Is Your Dog
Still Mouthing You?
Firstly, I’ll explain what I mean by ‘mouthing’
just in case you haven’t heard of it before, then we’ll look
at why they do it and how to cure it.
When a dog of any age is still ‘play’ biting or
putting his mouth around your hand when you play with him,
this is called ‘mouthing’. He does not intend to harm you but
it can be painful and is not acceptable behaviour. In most
cases they will grow out of it by 4 months of age, but if your
dog is already older than that I wouldn’t reply on it. I see
an owner out walking who complains that her 14 months old dog
still does it, and who clearly hopes that they will grow out
of it. I am wondering how old he will be before she decides
that he isn’t just going to stop? It may be too late then.
So, don’t ignore it now.
Why do dogs ‘mouth’?
Well, it is mostly puppies that do it.
Almost all puppies mouth, its how they explore. Ever seen a
baby play with a toy? He always puts it in his mouth to figure
out what the object is. Dogs are the same way. Their mouths
are like our hands. Before puppy training, it is very natural
for a dog to mouth people when they first come home to their
new life away from their pack. In the pack, the puppies will
mouth each other as well as the mom. When they get too harsh
the other puppy will YELP to let them know it hurt. This is
called learning bite inhibition and dogs that are taken away
from their litters too early might not learn this as well, so
that’s one reason why they might continue mouthing.
So, most pups will learn to stop mouthing
when with their mother and litter mates. If they haven’t
learnt to stop by 4 months then you will have to help them
If your puppy was taken too early (before
6-7 weeks) then get your puppy with other puppies and that can
help puppy training. This may be particularly important of
your pup came from a puppy farm where they are often taken
away from their mum’s far too early.
Most dogs and puppies are generally loving,
sweet, adorable, affectionate and wonderful 99% of the time.
Only 1% of the time does something specific happen that makes
the dog bite. Don’t confuse mouthing with biting – you can
easily see if the dog is being aggressive and you must take
note of that. You also need to understand that dogs go
through a teething process as well as babies do. This is all
part of normal growing up.
Here we’ll look at the causes of biting and
what you can do to prevent your dog from biting. You also
need to be aware that some dogs are bred for purposes that may
make them use their mouths more often. For example Labrador
Retrievers are bred to retrieve game at a hunt. It uses its
mouth to retrieve the game. So it’s a natural instinct to put
everything and anything in its mouth – including the owners
hands. When the dog is doing what comes naturally it’s the
owner’s job to teach the dog that this is not acceptable
behavior. This is another reason why mouthing may continue.
Socialization Prevents Biting
By allowing your puppy to socialize with other puppies and
socialized dogs they can pick up where they left off when they
left their mothers. Puppies need to roll, tumble and play with
each other. When they play, they bite each other everywhere
and anywhere. This is where they learn to inhibit their
biting. This is where they learn to control themselves. If
they are too rough, they will find out because of how the
other dogs and puppies react and interact with them. This is
something that happens naturally and it is something we cannot
accomplish. It can only be learned from trial and error. There
is nothing you can say or do to educate them in this realm.
They must learn from their own experience.
So if we are going to train our pups to
keep their piranha teeth off our bodies and personal items we
first need to know the types of biting associated with any dog
breed. They are:
-
Playful
-
Fear Biting
-
Territorial
-
Aggression
Most puppies will not show aggression at a
very early age. This is mostly a learned behavior over time.
Hence, when small puppies bite, they bite out of fun,
playfulness, teething, or the need to have something in their
mouth. At first it may be cute, but it should be corrected
immediately since it will not be as cute when they are a 70
lbs. adult dog.
Puppies should be taught from a young age
never to mouth or bite humans. How do you do this? Well, based
on our experience, there are a couple of steps to curb this
type of behavior. When a puppy bites, first use a sharp tone
and say "No Bite!" If the puppy continues to mouth or bite,
grab the back of its collar with your other hand and give a
quick/sharp tug and say "No Bite!" again. The tug action
should only serve to startle the pup and not hurt it in any
way. It may take 4-5 times in a row of performing the tug
action while saying "No Bite!", but the pup will understand
quickly that when it bites you, it receives something it
doesn’t like (the tug action).
It is important that after the pup stops
biting, you replace the object he shouldn’t be chewing on
(i.e. your hand) with something it should chew on. As soon as
the pup bites down on this other object (toy, bone, etc),
praise it using a very happy and higher pitch voice. This
practice is considered positive training and instead of
teaching the pup what not to do, you are replacing a negative
action with a positive action. After a while, you will just
have to say “No Bite!” and the pup will automatically release
upon command.
If that doesn’t work then try the
following:
1. Never reinforce the behavior
This puppy training technique means you
must remove your attention every time this happens. Attention
to a dog includes eye contact. With kids its best to tell them
to cross their arms and stare at the ceiling. 30 seconds is
about the time you should ignore your puppy. Don't push your
puppy away as this can become a game quickly.
2. Try
yelping like a puppy
Yelping
in many puppy training cases will communicate exactly what you
want - that it hurts when your puppy does that. That in
combination with removing your attention will likely get rid
of the mouthing problem. Of course some puppies will become
excited by this yelp and bite harder - if that happens, don't
use this puppy training method.
3.
Lemon juice or bitter apple
Another
puppy training technique is using a little lemon juice or
bitter apple on your hands.
4.
Teach him something else to do
Teach
your dog to lick on the cue "no bite". Put a treat in your
hand. When your puppy licks, give him the treat and say "no
bite". He'll learn this puppy training lesson fast
5.
Grabbing a dogs mouth – this is absolutely a last resort!
The problem with this method is you really
want your dog to be comfortable with having their mouths and
teeth handled. If they have a negative association to your
hand in their mouth, this can create more problems. Be clear
about your consequences and try the above methods, if you are
100% consistent, you will see this behavior go away.
This should stop most dogs from biting or
mouthing, however if it doesn’t then it’s likely that the
biting has another cause. This is harder to deal with.
Other types of biting including fear,
territorial, and aggression biting. An owner may think that
their puppy or dog was born with these negative behaviors but
that is not true. Each of these negative behaviors is usually
linked to a negative event that happened to the dog at an
early age. Dogs that bite or threaten to bite out of fear and
territorial influence can usually be trained out of such
behaviors. The difficult part is trying to establish what
causes the fear. You should try to deal with their problems
by getting them used to what it is they fear. So for example,
if the dog fears children because of their playfulness and
loud noises, then the dog needs to be gradually introduced to
them, regularly and consistently in a controlled manner. He
must be allowed to get used to them without adding to his
fear. This is another form of controlled socialization.
Bring the dog to places where children
play. If the dog is frightened it will begin backing away and
may be barking. Ignore this behavior and tell the children to
talk calmly to the dog but not to touch it. After a minute of
being ignored by you most dogs will start to at least sniff
towards what they fear. Ask one child to put out his hand
slowly, palm upwards and let the dog sniff it. Tell the child
not to touch the dog even if it licks the hand – let this
carry on for a minute or two before you let the child very
gently pet the dog. After a few minutes of this take the dog
away. Repeat this as often as you can – little and often is
best, and the dog will soon be happy around children. This
method can be used for many forms of fear that cause the dog
to bite.
Lastly, dogs that bite or threaten to bite
out of aggression have a serious problem that must be dealt
with immediately. Most canine aggression problems start slowly
and progressively get worse. Recognize the early signs of
aggression and seek help immediately if see your dog do any of
the following:
Contact a professional dog trainer right
away for help if your dog bites you or a member of your family
or acts of if it might. Be sure to not react by striking your
dog in any way, since this can increase the aggression.
Most biting and mouthing behaviors can be fixed with
consistent and persistent training. With some common-sense
strategies, a little bit of forethought, and a healthy dose of
patience, any owner can help their dog become a well-mannered
family companion.
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