Help for accidental biting?

I looked thought the discussions about biting…but none of them really help with our situation. We took in a 3 year old rescue corgi a few months back. He is wonderful, except for the accidental biting.

Out other dog is very gentle. She stops immediately if our hand slips into her mouth. Our new dog Bud either doesn’t notice or care.

When I hand him treats he always ends up biting my fingers while grabbing the treat. While playing my hand has slipped into his mouth and gets chomped. These are not aggressive intentional bites, but hurt all the same.

How do I teach him to be more gentle?

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Permalink Reply by Anna Morelli on November 24, 2011 at 10:54pm

You have a couple of things going on here. As a rescue, you don't know what was done with him before, if people rough-housed with him, he may have learned you can be rough with your mouth and people don't mind, they actually encourage it. He may have been short on food, or had to compete for it. You also have more than one dog, he may worry that the other dog will get the treat if he's not fast enough. I don't think he realizes he is hurting you, he needs to learn the new circumstances and it takes time. As you found out, if you give the treat in your open hand, there is no problem, so do it that way. I teach my dogs that they get the treat when I say their name. I'll say "Do you guys want a treat?" They all come. Then I say the name of whomever will get it first, and then the name of the next one. It takes doing it a few times, but then they know when they are the one to get it and there is no competing and so it becomes a calm situation. I've done this with up to 5 dogs. For the rest, he will learn to be gentle as you are gentle with him. Make sure no person plays rough with him. Your gentle handling, petting etc. will civilize him and, of course outlets for his energy level. With adult rescues, it's my experience that it takes them awhile to get "in tune" with you, to where they know what you are thinking and can "read you". Often they have not had the closeness to a person that fosters this awareness in them, but it develops as the emotional attachment grows and you form the bonds of unspoken communication between the two you. You can kind of tell what type of home they may have come from by how they behave and interact at first.

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Permalink Reply by Finnley Mae on November 25, 2011 at 8:44am

Thank you for all of the great advice. You brought up some really great points. We have only had him a few months, so we still have a lot of trial and error ahead.

I think you are right that he probably doesn't know what we expect of him. He is making great progress, I was just stuck on the treat-biting.

Buddy is a great dog, and we are so glad to have taken him in. : )