Surviving Puppy Biting: Leash Biting
We’re wrapping up the Puppy Biting Solutions series this week with a post all about leash biting.
Leash biting is common with puppies. They may do it because they’re overly excited or even frustrated. I don’t worry too much about it with very young puppies (you gotta pick your battles with 8 to 12 week olds), but if the puppy is still doing it at 16-24 weeks, I’m less likely to overlook it.
Here are three options for dealing with puppy leash biting:
1) Management
Use a chain or cable leash until your puppy is out of the leash biting phase.
Sometimes, we turn leash-biting into a habit by drawing a lot of attention to it. We’re concerned about puppy chewing through the leash so as soon as he starts gnawing, we jump right up to stop it. The problem with this is that Puppy learns chewing the leash is a great way to get attention.
Puppy can’t chew through a chain or cable leash so we’re free to ignore him.
2) Two Leashes
If your puppy tends to bite and tug, using two leashes at once can be helpful. Hold a leash in each hand and as soon as the tugging starts, drop the leash he’s tugging—tug isn’t tug with nothing to tug against.
Keep your wits about you and be VERY careful that you don’t accidentally drop both leashes!
3) Strategic Training
Giving your puppy something to do immediately after clipping the leash on works really well to prevent biting. Tossing treats back and forth on either side of you usually works well and then you can transition to Sit, Down and Casual Heeling.
Labrador Sadie was six and a half months old when she came for Board and Train and she had a leash chewing habit. She stood very calmly for the harness, but once the leash came out, her mouth was all over it.
Watch here to see how I used strategic training and rapid fire treats to keep her from biting the leash as we left the house.
Even though I’m using a lot of treats there, I don’t have to do that forever. Once she’s learned how to stay calm and walk next to me instead of grabbing her leash, I can feed treats less often.