If you have brought a new puppy home you may have realized that when you try walking your puppy he/she may want to bite the leash as if it were a game. Your not alone as that is a very common occurrence with young puppies. In this short article, we go over how to stop puppy from biting leash without punishing your puppy!
How to Stop Puppy From Biting Leash The Simple Answer:
The easiest and most effective way to stop your puppy from biting the leash is to redirect your puppy onto an appropriate toy to bite on instead.
Why Puppies Bite The Leash
Puppies bite the leash simply because puppies think the leash is a toy and is essentially fun for puppies to pull and tug on the leash.
Playing tug is fun and rewarding for dogs and puppies; to learn more about playing tug of war with your puppy be sure to read our tug of war article here.
How To effectively stop your puppy from biting the leash
To effectively learn how to stop puppy from biting leash you ultimately want to focus on redirection!
Redirecting your puppy is one of the most important aspects of raising a puppy. Remember that puppies have no clue as to what is right and what is wrong its our job to guide and show our puppy right from wrong.
What is Redirection and How Do I Redirect My Puppy?
Redirecting your puppy comes down to giving your puppy an alternative outlet to the behavior your puppy wants to do anyway.
An easy way to put this in perspective is to imagine a 2-year-old child that has a crayon in hand ready to draw on the wall. Instead of allowing that 2-year-old child to draw on your wall with a crayon, you’d instead tell that child that, it’s ok to draw but on a piece of paper instead of the wall.
The same concept applies to dogs! For instance, if your dog wants to chew your furniture you’d give your pup an alternative object your dog can chew on instead of your furniture.
The same concept applies to puppies who love to bite the leash!
3 tips to stop your puppy from biting the leash
Here are three easy tips to effectively stop your puppy from biting on the leash
1) Don’t tug back on the leash:
Tugging back on the leash your puppy is biting reinforces your puppy’s desire to bite the leash more because tugging is fun and rewarding for puppies. Instead, immobilize the leash completely making the leash “boring” to your puppy.
2) Provide your puppy with a toy:
After you have successfully immobilized the leash your puppy is biting, the next step is to provide your puppy with an appropriate toy to bite on instead.
This usually works better when you provide your puppy with a toy that is similar in material to the leash your puppy wants to bite. For instance, don’t give your puppy a hard bone because the bone is a drastically different material then the leash. Instead, give your puppy a fabric or fleece toy.
3) Use your puppies food or treats:
Once your puppy has let go of the leash a good way to continue your walk without stopping every second to take the leash out puppies mouth, is to use your puppies’ food to get your puppy’s attention towards you on the walk instead of the leash.
Conclusion
Learning how to stop puppy from biting leash shouldn’t be too hard. To accomplish this, remember redirection is key! Essentially communicate to your puppy, don’t do that but this instead.
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