spiritdogs
Posted : 1/24/2007 7:31:38 AM
Have you ever grabbed his muzzle or pushed him away for biting? These things can make the situation worse.
My advice is that you instill a strict program in your household. If the dog nips, the human simply disappears without a trace - no eye contact, no talking, nothing. Into the bathroom you go! What it teaches the dog is that biting
doesn't work. The trouble is that this is a hard program to adopt if you can't get cooperation from all the humans in your house. Once the dog realizes that you aren't playing (pushing his mouth away), aggressing against him (closing his muzzle, or smacking his nose), looking at him (attention - "gotcha"), then he may escalate the nipping (it always worked before, so i'll do it harder, more, longer, etc.). That is unpleasant, and the point at which a lot of people give up - BUT it is probably an "extinction burst" (Google on that phrase [
]), and means that the nipping will stop shortly. If you cannot get him to stop by this method, my advice is to get yourself to a clicker training class so that you can learn to get him to stop without having to touch him. [
]
You can teach him the "easy" command, too. Hold a tidbit in your fist. Let the dog mouth you, nip at the hand, etc. (wear a garden glove if necessary) Don't give him the treat UNTIL he backs away from your fist. Then, quickly open it, letting him take the treat off your flat hand while you say "Easy". Do about 30 reps of this exercise, saying "Easy" when he backs away. Then, start saying "Easy" at first - if he backs off and looks expectantly for the hand to open, he has learned the word, and you can then use it to back him away from your hand. Just be sure he gets a reward now and then to make him keep up his interest in performing "Easy" the way you want him to.