Gnawing on my hands

My corgi, Charlie, is past his teething stage by now (I think; he has all his adult teeth now, 7 months old), but he still loves gnawing/chewing on my hands. It doesn't hurt, he doesn't bite hard (we taught him bite inhibition), but it's annoying when I just want slobber free hands for a couple hours. He gets mad when I take my hands away.

Anyone else have this problem? It's not that it's painful biting, it's just annoying... Any tips?

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Permalink Reply by steve smith on December 20, 2011 at 11:44am

Give him a rope or even better ice. There is a recent post just on this called what to do about teething on this site.

It is on the "Other" forum

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Permalink Reply by Joelle Soupe on December 20, 2011 at 11:50am

Sorry, I forgot to add that he has plenty of chew toys, which he will use, but when he fixates on my hands he doesn't want anything else.

Do you have a link to that recent post?

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Permalink Reply by Beth on December 20, 2011 at 12:09pm

I'd just say "ah" and if he doesn't stop with one correction, get up and walk away whenever he does it, or if he's on the couch or something put him on the ground. Dogs don't know that people don't like being chewed on. Dogs mouth at each other all the time when they play together so it's normal to them.

I prefer teaching "no teeth on me" but some people also teach "it's only okay if I offer to start the game." I think the former is less confusing though I've seen the latter be successful too. The choice is really yours and is in part based on how sensitive your dog is; some can understand the difference and others can't.

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Permalink Reply by Yuki & Ellie on December 20, 2011 at 12:25pm

As Beth said, get up and walk away. If he starts barking or grumbling, just ignore him completely. Don't even look at him. Once he has settled down, then you can sit down again. If he starts to nibble again, then just rinse and repeat. I've used this technique to teach Ellie not to lick my hands and it has worked very well.

If, for some reason, he gets too worked up and won't stop, then I would put him in a closed-off area (X-pen, puppy-safe room, etc.) to cool off for 5-10 minutes. It probably won't take long for him to get the message that teeth on a human means play time is over. :)

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Permalink Reply by Chris West on December 20, 2011 at 1:08pm

Here is a past discussion with a link to lots of other past discussions about biting. Good luck!!
http://www.mycorgi.com/forum/topics/nipping-help

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Permalink Reply by Joelle Soupe on January 30, 2012 at 11:17am

Update: Getting up and leaving the room did wonders! That's about the only thing that worked, and it worked very well! Thank you all for your help! He rarely tries to gnaw on my hand anymore, and when he does, a few times of leaving the room helps him get the message rather quickly.