When Bonnie was a baby, she played with her brothers and sisters. Before her teeth came in, they snuggled together and kept each other warm. They would bump into each other and roll around. This is Bonnie when she was about two and a half weeks old, just before her sharp little teeth came in.

After the teeth emerge, puppies play in a different way. They begin to play by biting and chewing on each other. When Bonnie bit too hard, her siblings would yelp or bite back. If Bonnie chewed too much on her mother's leg, her mom would push her away or get up and leave. That's how Bonnie learned 'bite inhibition'. Bite inhibition means that Bonnie learned how to inhibit, or control, the force of her bite.

When we bought Bonnie, she left her family of collies. She came to live with people. Bonnie had learned only to control her biting with her family of dogs, and now, she needs to learn bite inhibition with people and dogs she didn't know.

So the first thing we did is to introduce Bonnie to other dogs - as many as we could. One of them was Shelby, a handsome Golden Retriever. Shelby is a year and a half old and has learned very well to play nicely.

Puppies tend to play roughly. They have very sharp teeth and toenails. Other dogs don't usually like the rough play. When puppies play too rough with other dogs, sometimes they tell the puppy to stop biting by growling, raising their lips, getting on top, leaving them to go somewhere else, or chasing them.

The best way for puppies to get along with other dogs is to expose them to as many as you can. Invite dogs over and go visit others. Make sure they are friendly. A dog with behavior problems is not who you want teaching your puppy. Plus, it can be dangerous.

The things she is learning from other dogs is invaluable and will help her to have good bite inhibition with animals and people.

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