When Do Puppies Stop Biting Everything?

If you've just adopted a puppy, you'll have noticed they bite absolutely everything. Something that might seem funny at first, but that can turn into a behavioural problem over time.

If you're wondering when your puppy will stop biting, you're in luck, since by following this simple advice you'll manage to redirect that bad behaviour towards a healthier one, such as using a chew toy.

Why Do Puppies Bite Everything?

This isn't actually destructive behaviour or anything like that — it's simply their particular way of getting to grips with the new world around them. Lacking hands like humans, they use their mouth to explore.

Biting the bed, our slippers, the furniture or anything they come across is their way of discovering new materials, starting to control the strength of their bite, and entertaining themselves — quite curious, isn't it?

Another reason a puppy bites everything is because it eases their gum pain as their teeth come in, what we call the teething period. When their milk teeth come through, or when they switch from milk teeth to adult teeth, the pain is so intense they need to chew something to ease it.

How Do I Stop My Puppy Destroying Everything?

Puppies need to bite things, since it's entirely natural and even necessary for their proper physical and emotional development. But we need to steer our puppy towards controlled, destructive behaviour.

That is, we need to stop them chewing things they shouldn't. Ideally, buy a dog chew toy, or two, good quality so they don't break and accidentally choke our dog. The chew toy should be the only thing they bite or try to destroy.

To do this, every time we see them biting something, we should get their attention, correct them, and take away whatever they're biting. Right after, we'll give them the chew toy and even encourage them to play with it, to bite it. And when they do, we'll praise them. This is the right way to teach them what they can and can't bite.

• How to correct a dog properly

Remember puppies don't learn quickly, so be very patient, and never get angry with them (let alone punish or scold them).

My Puppy Bites My Hands and Feet

It's probably very funny at first, but as time passes their teeth will get stronger and stronger, just as they'll keep growing. We should never allow a dog or puppy to bite us, not even in play.

To fix this, we need to correct that behaviour. When our puppy bites our hand or foot, we'll correct them and grab a toy/chew toy to play with instead, so the puppy only bites the chew toy and not us.

Although it might seem unimportant, it's essential we teach our dog not to bite a person from puppyhood. It's a basic, essential part of their training.

At What Age Do They Stop Biting Everything?

If you're wondering how many months it takes for a puppy to stop biting everything, you should know it will take a bit longer than you may have initially thought, since there are two crucial stages in their development.

Around four weeks old, their milk teeth start coming in, at which point they start biting everything. They'll carry on with this behaviour for several months, since it's their way of discovering the world.

When they're around four months old, they'll switch from milk teeth to adult teeth, so they'll go back to biting everything again, though this time to ease their gum pain.

Dogs stop biting everything a few months after we've taught them not to — that is, a puppy won't stop biting things in one or two weeks; it will take longer than that. Even so, from around five or six months old they settle down quite a bit, and if we've taught them well, they won't bite anything they shouldn't.