How to Stop a Bichon Frise Biting
When you first bring your Bichon Frise puppy home, it might seem cute that he is biting your fingers. Rest assured though, what now appears to be gentle love bites will quickly turn into terrible painful bites. It is bad enough if you end up getting bitten badly by your dog but if a friend, family member or stranger gets bitten by your precious pup then you could very well find yourself in a lot of trouble. Not only will you most likely have a hospital bill to pay for, but you will also run the risk of having your dog taken away from you. When this happens, the dog is usually put down. How would this be fair for your puppy, especially if you never took the time to properly train him.
It is important to make sure that you are stopping this behavior right from the start. The moment your puppy starts to bite, remove yourself from the puppy and say the “no” or “bad” command. Doing this enough times will help the puppy to understand that it is not okay to bite and it certainly will not bring the attention that is wanted. Dogs want the approval of their owners. If they feel that they have made you unhappy, they are unhappy and they will strive to correct whatever mistake they made. Help your puppy understand what the mistake was so that he can learn from it.
If that is not doing the trick, you could wear a glove that is coated bitter apple or some other type of aversive substance. This way, when the Bichon Frise goes to bite, he will taste something terrible. It will deter him from wanting to have anything to do with biting you ever again since you taste so bad. This usually does the trick for the puppies with the biting problem.
There is also the chance that your puppy could be biting you in order to try to take over the spot of “alpha.” Dogs are pack animals by nature and there is usually two contenders for the alpha spot. If you think that this may be the case with your puppy, you need to make sure that you are correcting this as soon as possible. Never miss an opportunity to correct your dog’s bad behavior. The Bichon Frise bounce back pretty quick so there is no need to worry about hurt feelings.
You can also make sure that the boundary lines are clearly outlined. The puppy needs to learn what spaces are yours. At the same time though, you want to make sure that your puppy is getting an area that is his and his alone. Therefore, there will not be such a power struggle over territory. The sooner you do all of this the better. You do not want to wait until the biting has gotten completely out of hand before doing anything. Do not waste time. Correct the biting issue that your puppy is experiencing before it is too late.