Training a dog not to nip is an truly important aspect of training any new pup. Some pooches do this as a natural form of play, and others as an act of aggression. Whatever the individual case may be, it can be extremely disconcerting if that particular habit has taken a a hold of your dog’s psyche. Do not be too overtly discouraged however, with consistent application of effort, any bad habit can be broken.

Use of the teeth in both play and animal hunting comes quite natural to any four-legged animal. They don’t have hands to utilize, and a natural extension of this (albeit obvious) fact is that they utilize their mouth much more often for physical manipulation. Dogs can indeed be quite fond of gnawing on things, as well, and sometimes this can be a good thing as it can help them to clean their teeth. You would not want your hunting dog to get cavities, would you?

Taking a moment to remember that this kind of behavior comes instinctively to a dog can help you in dealing with the inevitable frustration. One suggestion for this behavior is to avoid promoting it with games like tug-of-war. Another such suggestion might include putting a bit of the substance known as bitter apple on your hands so that if the hound does happen to nip, at least it doesn’t enjoy the taste. Bitter apple can also be used effectively to break shoe chewing behavior as well.

Dogs are pack animals, and ultimately desire to please the alpha: you. The important factor is that they can connect your apparent displeasure with the highly specific action that they themselves took. While I believe by and large that reward based training is much better than using punishment, some behaviors can be problematic to disrupt through reward training exclusively. Jumping on guests is just one such example of highly problematic canine behavior that might not breakdown only using reward-based training.

It is really important, however, that you don’t punish the dog too harshly. Also important is that the punishment is immediately following the incident, so as to ensure that the mental connection of the punishment to the problem behavior is made. This is one reason you might consider the use of a remote citronella spray collar. These are only mildly irritating (instead of injurious) to the dog, but not genuinely harmful, and may be used from a distance so that the animal does not connect the punishment with the owner. Thereby averting an unnecessary fear response to said owner.

Thanks for reading this dog training tips article. You might also consider checking out: gun dog training videos and best gun dog boots.

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