Hi Karlam!

Labradors are retrievers this means they are very oral and want to hold things in their mouths. Unless trained as pups to not bite people they are just as apt to grab a person as a tennis ball.

If your lab is a puppy all pups do need to learn to not use teeth with people or their clothing.

This is normal behavior for a puppy and it requires training to get the pup to learn how to control its mouth. In a litter or pack the other pups and adults would teach controls.

Here are two good articles on how to resolve this problem by using a pup's natural instincts

http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/spt/SPT_Puppies.htm#BiteInhibition

http://www.jersey.net/~mountaindog/berner1/bitestop.htm

 

Particularly with labs many people cater to their need to 'retrieve' by making sure they have toys to carry around with them which can be thrown from time to time for the dog's entertainment. Tennis balls are a common choice for toys.

Being a first-time Labrador Retriever owner brings with it not only responsibility but often battle scars. This particular dog breed was bred for using its mouth for hunting and retrieving game not playing with children or staying in the house. Therefore, it is not uncommon to see a Lab have the natural instinct to put everything and anything in its mouth; including its owner's hands, clothing, toys or whatever it can. The Labrador Retriever is just doing what it was designed to do and it is the owner's responsibility to teach it what is and is not acceptable behavior.

Biting is common is young puppies. From the beginning, they use it as a form of play with their littermates. It is a social interaction between dogs that is healthy in the beginning. However, the mom of the litter has been known to swat down, growl at, or ignore such behavior when it becomes too much.

Since we are not dogs, there are other methods to training our pups to keep their piranha teeth off our bodies and personal items. First, we need to look at the types of biting associated with any dog breed. They are:

• Playful
• Fear Biting
• Territorial
• Aggression
• 
  
• 
  
• When small puppies bite, they bite out of fun, playfulness, teething, or the need to have something in their mouth. At first it may be cute, but it should be corrected immediately since it will not be as cute when they are a 70 lbs. adult Lab! Puppies should be taught from a young age never to mouth or bite humans. How do you do this? Well, based on my experience, there are a couple of steps to curb this type of behavior. When a puppy bites, first use a sharp tone and say "No Bite!" If the puppy continues to mouth or bite, grab the back of its collar with your other hand and give a quick/sharp tug and say "No Bite!" again. The tug action should only serve to startle the pup and not hurt it in any way. It may take 4-5 times in a row of performing the tug action while saying "No Bite!", but the pup will understand quickly that when it bites you, it receives something it doesn’t like (the tug action

It is important that after the pup stops biting, you replace the object of objection with something it should chew on. As soon as the pup bites down on this other object (toy, bone, etc), praise it using a very happy and higher pitch voice. This practice is considered positive training and instead of teaching the pup what not to do, you are replacing a negative action with a positive action. After a while, you will just have to say “No Bite!�? and the pup will automatically release upon command.

Teething

The teething stage is often seen with a great deal of chewing and destruction. We recommend using the method mentioned earlier but instead of a chew toy or bone, give your pup a Chilly Bone, a small towel that has been soaked in water and frozen, or an ice cube. Be sure to monitor your pup when chewing on any of these items as they can be a choking hazard for the more aggressive chewers. Ice cubes can be given regularly but give them slowly at the beginning and monitor your pup for any loose stools as this is a normal reaction for some Lab pups.

Other Type of Biting

Other types of biting including fear, territorial, and aggression biting. An owner may think that their puppy or dog was born with these negative behaviors but that is not true. Each of these negative behaviors is usually linked to a negative event that happened to the dog at an early age. Dogs that bite or threaten to bite out of fear and territorial influence can usually be trained out of such behaviors.

 

 

Not only this have that habits, every others also have that idea. But braking dogs seldom bites.