Bite-Sized Lessons for Nippy Puppies

 

You Don’t Have to Struggle Alone With Puppy Nipping

February Theme: Focus on Behaviors

If you’re living with a nippy puppy, chances are you’ve had at least one moment where you thought:

“I love my dog… but this is hard.”

The constant nipping, the sharp teeth, the worry that you’re doing something wrong; it can feel exhausting and isolating. Many dog owners quietly struggle, wondering why play turns chaotic so fast or why calm moments seem so short-lived.

Here’s something important to hear:  You are not alone and your puppy is not being “bad.”

Most puppy nipping is a behavioral response, not a behavior problem. It’s how young dogs cope with excitement, frustration, overstimulation, and big emotions they don’t yet know how to manage. That’s why in our February theme is Focus on Behavior we focus on understanding what a dog is doing and why so we can change the outcome without blame or force.

Instead of asking, “How do I stop this?”

We start asking, “What is my puppy trying to communicate and what skills are missing?”

That shift changes everything.

The new Bite-Sized Lessons Mini-Class takes place February 10th - 12th!

To support dog owners through this common struggle, I created the Bite-Sized Lessons Mini-Class with short, easy-to-follow class designed to help you:

• Understand why puppy nipping happens 
• Respond calmly and clearly when it does 
• Replace nipping with better behaviors 
• Build emotional regulation skills that last beyond puppyhood

Each lesson is short on purpose. No overwhelm. No complicated training plans. Just practical guidance you can use in real life, even on hard days.

And because no one should have to navigate this alone…This mini-class is FREE for a short time. 

If you’re feeling frustrated, discouraged, or unsure of your next step, this is your invitation to pause, take a breath, and get support. Focusing on behavior, rather than labeling it as a problem, creates clarity, confidence, and calmer days for both you and your dog.

👉 Register now to access the Bite-Sized Lessons Mini-Class while it’s free.

You and your puppy deserve understanding, not pressure and help that meets you where you are.

Bite-Sized Lessons with the Perfect Storm

One of the most reassuring things dog owners learn in the Bite-Sized Lessons series is this:

nipping during puppyhood and adolescence isn’t random, and it isn’t a sign that your dog is aggressive or “out of control.” It’s the result of what we call the Perfect Storm of adolescence.

Bite-Sized Lessons breaks nipping down into three overlapping forces that are all happening at once during this stage of development:

Impulsiveness: Acting Before Thinking

Adolescent puppies live very much in the moment. Their brains are still developing the ability to pause, think, and choose a different behavior. When excitement spikes (during play, leash time, or greetings) impulses take over. Nipping often happens not because the puppy wants to bite, but because they haven’t yet learned how to slow themselves down.

Bite-Sized Lessons helps owners recognize impulsive moments early and respond in ways that guide the puppy toward calmer choices.

Instant Gratification: If It Works, It Sticks

Nipping brings immediate results. Hands move, people react, play continues, or the environment changes and to a young dog, that feels rewarding. Puppies aren’t trying to be difficult; they’re simply repeating behaviors that have worked before.

In Bite-Sized Lessons, owners learn how to interrupt this cycle by making gentle, appropriate behaviors more rewarding than nipping, so new habits can take root.

An Underdeveloped Nervous System: Big Feelings, Limited Skills

Perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle is this: a puppy’s nervous system is still under construction. Emotional regulation, the ability to calm down after excitement or stress, doesn’t come fully online until later in development.

Bite-Sized Lessons emphasizes co-regulation, teaching owners how their calm, clear responses help their puppy’s nervous system settle. Instead of punishing big feelings, we focus on building the skills puppies need to handle them.

By framing nipping as a developmental “Perfect Storm,” Bite-Sized Lessons helps dog owners move away from frustration and toward understanding. When we focus on behavior, rather than labeling it as a problem, we create space for learning, growth, and a stronger relationship with our dogs.

In Bite-Sized Lessons dog owners will learn how to play games that reinforce the behavior we want while using management of the environment to prevent that challenging behavior that hurts our fingers.

When nipping has become self reinforcing or has been reinforced unintentionally, it's easy to jump to punishment and blaming the dog for causing us pain. 

In Bite-Sized Lessons we take blame out of the picture and teach dog owners how use games to reinforce taking treats nicely, keeping puppy mouths on toys (not people), and calm the internal storm that leads to more nipping.

This Mini-Class will run from February 10th-12th with a mini-zoom session at 8PM Central each day. During this zoom, the info from the day's written lesson will be presented in video format. Then we will take a moment to walk through one of the participant's personal struggles followed by a Q & A Session. 

Each zoom meeting will take roughly 30-45 minutes depending on participation. Live participation is preferred and will be most valuable to dog owners, however a recorded replay will be made available within 24 hrs of the live session. 

Spaces are limited so sign up today to save your spot!

Reframing & Redirecting Workshop

 

Reframing & Redirecting Behavior 

Live Workshop Invite

Is Your Dog’s Behavior Confusing You? Let’s Turn Struggles Into Strengths!

Have you ever caught yourself thinking, “Why does my dog do that?!” 

Barking, lunging, jumping, or freezing; it can feel like our dogs are acting out on purpose. But here’s the truth: behavior is never random. It’s communication. And when we understand what our dogs are really telling us, we can help them feel safe, calm, and confident and enjoy life together.

That’s why I’m excited to invite you to our live workshop: Reframing & Redirecting Behavior, part of our February Focus on Behaviors theme in the Turning Struggles Into Strengths Workshop Series.

Put this workshop on your calendar!

February 3rd

11AM Central Time

Reserve you FREE Space Today!

In our live workshop, we’ll teach you how to reframe your dog’s behavior, understand their emotions, and redirect them in a supportive way.

Behavior is communication. Barking, lunging, or “ignoring” you doesn’t mean your dog is bad, it means they’re trying to tell you something.

We can look at that behavior as the problem that needs correcting, or we can look at that behavior as communication that tells us to support our dog, redirecting them to more of the behaviors we love.

In this workshop we will cover:

• Why reframing the behavior matters.

• Where reinforcement often fails.

• How redirecting in the right way is most effective.

Let’s stop feeling frustrated and start feeling connected!

This is your chance to step off the “punishment treadmill” and start seeing behavior as information instead of a problem. By the end, you’ll walk away with a clear plan for reframing one challenge—and the tools to start helping your dog feel safe and understood.

Sign Up for the Live Workshop Now

Why Reframing Behavior Matters (and How It Changes Everything)

When a dog’s behavior feels challenging, it’s easy to label it as the problem.

• The barking is the problem. 
• The lunging is the problem. T
• he jumping, pulling, ignoring cues… that’s the problem.

When Behavior Becomes “The Problem”
When our focus is on stopping behavior, we often miss what’s actually creating it.

Behavior Is a Symptom, Not the Root Cause.

Lunging might be a request for distance.

Freezing might be confusion or overwhelm.

“Crazy” adolescent behavior might be a nervous system that hasn’t learned regulation yet.

How Reframing Changes the Conversation

It softens frustration and opens the door to understanding.
It slows us down just enough to see the why behind the behavior. As dog owners, we move from fixing the behavior to understanding the behavior which changes the outcome to one of support.

If overwhelm is the cause, we can reduce pressure and expectations.

If lack of skills is the issue, we can teach—rather than correct.

Reframing Leads to a Plan (Not Just Hope)! With a plan w focus on teaching, “Here’s how to handle this situation.” We can turn struggles into strengths when we realize our dog is communicating with us and we begin to communicate back in a way they can understand. By addressing the root cause of the behavior, we can begin to change the emotions behind the behavior and create lasting change; not just a quick fix.

When behavior is framed as a problem, something subtle, but powerful, happens next. We start looking for a way to fix it. Fast.

Viewing behavior as a problem often brings along some unhelpful companions:

• Blame: “My dog knows better.” 
• Resentment: “Why does this keep happening?” 
• Urgency: “I need this to stop now.”

This mindset makes total sense. Living with challenging behavior is exhausting, embarrassing, and emotionally draining. Of course we want it to stop. But here’s the catch, that’s when progress stalls.

Behavior doesn’t come out of nowhere. It’s a response to emotion, environment, and past experience. Barking might be rooted in fear or uncertainty but when we treat behavior as the problem, we’re addressing the symptom,not the cause. And symptoms have a frustrating habit of coming back… sometimes louder than before.

Reframing behavior means shifting from:

“How do I make this stop?”

to:

“What is my dog experiencing right now?”

This shift removes blame and replaces it with curiosity. Instead of reacting to what we see on the outside, we start considering what’s happening on the inside and that’s where real change begins! When behavior is no longer the enemy, we stop fighting our dog and start supporting them.

Reframing leads us to ask better questions:

• Is this environment too much right now? 
• Does my dog have the skills they need here?
• Are they feeling safe, confused, excited, or overwhelmed?

These questions don’t excuse behavior, but they explain it and gives us direction. Once we understand the root cause of a behavior, we can actually influence the outcome. 

If fear is driving the behavior, we can increase distance and predictability. Instead of repeatedly reacting to the same struggle, we begin changing the conditions that create it.

That’s when behavior starts to shift; naturally and sustainably.

One of the most powerful outcomes of reframing is clarity. When we understand why a behavior is happening, we can create a plan that supports the dog emotionally, teaches them what to do instead, and builds skills they can use in real-life situations. This is where redirection shines; not as distraction, but as education.

We’re no longer saying, “Don’t do that.”

And that’s how dogs learn.

Challenging behavior doesn’t mean you’re failing. When we stop seeing behavior as a problem to fix and start seeing it as information to understand, everything changes:

• The relationship softens 
• The plan becomes clearer 
• Progress feels possible again

Reframing behavior isn’t about lowering standards or ignoring challenges. Ignoring behavior never fixes the problem, it only makes things worse. But when we change the cause, the outcome takes care of itself.

Learn how to start reframing your dog's behavior and how to use redirection that actually works by joining us on February 6th for the Reframing & Redirecting Workshop!

Sign up today as FREE spaces are limited!

You're not alone in your dog training struggles!

Let’s turn those daily struggles into strengths together!

Planning CAKES2

 Planning for Success the CAKES Way (Part 2)

Flexibility, Connection, and Defining Success on Your Terms

In Part 1, we explored how Compassion, Awareness, Knowledge, Empathy, and Support create the foundation for training plans that don’t collapse under real life.

But even with a strong foundation, many dog owners still wonder:
What does it look like to actually live inside a plan long-term?

This is where planning moves beyond theory and into sustainability.

Plans Should Flex, Not Break

One of the biggest myths in dog training is that consistency means rigidity.

In reality, rigid plans are the first to fail.

Life shifts. Schedules change. Energy levels fluctuate; for both humans and dogs. When a plan doesn’t bend, it breaks, often leaving owners feeling like they’ve “ruined” everything.

Flexible planning means recognizing that consistency lives in patterns, not perfection. Training that adapts to real life lasts longer and builds more reliable skills than training that demands ideal conditions.

A plan that survives imperfect days is a plan worth keeping.

Training Is a Relationship, Not a Checklist

Many owners measure success by what their dog can do on cue.

But dogs don’t experience training as a checklist; they experience it as a relationship.

When training is built around connection, dogs learn that their human is a source of safety, guidance, and predictability. That emotional foundation is what allows skills to hold up under stress later on.

If training feels tense or transactional, something important is missing. Connection isn’t a bonus, it’s the glue that holds the plan together.

Slow Progress Is Stable Progress

Another reason owners abandon plans is because progress doesn’t look the way they expected.

There are plateaus. Backslides. Sudden regressions that feel discouraging.

But slow progress isn’t wasted progress.

Skills built with emotional stability are far more durable than skills rushed through pressure. Dogs who are allowed to learn at their pace develop confidence instead of compliance and confidence doesn’t disappear when the environment gets harder.

Stability takes time. That’s not failure. That’s biology.

You Are Allowed to Change the Plan

Many owners stay stuck in plans that clearly aren’t working because they fear that changing course means giving up.

It doesn’t.

Adapting a plan is a sign of learning, not quitting.

As dogs grow, mature, and move through developmental stages, their needs change. A plan that worked three months ago may no longer fit the dog in front of you today.

Planning for success means being willing to reassess, adjust, and refine without guilt.

Success Looks Different for Every Team

Comparison quietly destroys confidence.

When owners measure their progress against other dogs, other timelines, or social media highlight reels, they lose sight of their own growth.

Success isn’t universal. It’s personal.

For one team, success is calm walks.
For another, it’s emotional recovery after stress.
For another, it’s rebuilding trust after fear.

The most successful plans are the ones aligned with the dog’s needs and the owner’s life.

The CAKES Takeaway: Sustainable Plans Are Human Plans

Planning for success doesn’t mean controlling every outcome.

It means building plans that:

• Adapt to change

• Prioritize emotional safety

• Strengthen connection

• Allow room for growth

• Support both ends of the leash

When training plans honor real life, they stop feeling like obligations and start feeling like support systems.

And that’s where lasting change happens.

Reflection for the Reader

Take a moment to consider:

• Where has rigidity made training harder?

• What part of your plan could benefit from more flexibility?

• How are you defining success right now and is it serving you?

Small adjustments, made with intention, can shift everything.