Do puppies grow out of biting? What age do they stop!

Ouch! Sound familiar? Is your puppy biting you all day long? Wondering exactly when do puppies grow out of biting? This is a tricky question because, like you probably would’ve already guessed, IT DEPENDS!

Yes, it depends. Some puppies grow out of biting around the 6-8-month mark on average, some puppies grow out of biting at the 1-year mark, and some puppies can take these bad biting habits well into their adult lives. Hopefully, your puppy grows out of this biting behavior before then.

When puppies are beginning the teething stage, which usually occurs between weeks 14 and 30 of their lives is when their biting problem is usually of the biggest concern to most puppy owners. It is at this stage in a puppy’s life where any and everything that can fit in their mouth will usually end up in their mouth. Much similar to me as a child. (I’ve digressed)  

So, what exactly does it depend on? Breed type, trainability, health, and personality. I’ll walk you through why each of these factors can play a very strong role in determining when puppies grow out of biting.

Breed Type

Your puppy’s breed type largely controls the rate at which they stop biting your hands, nibbling at your feet, and testing the durability of their dog bed every chance they can get. Some dog breeds are considered to be “aggressive breeds”.

Although we don’t believe there are bad dogs and that there are only bad dog owners, some breeds have made quite a name for themselves in the biting arena. Some aggressive dog breeds are Rottweilers, Doberman Pinschers, German Shepherds, American Pit Bull Terriers, and British Bulldogs.

These dogs tend to take the longest to grow out of biting (if they ever do). Why is that? Well, certain breeds have instinctual aggressive behaviors literally encoded into their DNA.

Even as very tiny puppies these breeds will be seen bullying their siblings to get their mother’s milk or fighting their littermates to get the dog bowl to themselves. These breed types are meant to be strong, assertive, and dominant. They live to be seen as the leader of the pack or the alpha dog.

When an aggressive dog shows their teeth or bites this is its way of asserting dominance. You may even notice them biting you, furniture, other dogs, or their own stuff, although this can become extremely annoying at times, puppies see this as them honing in on their skills.

For these reasons are why aggressive breed puppies grow out of biting much later on in life whereas dogs that are not considered to be “aggressive breeds” can usually drop the bad biting habits much sooner. 

Trainability

Some puppies literally only want to obey you, make you happy, and serve you. While on the other hand, some puppies can be stubborn and only do what they want to do and only when they want to do it.

The reason I’ve added trainability as a factor to consider in determining when puppies grow out of biting is that it is possible to train your puppy to not bite or to stop biting at very early ages in their life.

While most dog owners do not think that their dogs need training, this in fact is incorrect. Whether it’s potty training, training them to lose weight, or training them to stop biting, all dogs can use a little bit of training.

Dog owners that practice bite inhibition training on their puppies has been seen to dramatically quicken their puppies’ “biting stage”. Some dog owners have even been able to completely avoid this stage completely. Whereas dog owners that do not train their puppies will go through the “bite stage” to its fullest extent.

Though training your puppy to stop biting takes time, it is seriously worth it considering all the dollars you would’ve wasted repairing carpets, buying new shoes because yours got attacked by a puppy, or replacing the only standing fan in the house because your puppy chewed through the entire electrical cord. (I’ve digressed)

Personality

Your puppy’s personality, although not directly related to their biting habits can lend a helping hand in determining when they’ll outgrow biting everything. Dogs with upbeat, charismatic, playful personalities tend to hold onto their biting practices for up to an entire year.

High energy dogs like Australian Shepherds, Airedale Terriers, Siberian Husky or Border Collies, just to name a few, are some of the dogs that you can expect to see to take extremely long to knock the habit. Their playful and curious behavior always leads them to interact with their surroundings and exploring the environment.

As opposed to aggressive breed-type dogs, high-energy dogs only bite when they want to play. They are also more aware of their bite pressure when they use their teeth to interact with other dogs or humans than aggressive dogs are.

A super easy hack that I always recommend puppy owners do to calm their puppies down is to get some Zesty Paws Calming Dog Treats (link to Amazon). These treats calm your puppy down and reduce their biting tremendously. Many puppy owners have even seen their puppies biting stop completely when it comes to them nipping at their hands or feet.

Super Secret Tip: If you’re afraid of your puppy biting, playing games like tug of war can lengthen the amount of time it takes your puppy to outgrow biting.

I hope that this article has helped you to understand which category your puppy falls into and that you can safely project when your puppy will outgrow their biting. We know, it sucks when all you want to do is take your pup on a walk but all they want to do is nip and bite at your feet.

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