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?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on
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At his age it probably isn't accidental, it just doesn't matter to him. You need to change that by yelping loud and dramatic any time his teeth touch you. Also, try giving the treats in a closed hand, say "gentle" and only open your hand if no teeth come out. Also, be sure to reach down low, I find if mine have to jump there is a good chance their teeth will be involved more than I like.
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Permalink Reply by Finnley Mae on
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Thank you so much!
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Permalink Reply by Yuki & Ellie on
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Ellie is very enthusiastic when it comes to playing fetch. She focuses on the ball and just about everything else fades into the background. This means that when I go to throw the ball, if I'm kneeling on the floor and rolling it, she has (2-3 times) accidentally chomped on my hand in her attempt to get the ball as fast as she can.
Since it does hurt when she accidentally bites down, I make sure I really play it up and make a loud yelping sound. It startles the heck out of her and then she calms right down. She also looks really sorry for having hurt me, which it isn't my intention to do so, but it at least shows that it wasn't her intention. If, for some reason, yours does not calm down (or gets more excited by the yelp or "ouch!"), then you should end the play session. He should soon learn to be a bit more gentle with his human friends.
When it comes to treats, you can try to teach him the "Gentle" or "Easy" command. We did this with my mother's rescue when I was younger. We taught her "Off!" to get her to leave a treat alone, and then would say "Easy" as we gave her the reward. If she tried to lunge at or otherwise get the treat in a hurry, then it was pulled away and she was told "No." Within a couple of attempts she was already getting the hang of taking her time with the reward. Eventually she would just put her teeth on the treat and wait for us to let it go. It was no only a cute trick, but it helped to save our fingers.
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Thanks for the great ideas. : )
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Permalink Reply by Jane Christensen on
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I don't believe it's accidental either. I would enclose the treat in my closed hand and then when he is willing to wait just gently open your hand and don't let him grab it you can control the food with your hand closed verses the open hand...hope this makes sense as I know what I mean but am not sure I am explaining it correctly. Just like Bev said.
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If the treat is in the palm of my hand he is gentle. If I hold it, he gets my fingers. (I don't think he is spatially aware.)
I also don’t know if he had ever been handed treats. I think they usually tossed them in the air for him to catch.
Thanks again to everyone for the great advice.
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He might be so anxious to get the yummy treat that he does grab it...now what you are saying makes sense...my Bella will do this once in awhile and I agree with Bev that if you do it lower they are better at taking it.
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Permalink Reply by Alison Prasavath on
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Noodles has been getting excited when taking food from my hand lately and if he is rough, I don't release the treat to him. When he realizes I'm not giving it to him, he will back up and then take it gently from my hand. There have been a couple times lately when his teeth have gotten my fingers and I holler "ouch" and he looks upset that he accidently hurt me. I then tell him "gentle" and he will take the treat gently from my hand. Most of the time he is great at taking treats from my hand, but he seems to be slipping a bit lately, so I just remind him to be gentle and all is well.
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I now sit on the floor when I give him a treat. I started by giving a treat to our first dog and saying gentle. (Hoping he watches what she does.) Then I said gentle and gave him a treat with one hand while (gently) holding his collar.
He wasn’t able to lunge and grabbed just the end of the treat. So I gave him some scritches and told him what a good boy he was.
Progress!
Thanks a bunch to everyone!
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Great:)
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Permalink Reply by David on
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Yoda and Chewie do the same thing. Believe it or not, I asked them to be gentle in a stern voice when I feed them the treats and they complied. I know it is weird but it works, I swear they understand English...:)
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I know they do! When they want to that its. : )
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