French Bulldog puppies are adorable and one of their cutest behaviors is when they play.
However, they do have a reputation for taking quick little bites during playtime.
This behavior isn’t such a problem when they’re young, but it can be a serious issue as they get older and their bites get stronger.
French Bulldog puppies bite during playtime, for self-defense, or just out of curiosity.
There are ways that you can train your puppy not to bite.
Here’s what French Bulldog puppy owners should know about why they bite and how you can train them not to.
Why French Bulldog Puppies Bite
There are plenty of reasons why your French Bulldog puppies can bite when they’re not supposed to.
It’s important for us to make a distinction that there is sometimes that your French Bulldog puppies should be biting things—but that should only be toys during playtime.
Training your dog that it’s okay to bite certain toys, but not people or furniture, is an important part of raising French Bulldog puppies.
Here are three big reasons why your French Bulldog puppy is biting inappropriately.
Self-Defense
French Bulldogs, just like every breed of dog, bike for self-defense.
Your dog’s teeth are their primary weapon when it comes to defending themselves from something that they see as a threat.
Your French Bulldog puppy might be taking a quick nip at your hand because it feels threatened.
Puppies that have not been properly socialized need specialty care so that they can learn that humans are friendly and trustworthy and not potential threats.
Puppies can also buy out of self-defense if they are sick or stressed.
If your puppy has started taking nips at your hand out of nowhere, it might be a sign you should see a vet.
Play
If you’ve ever watched puppies playing with each other, you’ll notice that they bite each other fairly often.
However, this play biting behavior is never intended to harm other puppies.
Puppies and dogs bite each other during play, but these playful bites are much lighter than the real thing.
Puppies learn pretty quickly that biting too hard can cause a problem when other dogs yelp or snap back during play.
One problem that we face is that humans don’t play bite like dogs do.
Your puppy might think it’s just trying to play with you by taking a quick bite, but it just doesn’t understand that any biting can be harmful to humans and should be avoided.
Curiosity
When you’re curious about an object, you pick it up with your hands.
When your puppy is curious about an object, it might try to give it a quick bite.
Puppies are naturally curious about the world around them and they often express that curiosity by giving objects, and sometimes people, a quick nibble.
How To Stop Your Frenchie From Biting
If your Frenchie puppy has been biting, we’ve got some good news.
There’s some very effective training techniques that you can start today to get your puppy to stop biting.
There’s no such thing as a bad French Bulldog puppy.
There are only French Bulldog puppies that need a little bit more training.
Start with these three steps and your puppy will be well behaved in no time.
Proper Training
There’s a few proper training techniques that you can use to stop your Frenchie from biting.
The first thing that you should try doing is letting out a quick yelp in a high-pitched voice whenever your puppy bites.
When dogs bite each other, they let each other know that a bite went too far by letting out a yelp. If you do the same, your puppy will quickly get the hint.
You should also avoid playing with your hands.
Whenever it’s playtime with your new French Bulldog puppy, you should break out the chew toys so that they know what is appropriate to bite and what’s not.
Don’t Let Them Play Bite You
This is one of the big training tips that people often overlook.
While your French Bulldog is still a puppy, biting isn’t as big of an issue as it’s going to be when they’re adults.
However, now is the time to teach them that biting isn’t appropriate so that they don’t develop a problematic behavior later in life.
This means not allowing any play biting while they’re still a puppy.
Even though it might be cute when your puppy takes a quick nip of your hand, you want to make sure that your puppy doesn’t get used to biting people.
Quick Tips To Reduce Improper Biting Behavior
Here’s a few more quick tips that you can incorporate into your daily routine with your new Frenchie puppy.
These tips will help your puppy to understand that biting isn’t appropriate and it will give you ways of interacting with your dog that don’t promote biting.
- Play with toys, not with hands
- Don’t let your dog bite your feet as a way of playing
- Avoid reaction to bites with play-like behaviors such as starting playtime, running away, or pets
- Applying bitter flavored spray to gloves is a great way to condition your dog to not bite
- Think like a dog. When your puppy bites your hand, let out a quick yelp to let them know you’re hurt in a language they understand
Never Hit Your French Bulldog Puppy!
It should go without saying, but you should never hit your bulldog puppy.
Not only is this animal abuse, it won’t actually get your dog to stop the behavior that you’re concerned about.
Hitting your dog is only going to teach it that you are the threat that it’s worried about.
This will make it more likely to bite as well as developing other behavioral problems.
No Biting, But Make Sure To Accommodate Them To Hands Near Their Mouth
While it’s important to make sure that your dog is inviting your hands, you still need to make sure that your dog gets used to having hands near its mouth.
This might seem counterintuitive, but this is going to help you out in the long run.
If your dog gets used to having your hand near its mouth without biting, this is going to make it easier for vets to take care of your dog, to give your dog medicine, and it will help your dog understand that hands just aren’t for biting.
French Bulldog Bite Force
Your French Bulldog has a bite force that is estimated to be between 180 and 230 pounds per inch.
This low to average when compared with the average dog bite force which is between 230 and 250 PSI.
However, even though your Frenchie has a low bite force for a dog, that’s still enough to break skin or cause a serious injury.