It’s a question all vizsla owners have shortly after getting their pup… When will they stop teething and chewing!
This article explains when vizslas stop teething and why it’s crucial to handle their chewing habits correctly during this stage.
Table of Contents
When Do Vizslas Stop Teething?
Most vizslas stop teething around 8-10 months of age when their full set of 42 adult teeth come through. No two vizslas are the same and the teething timelines vary slightly for every dog.
Teething timelines vary from vizsla to vizsla, but if you are one of the lucky ones, he may finish teething from 6-8 months. Although this doesn’t count for many.
Even when your vizsla has finished teething, it doesn’t mean he’ll stop biting and chewing… As I will explain below.
When Do Vizslas Stop Biting & Chewing?
Unfortunately, the end of teething doesn’t necessarily mean the end of biting or chewing.
Biting and chewing initially starts because of the teething, but will quickly form a habit due to how much they’re doing it. After the biting has turned into a habit, it will last until it’s trained against.
This means that your vizsla’s biting habit quickly becomes a behavioral issue, rather than the result of teething. Thankfully, however, behavioral issues like this can be prevented and resolved with training and redirection.
For some lucky owners, there will be a noticeable decrease in how much they chew after teething without you needing to do much. But it’s best not to leave that down to chance, and it’s encouraged to actively redirect your vizsla’s chewing from day one. More on this below.
Why Biting & Chewing Is Actually a Good Thing
It’s also important to clarify that biting and chewing is not a bad habit, as long as the vizsla knows what they are and are not allowed to chew…
Biting helps a lot with the overall teething process, to develop his biting strength and jaw muscles.
How teething helps the teething process:
Teething typically causes a strong tingling sensation to the gums, much like how a scab will start to itch as it’s healing.
Chewing and biting down on various textures essentially works to massage the gums, satisfy the itchiness, and promote blood flow to help the entire process even more.
So, this backs up the idea that chewing and biting isn’t actually bad, it’s all about WHAT he chews and bites.
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How To Deal With Biting and Chewing
As biting and chewing is an important part of his younger months, it’s not a good idea to try and stop it completely…
The best way to deal with his biting is to redirect it to things he is allowed to bite, like his toys. Do this enough, and the moment will come where he no longer even attempts to bite something other than what he’s allowed.
Redirecting your vizslas biting & chewing
In order for your vizsla to really understand this training, there must be a clear lesson and consistency.
- When he chews or bites something he isn’t allowed to. Replace it immediately with something he is allowed to chew. The goal is to shift his focus onto the correct item (his toy).
- Wait around 5 seconds and ensure his focus remains on the correct item. If he shifts back to the inappropriate item, again, take his toy, put it in front of him, and encourage him to chew that instead.
- Once his focus remains on the correct item, praise him heavily. Give him your best “good boy” and offer him a tasty treat.
- Repeat these steps whenever necessary.
Sounds simple. How does this even work?
Good question…
Vizslas, and most dogs, always want to appease and receive approval from their owners. Although it doesn’t seem like it, dogs don’t actually want to misbehave. All they want is for your approval and to do what earns them your attention.
By rewarding him heavily with praise and treats when he chews his toy, he will slowly but surely make the connection of being the world’s “goodest boy” when he chews his toy, not when he chews your fingers, furniture, or shoes.
It’s about creating positive associations with the behavior you want from him.
That’s the basic principle of positive reinforcement training, which remains to be the single best way to train dogs.
When this training will fail
This training will only fail if you don’t remain consistent enough with it.
Every single time he chews something he isn’t allowed to, you must act upon it and use that as one more opportunity to teach him a positive lesson.
It won’t happen overnight
Redirecting his chewing will be an ongoing task that you need to do for weeks, maybe months. But eventually, with time, he’ll stop chewing and biting the items that do not earn him your praise and attention.
Keep His Toys Exciting and Irresistible
To encourage him to bite and chew his own toys instead of the chair legs, they need to remain fresh, exciting and appealing.
If he’s left with the same two toys for multiple weeks, it’s no wonder his curiosity will take him elsewhere!
⭐ Ways to keep his toys exciting:
- Have a large selection of different toys with different textures, shapes, and sizes
- Don’t keep them all down at once! Rotate 3-4 different toys on a weekly basis
- Use toys that allow you to fill them with treats or peanut butter
- Always praise him and act positively when he’s chewing his toys
- Interact with him more when he decides to chew his toys
- After a month or two, get a whole new set of toys (donate the old ones)
- Stuff a KONG toy with peanut butter and freeze it (the ultimate teething toy/treat)
Make the effort to keep his toys exciting and you’ve already won half of the battle!
The Most Important Point In This Article
The following tip is perhaps the most valuable thing to understand in this article.
For puppies, all attention is good attention. If you show your puppy more attention when he’s chewing something he shouldn’t be, compared to when he’s laying there quietly chewing his toy, he’s actively learning that he gets more of your attention when he chews the items he shouldn’t be!
Although it’s always crucial to intervene and redirect inappropriate chewing, you must remain calm and most importantly, show him more positive attention when he bites what he’s allowed to.
⭐ The fatal mistake that many owners make is giving their vizsla too much attention for the wrong reasons…
⭐ It’s so easy to ignore good behavior… When you see your pup quietly chewing his rope toy, the world is perfect and you don’t need to do anything…
Eventually, your puppy will decide he’s had enough of being ignored, and start chewing your shoes again, in order to get some attention.
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When Will Your Vizsla Stop Biting? Summary:
When your vizsla will stop biting is mostly dependent on him, and how much redirection training you have given.
And perhaps your vizsla won’t stop biting at all… But remember that that’s completely fine, so long as he isn’t biting your fingers, hands, ankles, shoes, or chair legs!
Is your vizsla biting like crazy? Let me know your thoughts on this topic!
Thank you for reading