Modulating Mouthiness

[Guest Rhea]

So, Dane has super bonded to me, and he tooootally loves me. Sometimes he shows that love with his mouth. He is also bossy sometimes and uses that mouth to kinda correct me, but most of the time when he gets mouthy he's playing or just super excited. However, he also uses his mouth to get me out of bed, after pulling off the covers he'll nip at me and so forth until I get out of bed. (A positive thing).

 

My dilemma is this: How do I teach him that biting/nipping me to get me out of bed is okay, but that games like biteyface and so forth are not to be played with human beings? (He 'pinched' me on the cheek once. I know he's being incredibly gentle with me at other times too,because he's never broken the skin, but sometimes it hurts a bit!) When he's in a playful mood I'll try to redirect his attention to one of his toys as a more bite-appropriate object, but it doesn't always work. Especially in that hour, half-hour leading up to suppertime. So far I've been fairly lenient, since I don't want to accidentally wipe out that natural behavior (although I think for him the 'reward' in getting me out of bed is that... I'm out of bed and our morning walks, so maybe I'm over-thinking this...) He's a pretty smart cookie, and eager to please, so I think it should be possible to teach him... I just don't know how I should go about it.

[Guest jetska]

Ian Dunbar says that if you want your dog to stop mouthing you, as soon as they do, you say 'OW, that hurt, jerk' and then leave and shut yourself in a different room for a while. The worst thing for the dog is to lose it's play mate.

[GreytNut]

Tiny did that. He would get overwhelmed and nit all over me. The breaking point came when he nitted a neighbor's son. Tiny meant no harm, but the neighbor saw this big dog putting teeth on his kid and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. For Tiny's own good, he had to quit putting his teeth on human skin.

 

I got him to stop by yelping when he put his teeth on me, then turning my back on him and standing like a statue with my arms across my chest until he calmed down. As soon as he realized that nitting yielded him the opposite of the result he wanted (play and attention), he backed off. He decided to redirect his excitement by running to fetch a toy and squeaking it like crazy, which was harmless and pretty cute.

[KickReturn]

Just be sure you can live without it before you try and stop it.

 

For a couple of weeks when Hester was starting to really bond he played bitey face with me and did some nitting. Then for whatever reason he decided that it was wrong to touch a human and will only occasionally give me a gentle peck on the cheek. I miss it and have tried to encourage him to engage but no luck.

[Feisty49]

I'm one who doesn't think bitey face, nitting, etc., is a good idea to encourage no matter where or when. I suppose if there is a guarantee a dog will do it only with its mom/dad, then fine, but that's a tough guarantee to keep. My Annie used to do the bitey thing on our walks when she thought she should get a treat. It was cute and initially I liked it, but I realized that some day someone else may walk her and her actions toward me are not suitable for others.

 

Also, though he doesn't break the skin it still hurts. Is that really acceptable behavior?

[NeylasMom]

I'm curious why you feel it's okay that he does it to get you out of bed, but not at other times.

[krissy]

I'm curious why you feel it's okay that he does it to get you out of bed, but not at other times.

 

I believe she got Dane to help as a service dog or support dog of some sort. I can imagine that if someone was having a tough time getting out of bed for whatever reason (anxiety, depression, mobility trouble, etc.) that it would be beneficial to have a little motivation to get going!

 

As far as nipping that is unwanted vs. wanted. I would praise him enthusiastically when he does it to get you out of bed. If he does it other times, simply ignore him. Kili is not mouthy at all, however when we do personal play (play with no toys for bonding) she will get so excited and have nothing to put in her mouth (as opposed to when we play tug with a tug toy) and she will nip at me really hard (she has left big bruises). When she does that I yelp and stop play. I will either just ignore her, or I will put her back into her crate and take out my other dog and play with him. The point is "If you're too rough you lose your opportunity to play and I give that opportunity to someone else".

 

Realize, however, that you are going to have to be very clear with him that you LIKE when he gets you out of bed, so don't take that for granted and really reward him for doing so. Otherwise I think you may find that his mouthiness will just disappear in general.

Edited November 21, 2013 by krissy

[Guest Rhea]

I'm curious why you feel it's okay that he does it to get you out of bed, but not at other times.

Basically what Krissy said. In the past I can (and have) slept as long as 18-20 hours a day while suffering from depression. When it's chemically based depression, you feel exhausted, you can sleep, sleep, sleep, and sleep some more, but you'll still feel exhausted. It doesn't matter how much I sleep, so I might as well be awake. Also, if and when I take a nap, he doesn't let me sleep more than an hour or two, which is another plus.

 

I'll have to be more enthusiastic when I get up XD but I do often tell him that he's being a good boy when he gets me out of bed.