Puppy and Pitbull Teething

The outgrowth of puppy biting is a day that every dog owner relishes but what if it never comes?

Understandably there is a lot of caution around pitbulls, especially considering their powerful jaws and sharp gnashers; so let’s investigate when exactly your growing pitbull should have stopped their exhaustive and normal puppy biting.

And, moreover Is there a way to determine what’s puppy biting and what is budding dangerous behaviour? And what should you do when you’re faced with the latter?

Pay no worries we will go through all you need to know when dealing with a teething pitbull…

Why Do Dog’s “Teeth”?

Teething in dogs is much like teething in humans; simply your puppy’s teeth will be falling out around the 12-16 week mark accompanied by some rambunctious biting for months to come. All this growth and the loss of puppy teeth causes plentiful pains that are relieved by putting pressure on the area, hence the biting.

Puppy biting isn’t all bad though! This time offers you a great opportunity to help your puppy learn about social cues and manners that you’ll want them to have later in life when those tiny baby teeth and jaws turn into a much more dangerous vessel especially in the case of a pitbull.

What is Normal Teething Behaviour?

Teething symptoms can cause plenty of behaviors often misdiagnosed as simply bad behaviour such as nipping, chewing on your favourite pair of shoes and any other remotely destructive action using their curious mouths.

We navigate the world with our opposable thumbs and dexterous hands but dogs aren’t afforded this luxury and must utilise their mouths, hypersensitive sense of smell and sound to operate amongst us. The latter two won’t cause any not so pleasant behaviours but any dog that utilises their mouth when playing or identifying your passport for example will raise alarm. No matter how irritating, these behaviours are incredibly normal and simply need redirecting if you’d like your dog to be a bit less mouthy as many do.

What is not normal however is aggressive behaviour through the medium of the tooth. As much as a grumpy puppy with a smaller jaw and smaller teeth may be cute, not demonstrating appropriate use of the mouth in puppyhood can lead to aggressive biting in the future. This might be easier to navigate with a chihuahua for instance but if you have a hulking pitbull then you’ll need to be especially serious about this redirection.

Redirecting Puppy Teething

Training dogs isn’t as difficult as you might think. It simply just takes patience and understanding which definitely can be difficult when faced with a teething puppy’s path of destruction.

The method of redirection is simple, when your puppy is biting or chewing something it shouldn’t say a firm “no!” before offering them an appropriate item to chew such as a toy or even a frozen kong to provide extra relief to those swollen gums.

The least offensive biting and nipping comes from a smaller puppy so you have plenty of time to instil new behaviours through redirection before a more oppressive jaw appears and none seem as aggressive at the pitbull jaw.

Are Pitbulls Naturally Aggressive?

Pitbulls have a bad rap and are labelled as characteristically aggressive dogs when it’s simply not the case. It is true that the bite force of a pitbull is significantly firmer than many other breeds of dog but towards people and dogs they are as loving as any companion breed.

The history of the pitbull is fraught and unfortunate due to their significant presence within dog fighting which is not at all the fault of the pitbull but reckless people that have opted to train them for such a disastrous event. The pitbull’s appeal in dog fighting is down to their harsh and muscular appearance, ironic considering their sweet nature.

Do Pitbulls Teeth Aggressively?

Normal puppy biting should tail off around the 6 month mark but during this period many puppies have found fun in chewing and nipping and so can maintain these behaviours into adulthood.

Pitbulls do not have any teething behaviours that aren’t present in any other breed of dog, the only difference comes in the repercussions if this behaviour isn’t properly redirected thanks to their exceptionally powerful jaws.

Pitbulls will not bite with full force unless trained and encouraged to do so when they’re under duress so if you’re playing tug of war or chasing your pitbull with some leftover puppy biting tendencies around the park you aren’t going to lose a limb. You might however, get slightly hurt like with any dog whose nipping hasn’t been adequately redirected.

Conclusion

Pitbulls are not characteristically aggressive dogs and so do not bite as such, they teeth much like any puppy and this behaviour should and can easily be redirected with some simple training. The puppy biting period is tiresome but with a dedicated and patient dog owner your hands and shoes should be chew free.