mouthing

Gibby does this also.  Someone told me that some of this has to do with a Mom that didn't teach her baby not to do it..... and I believe that since Gibbys breeder told me that Chaz ( mama ) spent just a little time with her pups...and was more interested in the cat litterbox in the basement. 

I'll be interested to see what the answer here is because I have tried what I know to try.

 My rule is, if any teeth touch me, ALL playing comes to an end and leave.

 This may sound strange.  When Piper gets too aggressive with her teeth, I yip like a scared pup.  Then I turn away.  The yip stops her.  Apparently dogs are hard wired to stop mouthing when a pup yips.  Either that or she likes to watch me make strange noises.

The yip, in many cases just fuels the dogs enthusiasm. Leaving the room is much more effectful, as is redirection.

The yipping is a good place to start, but sometimes they figure it out, and as stated it fuels the problem.  My 2 1/2 y.o. ausse terrier Kaz started this, the yipping worked for a while, until he figured it out.  He would grab you to get your attention, not hard, but enough to be annoying.  Someone not accustomed to dogs might construe this as biting.

I turned the yip up a notch, when my wife & kids were out of town for a week, and I was home doing some remodeling.  I set up one of those cloth folding chairs by the computer, and waited while looking stuff up. It wasn't long before he grabbed the fingers that were at my side.

I jumped up, knocking the chair flying, screaming bloody murder, holding my hand, looking at it.  Acted like I just ran my hand through a food processor, horribly mangled fingers, totally ignoring the dog, carrying on loudly for several minutes.  He backed off fast, just stood back, watching.  He tried it only once more that night, same reaction from me, it was over after that.

I figured he knew I wasn't a pup, that yipping thing was too out of place for a person.  He was about 8 months old at the time, had been hanging around with me enough doing household stuff to see me bash & gash myself on enough occasions, and see my reaction.  I don't know if this will work for any other dogs, but it worked for him.

Tolak

I figured he knew I wasn't a pup, that yipping thing was too out of place for a person.  He was about 8 months old at the time, had been hanging around with me enough doing household stuff to see me bash & gash myself on enough occasions, and see my reaction.  I don't know if this will work for any other dogs, but it worked for him.

Maybe the key is the age of the dog. Once their older and wiser they might get more excited to hear all that noise.  Gibby sits back and take notice....then says " here we go!"  Leaving the room is the only thing we can do.  But even when he was younger he would always stop his mouthing.....for a second or two...but if you stay close to him......he is going to do it again. Count on it!

 It sounds like it is a puppy behaviour that was never properly curbed, so it has carried over to adulthood.  Specifically, at what times does she does this?  That might be helpul in thinking of ways to stop it.  Also, what have you tried to stop it so far?

I don't agree with yipping.  It works for some dogs, especially puppies, but in some dogs it gets them more riled up!  I have a theory that while you might mean to sound like a hurt puppy, you might sound to THE DOG more like injured prey.... and in a dog with high prey drive you're just going to wind him up further!

As a general rule, fast or exaggerated movements and high pitched noises will ellicit excitement and interest.  This is good to bear in mind when you want your dog "up", you want him to find you interesting, exciting and fascinating.... recall is one time I can think of where this is useful, especially around high distractions. 

But for when you want your dog to calm down and show self control, these kind of movements and noises are not helpful.  Then I think you have to be calm and quiet first, and the dog mirrors you.  You STOP moving and you speak quietly in a low voice, or you don't speak at all.

Whatever it is she is GETTING when she does this, it needs to be removed the instant she begins the behaviour.    When she stops, she gets it back.  So if it is a game, the game stops.  If it is a walk, the walk stops.  If it is meals or treats.... I would put those away and try again in 20 minutes or so.  If it is attention, that is withdrawn.  If she is not getting the message, I'd underline it by leaving the room and shutting the door as well.

Sometimes, it's hard to remove the reinforcer, especially if she does it when out for a walk for example.  Then there are some things you can do which say "Hey - I don't like that."  If her obedience is good, then the simplest is to ask her to do something which is incompatible with mouthing - like, lie down.  If you think she is not likely to listen in that state, then your attention (just saying "lie down) will likely be a reinforcer.  You can FREEZE.  You can turn your head away, or look up at the sky, narrow your eyes and fold your arms.  You can "grunt" - kind of like a growly noise, but cut REALLY short, so it only lasts a second or so.  You can use her collar or lead to keep her at arms length where she can't mouth you.  Any and all of this should be done without talking or making eye contact, which could just reinforce her more.... I suspect she does it at least some of the time for attention, so any attention is reward, even "no", "stop it", "get down" etc.

Teach her to tug.  Give her an outlet for mouthing.  It will make the rehab part easier.

 Yipping can be dangerous if it riles the dog up. I have the scar marks to attest to that. Does your dog like toys at all? I'm finding Ari is more and more going to get a toy in her mouth when she's riled up. Then again I've been shoving one in there when she gets excited so she has something else to mouth/bite, so I think she's finally starting to get it. Then we'll play tug, which she adores. She gets to still interact with me and be excited, ONLY as long as she focuses her mouth on the toy. If she crosses the line, she gets solitary confinement. Period. Then again, Ari has been a very hard case with biting and we've had her since she was 10 weeks old and brought in a trainer/behaviorist and have worked on this since day 1.

 Are you going to come back and tell us when she mouths you?

If you are sitting in your chair and the dog puts her mouth on your arm, she is trying to direct you to some action.  The next time she does this, stand up and find out what she wants.  If she wants to go outside, teach her a new way to tell you.  If she properly sits by the outside door to be let out and you ignore her, she can either empty her bladder on the carpet, or she can go get you.  If this is the problem you can put bells on the door handle or get a little rug that plays music when it's stepped on.  If her water dish is empty, try to remember to refill the water dish.  If its for dinner, set an alarm so you remember to put down her food.  If it's for petting, remove your arm and have her lie down.  Wait a couple of seconds, then pet her.  Teach her that a behavior that doesn't include her teeth will get her what she wants.

The behavior is being reinforced somehow. Either the behavior in and of itself is enjoyable and rewarding, or she is getting something after the mouthing. See if you can figure out WHY she is finding mouthing rewarding (either she is having fun being mouthy, or she gets played with, petted, or attention afterward), and try and redirect or remove the reinforcer.

I would personally try a combination of teaching her an acceptable outlet for her mouthiness, and removing the reward for mouthing. So, I'd probably carry around a toy, and when she starts getting excited or you think she may start mouthing, give her the toy and heavily reward her for playing with it instead of with your skin. If her teeth DO happen to touch your skin, immediately, both with body language and action, stop all the fun. Stand up, cross your arms, look up at the ceiling, and ignore her completely. No looking, no talking, no touching. You can try walking away, but movement may be too exciting for her.

When you remove the reinforcer, expect an extinction burst. The dog will get frustrated because the behavior always worked before, and she's going to try it harder and more frequently before she gives up and the behavior goes extinct. So expect it to get a little worse before it gets better.

And always make sure you are rewarding her when she is NOT mouthing!