Puppy Biting & Children
Helping Your Puppy Learn to Play Gently
Puppies are curious, playful and enthusiastic about exploring the world around them. Unfortunately, this often means that hands, feet, clothing and particularly exciting children can quickly become irresistible!
The good news is that puppy biting is a normal part of development, and with consistency, patience and good management, we can help puppies learn how to interact appropriately with their families.
Why Do Puppies Bite?
Puppies explore the world using their mouths, much as young children use their hands. Biting and mouthing are part of normal development, particularly during teething, but biting can also be triggered by:
Play and excitement: Moving feet, waving arms, running and squealing can encourage chasing, grabbing and tugging.
Over-arousal: Sometimes puppies become so excited that they struggle to control themselves. The more excited they get, the harder they may bite.
Frustration: Not getting something they want, or having play interrupted, can result in grabbing and biting.
Tiredness: Just like children, overtired puppies can become silly, excitable and increasingly difficult to settle.
Puppies aren't usually trying to hurt anyone. They're learning how to manage their excitement, regulate their emotions and understand what is acceptable when interacting with people.
Recognising When Your Puppy Is Becoming Over-Excited
One of the most important skills we can teach the family is to recognise a puppy's excitement levels before they reach the biting stage.
Watch for:
Increasingly frantic or energetic play.
Jumping up repeatedly or grabbing clothing.
Chasing feet, hands or moving children.
Becoming less responsive to familiar cues.
Biting becoming faster, harder or more persistent.
Think of your puppy's excitement like a dimmer switch. We want to notice when the excitement is beginning to rise, rather than waiting until they're completely overwhelmed.
This is the ideal time for an adult to redirect the puppy towards an appropriate toy, a calmer activity or some much-needed rest.
Helping Children Understand Puppy Biting
Children and puppies can be wonderful companions, but both need guidance to learn how to interact appropriately with each other.
We want puppies to discover one very important rule:
Gentle play keeps the fun going. Biting makes the fun disappear!
If your puppy begins grabbing or biting the children, teach them to:
Stop moving. Running, squealing, pushing or waving their arms can make the game even more exciting.
Become a Tree. Stand still, keep arms close to the body and avoid engaging with the puppy, provided it is safe to do so.
Walk away calmly when safe. Ideally, children should have access to a baby gate or another safe area where they can separate themselves from the puppy.
Allow the puppy to calm down. Once they've settled, an adult can supervise another opportunity for appropriate interaction.
The children should never have to endure painful biting or be expected to manage a puppy who is already over-excited.
If the puppy is too excited for the children to move away safely, an adult should calmly intervene and separate them.
Having the children leave is often our preferred option, but if the puppy needs to be gently guided away to protect the children, that's absolutely fine too.
The aim isn't to punish the puppy. It's to calmly remove access to the exciting interaction while preventing biting from being rehearsed.
The Importance of a Safe Escape Area
A baby gate or playpen can be an incredibly useful management tool in homes with puppies and children.
It provides a physical barrier so that everyone can safely separate without pushing the puppy away, grabbing collars or becoming involved in a physical struggle.
However, this must never become a game of teasing the puppy.
Children must not deliberately excite the puppy, encourage chasing, wave toys through the barrier or repeatedly approach and retreat to provoke a reaction.
The purpose is to help the puppy learn that biting means the interaction ends, not to create further frustration.
Equally, a puppy's own resting space should remain a positive, peaceful place where they can enjoy chews, toys and uninterrupted rest.
Using a Training Line to Manage Excitement Safely
For puppies who become particularly boisterous or mouthy, a lightweight training line attached to a well-fitting harness can be an incredibly useful management tool.
A short house line can be attached during supervised periods throughout the day, particularly at times when your puppy is known to become over-excited, such as when the children return from school, during playtime or in the evening.
The purpose of the line isn't to correct or punish your puppy, but to allow you to manage situations calmly and safely before biting escalates.
Why Use a Training Line?
When a puppy becomes over-excited and starts biting, owners often instinctively reach for their collar or harness to pull them away. Unfortunately, this brings our hands and bodies directly into biting range.
Using a training line allows an adult to:
Maintain a safe distance between themselves and the puppy's teeth.
Prevent the puppy from repeatedly grabbing clothing, hands or legs.
Calmly guide the puppy away from the children without physically wrestling with them.
Interrupt an escalating situation before the puppy becomes completely overwhelmed.
Guide the puppy towards a quieter area where they can settle.
An adult should always be responsible for holding and managing the line, rather than expecting children to restrain an excited puppy.
Children can be taught to move away and seek a safe space, but they should not be responsible for physically controlling the puppy.
Preventing Biting from Becoming Part of the Routine
Something we want to avoid is a puppy repeatedly biting, grabbing or tugging at family members while they're being physically removed from a situation.
For some puppies, this can become an extension of the game. They're still enjoying the interaction, even though we're trying to end it!
This can create confusing learning experiences, where the puppy receives additional excitement and attention through biting before eventually being separated from the family.
By using a training line, we can calmly guide the puppy away without creating another opportunity for grabbing, wrestling or chasing.
The lesson becomes much clearer:
“When I become too bitey, the interaction calmly ends.”
Remember, we want to intervene as early as possible. If we can recognise the puppy's excitement building and redirect them before biting begins, that's even better!
Important Training Line Safety
A training line should always be attached to a suitable, well-fitting harness rather than a collar.
Keep the line lightweight and manageable, and only use it under direct adult supervision. Never leave a puppy unattended with a trailing line, as it could become caught around furniture, legs or other objects.
When guiding your puppy away, keep the line low and maintain enough distance to prevent biting without pulling them upwards.
All four paws should remain on the floor.
Never use the line to lift, suspend or hold your puppy up by their harness. The aim is simply to create a safe distance and gently guide them away from the situation.
Avoid jerking, dragging or holding the line tight against a struggling puppy. If the puppy becomes distressed or fights against the restraint, use a barrier or another safer management option instead.
Remove the line whenever your puppy is resting, crated or cannot be directly supervised.
Remember, the training line is there to help us manage excitement safely while we continue teaching our puppies how to regulate their behaviour.
Setting Everyone Up for Success
Prevention is always better than waiting for a problem to happen.
Encourage calm, supervised interactions such as asking your puppy to perform a familiar cue, rewarding them for keeping all four paws on the floor, or enjoying gentle play with an appropriate toy.
Avoid rough-and-tumble games, wrestling with hands or encouraging puppies to chase children.
Short, successful interactions are much better than long periods of play that eventually become overwhelming.
Remember, young puppies need plenty of sleep. Sometimes what looks like a puppy wanting more play is actually a puppy who desperately needs some downtime!
Children should also understand that sleeping, eating or resting puppies are to be left alone. Puppies need to feel safe and comfortable in their own space.
Whenever children and puppies are together, a responsible adult should be actively supervising. If this isn't possible, use a suitable barrier to keep them safely separated.
Our Goal: Teaching Calm, Appropriate Interaction
We aren't trying to stop puppies from being playful, confident and enthusiastic. We want to help them develop the skills to manage that excitement appropriately.
By recognising rising excitement, providing safe escape routes, using appropriate management tools and consistently ending interactions when biting begins, we help puppies learn:
“When I'm gentle, my family stays and plays. When I use my teeth, the fun stops.”
These lessons take time, and there will be mistakes along the way. Keep things calm, consistent and positive, and always prioritise the children's safety.
Remember: Children should never be responsible for managing or correcting a puppy's behaviour. Their job is to recognise when play is becoming too much and seek safety. It's the adults who supervise, manage the environment and guide the puppy's learning.
If biting becomes unusually intense, causes injuries, involves stiffening or guarding, or is accompanied by signs of fear or distress, seek individual professional guidance rather than assuming it is ordinary puppy play.
Prevention, management and calm guidance are always preferable to waiting until everyone is overwhelmed.
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