How to teach a dog to stop biting and mouthing

What “puppy mouthing” actually means

In Proof this is a skill in its own right, because teeth on skin is normal puppy communication — redirect it before adult jaws arrive.

You’ll need: A tug or plush toy always within reach during play

The stages

These steps are a draft pending review by a credentialed trainer. They describe standard positive-reinforcement marker training; the app carries the same notice on every session screen.

1. Stage 1 — Skin ends the game

   Goal: Play continues on toys, pauses on skin

   1. The instant teeth touch skin, go still and briefly uninteresting. No shrieking, no pushing — both read as play.
   2. Offer a toy the moment the puppy re-engages politely; teeth on toy keeps the game going.

   If it goes wrong

   • Puppy escalates when you go still — grabbing trousers, ankles? Step over a gate for twenty seconds. The game leaving the room is the consequence.
   • Witching-hour frenzy every evening? That is a tired puppy, not a training problem. Enforce a nap; most “biting problems” are sleep problems.

2. Stage 2 — Soft mouth around hands

   Goal: Puppy takes treats gently and licks rather than grabs

   1. Feed from a flat palm; a grabby mouth gets a closed fist and a pause, a soft mouth gets the food.
   2. Hand-feed part of meals this way. Gentle becomes the default setting.

   If it goes wrong

   • An adult dog that bites hard in play or guards when mouthing? Beyond this exercise — book a qualified trainer rather than escalating at home.

How long does it take?

Most foundation skills reach their bar in two to four weeks of short daily sessions. Adolescence can temporarily un-stick anything, which is normal.

Proof does not put a timeline on an individual skill, and neither should anything else — the honest answer depends on the dog in front of you, how often you practise, and where you practise. What it does instead is measure: every session records how many reps landed, so progress is a number rather than a feeling.

Proving it in 3 different places

A behaviour that only works in the kitchen is situational, not trained. Puppy mouthing counts as proven in Proof once it clears the bar above at the top stage in 3 genuinely different contexts:

• Indoors — the quiet room where everything works
• Garden — outdoors, but home turf
• Street — pavements, traffic, passing people
• Park — other dogs, long grass, real distraction
• Somewhere new — a place the dog has never worked before

Proof also expires. Leave a proven skill for two months without asking for it and it returns to the daily plan as a refresher, because that is what actually happens to trained behaviour.