)

To be sure of this, keep a log of when your puppy usually bites.

If it is when you try and take a chew from them, that is resource guarding... not "puppy nipping".

If the biting/nipping occurs when your dog is overtired, overstimulated, or bored... then that's puppy biting!

THINGS YOU SHOULD NOT DO WHEN YOUR PUPPY BITES

Some "training techniques" (if we can even call them that) actually cause MORE harm than help.

The following are NOT good ideas and can actually cause more biting...

• Yelling at your dog when they bite
• Physical corrections like leash corrections, hitting your dog, bonking their nose, clamping their mouth shut, etc. It just makes things worse. Period.
• Yelping or shrieking "ouch" when your puppy bites. Although this method used to be seen as helpful, it has been shown to cause more problems and not truly teach your dog what behavior is desired. Additionally, you might end up yelping a LOT.
• Shaking cans, air horns, etc. (see bullet point #2)

Again, some people may advocate for these methods, but they are not effective in the long term.

And most importantly, they do not teach your dog what they should be doing instead!

Related Reading: What Not To Do With a Puppy

3 EFFECTIVE METHODS TO HELP STOP PUPPY BITING

These methods take time, patience, and most of all, consistency.

1. Redirection
2. Removal
3. Work Mode

REDIRECTION

When we say 'redirection' what we mean is replacing that bad behavior (nipping) to a positive one. There are a few things you can redirect to ⤵️

1. A toy
2. A tasty chew
3. An activity (like training or play)

When redirecting your dog to a toy, you must strategize by using a novel toy (something they don't typically get to play with).

When you break out a new toy that your pup doesn't often get access to, it can be MUCH more interesting to them!

Remember, the key to any redirection is consistency.

REMOVAL

Sometimes, you just need to remove your puppy from the situation. If they don't have access to what they want to bite, then... they can't bite!

It's important to remember that when you use removal as a method, it should not be forceful, painful, or "scary" for your dog.

If you leave your dog on a small leash inside the home, you can gradually pull them away from what they are nipping on and put them in a different room, into a playpen, behind a gate, etc. Be calm and don't use force or pain.

Actions speak louder than words... There really isn't a need to yell at your dog, or scold them... just remove them from the situation!

This removal method is powerful if after redirection your dog seems to just go right back to biting or nipping!

Remember, the removal is not a punishment (ie, don't leave your dog in the crate for an hour just for nipping)... it's just a quick lesson. It can be as short as 30-60 seconds to help your dog reset.

You can also combo the removal with redirection!

And remember, if you remove and your dog does act like you want them to, REWARD THEM!

WORK MODE

This method is similar to redirection, but is more about shifting your dog's brain off of what they want to bite, and onto performing a "job".

That "job" can be as simple as doing a handful of tricks, laying on their place, or just making eye contact with you.

Just like us humans, "diving into" our work can help us forget about things that are frustrating, difficult, or annoying. It can turn into a healthy mental escape.

The same goes for our dogs!

When they are nipping and biting constantly, sometimes you need to get them focused on "work". That way, they forget about why or what they were biting, and focus on their job.

AKA, work mode!

Try putting a tasty treat right up to their nose, and get them into work mode 💪

RECAP OF PUPPY BITING TIPS

Puppy biting is not easy, seriously!

But with these tips, you can reduce the frequency of puppy biting and stay ahead of the curve.

Remember, like all things in dog training, staying proactive vs reactive can make the world of difference for your dog!

Have these tips helped you? Tell us in the comments below!

PS- If you're dealing specifically with your puppy biting the leash head here!

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF PUPPY BITING EPISODE

Devin Stagg:

Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Perfect Pup Podcast. My name is Devin and I am beyond excited for today's episode, for two reasons. Number one, we've got an awesome guest on, Erika. She is one of my favorite trainers to follow on social. She has awesome content and I love her personality. That's reason one. So thank you for coming on.

Erika Gonzalez:

Oh, thank you Devin. I'm really excited. Thanks for having me.

Devin Stagg:

Yeah. Thanks again for being here. And the second reason is because today's topic is, dare I say, the most asked about topic, searched about, complained about, pull your hair out about topic that there is. I just made up a phrase.

Erika Gonzalez:

Well, that's true though. I agree.

Devin Stagg:

The topic is puppy biting, puppy biting and nipping. It's super common. We're going to break it down today and give you some actionable insights as to how you can start to decrease your puppy's biting and learn how to understand it and learn how to combat it. But before that, I'm going to give an introduction of Erika just so you have a little more context of who she is.

Devin Stagg:

She is a certified professional dog trainer, CCDT, with nine years of experience. She specializes in behavior modification and coaching pup parents, all the way from puppy hood all the way through adulthood, all those things. She is the founder of From Dusk Till Dog, LLC, I love the name by the way, and is a mentor trainer for CATCH Canine Trainers Academy. In her spare time, Erika and her husband John enjoy walks with their dogs. They have two, Jade, a Staffordshire Terrier and Freddy, a Chihuahua mix. They also enjoy watching good movies, spending time with family.

Devin Stagg:

Erika's mission is not only to bring you value through her content and help you learn, but to enhance your relationship with your dog. That is our mission as well at Pupford. It's just right joined together. Did I miss anything, any like interesting facts you want to add it? Like maybe, I don't know, you met someone interesting. I don't know.

Erika Gonzalez:

Oh yeah. I mean, I've met some really cool people. I met Victoria Stilwell once. That was fun.

Devin Stagg:

Nice.

Erika Gonzalez:

That was the first time I was starstruck with somebody, which is weird. Because if you're not a dog trainer, people are like, "What?". But I was starstruck and I acted like a six year old girl. It was really funny and my husband found it very humorous. Yeah. But that was a great introduction. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Devin Stagg:

Yeah. Of course. Like I said, I'm excited to have you on. I'm excited for this topic, so let's dive right into it. Most of you listening, a good chunk of you listening, have dogs under a year old. Just naturally with how we operate at Pupford, we have our 30 day Perfect Pup training. It's very geared towards puppies of course. Adults can do it as well or adult dogs, sorry. But puppies are... A lot of you are dealing with puppies and raising puppies and going through puppy hood. It's tough and puppy biting and nipping is one of the hardest things.

Devin Stagg:

So first and foremost, how do you, when you approach a new pup parent, or maybe they're had dogs before, but when they have a puppy, how do you approach the expectations of puppy biting and nipping? What should people be expecting?

Erika Gonzalez:

That's a great question. And by the way, I feel like this is brought up to me many times with clients. Even though I explain it, we go through it, the whole thing the first session, I give them expectations, they bring it up at least two or three times more. Like, "Hey, that nipping thing is still going on." I'm like, "I know. Stick with it." I would say to, exactly that, expect it. It's normal. It is what they're programmed to do at that age at some level. I basically tell them, "Hey, this is going to happen. If it doesn't, you have a miracle on your hands and it's probably the exception, not the rule."

Erika Gonzalez:

I just let them know, "Hey, this is normal. It's going to happen. It might happen a lot and it might take sometimes weeks or months," depending on how early they get the puppy, "to completely subside." I just let them know that A, it's normal and B, that to expect it and to be prepared. I really try to set up not only expectations, but set up a game plan for my clients and for followers as well. Just, I get DMs about this all the time too. Just giving them the tools that they need. I know we're going to go into that in a moment, but just preparing for not only the puppy, but for the puppy's nipping in particular. So being prepared, being proactive and expecting it ahead of time, not just reacting to it every time is key, in my opinion.

Devin Stagg:

I love that. I love the idea of being proactive. If you know it's going to happen, you can do things to set it up to try and minimize it. With that being said though, how... Let me back up a little bit. You said months. I know people do not like that answer.

Erika Gonzalez:

I know.

Devin Stagg:

Can you expand on that a little bit because I think a lot of us, as pup parents, we put this expectation in our mind, whether it's nipping or leash training or potty training or whatever, and we think, "Hey, my neighbor's dog, he's three months old. He's completely potty trained. Why is my dog six months old and still has accidents?" How do you approach like just like the differences in dogs when it comes to nipping and biting in particular?

Erika Gonzalez:

I basically let people know, "Hey, like I said, it can happen fast sometimes. For some dogs, it might take longer." There's usually a couple variables to that, but I do explain to people one of those variables is pet/parent compliance. If we're accidentally reinforcing it or someone else in the family is encouraging it or they don't mind it as much and someone in the family is trying to get rid of it. I have family dynamics as well where one person thinks it's fun and the other person doesn't. The compliance of the pet parent with sticking with it, with doing the protocols that we're going to talk about, that's key.

Erika Gonzalez:

The other thing that's something take note of is just the puppy's age, what they're going through, the puppy teething phase, things like that, how much they're getting exercise or mental stimulation and things of that nature as well, if they're bored. There 's so many factors, so I basically lay out those factors and then I tell people, "Depending on how we do over here, that will significantly impact how long this may take." And of course, the individual, right. I always tell people, "Us as humans can appreciate how much time it can take for behavior change." I mean, try to change a behavior that you're used to doing. It's difficult. I've been trying to do it for a while in certain things, trying to improve myself.

Erika Gonzalez:

I try to have people come from a place of empathy with it versus, "We need this done now. We need this to stop right away." I empathize with that, but I try to flip how they're viewing it and just say, "Hey, empathize. This is like a baby you just brought into the house and they're going to do things that might not be super awesome for us at the time, but it will pass and you just have to try to be a good parent to them and guide them and help them get through it themselves." I try to compare it to human behavior change, which we all can appreciate. "Oh yeah, that might take a little bit." So commitment and just taking your time with it is crucial.

Devin Stagg:

And for some of us, we have been working on behavior changes for our entire life, so we still can't seem to overcome. So yeah, I love that approaching it with empathy. One quick thought because we're going to dive into some things to avoid. But before that, I get a lot of people... We get a lot of people in the private community we have on Facebook who say, "No, no, no. I'm telling you, this is not normal biting. It's all the time. My dog is aggressive." How do you delineate between nipping and biting and normal puppy behavior? Where can you draw the line when you say, "Okay, this is more extreme. We need to take a different route."

Erika Gonzalez:

Yeah. I definitely have people that, and there has been situations. I've had cases where sometimes even the pet parent thinks it's normal puppy nipping and I'm like, "No, no, that's not normal." So yeah, there is a distinction. You do want to pay attention to that and observe our dogs and our puppies. But I mean, a lot of times it is just regular nipping. But if it is seeming aggressive, I try to have the pet parent really observe their pup and really observe their dog and see if there is a specific trigger or a specific motivation behind the behavior.

Erika Gonzalez:

So let's say, "Hey, every time he is playing with a toy and I go to grab it from him," let's say, "he starts to nip me or bite at me." Some people might view that as normal nipping and it might be, but they're just excited and want to play and they start going for you, but it can also mean that the dog might be feeling uncomfortable that we're close to her resource or that we're injecting ourselves into their playtime when they were playing alone. I try to see if there's food involved, if there's a toy involved, a resource, a location, if it happens at a specific time of day or after a specific activity. We really to... I do this with all training, but we're always trying to find patterns and we're always to find any type of consistency in the behavior so that we can address and make adjustments in our training program or our approach with the dog to hopefully not have that behavior begin happening.

Erika Gonzalez:

I do try to be on point and see if there's a motivation. I also try to make sure that the dog is not... There is this thing that us as dog trainers say a lot, hyper arousal or over stimulation and these words that people have probably heard that I've said to my clients before. Obviously, consult with the trainer if you feel like your dog is doing something or a board certified veterinary behaviorist, but we really want to try to make sure that the dog's needs are being met. Sometimes if a dog gets really over stimulated or really hyper, over-aroused, that is an issue. I explain that in terms of excitement.

Erika Gonzalez:

Sometimes there is excitement, which is normal, like a dog that's happy or jumping or maybe mouthing on you a little bit. There's a little bit extra excited and then there's hyper arousal overstimulation, which is not good. If the dog's up there, they're almost stressed. I do kind of view it in a form of something's not right. They're feeling some type of way. I just want to make sure that the puppy is getting their needs met. Their needs could be... What I basically lay out for people is physical exercise, mental stimulation and one-on-one engagement with you. That could training or structured play or just an outing together or whatnot. And if they're not met, that can spill over into, "I haven't been walked. I haven't done anything fun," and they can really get overstimulated by the slightest little activity that's going on.

Erika Gonzalez:

One major last point with that is a lot of, especially now with the pandemic and the quarantine and the state of affairs that we're currently in, a lot of puppies are not getting sleep. They're not getting the normal amount of nap time that they normally would when we're all at work or we're busy or we're in our normal routine. I have some clients who tell me the dog's just following them around all day. All day, hours and hours and hours. And every time somebody moves or gets up, the puppy gets up, when they would be probably napping for a couple of hours. Puppies should be napping a large portion of the day, especially if they're younger. But if it's an older dog, then you want to consider those other needs and some of the other things I mentioned.

Devin Stagg:

I love that. That's really powerful insight. And every time I do these interviews and I hear trainers like yourself talk, my wheels just start turning with like, "Oh man, I wish I would have thought about that before or known that before." I love that. Thank you.

Devin Stagg:

Before we dive into the techniques to reduce, let's talk about what not to do. Because we were chatting before we started recording and we were talking about how sometimes just knowing the mistakes that you're making and how to correct them or that they are mistakes, and mistakes is kind of a harsh word, but they are sometime maybe that's fueling the fire of the nipping, can be just as helpful as knowing how to reduce it. What do you see from pup parents that actually fuels the fire of puppy nipping.

Erika Gonzalez:

Yes, it does fuel the fire. A lot of it does. Like we were saying, I find that what not to do is as equally as important as what we should be doing. I really equate some of these do not do these things or avoid doing these things list of that as almost like personal training. If you're trying to reach a goal weight or you're trying to run a marathon or whatever that goal is in fitness, I do use fitness as a really nice analogy for dog training a lot, especially as a dog trainer because I'm kind of seeing you once a week and I'm sending you on your way. But one of the major things is the things you want to avoid is almost like you can diet and workout, but if you're eating chocolate cake three times a day and doing the "avoid list", it's going to almost cancel out all the hard work you're doing over here, so it's just as important.

Erika Gonzalez:

That being said, some of the things that I notice that people do that I try to tell them to avoid as much as possible are some of the following: avoid yelling. I understand why people want to do this. I do understand it, but it doesn't work. It scares your dog. And most of the time what happens is unfortunately the human, if they do yell and say, "No," or, "Hey," and kind of yell at the dog, the dog sometimes stops, which talking about behavior, is positively reinforcing for the human because it's like, "Oh, that worked so I'll do it again," which is how dogs feel when they get reinforced for doing behaviors. It kind of becomes a cycle. What happens is, I'm like, "Well, you're going to have to yell forever. You're going to lose voice and it's not going to have your dog learn what we prefer them to be doing." So avoid yelling.

Erika Gonzalez:

Avoid holding your puppy's mouth closed. I've seen articles, I use air quotes, articles or videos that people are like, "Hey, do this." Its crazy to me, but it's out there and people who aren't dog trainers are just trying to get this stuff done. I don't blame them, but it's just not the best approach. Because if we physically manipulate the dog, it can cause them to get frustrated. It can cause them to get aggressive. So talking about earlier, you can turn puppy nipping into an aggressive episode if we start fighting fire with fire so to speak. We want to avoid any physical manipulation of the dog or corrections with the dog of that nature. And again, these dogs, if you have a nine week old puppy, it's a baby. They don't understand what's going on anyway. Even if it's a nine year old dog, they don't understand that type of interaction that way.

Erika Gonzalez:

You don't want to hold their mouth. You don't want to press their tongue down. I've hard that. I've seen that. We want to also avoid tapping on them. I hear a lot of people like, "I tap on their nose," or "I smack them on bum," things like that. We again, don't want to do anything physical to the dog. That's just scaring them. It's not teaching them what to do. The reason why we get dogs, at least I hope, is not to have confrontations with them, especially physical confrontations. We want to avoid all of that.

Erika Gonzalez:

It does break down the communication and it also, most importantly, breaks down the trust between pet parent and puppy. Especially during puppy hood, which is a very delicate learning time, just like with young children, they're very impressionable. They're taking in all this information and we don't want them registering a bunch of negative interactions with their human, with the person that they're supposed to be navigating the world with and navigating their life with.

Erika Gonzalez:

The other less egregious things, I guess, are avoid screeching and running and waving hands. This is a lot for you that have children out there. It's a lot like, "Ah," and people going like this and running real fast and trying to get away. And again, I understand it, but now, you just seem like a really fun squeaker toy and your dog is like, "Wow, they're really loving it," and they get more excited and more nippy. That can just, like you said, fuel that fire. I tell a lot of people just to be a tree. I tell kids, "Be a tree. Look down, hands in. Just kind of stop for a moment." Let the adult come in and kind of remove the dog or things like that. We want to avoid that.

Erika Gonzalez:

Last two things, we want to avoid yelping. This is a hot topic.

Devin Stagg:

I was just going to ask this. So yeah, I'm glad you're going in on this.

Erika Gonzalez:

Nine years ago when I first started professionally training dogs, this was a thing. It was like you yelp, you make a little ah or ow or type of sound and I used to reccomend it back in the day before I continued education and we learned that's not the best thing to do. Things evolve and we keep learning as dog professionals and dog parents what is better each time that we get to read something or learn. The yelping thing, I don't reccomend it for my clients or my followers. I try to have people... A, what happens is... What's going to happen is you're going to be yelping a lot and becomes like ah, ah, ah all day because the puppy might, again, view that as you getting excited. They might view you as getting also kind of interacting with them and we're reinforcing it. It's just not the best thing and I just find that it's really not effective.

Erika Gonzalez:

The only time where that might be effective is if you have an outlier moment. So puppy normally doesn't nip and you have a one off moment where you're like, "Ow," and then you disengage or something like that. Maybe. But again, it's not necessarily, so if I can take out anything that might startle the dog or make them uncomfortable in any way and I can still get results, obviously that's the way we always want to go. We never want to try to do that stuff. I just don't do that and we'll talk about what we should do in a moment, but no yelping. I'm not a huge fan.

Erika Gonzalez:

The last thing would be roughhousing with hands. Sometimes someone in the family really likes to get in there and wrestle with the dog and wrestle with the puppy and we're just kind of asking for it at that point. We're asking for the puppy to want to nip our hands and things of that nature. I normally say if you can't get over the "I really want to roughhouse with my dog thing," then I just have them... I try to reccomend putting a toy in their mouth so that the puppy can get really excited on the toy while we're touching their body and maybe getting excited with them. That's helpful. Those are a couple do not do these things.

Devin Stagg:

And if you have done these things, I know... Like you were saying, I think a lot of times us as pup parents, we read things online. We hear all these different... I mean, I've been walking my dogs down the street and working on leash training and I'll have some random person who I've never talked to in my life before, "Oh, I saw your dog jump up on you. Why don't put your feet on their paws when they jump?" I'm like, "Number one, do I know you? And number two, that sounds terrible. Why would I want to do that to my dog?" But I think a lot of people are well intentioned. They're not meaning to harm their dogs or spread this information, but I think, like you're saying, it's important for us as pup parents to have that mindset of growth and learning for ourselves to say, "Hey, I probably don't know everything about dogs. I should be willing to try things that are more humane and more effective and are actually going to help my dog."

Erika Gonzalez:

Right.

Devin Stagg:

So with that being said, let's... I know people are chomping at the bit. I see pup parents like in my mind like, "Okay. Okay. I'll avoid those things. Just tell me what to do. Just tell me what to do." Let's start. What are some ideas? Give me the first one. What do you first reccomend for the puppy biting and nipping?

Erika Gonzalez:

My first recommendation would be... I kind of break this down into three things. The first though would be redirection, which most people are already trying, so I have some tips, but most people are trying to redirect the dog to either a toy, a chew or an activity. You can do either of those. Now, the toy thing is what most people try. Their puppy starts to jump up and starts nipping their kid or them and they go try to pick up that old rope toy that's sitting on the floor and they're like, "Hey, here you go," and the puppy is like, "Nah. I like your pants," or whatever they're nipping on at the time. Now, that scenario can work, but we have to be a little more strategic for most dogs.

Erika Gonzalez:

What I normally say if we're using redirection, which is a very good thing to do, to strategize this for optimal success, we want to try to have a novel toy. Novel meaning something the dog doesn't normally see so that it's kind of fresh and new. I normally have people try to have maybe a novel toy in any common space in the house that's put away. It's on the ledge. It's on top of your fireplace ledge. It's inside of your couch. If you have a little opening, you can hide it. Somewhere that the puppy can't reach it and it's not a toy that's sitting on the floor for three months. It's not a toy that's in the toy bin. It's special. That way, if you're sitting on the couch and the puppy starts jumping up at you, you can have someone get it for you or you can grab it, hopefully. Squeak, squeak, squeak. The puppy is going to go, "Oh, what's that? I never see that."

Erika Gonzalez:

You're going to go, "Yeah, what's that is go get it." You can toss it away from you. Something simple like that. But most of the time when we're grabbing the toy that they've been ignoring for hours, sitting on the ground, it sometimes doesn't work. Sometimes it does, excellent. Hope it does. But if it doesn't, if you find yourself trying to stick it near their face and they're not interested, having a novel toy is really, really beneficial. That could be good, redirection to that.

Erika Gonzalez:

If you're really busy and you're just trying to be on a Zoom call for work or you're tying to talk to a friend and you're not in training mode in that moment, which I'm very understanding that we're not. None of us are in training mode 24/7. So sometimes just getting up, getting them a long lasting chew that's appropriate for them, a stuffed rubber toy or something like that, the lick mats that Pupford has are one of my favorites to do this actually. I just put that down and leave it on the ground and just walk off and my dogs are pretty happy for a little while. Just redirecting them to something to relax with, chew with and engage with is also good. Or an activity.

Related Reading: Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol for Dogs

Erika Gonzalez:

So if you want to get down and start playing tug with them for a moment, that's cool too. If they get into the toy and they want to let their willies out, so to speak, that's great. Tug of war can be a great option for puppies! Toy, chew or activity and having that novel toy is really, really important.

Devin Stagg:

I love that. It's almost like a kind of secret weapon that you can pull out when things are really, really getting rough. I love that. I think that's so true too that I think a lot of times we want the simple solution or something that's like doesn't take as much effort. I think we as humans are naturally inclined to those things, right? But like you said, being prepared, thinking ahead and saying, "Okay, where does the biting typically happen? Let me get that novel toy in that area so I'm ready when these things happen." I would guess you're probably going to do this... You might need to switch that novel toy out every few days, weeks, depending on your dog. I love, love that idea.

Devin Stagg:

Let's go to another one. What other ideas do you have? Because I'm sure people are listening and they're saying, "I've been trying redirecting. I'll do the novel toy thing. I kind of believe you. I think it will work, but what's something else I can try?"

Erika Gonzalez:

Yeah. So number two in our three step strategy here is removal. This is a big one and this is one that is really good if you have, again, a family of small children in particular that are subject to a lot of puppy nipping or if you... Even if your puppy is nipping your resident dogs. Sometimes the puppy is so nippy they go after you other dog who's nine and just trying to relax or it's on you. It can be on anyone in family, dogs or people included. Removal is important I feel like. Now, there's ways to do this appropriately. The most important thing here is having, again, preparation is key. If you feel like your puppy really might nip at any moment or it's really getting out of hand or you're really concerned about it, having what we call a drag line, which is basically just having them drag a light leash around. Make sure this isn't adversive for your puppy. Make sure they're not like, "Something's chasing behind me and I can't get rid of it."

Erika Gonzalez:

Make sure they're not scared by it, but having a nice light leash dragging on the puppy in moments where you know they tend to get nippy or a little bit out of control or excited, then that helps you just gently when something is occurring like this, if they start jumping up and nipping on a guest or someone in your family, either you yourself can gently walk them off if it's on you. Or if it's on someone else, you can go be the superhero and save them in that moment and go over and gently pick up the leash, talk to the dog, try to engage them and walk them somewhere where then you can contain them for a moment. That could be maybe that person's not the person they really like nipping, that happens sometimes, so maybe I'll just here with the puppy. And if we were talking in my living room and my puppy was jumping all over you, now my puppy is with me and we can still talk and converse, but my puppy is not able to reach you quite yet because I know he's still in that state, so I can just keep him contained with me.

Erika Gonzalez:

Now, the other thing you can do is walk them over to a crate, a playpen, behind a baby gate, just to... and then you can give them something to do. You can incorporate redirection at that moment and do both of them. So behind the gate with a con or something to chew on or something like that. Bully sticks, whatever. Give them a chew there and then that way they're content and not crying behind the gate for the next couple minutes. So removal and then you can redirect. The other thing I also try to do is you can try to... This is mainly to stop the rehearsal of it. A lot of times that we try to redirect, the puppy might go get the toy for a second and then go right back to what they were doing with the nipping stuff.

Erika Gonzalez:

Sometimes removal is better because it's just going to stop them going back and us redirecting 55 times. So if you feel like the redirection is not working quite well in that moment, you might want to just remove them for a few seconds, a minute. It doesn't have to be, "I left them in the other room for 40 minutes because he was bad and nipping on my grandmother," or whatnot. They don't have to be gone for super long. If you have stuff to do, fine. But for them to understand the removal, it really just takes a couple seconds. Make sure they're calm. See if you can reapproach and then they're allowed in again and we can redo it. Every time the removal happens, we're basically saying, "If you nip, you lose access to this cool person. You lose access to playtime with this person."

Erika Gonzalez:

And access is important to our dogs. They want a lot of it with different things. So if we use that as almost a resource for them, then we can say, "Hey, if you're calm and not nipping, you're allowed in. If it's too much and you're nipping right now, we're going to have to remove for a little bit until you get yourself together and we can try again." I feel like removal is a really good option for people in those types of situations if it's getting a little too much or the redirection is not quite sticking after a few tries.

Devin Stagg:

So with that removal, you gave the example of someone comes in and your puppy starts nipping them, if you have that leash dragging behind, you can very easily try to engage with your dog and just gently... You're not yanking them out, nothing like that-

Erika Gonzalez:

No.

Devin Stagg:

But are you saying no? Are you giving them some... What is that communication like? Because I think a lot of people... And again, human instincts, it's easy to get frustrated. It's way easier to let your temper rise and feel flustered, especially when you have guests coming over and you're embarrassed by your puppy. What is your communication like when you are doing the removal?

Erika Gonzalez:

That's a great question Devin. I would say, I always tell people this, "Actions speak louder than words with our dogs." I know people want to say no... Actually, I have entire podcast episode on no is not a behavior. I always tell people, "I know you want to say no, I know you want to say something, but less is more with the verbal in these moments," in my professional opinion. Because yeah, we say no and go, "No," and walk off. Sure. Is your puppy now going to never nip someone again? No. Did we talk about no? No. I don't want people to, again, inject something that's negative when it's really doing anything anyway and it can just harm that moment.

Erika Gonzalez:

What I'd prefer them to do is if they want to talk to the dog or communicate here, we want to try to encourage them. I always tell people, "Put on your best actor hat and even if you're annoyed and really frustrated, just be like, 'All right.'" I even say if you want to say some not so nice things to your dog just to let it out, say it in a happy voice. "Okay, come on you little nugget," and get them out of the way. That's fine. Let it out. I say scream into your pillow later if you have a... if you need to. But in the moment, we want to just get this little baby puppy out of the way. Now, that's an important question because there's something else. There's a little caveat, a little special technique.

Erika Gonzalez:

When we're removing, if we keep the option, and this is my favorite, if we keep the option of let's say my puppy is nipping you Devin. I walk him off with the leash gently. You're never jerking or doing anything like that. We're just kind of guiding. I sit down on the opposite end of the couch or across the room, puppy is here and you should have food on you people. Always have food. I always have little treat stations around the house. Just like we talked about with the novel toy, it's nice to also have little Tupperwares or baggies around your house where treats are available and it's not like, "Honey, where's the one bag that's at the bottom of the cupboard that nobody knows where it is?" Have it ready. Be prepared. That way, now I'm sitting here and now anytime the dog does anything remotely acceptable, they look at you. They sit. They lie down. They're standing there and just standing, being nice. Yes and treat.

Erika Gonzalez:

Of if you're using a clicker, lovely. (PS- Learn how to use a clicker to train a dog here.) Click and then treat them or just praise them and treat them. It doesn't even matter. Just reward anything that's acceptable. So now we're saying, "Don't do this," with the removal, "but do any of this," with the rewards. The removal, the biggest thing about this is we're very good at interrupting dogs and we're very good at even removing them, but we're not so good on the backend when the puppy is finally sitting or finally doing something okay. We don't even pay much attention to it for the most part, but we pay a lot of attention when the puppy is nipping, which is very important for everybody to understand because puppies and dogs just do what works. So if jumping up on the guest and nipping at them gets everyone's attention and everyone's like, "Hey, no. Whoa, over here," picking the puppy up, moving the puppy around a lot. And then they go lie down on their bed and no one cares, a lot of attention's happening over here and nothing's happening over here, so why would I do this?

Erika Gonzalez:

So if we load them up with a lot of rewards for doing anything good in the presence of the guest in that scenario, they'll start learning, "Oh, okay, nipping gets me removed, but sitting gets me treats. Looking up at my pet parent gets me treats and then I get access to the person again as long as I'm not nipping," so always reward on the backend. If you're removing and you're able to train in that moment, remove and then reward.

Devin Stagg:

I love that. I'll kind of maybe give my own expansion just a tiny bit of like, even if it's... The concept of rewarding on the backend, even if your puppy isn't nipping at that time, even if you have a guest come over, they're doing okay and then they just go and lay on their bed like, we as pup parents need to take advantage of those opportunities because-

Erika Gonzalez:

Absolutely.

Devin Stagg:

I think there's so many times, I felt this way when I had a puppy. So we had two Labrador Retriever puppies under the age of nine months. I don't know what we were thinking, but either way, it felt like all the time I was like trying to deal with the bad and there was so many bad behaviors happening and how do I fix these bad behaviors and why does this keep happening? There was kind of this moment where my wife and I realized like, "Okay, we need to start thinking about what is my dog doing that's good and how can I emphasize that? And how can I teach them yes, this is what I want you to do?" I think that is so, so, so important. It's a mindset thing, at least the way I look at it.

Erika Gonzalez:

Absolutely. I think it's 100% a mindset thing. I think our job as dog trainers is helping people change their mindset. I always say I'm a human coach, not so much a dog trainer. I am dog training, of course, but I'm really coaching people one-on-one. I'm coaching people in class to educate them on thinking this way and getting ahead of these things whenever possible. So you're absolutely right, being proactive is always best. Being proactive is better than being reactive. Now, we need to know what to do and we need to react because that's going to happen. Nothing is going to be perfect. But if you can be proactive, to your point, any time the puppy is greeting somebody, and I do this a lot with puppies when I used to do puppy socialization classes before all of this was going on, if we were seeing each other in person, but I would have puppies come up and greet. The first few seconds before they jump or nip or do the things that we typically don't want puppies to learn to do, I start rewarding.

Erika Gonzalez:

So approaching people while we're standing or if we sit, treat, treat, treat. That's good. It imprints in the puppy's brain. We do that a bunch of times, puppy goes, "Hey, I approach and I stand here or I approach and then I sit and I might get something." It's all about motivation. If we hedge it and get ahead of it and start rewarding before they think about doing the bad thing or the unwanted thing, rather, that's what I'd rather call it, they don't know it's bad. It's natural. We think it's bad, but it's just unwanted. So getting ahead of it like that, rewarding any glimpse of good stuff, even throughout the day for other issues, any time your puppy is sitting, being good, being quiet, lying down, looking up at you, whatever, reward, reward, reward because you're going to see more of what gets rewarded. That's always the golden rule.

Devin Stagg:

I love it. Okay. Step three. I know there's people listening still thinking, "Okay, this is good. Give me a third one and I'll be convinced." What else can we do as pup parents when we're dealing with the nipping?

Erika Gonzalez:

Yeah. The third is kind of relative to what we were just talking about. This one I call work mode. When the puppy starts to nip or get too excited and they're just using their mouth on whoever, getting them into work mode. For example, what you can do is get their attention... I don't care if you bring a piece of food right to their nostril hole and have them go, "Woo," and then start luring them away from the person. I've done this a million times. Every dog trainer has done this a million times where puppies are jumping up and trying to rip my jeans open or my shoelaces off my shoes. I just calmly go into my dog's training treat pouch, go right up to their nose and then they go, "Awe," and it's just like a guiding light. I just move them over and they follow my hand off my pants and then I start working them.

Erika Gonzalez:

So asking them to sit, guiding them with your hand gestures for a sit, for a down. I love teaching puppies go to settle. So if you have a mat or a bed nearby, you lure them off the person, you get them over to the mat or the bed, reward, reward, reward and see if you can help them settle in that moment. So working the dog, getting that brain from really excited into work mode does shift the dynamics. Many of us when we're stressed or we're dealing with something throughout the day, if you get on a task, your brain is focusing on that task and no longer whatever we were just concerned about or doing over here, so it is almost, I guess, technically a form of redirection, but it's not so much redirect to an object or an activity, it's more like, "We're going to work on what I'd prefer you to be doing here. So instead of doing this, we're going to do this. We're going to lie down on our mat or we're going to sit. You're going to look up at me. We're going to do some touches or hand targeting," or whatever you're working on.

Erika Gonzalez:

It could paw. Doesn't matter. Tricks. Just get them to do something else so the brain goes into listening to you and learning. So we shift the brain from play or crazy town into structure and learning and working with you. I think that's super, super important and it's probably deep down one of my favorite methods. Now, we can't always do that. We might be busy, that's why we have the other two, redirection and removal, but the work mode is a big one.

Devin Stagg:

I had a funny thought just now too of thinking back to myself when I was in kindergarten, first grade and realizing that teachers were doing this to us all the time right? The class is going crazy, the class is like... I mean, you can see the teacher kind of like thinking, "What in the world is happening?" Kids are talking. People are screaming. There's a kid on a desk. They'll do like count or a hand signal. They'll get people's focus and then they'll start singing a song or doing something goofy, but that's what it is. That's what teachers did with all of us when we were rambunctious, annoying, little elementary school kids is getting into work mode and teaching us like, "Okay, you're being crazy. This is what I want you to do."

Erika Gonzalez:

Absolutely.

Devin Stagg:

Holy cow though, I love all of these tips. Man, I really hope... I think that the listeners are going to love this episode. I have been learning things. My puppies don't nip anymore, they're not puppies. Thank goodness. But it's hard and I do want to add one point and you hit on this a little bit. I'm speaking for myself, but I know Erika will feel the same way. We know how hard it is. It is so tough to have a puppy. It so hard to have... You want to bring your guests over and your dog won't stop jumping or nipping or X, Y and Z, different thing. It is tough. I think part of it oo and this is maybe sub point four, is like giving yourself a little bit of a break and giving yourself... Both from your dog, but also like understanding you're not perfect. You're learning how to be a trainer for your dog and your dog is learning and just like being okay with it and not being perfect, at least in the beginning.

Erika Gonzalez:

Absolutely. Yeah.

Devin Stagg:

Whatever.

Erika Gonzalez:

Yeah. I mean, who's perfect? Right. I mean, nobody. What I always say to clients and to people is, "You're going for... What you're trying to get to is better, not perfect." That's my slogan for my clients is, "We're going for better, not perfect." Because sometimes we have such a high expectation, so to your point, we want to keep our expectations realistic. Nipping is not going to stop over night or in the next five minutes, even though we would like it, but we have to be patient, stay on course, stick with it and over time, you'll start to see improvement. I mean, you can improvement pretty quickly following what we were just talking about. You're going to see it get better pretty quick, but to get to some level of perfect, like when your puppy is not doing it anymore, might take some time.

Erika Gonzalez:

So go for better, not perfect. That's a little line I'll leave everyone with because I think that helps people feel a little bit better about it.

Devin Stagg:

I love it. That's a perfect wrap up. And for those of you who have been listening or watching this episode and you, like me, think, "Okay, I love how Erika teaches. I want to get in contact with her more or see more of her content," I'm going include in the show notes for this episode, we'll link to her website, Instagram, TikTok. She's on TikTok, all the places. If you want to get in contact with her, we are going to give you that step in the show notes. But again, I really hope that people found this episode useful. I did. I learned a lot. And thank you again so much Erika for coming on. I know that pup parents are going to find these tips extremely valuable, so thank you so much for coming on.

Erika Gonzalez:

Thank you. I really appreciate being on. I hope that anyone listening gets some value from this today and passes it on with their pups.

Devin Stagg:

Awesome. And again, for all of you who are watching, listening, thank you so much for doing that. We truly appreciate it, all the things, like, subscribe, comment, leave your review. We read the reviews. We read the comments. We're here. We love your feedback on this podcast as well just to know what things you like, what things you'd like to hear more about. You can always reach us on Instagram. You can DM us. You can send us an email, hello@pupford.com, whatever it might be, but thank you all again and we will catch you on the next episode.