Puppy biting, jumping and lead manners

All three of these get worse if you respond the way that feels natural. That is what they have in common, and it is why they are on one page.

Puppy biting

Puppies explore with their mouths and teethe until about six months. The goal is not to stop the mouth from happening — it is to teach that human skin ends the fun.

1. Have a chew within reach at all times. When teeth land on you, put the chew where the hand was. Redirect, do not scold.
2. If the teeth come back, end it. Stand up, walk away, no talking, for twenty seconds. Repeat. Play stops when teeth touch skin — that is the whole lesson.
3. Check the clock. Biting that spikes in the evening is usually an overtired puppy. The answer is a nap in the crate, not more training.
4. Do not squeal or yank your hand away. Both look like a game. Slow and boring is what works.

Expect this to take weeks, not days, and to get briefly worse around teething.

Jumping on guests

The dog jumps because it works — someone looks at it, touches it or speaks to it. Every one of those is a reward.

1. Teach the settle mat first (see the first two weeks). Jumping is not really trainable until the dog has something else to do.
2. Put the dog on the mat before you open the door, with something to chew.
3. Brief the guest: no eye contact, no touching, no talking until the dog has four feet on the floor. This is the part people skip and it is the part that matters.
4. When all four feet are down, the guest crouches and says hello. Feet leave the floor, the guest stands up and turns away.
5. For the interim, a lead on the dog when the bell rings gives you something to hold that is not the dog's collar.

Loose-lead walking on a busy pavement

A small dog on a narrow pavement has less room to make mistakes, and a tight lead makes everything worse — dogs pull into pressure.

• Harness, not collar, and a fixed 1.2–1.8 m lead.
• Stop when the lead goes tight. Not a jerk — just stop, stand still. Walk on the moment there is slack. The rule the dog learns: tight lead means nothing happens.
• Reward at your side. Deliver treats level with your leg. The treat position teaches the walking position.
• Practise in the corridor first, where there is nothing interesting. Starting on a busy street is starting at the hardest level.
• Build in sniff breaks on cue. "Go sniff" as a release makes the sniffing a reward for walking nicely rather than a competing activity.

Socialisation, correctly understood

Socialisation is not meeting as many dogs and people as possible. It is positive or neutral exposure to the things the dog will live with, at a distance where it stays relaxed. Forcing a worried puppy into a crowd does the opposite of socialising it.

For a city dog, the list that matters:

• Surfaces: metal grates, lift floors, wet pavement, stairs
• Sounds: lifts, traffic, buggies, bin lorries, the intercom
• Handling: paws, ears, collar held, being lifted
• People at a distance: hi-vis, hats, umbrellas, bikes
• Calm dogs, briefly — not a free-for-all at the park

The test for every item is the same: is the puppy loose and curious, or frozen and tense? If it is tense, you are too close.

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