pug training Archives - Two Pug Tails

Pug Biting & How To Stop It

July 25, 2022 by emilyreviews Leave a Comment

Are Pugs Bad About Biting?

Most pugs aren’t prone to biting. Pugs are a docile breed. It is common for puppies to nip while playing, though. They need to be trained from a young age that nipping people isn’t okay, or they’ll continue the behavior as they get older.

When Do Pug Puppies Stop Nipping?

You have to train your pug to stop nipping. Often nipping is related to teething, and most pugs stop teething by around 8 months of age. They’ll stop mouthing items they should’t around that age, typically. Still, if you don’t train them to stop nipping, or if you have accidentally encouraged their nipping by making it into a form of play, it will likely continue until you train them differently.

Is it Biting or Nipping or Mouthing?

People often refer to nipping as biting, but they are different. There is also mouthing which is different yet!

Biting is when a dog bites down hard on something. This will usually break the skin, and is usually done out of fear or protection. True biting is a much more serious problem than nipping, but it’s quite rare in pugs. A pug that is truly biting likely feels unsafe or mistreated.

Nipping is a quick shut of the jaw, without locking down on something. This will hurt, but it won’t break the skin. This is commonly done as a form of play in puppies. While the intent isn’t “bad”, it’s painful and may cause mild injuries to young children so it’s best to train out.

Mouthing is when a dog puts their mouth on something but doesn’t bite down at all. You may feel their teeth but there won’t be pressure and no pain at all. This behavior is similar to human babies who put toys in their mouth. It’s a way of exploring an object. For most dogs this behavior will stop when they are done teething.

How to stop your pug from biting

Dog trainers often recommend a bite inhibition method. This basically means squeel when they bite you. Puppies like to play-bite other dogs, and when the other dog squeels in response to a bite, that’s how the dog learns it went too far. If left with other puppies, dogs will learn bite inhibition by about 18 weeks old. However, in many cases today puppies are rehomed by about 8 weeks. This leaves them without enough experience in learning bite inhibition from their litermates and their humans need to take over this training.

You can mimic the experience that puppies would get from their littermates squealing when your dog nips you. This can teach your dog that they went too far, even if the nip wasn’t painful. The goal is to squeel anytime they nip at all, to teach them that nipping people is not acceptable.

Try to get everyone in your household to squeel if your pug nips them, and to be consistent with it. This will increase the odds that your pug will learn to stop biting sooner.

Alternatively, you can firmly say ‘no’ or ‘stop’ each time they nip. If your puppy seeks reassurance or pets afterwards, it’s best to ignore them. This can feel mean, but this is how you make it clear to them that their behavior was unacceptable. This is really effective for pugs because pugs love attention from their owners. They were bred to be companions, so they are often really hurt by being ignored. While it won’t feel good for you or them, it will effectively teach them.

Don’t hit your dog for biting. Dogs don’t understand physical punishment, and it may even make them so fearful that they will bite more in response.

Don’t play with them if they nip. This can be hard because pug puppies are trying to play when they nip you. When we understand that they’re playing, it can make us want to play back. However, this can encourage the behavior. Keep in mind that as your pug gets older their teeth will get bigger and their small bits will become more painful. For this reason, it’s best to discourage their small biting before they get bigger.

Direct them to chewing toys. It’s natural for dogs to want to bite, but it’s important that they learn what is fair-game for biting and what isn’t. You don’t want them to learn that your hands or any other part of your body can be bitten. Offer them chew toys instead.

Give your pug time around other dogs. Dogs like to rough plan with other dogs and this can help them get out their desire to bite in a safe way.

Keep them entertained. Sometimes nipping will happen because they are bored and seeking attention. Keeping your puppy entertained can reduce the frequency of their nipping.

Why Your Pug Is Constantly Licking

February 25, 2022 by emilyreviews Leave a Comment

Why Pugs Lick Things

New moms lick their puppies to clean them after birth and to stimulate them to breathe. They also lick their pups to stimulate them to go to the bathroom as new puppies. As puppies get older, they often will lick their mother’s muzzle. It seems to be a bonding behavior for dogs.

In many cases, licking is a way that dogs show affection.

Dogs lick other dogs to show respect, so when your pug licks you, it’s possible that part of the reason why dogs like to lick people could be that they are trying to show you respect.

Of course, dogs also like to lick things simply to taste them! This is why dogs will lick foods, plants or other things that they suspect may taste good to them. Part of the reason why dogs like to lick people is because our skin tastes a bit salty to them.

When a dog is licking themselves, it’s usually to clean themselves. Dogs often lick their nose to clean it, as this can actually increase how well they can smell!

When Pugs Lick Because Something Is Wrong

While licking is a very normal and safe behavior in dogs much of the time, there are times where licking can be a sign of a problem. Here are some of the reasons why pug lick when something is wrong:

Licking releases endorphins for dogs which can soothe their pain. This leads pugs to lick when they are in pain or needing comfort, sometimes.

If pugs are having pain, irritation or itching in an area, they may lick that area in an attempt to soothe it. If you find your dog is suddenly wanting to lick a specific area, have the vet check it out.

If dogs develop hot spots from allergies or similar issues, they’ll often lick that area a lot. If you see your dog licking a particular spot quiet a lot, check the fur and skin in that area to see if there has been any fur loss or if there is any redness or oozing.

“Air licking” or when dogs appear to lick nothing or lick the air, can be something stuck in their mouth (like a hair) or painful teeth. If you notice air licking, check their mouth to see if they have something stuck. If this is a regular behavior, schedule a vet visit to see if it’s time for a dental workup.

Compulsive Licking In Pugs

If your dog doesn’t have a problem with a particular area but is constantly licking it, it may have become a compulsive habit. Sort of like how people can bounce their leg or twist their hair unconsciously. Dogs can sometimes develop the habit of licking just out of a nervous habit or boredom habit.

If severe, licking can lead to medical issues such as hair loss and skin infection. It’s best to try to curb habitual licking early if you can. The way to do this is to resolve the underlying cause. If anxious, try to work on the source of their anxiety or get them treatment for anxiety. If it’s from boredom, find enrichment activities to help them out.

Excessively licking surfaces (like furniture) can be GI related. A study was done that showed that dogs who excessively lick surfaces have nearly a 75% chance of having gastrointestinal trouble. These GI issues varied but included irritable bowel syndrome, delayed gastric emptying, a foreign body in the digestive tract and more.

After the dogs were treated for their GI issue, about half of them stopped the excessive licking behavior!

Source: ScienceDirect.com.

How To Stop Your Pug From Constantly Licking

Block them from the area. When my pug went through a phase of obsessively licking his paws, we would put socks or dog booties on him for small amount of time. We didn’t leave them on 24/7, as his feet needed to breathe. However, just putting the socks or booties on if he was fixated on licking would get him to stop for a while, and then we’d take them off later.

Don’t positively reward it. Sometimes we can accidentally train dogs to do the opposite of what we’d like them to do, by accidentally rewarding their behavior. I Don’t mean with treats. Instead, it can be as simple as giving them attention for licking. If they are attention-seeking, try to ignore the behavior.

Reward them when they don’t lick. This is probably easiest to train if your dog has regular licking habits. For example, if they often lick you when you squat down to pet them and you want to curb that behavior, you can ignore the behavior and not pet them until they stop licking, then give them a treat.

Monitor their pain level and anxiety level. If they are licking due to pain or anxiety, make sure ther pain or anxiety are being improved so they won’t need licking as a coping method anymore.

Don’t let them stay bored. If their licking is the result of boredom, keeping them from getting bored will be the solution to curbing the licking. There are lots of enrichment ideas for dogs on the web. Keep their brain working and they won’t get bored.

Pug Baby Teeth & Teething Guide

February 18, 2022 by emilyreviews Leave a Comment

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Pug Teething Stages

Stage 1: Milk Teeth (baby teeth) come in at 2-8 weeks old.

Pugs get their first set of teeth between 2 and 3 weeks old, around the same time that they are opening their eyes!

Typically teeth come in this order – incisors (front teeth), canine teeth, and then pre-molars. By 8 weeks of age, pug puppies should have their full set of 28 milk teeth (the dog version of baby teeth!). 8 weeks is the earliest that pugs should be removed from their mothers. Therefore, unless you’ve had one of your adult pugs get pregnant, you will likely bring your pug puppy home after they already have all of their baby teeth.

Stage 2: Teething and Losing Milk Teeth 12 weeks to 8 months.

Those milk teeth don’t hang around very long! By 12 weeks or about 3 months, puppies can begin to lose their baby teeth. Those 28 baby teeth will be replaced with 42 adult teeth by 8 months of age.

Like people, teething can happen at slightly different timeframes for different puppies. Some may have all of their adult teeth by 6 months, and some may take longer than 8 months to get their last adult teeth. It’s more of a general expectation than an absolute. It’s common for the bigger adult teeth to take longer to come in than the baby teeth took.

How Many Puppy Teeth Do Pugs Have?

Pug puppies get a set of 28 baby teeth by 8 weeks.

How Many Adult Teeth Do Pugs Have?

By 8 months of age, pugs will have their full set of 42 adult teeth.

Pug Still Has Baby Teeth

If your pug still has baby teeth after 8 months of age, it’s a good idea to check in with your vet. They may just be a late bloomer, but if their adult teeth have come through and the baby teeth are still there, the baby teeth may need pulled.

Pug Puppy Not Losing Teeth

If your pug is 4 months or older and hasn’t started losing their puppy teeth, check in with your vet. Keep in mind that your pug may lose teeth without you ever seeing their shed teeth.

If you haven’t found any baby teeth around the house, that doesn’t mean your pug hasn’t lost any. Pug baby teeth are about the size of a grain of rice, so if your pugs teeth are bigger than that, you’re likely seeing their adult teeth now.

What If Adult Teeth Come In While Baby Teeth Are Still There?

See a vet. These are called retained teeth and they are more common in brachycephalic breeds including pugs.

What If You Don’t Find Your Pugs Lost Baby Teeth?

If you know your pug has lost some teeth but you haven’t found them, don’t sweat it. It’s common for pugs to swallow their baby teeth when they fall out. They are roughly the size of a piece of rice and are unlikely to cause digestive issues.

Signs That Your Pug Is Teething:

Found teeth. You’ll find their baby teeth on the floor or elsewhere. It’s okay if you don’t, though. It’s common for dogs to swallow their baby teeth that fall out, and it doesn’t usually cause any problems.

Bleeding. You may find small amounts of blood on toys.

Extra drooling – yep, just like babies, they will drool more when their teeth are coming in.

Tons of chewing. When their gums are irritated, they want to chew chew chew!

Painful gums. Sore gums that may be darker pink or red. May be slow or hesitant to eat.

Behavior changes. Changes in mood or behavior. When your puppy is in pain, this can impact their behavior some.

Crying. May whine/cry from the pain.

Low grade fever. The inflammation caused by teething can cause a small fever in puppies.

Pug Teething Toys and Other Aids

Kong toys are great toys that are safe for dogs to chew on. Chewing on kongs can help sooth their sore gums. You can freeze some foods on kong toys (like dog-safe peanut butter) and the cold can feel good on their sore gums.

Nylabone or other chew toys. Be sure to monitor the toy to make sure you toss it out after your dog has chewed it enough. If kept for too long, they can begin to chew off pieces and that isn’t safe.

Bully sticks or himalayan chews. Rawhide is dangerous as they can cause digestive blockages. Bully sticks and himalaya chews are safer options that let dogs chew for a long time and get a treat out of it. My pugs loved best bully sticks 5-6″ bladder sticks.

Teething gel. There are some brands that make dog-safe teething gel, similar to oragel that people use on human babies. The teething gels can be rubbed on your puppy’s gums to temporarily soothe them.

Gum Massages. Sometimes just rubbing their gums can feel good to them! Of course, be careful if you’re going to do this, and be sure to wash your hands before and after.

How To Cope With ‘Naughty’ Chewing in a Teething Puppy

Remember that chewing is a need that pugs have while teething. They will be chewing on most anything they can get their teeth on, so keeping their environment safe for them is key.

Keep them safe. anything dangerous for them to chew on out of their access.

Try frozen treats, they can soothe their gums.

Give them chew toys. Chewing is a need that puppies have, so it’s important that they have some toys that they are allowed to chew on. If you catch them chewing on something they shouldn’t, swap it out with something they can chew on.

Keep them busy, both physically and mentally. Generally with pug puppies, keeping them mentally stimulated will help keep them on their best behavior as much or more than making sure they get enough exercise.

Help train bite inhibition. Teething overlaps with the time period when puppies are learning about their teeth and how they can inflict pain. One big benefit of puppies staying with their mother and littermates longer is puppies naturally teach each other that biting hurts, by yelping when they are hurt. Even if you didn’t bring your puppy home until 10+ weeks, they may still be learning that it’s not okay to bite too hard. There is a term called bite inhibition that is all about this phase where puppies learn about not biting too hard. If you’re struggling with your puppy biting you or other family members painfully (rather than softly/playfully) you’ll want to research how to train bite inhibition.

Dental health – Start young!

While it’s slightly off-topic for this post, I wanted to wrap up by encouraging good dental health habits. If you have a puppy, now is the best time to start caring for their teeth!

80% of dogs have dental health issues by 3 years of age*, so start good oral care young. It’s easiest to get dogs used to having their teeth brushed or their mouths touched if the habit is started young. Pugs are particularly prone to dental health problems because they have small mouths.

Best Pug Toothbrush & Toothpaste.

There are three popular styles of dog toothbrushes. One is a cap that goes over your finger so you can brush their teeth using your finger, another is a three-sided toothbrush that increases the odds of the bristles getting all areas of their mouth/teeth, and the third is a more traditional toothbrush shape.

I’d recommend starting with this arm & hammer pet toothbrush set because it includes the finger style brush and a traditional brush, as well as toothpaste. This way you can try both styles to see what your pug responds best to.

Many pugs have overcrowded teeth and crooked teeth which can increase their odds of developing decay and infections.

*Sources AVMA.org and AKC.org

Pug Begging

October 20, 2021 by emilyreviews Leave a Comment

Do Pugs Beg A Lot?

Pugs can be bad about begging compared to other dog breeds. However, how much they beg can have a lot to do with how you respond to their begging.

When we first got our pugs, I was amazed at how many sounds they make compared to other dogs. I have three posts about different noises pugs make! Pugs bawling, pugs crying, and pugs screaming like humans. Haha! Pugs aren’t usually bad about barking a lot. However, they are expressive in a lot of other ways, such as sighing and making other subtle sounds. For example, my pug Frank used to make soft sniffle-like sounds that we called his ‘purring’ when he was really happy.

Here is a video of my pug Frank begging to go outside.

Why Pugs Beg

Pugs beg because they want something, and think they might get it (or know they will!) if they beg. Quite simple, right? Depending on what they want, they may beg for all sorts of different things.

Why Pugs Beg For Food

Pugs beg for food because they are very food driven. It’s natural for all dogs to want food that they see or smell. Pugs are particularly excited by food, so that may lead them to beg for food more often than other dog breeds.

How To Train A Pug To Stop Begging

Don’t Give In. Pugs beg because they think that it will get them what they want. If you give them what they want when they beg, it will teach them that begging is an effective way to get what they want, and they’ll continue to do it. On the other hand, if they are begging for something that is acceptable, it’s okay to give it to them. For example, in the video above where Frank was begging to go outside, I responded by taking him outside. I am 100% fine with him getting my attention by begging if he needs to go potty, so I don’t mind ‘encouraging’ that behavior by taking him out. However, if he were to beg for human food while I was eating, that would be a behavior I would ignore.
Ignore. Pugs are very social creatures who want almost constant attention. Because of this, ignoring an undesired behavior can be really effective for pugs. They don’t like being ignored! Also, if you’re ignoring their begging then that means you aren’t giving in to it, so it won’t prove to be an effective way for them to get what they want.
Avoid temptation. If your pug begs for the same thing regularly and it’s not something the dog needs to be around, it may be easier to just avoid letting your pug get tempted. For example, if your pug begs for your cat’s food, it may be easier to just keep your dog from being able to see the cat’s food bowl.
Only feed them from their bowl. If you ever give your pug food from your hand, or from the kitchen floor, they will learn that food they see in your hand or in the kitchen may be theirs, sometimes. If you only ever feed them from your bowl (including putting any treats in their bowl) they’ll know that food is only theirs if it’s in their bowl. This can reduce begging when they see food in other places.
Sit, stay command. Tell your pug to sit and stay to keep them away from temptation. For example, if they beg for human food when it’s your dinner time, tell them to sit and stay in the living room before leaving to eat dinner. If you haven’t trained your pug on those commands, it may be worth teaching them so that they can be used in these scenarios.
Kennel them. If severe enough, you may need to remove your pug from a situation where they’re begging. If they can’t/won’t obey the sit/stay command, putting them in their kennel or otherwise leaving them in a safe, secure place away from temptation can be an option.
Reward them for NOT begging. This can be a little tricky to do, but if your pug has a habit of begging in the same situation regularly, it may be possible. If your pug consistently begs for something and then stops – use that break in their begging to reward them! Of course, don’t reward them with what they are begging for. Rewarding them with rubs or ‘good girl/boys’ may be best. You want them to associate not begging with a positive reaction, to teach them that not begging is good.
Be patient and consistent. Pugs can be challenging to train, but not due to low intelligence. They have pretty typical intelligence for dogs, but they are stubborn! This means that being patient and consistent with training is often the key to success.