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Dogs bite for a variety of different reasons. As a dog owner, you owe it to your pet to understand these reasons. Here, we will look at the reasons dogs bite and the methods to train them not to bite.

Sometimes, the puppy fails to learn not to bite. As a puppy, your dog will play constantly with their siblings. When they bite another pup, what happens? That puppy yelps and withdraws from the play. On that note, if your pup bites you when playing, do the same thing; yelp and stop playing. they'll learn what appropriate play is all about and get the message.

1. Give Alternatives

Never play with your dog only using your hands. They cannot associate your hands with play. If your hands look like a toy they will be treated like a toy. So always use toys when playing with your dog, and always have plenty of toys available to them. This is so they always have something to do and don't get frustrated.

2. No Aggressive Play

A game of tug of war is no-no, folks.

3. Socialize Them

To minimize the likelihood of them biting a stranger, make sure to socialize them. Let your dog meet many different types of people, and other animals as young as you can start introducing them. The younger your dog is the better. The best time to start socializing your dog is between 12 weeks and 14 months.

As an adult, dogs can bite because of they are confused about their role in the household. They may think they're the boss or "alpha" dog and you are trying to invade their territory. Breaking the dog of this is fairly simple and teaches that YOU are the alpha. Those ways are:

4. You Always Sit Higher Up

You should always sit higher than your dog. The alpha always sits in higher places. So don't let your dog on the couch, chairs, and especially keep them off the bed.

5. Make Sure You are in Control

Not giving them attention when they demands it from you. If they walk up and place their head under your hand, ignore them.

6. You Eat First Eat your meal and wash up BEFORE feeding your dog.

7. No Games in Where You Can Lose Another reason not to play tug of war or wrestle is because those are games dogs play with their packed to find out who's top dog. If you lose these types of games, your dog sees it as you being the weaker member of the pack. Avoid playing games like this with your dog.

8. Go Where You Want

Always be in control of where you're walking when walking your dog, and be the first in the door.

9. Reprimand Them

If your dog happens to bite you then sternly say "OUCH" and immediately stop paying attention to them.

10. One on the Snout

Rap them gently on the nose and say to them "no biting!" I do NOT mean to beat the dog, but just a little rap on the snout with a newspaper or even your fingers. Lightly, lightly, lightly!

11. A Light Spritz

Have a spray bottle handy. Anytime your dog bites spritz them with the water in the bottle. If you want to make the bottle more affective, put a little apple vinegar in it and dilute it with water. Then when you spritz them it's more than just getting wet. It will have a bad smell that your dog doesn't like.

12. Illness

Older dogs that begin to bite are a whole different ball game. This can be due to pain or the loss of sight or hearing that causes the animal to startle. These are simple and easy to remedy with either pain medication or simply telling people to be sure the dog is aware of them before approaching or petting it.

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