Sibe mouthing

ORIGINAL: WolfDog
Dogslife- I am twleve, in eigth grade, kinda small for my age, only 4 foot 11. I don't know whether if you consider that small, but I think I have a good height comparison.

When i was your age i was care taker for my brothers white sibe...she was just a pup of about a year old,and i would go out and play with her every day..

some times these wrestling matches would get toothy,and i just dressed up for it,wearing long thick sleeves and pants...

the wrestling never got out of hand,and i never tried to over dominate the dog.

dominant bahavior on your part can be very subtle and work very well...

i suggest a book entitled "living with wolfdogs"by Nicole Wilde.

in this book ,she teaches people not only training methods for your pups,but also how to live and interact with dogs.if you can buy yourself a copy it is well worth the money and time...pretty easy reading too..

do you have pics of your pup?

 I should add that it is important not to get overly aggressive when wrestling with your dog...and if the dog is new to you,i would wait and establish a good trusting relationship before engaging in any wrestle playing.

I don't really wrestle with him, just sometimes he just comes up to me and starts chewing my hand. then i put my hand up so he cant get 2 it, then he starts it on my forearm, I turn around, he follows and chews my legs. He is not a dominant dog, in fact, he's pretty submissive.

ORIGINAL: WolfDog

I don't really wrestle with him, just sometimes he just comes up to me and starts chewing my hand. then i put my hand up so he cant get 2 it, then he starts it on my forearm, I turn around, he follows and chews my legs. He is not a dominant dog, in fact, he's pretty submissive.

You can disappear into the bathroom for a moment)

Or, maybe for the time-being, keep your dog on a leash when playing with him.  That way, you can always tie him up and walk away when he gets too bitey.  If he's not latching onto your foot so you can't get away like my dog was, this should work well.

I got some bitter apple yesterday. Now I feel like an idiot. I got the natures miracle one. Petco's customer reviews said it's horrible and it burned this one kittens eyes. btw, by horrible, i mean, the dog actually likes it. In fact, when I sprayed it on my hands, hekept licking them. He liked it. Anyway, I'm gettting grannick's soon, I heard its better

ORIGINAL: WolfDog

I got some bitter apple yesterday. Now I feel like an idiot. I got the natures miracle one. Petco's customer reviews said it's horrible and it burned this one kittens eyes. btw, by horrible, i mean, the dog actually likes it. In fact, when I sprayed it on my hands, hekept licking them. He liked it. Anyway, I'm gettting grannick's soon, I heard its better

 
My dog hates the Grannick's, but I have heard of dogs who like it.  There's lots of bitter sprays out there, so you might have to experiment.  BTW, ANY of the sprays will burn a kitten or dog's eyes, as they are all alcohol based.  Be careful!!

So, your dog likes bitter apple too!  Well at least he is kissing your hand rather than biting it!!!  What about just spraying with plain water, in his face if he bites and gets too rough?  Another thing is that coins in a can trick, you shake it and it startles the dog/ distracts him from a bad behavior?

He hates grannicks, so thats good. He now starts mouthing my mom. He sometimes tries to mouth me, then just turns away after i wipe my finger down his tongue (bad taste). My mom refuses to put the bitter apple on herself, which I consider, pretty ignorant.

Have you combined the use of the bitter apple with a command, like "No Bite"?  If the dog starts to associate the command with the deterrant, you will be able to more easily wean away from using the bitter apple.  If your mom doesn't want to use the bitter apple, she should be able to use just the command once the dog forms the association between the words "No Bite" and the awful taste. 

Wow. That's a gr8 idea. Thanks I'll give that a try. and does anyone know about how long it'll take?

ORIGINAL: WolfDog

Wow. That's a gr8 idea. Thanks I'll give that a try. and does anyone know about how long it'll take?

 
That's hard to say, I would imagine that it would vary from one dog to the next.  My dog stopped the foot-biting pretty much immediately, but as a puppy she still nips sometimes, even though we've had her for 5 months (we never used bitter apple to deter her general puppy nipping, though, only the more serious foot-biting).  Keep in mind that most animals do not respond to deterrants as quickly as they do to positive reinforcement, so it might take a little longer for the dog to "get it" as he would with, let's say, learning how to sit for a treat.  When my uppy gets nippy, we tell her "no bite", but then we tell her "give kisses", and she generally will stop nipping and start licking our face, and we in turn reward her with loads of attention.  So, you could possibly try teaching the dog an alternate, positive behavior like "give kisses" in conjunction with teaching the dog to stop the negative behavior.  If you do this, though, I would suggest first teaching the positive behavior at random, rather than when the dog is biting, because the last thing you would want is for the dog to associate getting treats with biting you!

Good news, he isn't mouthing nearly as often or as hard as he used to. I think it's working.

Great!  Now that you've found something that works for you and your dog, just remember to be consistant and patient, and you should be able to stop the bad behavior for good []