My Puppy is a Freak! (and other myths about puppy hood)

Why does my puppy nips and bite?
Why does my puppy jump up all over me?

Do you have a Puppy?  This answers the questions above rather succinctly.  Something people don't realize about puppies is that they're little attention hounds.  If they get attention for something, they do it more.  Any interaction with a puppy is a chance for a training exercise.   Puppy runs up with a toy, most people don't bat an eye; same puppy goes and grabs a sock or shoe and all heck breaks loose.  So what does that puppy learn?   Playing with your toys, gets me attention, so, I'll do that!  After all, now your chasing me around the house and talking to me, so that's good and fun!

We need to stop trying to think about what we don't want the puppy to do (of course there will be management needs you will have to deal with, but this isn't teaching the puppy not to do things, it's not giving them access while they learn the right things to do).   Teach the puppy what is good (chewing on Kongs and other toys; food enrichment games - Buster cubes and other things that dispense treats; interactive training that turns behaviours into a habit, not just a trick - Oh, you have food!?  I'll work then!).  So what about our puppy myths?

Nipping - All puppies need to nip; I ask a lot of questions when someone tells me their puppy doesn't nip.   Puppies need to learn self control and that teeth on human skin is a bad thing (humans are wimpy fleshy creatures, they can't handle the teeth!).  In order to do that, they have to actually be allowed to make some contact with human flesh.   A good breeder will have taught puppies that human skin is frail and all their fun ends if they make contact with skin (if you've never been nipped by a puppy, it's like little needles).   If the breeder didn't do it, then I want to know what they people have done to keep the puppy from nipping - the last thing I want to hear is something like "we give them a smack on the nose."   If you want to create a dog that is a dangerous biter, never let it make contact with human skin; if you want a dog that may put it's mouth on humans, but never bare down any weight, teach it to nip properly.

Jumping Up - Puppies jump not because they want to dominate you and take over the world; they want attention.   Just ignore the puppy (Mom did this with the puppy as well a LOT more than she had to reprimand them).  Mom easily jumped out of the area if she found the puppies to annoying.  Problem solved: Puppies wanted to play, Mom didn't.  So, puppy jumps, ignore puppy until they do something nicer (sitting, play bow, down etc) and reward THAT.   Better yet, just teach the puppy something that gets lots of attention instead of Jumping (automatic sit when they come to a person, for example).