Allowing a puppy to nibble on your hands communicates a flawed message about his rank in your pack and can cause him to develop into a biter. No higher ranking dog would ever allow a subordinate to teethe on him. A wolf puppy would be put in his place real quick for that, and he'd find something else to chew on, like a stick. One of the most important rules about living around people is "no tooth on a human, ever", and your pup must learn this now, at your knee.

Make sure he has plenty of appropriate things to chew on. Indulge him with stuffed toys, rubber toys and bones. Bones, antlers and hooves offer your little wolf a healthy outlet for his teething. You can get "soup bones" from your butcher. Raw is just fine. Of course, chicken, turkey and ribs are off limits; they splinter. And rawhide can cause tummy problems. To help your little one get through this temporary phase in a healthy way (so he doesn't get the idea he can put his teeth on you), hold a bone or an antler for him as sort of a teething implement as you hold him. He will happily gnaw on that as he sits in your lap.

Every single time you even feel a tooth on you, pull your hand away and say "No!” Impulsive puppies sometimes go from licking to biting, so be on top of this. He must be corrected the moment this happens. His mother wouldn't let him slide, and neither should you. For the more boisterous. insistent and pushy pup, you may have to give him a very quick (but brief) grab of his neck skin. This is far more effective than hitting. Dogs don't hit. But they will bite, and this is what a neck skin grab communicates. Look him in the face and say "No!" But here's the most important piece to this training: As he stops, praise him. Do this as many times as it takes and I guarantee he'll get the message.

A native of Louisiana, SRQ Daily Columnist Gregg Flowers owns Dog's Best Friend Dog Training Services here in Sarasota, where he "teaches dogs and trains people." Gregg became fascinated by our relationship with dogs as a boy in the '60s, and by 1985 had developed his own unique style of working with dogs and their humans.

Dog's Best Friend