# "biting" if I can even call it that



## lady amanda (Nov 26, 2010)

Hi Everyone,
Ok so Lady has started this new thing that I can't seem to get her to stop...she has started "biting" but she isn't biting to harm. She doesn't put any force behind it at all. I have been assuming that she is doing it for attention or play, we have tried the yelp, that doesn't work for her it only gets her more excited, and we have tried the ignoring, well then she just does it to your pants or to your ankles, we asked our trainer and she said to give her a time out....in her crate, which we were told to never use as a punishment, so to leave her toys and everything in there and just give her a few minutes to chill..which does work at the time...but I don't feel that it is correcting the behavior. does anyone have advice as to stop this...I don't want her to think that putting our hands in her mouth is OK, whether she is biting down hard or not.


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## alfiedoo (Sep 6, 2010)

Hi Amanda

Alfie does that exact same thing. It seems to be when he's excitable or trying to get us to play with him. He's def not meaning to hurt but as you say you don't want to encourage that behaviour. We take him out of the situation by putting him in another room for few minutes until he has calmed down and this does work most of the time. Would also welcome any tips that have worked for others too!


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## kendal (Jul 16, 2009)

when does she do it, can you set up a situation where where she will defonetly try to mouth you, if so you can give her a gentel lead correction when she mouths then prses her if she is being nice. 

if you set up the situation you new when you need to react rather than waiting for her to do it and then having to react.


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## JoJo (Mar 2, 2011)

All the joys of having a puppy I think.... Yes Oakley has had a biting lead stage, mouthing our hands, etc ..... a firm no and toy given stops it.... I think it will just past .. she is 5 months so those teeth are falling or going to fall out at time ..... a lead control would be good as Kendal advised, but I think it will pass tbh.


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## weez74 (Feb 9, 2011)

One of the interesting things that my new book (see my post in another thread) suggests is (and I can't quite remember the name she gave it - I will edit later if I can find it) to 'peg a cue' on bad behaviour. In other words, reward the thing that they are doing and give it a name. So, every time she bites you, you would say, for example, 'chew' and then treat and praise her (I know, I know, stick with me!). The theory is that she then associates the bad behaviour with the cue 'Chew', and over time, you stop saying the cue, so she stops the behaviour. 

I'm not too sure how I feel about that and I haven't tried it myself, but it is certainly interesting, isn't it? To be fair, the book only mentions this briefly, so I don't think it is something the author recommends as a general solution to bad behaviour. 

If it helps from another perspective, just to make you a little less concerned, the dog we had when I was growing up used to play bite me all the time. I used to love it - she never once hurt me and we used to wrestle and I actively used to put my wrist in her mouth to encourage it (I'm shaking my head as I type - if my parents had known they would have gone crazy!). But, my point is that she never, ever actually bit anybody. I do think it is a completely different thing to aggressive biting.


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## lady amanda (Nov 26, 2010)

I totally agree that it is completely different than agressive biting. she is totally just having a grat time, the same when she bites her own ear, which is hillarious, she wont want to hurt herself, she is just playing, My niece and nefew however who are quite small are afraid of dogs.....and way over react about being hurt ( i do love them, they are just "delicate" LOL!) but I don't want her getting a bad wrap from anyone over reacting either.


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## embee (Dec 27, 2010)

Flo used to mouth a lot when playing or greeting and I allowed her to do it with me as it keeps her mouth 'soft' and taught her how to control or inhibit her bite. That means that if she was ever hurt or scared and used her mouth in response she would know how much pressure to use and wouldn't cause any harm. When she had my hand in her mouth and used even the tiniest pressure I would say owe, take my hand away and 'nurse' it. At this point if I try and put my hand in her mouth she will pull her head away as she knows it might hurt me. Ian Dunbar has some really interesting points about teaching a dog bite inhibition - you shouldn't stop a really young dog biting as they won't learn how to inhibit their bite, they need feedback so they soften their mouth.http://www.crickethollowfarm.com/biteinhib.htm

The problem comes where they use their mouth with children or non doggy visitors who think your dog is trying to bite and hurt them. When Flo used to do this I would take her muzzle gently, close it and say no then distract her with a treat or toy and praise her for behaving correctly. I also use a sound 'ah ah' which means stop whatever it is you are doing and as the sound is so distinct she generally ceases what she is doing then looks at me as if to say 'what shall I do then'


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## lady amanda (Nov 26, 2010)

Awesome Mandy, Thanks I will check out that link.
I tried the nursing of my hand this morning when she put a little bit of pressure, and I think it worked...she seemed like she wanted to make it better lol...glad that worked since the yelp only makes her excited.


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