Bite Prevention -- Teaching Your Dog Bit Inhibition

Child-proofing || Crate Training || Toys || Separation Anxiety || Housetraining || Bite Inhibition

Non-aggressive biting during play, during greeting, or when trying to get your attention, should not be taken lightly. A dog will quickly learn that it is okay to act recklessly and carelessly around you and that biting is acceptable. This kind of biting can be very scary to a person who isn’t familiar with your dog, and if you own a breed with a bad reputation, even play-biting can get you and your dog in trouble.

By the age of 3 months a puppy should have learned not to bite hard. Puppies get their first lessons in bite-inhibition from their mother and littermates. If a puppy bites too hard, his playmate yelps and will stop playing. Mother dogs usually freeze and if that does not stop the offender they will growl or nip at the pup to stop the disrespectful attack.

The key to bite inhibition is consistency. If your dog is older than 3 months and does not have proper bite-inhibition get started now.

Very important: Almost any dog will bite given the right (or wrong) circumstances!

That’s why it is absolutely crucial to do some prevention and to follow these instructions.

Before you teach your dog not to bite at all you must teach him to bite softly. This means that you never discourage play biting until your dog has learned not to bite with too much force. A dog that has learned proper bite inhibition will less likely cause injury in the case he would ever feel pushed to bite someone than a dog that has never learned to inhibit his bite.

Here is how to do it:

If your dog bites too hard when mouthing you, you start with only correcting hard mouthing. When your dog no longer bites hard, you start correcting medium hard bites, when he stops that, you start correcting medium bites and so on. Once your dog will only mouth you softly, you start teaching him not to touch human skin or clothes with his teeth at all, by discouraging any and all mouthing. When you are at this point there should be a zero tolerance for any and all use of the dog’s teeth on your skin and clothing.
Every time your dog initiates the inappropriate mouthing you "yelp". This can be a loud "ouch" or other signal that will become the cue for your dog that he has crossed the line.
As you say "ouch" you freeze. When the dog lets go, you ignore him for at least thirty seconds, but no longer than two minutes. Being ignored is his punishment, because what he wants most right now is your attention. Consider confining him for a brief 30 seconds to two-minute social isolation in a crate or if gates are up leave the puppy by stepping over the gate.
After the time out resume the activity you were engaged in before the "ouch". If he does the inappropriate behavior again, repeat the above procedure. Repetitions will get the job done.
If the puppy makes another mistake after the second ouch, you "ouch" again, but this time it is the end of the fun and you do not resume playing after his two minutes of being ignored or confined.

If the "ouching" is done consistently and in a timely fashion, that is as soon as the inappropriate mouthing starts, you should see results in two to three weeks. It takes that long, because the dog needs to figure out that his actions are causing you to stop playing/giving him attention. Only when he figures that out will he be able to correct his behavior.

Do not reinforce the behavior (make it stronger) by looking at the dog, talking to him or trying to push him away. This kind of attention is incredibly reinforcing to most dogs. Incredible as it may sound, even scolding and holding the mouth shut are attention to your dog, and will in most cases make the behavior even stronger.

I recommend that you start him in obedience to support your efforts in teaching your pooch some social skills. This will help you to get your dog under control when he starts getting excited, as you can cue him to sit or do something else you ask him to do. You would slowly increase the degree of difficulty for your dog by getting him a little bit excited and then cue for a sit and then progress to getting your dog more and more excited and riled up before you cue the sit.

Do not play tug-of-war games with your dog unless you play by the rules that you always win, the dog will only grab the toy when you ask for it, the dog never touches your skin with his teeth and he lets go of the toy when you say so. Small children should never play tug-of-war with any dog.

Do not play rough or wrestle with your dog; this is especially important when children are involved. Any play must stop when the puppy gets too excited. It is better for children to play training games with the dog.

Teach him to retrieve; it is an excellent game that puts you or your kids in control. Another fun game is hide and seek (the dog has to find you) or come when called games.

All these activities are fun for you and your dog and give him the attention he wants. At the same time they teach your dog that you call the shots. The more you play with him and work on obedience the quicker he will know what’s expected of him.

Home || Our Farm || My Dogs || Available Dogs || December 2007 Litter || Breeding Program || Purchase Contract || About ASDs || Training || Resources || Health || Contact

Designed & Hosted by Fauna Art Studios