How to Stop Puppy Biting and Nipping (In the Right Order)

If you've got a puppy who treats your hands like a chew toy, you already know the feeling. You're tired, your sleeves are shredded, and some part of you is quietly wondering whether you did something wrong. You didn't. Biting and nipping is one of the most normal puppy problems there is. But there is an order to fixing it, and getting the order wrong can make things worse.

This week's video, Your Complete Puppy Biting/Nipping Guide, walks through the whole thing with real puppies and real footage, and it's worth the 27 minutes. Here's the short version of what Kayl and Ken cover, plus a few things to think about before you try any of it at home.

Start before the biting starts

Ken opens with the mistake he sees most: people only deal with biting reactively, after the teeth are already on them. The first step is being proactive, and that's the part that makes everything else possible.

In the first clip, Kayl meets a tiny puppy named Buddy about ten seconds before the camera rolls. She doesn't jump into any kind of correction. A puppy who doesn't know you yet, and who has no idea that being held can be a good thing, is going to be overwhelmed. So she begins by building trust and a little bit of understanding.

The first exercise is almost boring to watch, which is the point. She lets Buddy sniff and nibble at tiny treats, reaches in with her free hand and takes hold of his collar, says "yes," and feeds. Hand in collar, treats arrive. Hand leaves, treats stop. That "yes" is what we call a marker, a word that tells the dog the instant he's done the right thing and that a reward is coming. Her timing matters here too: the puppy doesn't get to eat until her hand is actually on the collar. He learns that a hand reaching in predicts good things, not a fight.

Some people will watch that and say, well, of course he's not going to bite you, you've got chicken on his nose. Kayl says exactly that, and then makes the point that matters. She's rehearsing the exact skill she'll need later. You teach the puppy to stay calm with a hand on the collar before you ever expect him to do it when it counts. That's teach first, test later, and it's the thing most people skip.

Holding a puppy so you're in control, not in a wrestling match

Next comes the part people really want to see. Once the puppy understands that being held isn't scary, Kayl shows how to hold him close against her body with a hand in his collar, tucked between the puppy and herself so his head can't swing around to reach her. On a puppy this small, one or two fingers in the collar is plenty. A collar that's too loose gives a wriggly puppy room to spin, so it should be snug enough that he can't.

The timing has a specific order. The very first thing the puppy hears is your verbal marker for "not that." Kayl skips the word "no" because it's such an everyday word in a house, and picks something like "ah," "hey" or "oops" that fits the puppy's temperament. Then she picks him up and holds until she feels the puppy actually change, and she's clear that there's no magic number of seconds. Some puppies soften in a few seconds. A wound-up puppy chewing a high-value bone in the middle of the zoomies at night might take far longer.

What she's watching for is relaxation. Soft legs, a loose body, a gentler eye, a mouth that's closed without tension in it. When you put your hand near his face and he offers kisses instead of teeth, you've got your answer. And here's the bit I'd underline: if the puppy struggles and you let go, he learns that struggling works. You don't have to yell, shake him or do anything dramatic. You just calmly hold until he stops fighting, then reward the calm.

It's a correction in the McCann sense of the word. It isn't about punishment, and it's the lightest thing that actually creates change. It's there to give the puppy clarity about what you want, which is why it's followed right away by something good. Once Buddy settles, Kayl puts him down and does some sits and spins and a few more collar grabs. She doesn't want the puppy to think the world ends when he gets corrected. She wants him to know she loves him and just doesn't love the biting.

One honest caution, because Kayl gives one too. This is a technique for a three-pound puppy. It would not be the right tool for a sixteen-week-old Rottweiler or lab. Size, age, breed and your own handling all change what's appropriate, and a big, strong pup who doesn't respond to a collar hold may simply be too heavy for it, not untrainable. And a puppy who has done lots of calm collar holds in practice will respond to the gentlest touch, while one who hasn't won't. The training comes first.

Hand play, and what to do with all that energy

The second half of the video is about play, because playtime is usually when biting gets worse. Ken points out that most people struggle to play in a way that's exciting without losing all control, and Kayl shows how. Put a well-fitted collar and a leash or line on the puppy so you can take control quickly. Skip the hand waving over the puppy's face, which a lot of puppies find intimidating and which is a great way to invite teeth. Go under instead. Push the puppy away, lean back and let him come to you. Clap, tickle, push away, clap again. She calls it the clap and slap, and her hands stay close to the collar so she can step in if things get wild.

Why teach hand play at all when you could just hand the puppy a toy? Because Kayl wants the puppy to learn that he can have fun with her without food or toys, and to learn the rules (use your mouth gently, stay off skin and clothes) rather than dodging the problem altogether.

When the puppy still needs somewhere to put that energy, tug is a great outlet. Kayl is blunt about it: tug does not make dogs aggressive, and it's a good way to build your relationship and burn some energy. Then you add rules. The puppy sits, waits for "get it," plays hard, and gives the toy back to sit calmly before it starts again. He's biting the toy instead of you, and he's learning to drop things on cue at the same time.

Her bigger point is about status in the puppy's eyes. If the puppy spends his day running around the yard alone, you're missing chances to be the source of all the fun, the food and the snuggles. The more you're the most interesting thing in his world, the less he wants to bite you. She says many of her own puppies nip maybe twice and that's it.

Be strict for a short stretch, then move on

Kayl's last message is the one I'd tape to the fridge. Dealing with nipping is the unglamorous part of having a puppy. You're correcting him sometimes, and nobody enjoys that. But if you take it seriously early, stay consistent and keep doing all the good stuff around it, it's a phase, not a lifetime. If you're still dealing with it at six, seven or eight months, something got missed along the way, and it's usually the practice, not the puppy.

Notice what ties the whole video together: it's mostly about you. Timing, technique and calm, repeated until it's boring. That's the heart of how we teach at McCann Dogs, where the goal is never to train your puppy for you but to teach you how to do it yourself. A puppy who understands what's expected, with an owner who knows how to show him, is the one who's still a pleasure to live with at two years old.

Want someone to coach you through it?

You can absolutely start with the video and the gear above. But a collar hold is a physical skill, and it's hard to know whether yours is right until someone watches you do it. That's what Puppy Essentials is for. Our instructors show you the technique that suits your puppy's size, age and breed, and they coach you, which is the part a video can't do.

If you're around Burlington, Hamilton, Guelph, Oakville, Ancaster, Dundas, Cambridge or Brantford and you'd like hands-on help, join us for Puppy Essentials in person. Puppy classes tend to fill up, so don't wait until the biting has been going on for weeks.

Not close to a class, or you'd rather work through it on your own schedule? Online Puppy Essentials gives you the same McCann Method from home, with the techniques matched to your puppy.

And if you haven't watched yet, here's this week's video again. Go hold a collar, drop a treat, and say "yes."

Happy Training!