When mouthing turns into biting, the puppy on the receiving end will yelp, startling the puppy doing the biting and prompting them to release their “prey.”

This interaction is an essential part of the process for how a puppy learns bite inhibition, meaning their capacity to control how hard or soft they bite down on something sensitive like a playmate.

The feedback a puppy receives from its playmates lets it know when it has gone too far. This, in turn, teaches a puppy not to bite down too hard during play before it causes actual damage.

Play-biting may be cute when a puppy is small, but not when it grows up

It’s important to be aware that your puppy will have a tendency to mouth and bite you when you play with it, and that how you choose to respond to the biting matters a lot!

Play-biting can be cute in the beginning, but remember, anything that you allow your puppy to do to you is something it will think is ok to do to someone else. To puppies, sometimes = anytime. As your puppy's main caregiver, it is up to you to train your puppy what behaviors are acceptable and which are not, especially when it comes to biting.

Since your puppy is going to be an adult dog someday, you need to teach it that it’s not okay to bite people; otherwise, the biting can escalate and lead to your puppy growing up to be an adult dog that causes you or someone else real pain.

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