Thunder Biting

I've used the crate for timeouts on 3 dogs, my previous and two current. Coincidentally, those 3 are the only ones that were crate trained, we didn't even HAVE a crate for Sneaker. I've had NO problem with timeouts causing negative feelings towards their crates.

Dena & Keefer are almost 4 and almost 3 years old, and when they get to playing too rowdy in the house and won't stop when I tell them to cut it out, I simply say "that's it, timeout!" and walk towards their crates. If they don't go in on their own, I smack the top and repeat the command. They go in, I close the door, and I leave them there as long as it's convenient for me. They just hang out or take a nap.

When I'm in the bedroom on my Lifecycle Keefer will still go in his crate for a nap (he can see me from there), and at night both dogs either go in their crates on their own, or with the usual "go to bed" command.

Think of timeouts in the crate as a break rather than a punishment. Cassidy was a mouthy little land shark for a long time, so she got frequent brief timeouts as a puppy. And yet she liked her crate so much that we were never able to get rid of it entirely. The door was always open so she could come and go as she pleased, but she CHOSE to sleep there. I would have loved to get rid of that thing!!! But I hated to take it away from her.

I’m very new here; however, I’ve had dogs most of my life and GSD’s for the past 20 years. PLEASE, PLEASE, DO NOT permit your puppy to bite you “just a bit”! First: dogs have no idea what is “a bit”. Second: if you permit any biting at all – of people – you are telling the dog that biting is allowed. It’s rather like giving your puppy and old shoe to chew and then wondering why she chews up your $300 new shoes. Dogs cannot discriminate. If you permit biting, the dog becomes a biter. Yes, all puppies (well most) go through a stage of being mouthy and many will bite you in play. However, when this happens we need to take action – give the dog something else to bite, yell ouch, leave the room, etc. – whatever works for you. No, you don’t have to yell, use force, etc. You do have to take action.

Not all techniques work as well with all puppies. The loud sharp puppy shriek just got Dena more excited, but it worked well with Keefer. For her, redirecting to a toy worked much better.

The timeout was for when they'd stop biting for a second but come right back to it. I'd give them a couple of tries, sort of a 3 strikes you're out kind of thing, and then they'd go in the crate. Play nice, or mama goes away.

Frequent brief timeouts are more clear, especially if they are immediately after the infraction, because it's easier for them to associate it with their actions. Bring puppy out, puppy bites again, back in the crate. Repeat in a minute or two, etc. Lots of praise and play when he's playing nice.

The puppy classes I took were founded by Dr. Ian Dunbar, who wrote one of the articles on bite inhibition linked to in the sticky thread. His theory is that it's better to teach your dog to inhibit his bite by letting him mouth you as a young puppy (before he's developed full jaw strength) and only reacting to the strongest bites at first, then working gradually towards no bites at all over time, as you've described.

If done correctly, step by step, your puppy should not be confused. It's a gradual progression, not just a random thing.

Originally Posted By: networknThanks cassidy's mum, but I am still a little confused. In that post above you said you use the timeout method and prefer it, but also see the value of the biting inhibition method too? Should I try a mixture of the above.. Perhaps letting him nibble me, but giving him 3 warnings if he is getting rough and then in the crate?

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Sorry I wasn't more clear. Yes, I did do the bite inhibition work as described in the link when Dena & Keefer were pups. I used a combination of methods to stop the hardest bites, then the next hardest bites, then the softer bites, and then no bites at all were tolerated.

With Dena, if I redirected her to a toy and she came back to my arm or my pant leg I gave her another try. As long as I could successfully redirect her to an appropriate toy, play could continue. If she ignored my attempts to get her to stop chewing me, I would do a timeout in the crate. If she came out and played by my rules, we could continue. If she started biting me again instead of the toy, back in the crate.

Keefer did respond to a loud sharp shriek. It would startle him, he'd stop biting and look at me, and then I could then praise him for not biting me anymore, (and also for eye contact!) and play could continue. If he bit me again, I'd give another loud high pitched "OUCH!", and if he stopped biting and played nice, we could continue. Usually I'd give them a couple of chances to be good before doing a timeout.

Timeouts mean the end of fun and I go away. Being with me and getting to play were very rewarding, and they learned that they could control attention and playtime by obeying the rules. Removal of attention can be a very powerful training tool.