Teaching Bite Inhibition

[Shneeg11]

For the time being, I've stopped using a verbal cue for nipping. Now, I'm just ending the game and taking all of my limbs out of his range for a minute or two and he has started coming up to me and laying at my feet waiting to lick me. I guess that's a good response.

[xArsAmatoria]

My pup is turning out to be quite the alligator. He is a freak over my pant legs. He clamps down on them and shakes his head side to side, so that I can't get him off. His jaw clamps down so tight that it's hard for me to even gently pull it open. I have to grab him and hold him on his back, and slowly pull his jaw open and my pants out of his mouth. But then as I try to walk out of the room, he runs and clamps back down on my pants. :| It's extremely frustrating. He ignores no, OUCH, and leave it. I've been trying to teach him "leave it" since the day I brought him home, but he doesn't seem to be getting it. (Yet, he got "potty" in two days and "sit" in fifteen minutes) It's only been a couple days that I've had him, but it seems like his biting is getting worse. Any advice for this?

[MaggieRoseLee]

Originally Posted by xArsAmatoria

My pup is turning out to be quite the alligator. He is a freak over my pant legs. He clamps down on them and shakes his head side to side, so that I can't get him off. His jaw clamps down so tight that it's hard for me to even gently pull it open. I have to grab him and hold him on his back, and slowly pull his jaw open and my pants out of his mouth. But then as I try to walk out of the room, he runs and clamps back down on my pants. :| It's extremely frustrating. He ignores no, OUCH, and leave it. I've been trying to teach him "leave it" since the day I brought him home, but he doesn't seem to be getting it. (Yet, he got "potty" in two days and "sit" in fifteen minutes) It's only been a couple days that I've had him, but it seems like his biting is getting worse. Any advice for this?

He's not getting enough exercise. Really. He may be getting some, but it's not enough. Miles of off leash activities 3 to 4 times of week is what I do with my girls. PLUS fun activities of chuckit and tugging with long tug toys.

The more fun fun fun we do that wears them out, the better my life is. When I have to just rely on obedience and corrections, it doesn't work and just ads to the frustration for myself and my puppies. Not kidding, this is what I have to do with my puppies:

YouTube - Glory B (11 wks) and Bretta Lee (5 yrs) Hiking in the Woods

YouTube - Glory B (11 wks) and Bretta Lee (5 yrs) Hiking in the Woods

YouTube - Hiking the Poconos w/Friends and their dogs

YouTube - Hiking the Poconos w/Friends and their dogs

Mixing in positive clicker based treat trained tricks also is key:

YouTube - crazy tricks of crazy puppy - Le, 3 months

YouTube - crazy tricks of crazy puppy - Le, 3 months

Also, go way back to page one of this thread to read what everyone has had to post... Teaching Bite Inhibition

[xArsAmatoria]

Originally Posted by MaggieRoseLee

He's not getting enough exercise. Really. He may be getting some, but it's not enough. Miles of off leash activities 3 to 4 times of week is what I do with my girls. PLUS fun activities of chuckit and tugging with long tug toys.

The more fun fun fun we do that wears them out, the better my life is. When I have to just rely on obedience and corrections, it doesn't work and just ads to the frustration for myself and my puppies. Not kidding, this is what I have to do with my puppies:

YouTube - Glory B (11 wks) and Bretta Lee (5 yrs) Hiking in the Woods

YouTube - Hiking the Poconos w/Friends and their dogs

Mixing in positive clicker based treat trained tricks also is key:

YouTube - crazy tricks of crazy puppy - Le, 3 months


Also, go way back to page one of this thread to read what everyone has had to post... Teaching Bite Inhibition

He's just 9 weeks old, though. I romp around with him in the yard about 4 or 5 times a day for 20 minutes, let him play with the other dogs, and we play with toys plenty inside the house. In my opinion, he is not near old enough for hiking or running for miles. He's not even very stable on his feet yet.

I know he's a puppy so he's going to bite and chew on things. I've applied everything in the first page and the bite inhibition links. He understands it; if I tell him ouch/leave it, he does quit what he's chewing on (ouch for me, leave it for anything else)... Unless it comes to my pant legs. Then he just goes at it.

I have decided I want to start using the clicker to train him. So we'll see how that goes. So far, he knows come, leave it (when applied to things that are not my pant legs), and sit. He is starting puppy classes on Saturday so I am hoping that will help out, too.

[Cyrak6]

I have a question that I have not seen posted yet in this thread.

How do you teach bite inhibition to a pup you intend to do Schutzhund with?

Obviously, you don't want him biting your hands/face/ankles, and especially not doing these things with kids or elderly people. But while you do want them to have a soft mouth with "fragile" people, you are also eventually going to be encouraging them to basically "play rough" and have a hard bite with the helper, and expect them to know the appropriate times for each behavior.

I agree 100% with what MaggieRoseLee posted about tiring them out - I believe this is the biggest part of the problem. Do you just basically focus on this, and use redirection to toys, and otherwise just hope they grow out of the nipping? I know that there are many excellent Schutzhund dogs out there that can make this distinction - how did they learn this?

[MaggieRoseLee]

Great video with help and explanations!!!

YouTube - Out of Control Dog! How to teach your dog not to bite.

YouTube - Out of Control Dog! How to teach your dog not to bite.

[bruiser]

Bruiser is now 3 months old and when he tired I have no problem getting him to mind and not bite. I decided to re-read this this sticky to see if I missed anything or can scrape up some new advice. The picture on the video made me laugh as that is exactly how he looked this morning after sleeping all night, up and ready to go and teach me some lessons. I put him outside and tried to play for awhile before trying to coax him back in his crate for a 5 minute time-out. When let out he went for me again, yes back in for another 5 minutes and then a short reprieve. I think he was drinking the devil juice this morning...JUST NEEDED TO SOUND OFF...thanks!!!

[dracowing14]

not sure if this method was mentioned but it has worked wonders for both my huskies and our new shepherd, i don't use my dogs for nay kind of competitions or anything else beside good old fashion family dog, and the last thing i want is for them to bite so i employ the same technique that the pups will do with there siblings, when the pup bites me i bite them back. at the mometn any part of the tooth hits any skin i will firmly hold the mouth shut and will bite the top of the muzzle until i here the first sound of a whimper and then instantly release. it took me 2 times with each husky and only once with the shepherd for them to get the pic, i have never had a problem since. the reason i am harsh as some may call this method is these are big dogs and if for an reason there teeth touch someone, they could be taken away and possibly put down. so i will not risk this behavior at all. it really seems to have worked on my shepherd, you can be playing tug of war and the second his tooth touches any par to the skin he will instantly release and step back, without any command.

[JeanKBBMMMAAN]

Originally Posted by JeanKBBMMMAAN

I see a lot of posts about puppies nipping, which is what puppies do. I think the goal is not so much to stop them from biting, but to teach them good bite inhibition/having a soft mouth. You can do the stopping biting quickly using negative reinforcement, or teach it slowly and as positively as possible where the dog actually LEARNS bite inhibition. And a result of this will be less and eventually no biting.

That is a huge thing for a dog to learn. I have a pack o' dogs, I get foster puppies and I never have to teach it because they do it for me. Mario will in fact lick my arm in apology if he makes a mistake and mouths me.

Since most people don't have that luck there are some articles on teaching it-that is the goal, really, bite inhibition, not stopping nipping. So yeah, can you scruff or smack a puppy and get them to stop? Yes, but can you create other problems in the process? Yes. And you want them to learn to do this as they grow.

Bite Inhibition Article The first part is the best.

http://www.phsspca.org/training/puppy_biting.htm

ClickerSolutions Training Articles --
The other thing to remember is that you are replacing the playmates and mom that he knows and unless they had people spending a lot of time with the puppies at the breeder, they really don't know much about interacting with people. I think you'll all be fine! And as soon as shots are done, sign up for a positive based obedience class for fun!

I figured after people checked those articles out, they could post other things, or reinforce things read, that they did to help their dogs learn that bite inhibition. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/13_puppy.gif[/img]

Inhibition refresher. It's not about stopping the dog from biting because of you, it's about them stopping the biting, and learning how to use their mouth, because of them.