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You will have noticed (probably to your cost) that puppies like to chew. They explore the world through their teeth and they particularly like nibbling people! While this is tolerable in a puppy, having a fully grown dog bite on your arm, even playfully, can be a painful experience. Teaching bite inhibition will not stop your puppy chewing on your hands completely, but it will teach him that human skin is very delicate. If he is ever going to close his jaws around a human hand or leg he must do so very gently. This has two advantages over just telling him off if he bites you: 1. Trying to stop a young puppy biting you completely is very difficult. As soon as he gets excited he is bound to bite. 2. Stopping him biting altogether teaches him nothing about the strength of his jaws. If a puppy is taught to bite gently the chances are that, if he is put in a situation where he feels forced to bite, he will initially not break the skin. Teaching bite inhibition to your puppy is very simple. Basically you just copy what puppies do to each other when they play. When play gets a bit rough resulting in one puppy biting another, the injured dog squeals, stopping the game for a few minutes. This way they learn to play moderately gently in order to keep the game going. So, next time you are playing with your puppy, choose a level of biting which is not acceptable to you. As soon as your puppy bites, squeal hard and turn your back on him for 30 seconds. Your puppy will soon realise that, just as when playing with other dogs, in order to carry on the game he must be very gentle. Over time you can decrease the amount of pressure you allow before squealing. How quickly your puppy responds depends on how consistent you are and how accurately you time your squeals.
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