SitStayFetch: Consultation With Geoff

Hello Daniel,

I am 76 years old. As a child I had 4 dogs at different times. All were killed by cars. As an adult our family has had 7 dogs over 50 years. 3 were purchased as puppies, the others from shelters.

We currently have a Yellow Lab mix from a shelter. He was 15 mos. when we brought him home last Dec. We took him knowing he had problems, having been returned to the Brooklyn, N.Y. pound several times. Lab rescue brought him to a rural Connecticut shelter where we got him.

His big problem has always been his mouth. He was really bad at first. Not biting, but mouthing constantly. We discovered early that he does not respond to loud voices when scolding and stopped his mouthing by holding his mouth closed while petting him. Only one problem persists. The world is his playground. All he wants do do is play, play, play. The problem we cannot seem to solve is that his playing consists of baring his teeth and growling, and biting at clothing. He is not vicious. He hasn't tried to bite flesh, but he has a great time biting clothing while evading the person he is playing with.

On lead he is super. He obviously had to be obedience trained in the city for his daily exercize. As long as he is on lead he obeys every command flawlessly. Off lead, however, only when it is convenient.

As an adult, I have never hit any of our dogs, nor do I intend to start. When I hold our Lab's mouth closed he cries like I'm beating him. The same applies to holding him by the scruff and scolding him eye to eye. He does not try to bite, but correcting him in either manner does not last.

I really need help.He knows we are alpha, but he just wants to playall the time. By the way, he is the first dog we have had that loves toys, and he has a large variety, plus other things he finds himself to play with outdoors.

Yours,

Geoff.
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SitStayFetch Reply:

Hi Geoff,

There are obviously a few behaviorial issues going on here that may be difficult to solve. Anyhow we will give it a go!

The fact that your dog responds well when he is on the leash and not at all when he is off the leash suggests to me that he is not focusing enough on you and your commands when you give them. It is a priority that you are able to reinforce your commands when you give them, otherwise he will run roughshod over your commands. Now this is easier said than done, however you can try the following technique in an attempt to overcome the problem.

I would continue with the on-leash training sessions for now. I would ask you to consider where these training sessions take place. If he performs well on-leash at your home then take him to a dog park or somewhere where there are more distractions, but keep him on-leash. If you can, slowly build up the amount of distractions that are around during your training sessions. When you are satisfied that he will respond (on-leash) to you under a variety of distracting situations then try him off-leash at your home or the place that he responds to on-leash training the best. This place should have minimal distractions, by that I mean there are no other people, dogs or other animals in the vicinity.

If you are only training him in the relative quiet of your own home then if you let him off leash or put him in a new environment then it is not surprising that he responds poorly.

Now the mouthing problem should not be as difficult to solve. Try some of the following techniques. I would also recommend that you review the mini ebook "Secrets to becoming the alpha dog", even though you have said that he is aware who the alpha dog is, just check that you are not letting some of his typical canine behavior slip below the radar.

Listed below are more techniques to try, these are really anti-nipping techniques but may go some way to helping with the mouthing that is going on. You will have to make up your own mind whether they are worth using in your particular instance as their effectiveness will depend on the dog.

Technique No.1
Take the focus away from your hands when you pet him. Do this by offering him a chew bone or similar when you go to pet him. Pet him behind the ears with one hand while offering the treat with the other. Pet him for short periods of time at the beginning as you do not want to overexcite him. This technique will help him form a positive association with petting.

Technique No. 2
Try wearing gloves coated with a foul tasting substance. You should be able to buy some specific dog "aversion" substances from your vet or pet store. The drawback with this method is that you must have the gloves on every time he tries to bite and he may form the negative association with the gloves rather than the hands.

Technique No.3
If you are sure that he won't bite you too hard then you can discourage the biting by loosely holding your dog's lower jaw between your thumb and forefinger after he has taken your hand in him mouth. Don't hurt him by squeezing too hard, just gently hang on so that wherever him mouth goes your hand goes to. Hopefully this will quickly become tiresome for him and he will try to pull away. After ten seconds of him trying to pull away, release him jaw and continue to offer your hand. If he licks it or ignores it then praise him immediately. If he tries to bite your hand again then repeat the exercise.

Technique No.4
It is important to teach your dog that biting turns off any social interaction and attention that you may be giving him. When he nips you, look him in the eye and yell "Ouch" or "Arghh", then ignore him. Leave him until he has calmed down.

General stuff
Make sure that you do not slap or hit your dog in the face for nipping as this action is almost guaranteed to backfire. He may think that you are playing and get more excited, he might respond in a defensive manner or he may just become afraid of you.

Also never play tug of war games with him if you are having nipping problems. This will just encourage out of control behavior.

A word of warning: Be careful with young children practicing this kind of behavior modification. A child's first reaction to being bitten is to push the dog away with their hands. Your dog is likely to interpret that action as being play, which in turn causes the dog to nip more.

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Best of luck and kind regards,

Daniel Stevens and the SitStayFetch Team

Click here to learn the truth about Dog Food Secrets.
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