Episode #52 The Puppy Biting Zones

Learn about the puppy zones and how to identify which zone your puppy is in - then use that information to get better training results and less puppy biting.

Transcript

speaker 0:   0:00
This is The Puppy Training Podcast Episode #52: The Puppy Biting Zones. This podcast is designed to help you on your journey of becoming best friends through love and learning as you train your own dog from home, and I'm here to help you every step of the way. This is The Puppy Training Podcast, and I'm your host, Amy Jensen. 

speaker 0:   0:26
Hey, everybody! How's your week going? Today, I'm really excited to teach you a new concept, maybe something that you haven't thought about before in terms of puppy training, and I want to explain it to you today. I taught a class on this this week in my program, my online training program, and I taught a class on puppy biting, and I introduced what we call the zones. We're able to tell which zone our puppy's in and able to manage their behavior and know when to train and when to groom and all of those different things based on the zone that our puppy's in. This helps immensely with the puppy biting stage, so I'm excited to explain those to you today. But first, if you haven't heard of our program, I want to let you know a little bit about what we do. We offer an online puppy training school with puppy prep lessons and videos where you can go and train your puppy on your own time by reading the lesson and watching the video and, as I mentioned, we teach classes as well, so you can come to online puppy class. We have a six-week course that's running. We also have an intermediate training course for the little bit older dog, and we help you take that train to the next level in that second course. We also teach individual classes. For example, this week we talk that puppy biting class. We have classes on body language, kids and puppies, crate training, and many more. We also offer a live one on one coaching so that we can flip our phones around and I can help coach you as you train your puppy from home, and the 'ask the trainer' page where you can ask us any question you want. You can also read other people's questions and the answers that we've given them. There's a lot of resources on our site We understand that it's very comprehensive, and we want you guys to get the answers and help that you need when you need them most, so we've tried to make a very robust program that is everything you're going to need to raise your puppy. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out. It's from BaxterandBella.com. 

speaker 0:   2:13
All right, let's get to the zones. I'm super excited to teach you about them. There are four zones and the first one I've identified as calm. I've even made this blue. Blue is a color that's very calm and soothing, so when you think of your puppy in a nice, calm disposition, they're relaxed, they settle easily, maybe somewhat sleepy, this is the time when they would settle down and chew a toy, they have very slow movements, so zone one is calm. The next zone is called playful. We made this one green. It's a little more awake. It's a little more energetic. Your puppy, when they're in the playful zone, is attentive. They're focused. They're very responsive. They're somewhat gentle in this phase, and they listen really well. The third zone is energized, so this one's orange. Your puppy's more excited. Your puppy exhibits quick movements. There's lots of change and activity. They go from one thing to the next to the next. They'll still engage with you in this zone, but they really, really want to play. They're pleading to play with you in this zone, and their patience is probably a little shorter than it was in the playful zone. The fourth zone we call over the threshold. When our puppies get to this zone, they're very bitey. It seems somewhat aggressive. They won't redirect. They won't focus, they're too amped up there, very rambunctious. I know most of us have experienced what we call the puppy zoomies, where puppies cruising around our house like crazy, you can see their minds aren't really focused or thinking. They're just trying to get out energy, so four we call over the threshold. The important part of these zones is to recognize that when your puppy reaches over the threshold, not a lot of successful productivity is likely to happen. As described in The Phantom of the Opera's music, past the point of no return. That's the music that comes to mind when my puppy reaches zone four: over a threshold, just not a lot of productivity is going to happen. It's just not.

speaker 0:   4:14
How do we know what zone our puppy is in? First, I like to pay attention to their body language. You can tell, generally speaking, by their facial expressions, the way that they handle themselves. If your puppy sprawled out on the floor, he's definitely in a calm zone. If he's looking at you with those big, attentive eyes and he's willing to do a 'sit-to-say-please', but he's generally somewhat settled or calm, that would probably be the playful zone. That's a great time to do some training, That third zone if he's running around and kind of playful, and he's actually pretty energized, he could be jumping around or coming at your feet or coming at your ankles, and he's really just wanting to play, that's a great time to start to play with them. So we pay attention to what their body looks like and try to identify the zones. Pay attention to the noise levels as they go through these play sessions, if the puppy's getting more grow-ly, or maybe they're starting to play bark. That's generally telling you that they're escalating through those zones. How about attention? Are you able to get your puppy's attention? In that playful zone, zone two, and zone three, you can get your puppy's attention, even if they're energized. In that zone three, your puppy will still redirect, your puppy will still pay attention when asked. Is it now a good time for training? That would be another good question to ask. If your puppy's in zone three, maybe you could do a little bit, but I would definitely interject play. I would play and train. When they're in the playful phase or playful zone, that's a great time to train. They're very attentive, they want to work with you, they want to listen. The calm zone, probably not. Your puppy's a little to chill, maybe a little too tired or too relaxed to do much training.  And then, lastly, can I settle my puppy? Am I able to bring my puppy down through these zones? That's a great skill to have, is to let your puppy play, and then we work on settling them, and then we let them play, and then we work on settling them, and we kind of flip-flop. We go back and forth so that we're managing our puppy's behaviors through these zones to prevent them from getting into zone four and also recognizing there's a time limit there, where our puppy has a certain attention span and eventually if we push it too far, our puppy's going to get into zone four, where they're overly tired and they can't focus anymore. 

speaker 0:   6:22
How do we recognize when our puppy has reached over the threshold? If you've ever been to the store and you've seen a child, whether it's your own child or someone else's child, throw a fit because they want something. This is kind of what our puppies get into. Let's say this child in the store and they really want something on their parent is really trying their best to redirect them, move them past the item that they're wanting, and this child is just not having it. They start to cry, they're screaming, they're arching their backs, the parent tries to pick them up, and the child's trying to get out of their hands, or maybe they've thrown themselves on the store floor. They're kicking and screaming. They can't have what they want. This parent is doing everything they can to try to convince this child or trying to reason with them or trying to distract them with something else, and the child's just not listening. They're just gone, they're over a threshold and even to the point that the parent might grab the item and say, 'You know what? Fine. Here you go', and they give it to them, and then the child throws it back on the ground, 'I don't want this anymore', and that's really what we're talking about here, is the puppy is over the threshold. When our puppies get to the point that they're super growly and bitey, they can't focus. They have zero attention. You try to redirect them with something, and they just won't do it. They're probably in zone four over the threshold. 

speaker 0:   7:38
What can we do about it? Number one is what is my dog communicating to me? I always ask myself that question. What zone is my dog in? By reading their signs and signals, I can start to identify what zone my dog is in and then work with them according to their levels. If my puppy's in a calm zone, that's when I'm going to groom. That's what I'm going to rub down their bodies and give them that little puppy massage. There are different things we can do in each zone, recognizing what they're able to handle. We're also going back and forth from settle to play and settle to play so that we are managing those zones and then we're stopping play in zone three. If you can start to recognize your puppy signals and signs and know, really clearly, which zone they're in, you know when to stop play. You'll be in zone three playing, maybe Frisbee, or fetch, or tug, and I would stop play while it's still positive. While your puppy can still focus on you, I'm ending play. By listening to what our puppies telling us you'll really start to be able to see these different zones. For example, I'm pretty sure if I ask you, what does your puppy's calm zone look like? You can describe that to me. You can explain what your puppy looks like in the calm zone. How about the playful zone? Have you seen your puppy in the playful zone? You know what I'm talking about. They come to your feet, they sit, they look at you. They want to interact with you. They want to engage with you, but they're in a very good place. The energize zone, more playful. Our puppy's bouncing around. He's probably coming at our feet or ankles, trying to initiate some play and get us going. That's the energize zone, and then over the threshold zone. I'm guessing you've been there, too, and that you understand exactly what your puppy's signs and signals are that he's overly tired and he can't focus or redirect at the moment. 

speaker 0:   9:22
What can you do in these different zones? If you recognize these zones and you know what zone your puppy's in, like I said, in the calm zone, that's a great time to build a bond with your dog. It's a great time to do body handling exercises. Also giving them appropriate chew toys. That's when they'll settle down and just chew a toy. Most afternoons you'll see this with your puppies, where they're just happy to just relax and chill a little bit. In the playful zone, this is when they're seeking some interaction and they're trying to get your attention, but in a calm way. This is a perfect time for training. When you notice your puppy's in the playful zone, doing those 3 to 5 minutes sessions multiple times a day, playing some training games with them, pulling out the puzzles, giving them activities to do, but really, training is great in this zone because they are so attentive, focused, responsive and they listen well. When you get to the energize zone, they're pleading for play. They really just want to play with you. Some of us interpret it as a little bit aggressive. They're coming at us, lunging at us and then backing off. They're trying to nip our heals or get our toes, and if you've ever watched a litter of puppies play, this is how they play with each other. They go at each other, biting tails and ankles and ears, really just trying to get each other involved in the play. Puppies don't realize that we like to play, too, only we like to have a toy between us. When a puppy plays with another puppy, there's often not another toy in between them, they're just playing with each other. They're biting each other. So we just teach our puppies that 'Hey, I like to play to and we can play kind of like you like to play, however we need to use a toy. A toy has to be between us because I don't really like it when you put your teeth on me'. So that's where this puppy biting thing comes in, where your puppy is going to want to play like a dog. They're going to want to use their mouth to play. We're just going to teach them that, actually, when they're in that energized zone, we're gonna pull out the toys, the long, plush toys that they can sink their teeth into, and then we can hold one end and they can bite the other end, and we can move them gently around the room and really get some of that energy out. Also, tug, Frisbee, fetch are great in this zone. I use a target hand a lot in the zone. If my puppy's running at me, and I know that he's gonna bite my ankle or jump on my back or something, I'm throwing out a target hand, much like the touch cue, where I want to redirect my puppy's attention immediately onto my hand. Once I have his attention, now we can play a game, which is what he's wanting to do, he's wanting to play. And then, we're pulling our hair out in that threshold zone. So over the threshold, our puppies just can't focus or redirect. We've tried training. We've tried redirecting, and if you can stop play before this point, that's when I'm putting my puppy in a crate or in his exercise pen to take a nap. If you can stop it in zone three and not even get to that extra bitey, growly, won't redirect phase, you'll save yourself a lot of headaches. If you can recognize when your puppy's in zone three, we're going to play here for a little while, but know it's not going to last too long before your puppy gets overly tired and then we're in that red zone, over the threshold, zone four, then you'll do yourself a favor by just giving your puppy downtime before he even gets to that level. Again we're managing. We're going from calm up to playful and energized and then back down through playful and down to calm and then we're back up to energize, and we're just kind of going back and forth through those three zones, settling our puppy, and then we're playing with their puppy. Then we're training our puppy, and then we're settling our puppy. This way we're able to really manage a lot of that initial puppy biting. We manage and we train. We manage the behavior as we teach our puppy new things. With this puppy biting, as we're keeping our puppies and zone 1 to 3, we're managing their activities. In the meantime, we're also teaching them important skills, like how to be really soft with their mouth when they take a treat. We're teaching them patience, we're starting to train things like a stay, a wait, or go-to-bed so that they learn impulse control. We're also educating them on 'Hey, ya, I'll stick around and play with you when you're in zone three, but we're going to use a toy'. 

speaker 0:   13:18
Those are the zones. zones 1, 2, 3, and 4. We have calm, playful, energized, and over the threshold. By recognizing this week what zone your puppy is in, you'll find great success in being able to better manage that and also prevent a lot of that excess puppy biting that happens when they're over the threshold. Let's stop playing zone three. Let's stop play before our puppy gets to that last zone and give them the needed downtime that they're looking for. Sometimes they don't act like they need a rest, but oftentimes they're just overly tired and they do need some downtime. Before I go, I want to give a quick shoutout to Fitz and Chris. Thanks for listening, you guys. Also the Sorensen family. Jared, Jenna, Jace Jackson, Jordan, and their super cute puppy, Dutch. 

speaker 0:   13:59
All right, that's it. Happy training, you guys. I'll talk to you next week. If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other puppy training question, visit my site BaxterandBella.com to contact me.