What I'm about to say has been disputed by other trainers, but I have found it to work well for my own dogs and for clients I have taught.

Sometimes, it is important to understand the thought processes of the dog.  From the very first day of their life, they are learning things by using their mouths.  The milk from mom, what things are good to eat after that (and what is not), what fits in there, and what deserves to be grabbed because it seems like prey.

That last idea is the focus of what I'm going to tell you.  All dogs are basically hunters.  They are prey-driven, even if they have no "prey," per se.  So, they tend, as young dogs, to grab things that move--such as hands, legs, heels, clothing.

In order to help curb this tendency, the "prey" must die.  In other words, it must stop moving.

We can start training the puppy to stop biting by getting her to stop biting hands and using the "no bite" command.

I know those little teeth are needle sharp and our first instinct is to snatch our hands away from them.  But, bear with me for a moment, and I think you'll see the logic to my suggestion.

Don't.

Train yourself to hold your hand still when the puppy is biting on it.  Give a single "no bite" command (or, you can use another, but be consistent with it meaning exactly what you want it to) and let the hand "die."  Dead prey is totally uninteresting to a puppy, as a rule, because she has accomplished her first instinct--to kill prey.

I had a student several years back with a Yorkshire puppy.  Three other members of her family came with her to my puppy class and, later, to more classes I taught.  I told all of them this same technique for stopping the puppy from biting their hands.  The student, whom I'll call "Ellen," didn't listen to me, but the other family members did.  The puppy stopped biting them, but continued to bite her.  She swore she was doing what I had suggested, but I found out one day just exactly what she was doing.

When the puppy (now about 4 months old) would bite Ellen, she would yank her hand away and yell, "ow."  The puppy got "rewarded" by this response because he caused her to do something he wanted.  Take her hand away.

This happened one day in private lessons I was conducting with them and I was able to actually see what was going on with them.  I told her that she needed to stop responding to his biting that way and to keep her hand still when he bit her.  The "negative" she was giving out was actually functioning as a reinforcement of his behavior.

Apparently, I got through to her that time, because the next lesson we had about a week later, she reported that he had stopped the behavior.

Now, to take that further along, once the puppy has learned the "no bite" command (or, whatever you're using), you can expand that to other things.  If she's a heel-nipper, stop and give her the "no bite" command.  When she complies, give her something of her own to chew on and praise her.  Keep it up until the puppy stops entirely.  It won't always be easy to do, but in the end, you'll have a better behaved dog.

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ktreva52, a.k.a., C. Rogers Upson, has spent over 40 years training and studying dogs.  You can learn more about her on her "About Me" page.