How To Stop A Cairn Terrier Biting

Biting is one of the top methods a dog uses to express and protect itself. As puppies a Cairn Terrier will do a lot of biting and nipping because puppies are teething. Dogs have to be taught not to bite. They need to learn that biting hurts and it will not be tolerated. With a Cairn Terrier it is very important that you are firm and stand your ground or this little dog will just ignore you and keep on with its bad biting behavior.

Training your dog to not bite starts when they are a puppy. A dog will learn many important things when it is young. This is the best time to set rules and teach your dog who is boss. A Cairn Terrier must be taught right away that he is not the boss. This breed is quick to take over a leadership role if he can’t identify who the leader is. Once you have established a leadership role, you will see tat he is eager to please you and that training goes much smoother. When your dog learns early on that you are the boss, he will listen better and he will be more likely to follow your commands. You can then work on teaching him not to bite.

Provide Alternatives

When you are going through the process of teaching your dog not to bite, you have to give him things he is allowed to chew and bite on. Toys and bones are the perfect alternatives. Provide a variety of toys and bones for your dog. Pay attention to what likes and does not like. This way you will be able to make sure you get things for him to chew on that he will actually be interested in chewing on.

Don’t Encourage Biting

Many dog owners do not even realize that their dog’s biting habit is directly linked to the fact that they encourage it. Playing games where you let them nip or bite you only encourages this bad behavior. You have to react every time your dog bites. The best thing to do is to loudly say “ouch” or some other simple phrase that lets your dog know you do not like the biting. Then walk away from him.

If you ever watch dogs playing you will see that when one bites the other too hard they will yelp loudly. Your exclamation of pain is similar and is something your dog will understand. He will eventually learn that you do not like the biting and he won’t do it. By walking away and ignoring him he will see that this behavior ends play time and he will learn not to do it if he wants to continue playing.

Consistency is Key

It is very important that everyone who comes in contact with your dog practices the same technique of vocalizing pain and then walking away. This is especially true for children. It can be very difficult to teach a dog not to bite children since they do not often recognize he authority of children. They see children as followers or part of the pack, just like them. They think they are equals and will not listen to their commands. If children let the dog bite them then he will continue the behavior.

A dog has to be trained consistently not to bite. Nobody can let him bite. Every time he bites he must be shown it is not okay. If you are consistent and everyone follows the same technique then your dog should quickly learn that biting is not proper behavior.