Teething can turn puppies into determined chewers. Learn why it happens, how to provide suitable outlets and how to protect good habits while they develop.
If your puppy has suddenly decided that chair legs, shoes, hands, skirting boards and almost everything else within reach needs testing with their teeth, you are probably somewhere in the puppy teething stage.
Teething is a completely normal part of puppy development, but it can be a fairly intense few months for both puppy and owner.
Your puppy’s baby teeth begin falling out while their permanent adult teeth erupt underneath them. Their gums can become uncomfortable, chewing often increases and an already mouthy puppy may suddenly seem even more determined to put everything in their mouth.
Most puppies begin losing their baby teeth at around three to four months old and have most or all of their permanent teeth by around six months, although individual development varies.
The important thing is not trying to stop your puppy chewing altogether.
Chewing is normal.
Your job is to give them safe things to chew, prevent access to dangerous or valuable objects, continue teaching appropriate mouth behaviour and recognise when something looks more like a dental problem than normal teething.
Puppies actually begin growing teeth much earlier than most owners realise.
They are born without visible teeth. Their deciduous teeth — usually called baby teeth, milk teeth or puppy teeth — begin erupting when they are only a few weeks old.
By the time most puppies leave their breeder or rescue and arrive in their new home, they already have their characteristic set of extremely sharp little puppy teeth.
Dogs normally develop 28 baby teeth.
At around three to four months of age, those teeth begin being replaced by permanent adult teeth.
This is the stage owners usually mean when they talk about a puppy “teething”.
Puppy teeth generally begin falling out from around 12 weeks onwards.
The process happens gradually rather than all at once.
Incisors at the front of the mouth tend to change first, followed by other teeth as the adult set develops.
You may find a tiny tooth on the floor, stuck in a toy or lying in your puppy’s bed.
Or you may find absolutely nothing.
Puppies commonly swallow their baby teeth while eating or chewing without owners ever noticing.
For most puppies, the main teething process is largely complete by around six months of age.
By this point, most dogs have developed their adult set of approximately 42 permanent teeth.
Some puppies take a little longer, and adult teeth can continue erupting through the six-to-seven-month period.
Importantly, finishing teething does not necessarily mean your dog immediately stops chewing.
Chewing is normal canine behaviour in its own right, and adolescent dogs may continue investigating the world with their mouths long after their adult teeth have arrived.
A typical puppy teething timeline looks roughly like this:
This is a general timeline rather than an exact timetable for every puppy.
The most obvious puppy teething symptom is usually an increased desire to chew.
You may notice your puppy:
A small amount of gum bleeding while teeth are falling out can be normal.
Heavy bleeding, significant swelling, obvious severe pain or a puppy refusing food because their mouth hurts deserves veterinary attention.
Teething can cause discomfort as baby teeth loosen and permanent teeth erupt through the gums.
That is one reason chewing becomes so attractive.
Pressure against the gums can feel soothing.
However, normal teething should not leave your puppy appearing severely painful, unable to eat or generally unwell.
If the level of discomfort seems significant, speak to your vet rather than assuming every mouth problem is simply teething.
Teething is only part of the explanation.
Puppies naturally investigate the world with their mouths.
They pick things up, carry them, chew them and experiment with different textures.
During teething, that normal puppy behaviour combines with sore gums and a stronger desire to chew.
This is why simply trying to ban chewing rarely works.
Instead, teach:
This is yours to chew. That isn’t.
The best support usually comes from combining appropriate chewing opportunities with good household management.
You do not need dozens of complicated products.
You need safe options your puppy actually wants to use.
Give your puppy several appropriate textures to choose from.
Good options can include puppy-specific rubber or flexible teething toys designed for the dog’s size and chewing strength.
The toy should be large enough that your puppy cannot swallow it and durable enough that pieces are not easily removed.
Inspect toys regularly.
If a toy begins breaking apart, remove it.
Cool temperatures can feel soothing against uncomfortable gums.
Options can include:
The objective is cool and soothing, not giving the puppy something rock-hard that could damage their developing teeth.
One of the more important parts of puppy teething care is understanding that harder does not automatically mean better.
Very hard objects can fracture teeth.
Be cautious with things such as:
A chew does not need to be indestructible to be useful.
It needs to be appropriate for the individual puppy and used under supervision.
Cold can help soothe gums, but solid ice cubes can be extremely hard.
There are safer ways to provide cooling without giving your puppy something hard enough to potentially damage a tooth.
Choose chilled or appropriately frozen flexible puppy toys instead.
No chew toy is completely risk-free.
A toy that works perfectly for one puppy may be destroyed in minutes by another.
Supervision allows you to notice when:
Replace damaged toys rather than waiting for them to disappear piece by piece.
If your puppy has access to twenty inappropriate things and one legal chew toy, you have made the training unnecessarily difficult.
Management is one of the easiest ways to survive puppy teething.
Remove or restrict access to:
Use puppy gates, pens, closed doors and appropriate supervision rather than expecting a four-month-old puppy to make perfect choices all day.
Start by preventing repeated access where possible.
If your puppy begins chewing the corner of a table:
Repeating this consistently teaches the distinction between household objects and things designed for chewing.
Shouting after discovering damage twenty minutes later teaches very little.
Teething can increase mouthiness, but not every episode of puppy biting is caused by sore gums.
Puppies also bite and mouth because they:
If every bite is blamed on teething, owners can miss the behavioural part of the problem.
Your puppy still needs to learn how to interact with people appropriately.
If your puppy starts chewing your hands or clothing, redirect them towards an appropriate toy.
If they are too excited to redirect and repeatedly return to biting you, end the interaction calmly for a short period.
This helps teach:
Toys keep the game going. Repeatedly biting people makes interaction stop.
Avoid turning hand biting into an energetic wrestling game by constantly pushing the puppy away.
For some puppies, movement and shouting make biting even more exciting.
When puppy teeth are tiny, letting them wrestle with your hands can seem harmless.
Then the puppy develops a full set of adult teeth.
Teach early that toys are for biting and hands are for calm interaction and handling.
This does not mean panicking every time a puppy’s mouth touches you.
Puppy mouthing is normal.
You are simply shaping what becomes acceptable as the dog grows.
There is an important overlap between teething, puppy biting and sleep.
Young puppies need a huge amount of rest.
A puppy that becomes increasingly frantic, mouthy and unable to concentrate late in the day may not need another hour of play.
They may need to sleep.
Learning to recognise the difference between boredom and overtiredness can make the teething months significantly easier.
Yes, but training does not need to stop.
A puppy with uncomfortable gums may be slightly more distracted or mouthy than normal.
Keep sessions:
There is no need to suspend normal recall, lead training, settling or household boundaries because your puppy is teething.
Simply recognise that their ability to concentrate may vary from one day to another.
The teething stage actually gives owners plenty of opportunities to teach important behaviours.
These include:
The puppy has a natural desire to pick things up, so use that behaviour to teach skills rather than spending several months simply chasing them around the house.
Your puppy will eventually pick up something they should not have.
Probably more than once.
Avoid turning every stolen sock into a high-speed chase.
If running away with an object causes the entire family to chase them through the house, stealing things can become an excellent game.
Instead, teach your puppy that releasing an item voluntarily can produce something worthwhile.
This can later develop into a reliable drop cue.
Do not panic.
Puppies commonly swallow baby teeth while eating or chewing.
In most cases this causes no problem at all.
That is why many owners never actually find a single puppy tooth despite all 28 being replaced.
A very small amount of blood can be normal when puppy teeth loosen and fall out.
You might notice a faint red mark on a chew toy.
Significant, persistent or unexplained bleeding is different and should be discussed with your vet.
Sometimes a permanent tooth erupts while the corresponding baby tooth remains in place.
This is known as a retained or persistent deciduous tooth.
You may notice what appears to be two teeth occupying roughly the same position.
Retained teeth can cause overcrowding and alter how permanent teeth sit in the mouth.
If your puppy’s adult tooth has appeared but the baby tooth remains beside it, ask your vet to check it.
Most puppies complete teething without any significant problem.
Contact your vet if you notice:
It is much better to have an unusual tooth checked than to wait until overcrowding or damage has become established.
The puppy stage is a good time to teach that gentle mouth handling is normal.
Gradually get your puppy comfortable with:
Keep sessions short and easy.
Do not repeatedly manipulate visibly sore gums simply to practise handling.
The objective is creating a dog that is comfortable having its mouth examined throughout life.
By around six to seven months, your puppy should be moving towards a complete adult set of teeth.
But adolescence has now arrived.
So although teething discomfort may reduce, chewing can continue because chewing itself is rewarding and normal.
Continue providing suitable chew opportunities and maintaining the household rules you established during puppyhood.
The aim was never merely surviving until the adult teeth appeared.
It was teaching your puppy healthy chewing habits that continue afterwards.
Puppies develop their baby teeth when only a few weeks old. The main teething stage owners notice begins at around three to four months, when baby teeth start falling out and permanent teeth begin erupting.
Most puppies have most or all of their permanent adult teeth by around six months old, although some teeth may continue erupting through the six-to-seven-month period.
Owners often notice particularly intense chewing between roughly three and six months because this is when baby teeth are being replaced by permanent teeth. Individual puppies vary considerably.
Common signs include increased chewing and mouthing, visible missing baby teeth, occasional mild gum bleeding and a greater interest in gnawing different textures. Severe pain or significant swelling is not something to dismiss as ordinary teething.
Provide safe flexible puppy chew toys and appropriate chilled toys designed for teething. Cool textures may help soothe uncomfortable gums. Avoid giving extremely hard items that could fracture developing or newly erupted teeth.
Teething can increase the desire to chew, but puppies also bite because of play, exploration, excitement, frustration and tiredness. Redirect biting towards suitable toys and calmly end interactions when repeated biting becomes excessive.
A very small amount of blood can occur as baby teeth loosen and fall out. Persistent or substantial bleeding, significant swelling or obvious pain should be checked by a vet.
Yes. You may occasionally find a baby tooth after it falls out. However, many puppies swallow their baby teeth while eating or chewing, so it is also completely normal never to find them.
Puppies normally have 28 deciduous or baby teeth. Adult dogs typically have 42 permanent teeth once the teething process is complete.
Chewing is normal dog behaviour and is not caused solely by teething. Adolescent and adult dogs may continue chewing because it is enjoyable, mentally stimulating or simply part of how they interact with objects.
A permanent tooth may occasionally erupt before the corresponding baby tooth has fallen out. This is called a retained or persistent deciduous tooth and should be checked by your vet because it can cause crowding or abnormal tooth position.
The teething stage can feel endless while you are living through it.
You put your shoes away and the puppy discovers the table.
You protect the table and they find the corner of a rug.
You give them three toys and they decide the cardboard box they arrived in is considerably more interesting.
That is puppyhood.
Rather than trying to suppress the natural desire to chew, use these months to teach your puppy where that behaviour belongs.
Provide safe options. Puppy-proof the environment. Redirect mistakes. Teach leave and drop. Give them enough sleep and continue normal training without expecting perfect concentration every minute of the day.
Most puppies will have completed the main puppy teething process by around six months old.
By then, you want more than a puppy with a new set of teeth.
You want a young dog that has also learnt what those teeth are — and are not — supposed to be used on.
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