New puppy biting

[mary_bobo]

It’s always frustrating training a new puppy–take it from one who has been breeding and showing dogs for 35 years. It takes patience and lots of consistency. Cruelty of any kind will only make the dog defensive and encourage fear biting. Any dog that needs a pinch collar, IMO, unless the owner is a seasoned dog trainer, has an owner that does not have the patience to train a dog. Sorry if this offends anyone, I am only telling you of my 35 years of experience. I have also handled dogs under the tutelege of Brian Kilcommons, one of the foremost dog trainers in the country. His book “Good Owners, Great Dogs” might help.

Puppy kindergarten will help, but ask the trainer what he/she suggests to keep the dog from biting. You should stop it ASAP or it will only get worse. You do not mention what breed of dog this is and that might make a difference in any suggestions I might make.

If I can answer any questions, let me know.

Enjoy your new friend.

 

[LSK]

mary bobo:

It’s always frustrating training a new puppy–take it from one who has been breeding and showing dogs for 35 years. It takes patience and lots of consistency. Cruelty of any kind will only make the dog defensive and encourage fear biting. Any dog that needs a pinch collar, IMO, unless the owner is a seasoned dog trainer, has an owner that does not have the patience to train a dog. Sorry if this offends anyone, I am only telling you of my 35 years of experience. I have also handled dogs under the tutelege of Brian Kilcommons, one of the foremost dog trainers in the country. His book “Good Owners, Great Dogs” might help.

Puppy kindergarten will help, but ask the trainer what he/she suggests to keep the dog from biting. You should stop it ASAP or it will only get worse. You do not mention what breed of dog this is and that might make a difference in any suggestions I might make.

If I can answer any questions, let me know.

Enjoy your new friend.

It’s just a matter of opinion…I have about 20 years experience and trained under Terry Arnold and Julia Priest. I believe pinch collars are safer than chokes…BUT, you are correct when you say they must be used properly - my experience has been that most people misuse choke collars and stay away from pinch collars because of the way they LOOK rather than how they WORK.

BUT, going to an onsite training class is always the best.

 

[catsrus]

When my Lab was a pup, we bought him a harness and complelely eliminated any choking at all. He went through 3 sizes till he was grown but still I only ever use a harness.I think I got the idea from seeing idiot people yanking their poor dogs and choking them.
He was easy to train on the harness too.

 

[JCPhoenix]

LSK:

It’s just a matter of opinion…I have about 20 years experience and trained under Terry Arnold and Julia Priest. I believe pinch collars are safer than chokes…BUT, you are correct when you say they must be used properly - my experience has been that most people misuse choke collars and stay away from pinch collars because of the way they LOOK rather than how they WORK.

BUT, going to an onsite training class is always the best.

I just HAVE to comment on this…great point. I have a German Shepherd and I am her 4th owner at the time I adopted her when she was 1 1/2 years old. No one had ever taken the time to actually TRAIN her. So as you can imagine, (anyone who knows working breeds in general or GSD’s in particular) I had my hands full.

I took her to the Humane Society for training and used a Gentle Leader, and later switched to a Halti as the former was cutting into her muzzle because she pullled so hard! The Halti spreads out the force so doesn’t cause the same problems although it doesn’t fit as well, she’s gotten out of it by disconnecting the leash with her claw, and I constantly have to adjust it.

I wont’ use a choke collar as the only places I can find that advocate it’s use also advocate fear reinforcers and she would NOT respond to this postiviely.

I AM using a prong (pinch) collar for her. Why? Because I can’t afford more obedience training right now to take her to the place I want to that I know from experience does an AWESOME job in using the gentle-leader. This thing is more forceful than clicker trainng, and great with (excuse the pun) headstrong dogs.

I began using the pinch collar after being dragged across the lawn by my 60 lb German Shepherd and realized that during our icy winter walks, she was in control. That was not good.

She responded to the prong collar and continues to do so. I will still use the head collars on occasion, like when going to the vet or other crowded functions as that way I can best control where her head is (ie if she get startled by something like nail-clipping).

She needs more training, I’ll admit, and while I know a lot due to having gone through it with my girl and 2 other dogs…and I know she needs a class so as to learn this stuff while exposed to all those fascinating other dogs.

So let me just second the use of the prong collar. If you use it, DON’T EVER TIE THE DOG UP SOMEWHERE AND WALK AWAY! THAT’S HOW DOGS GET HURT!!!

 

[JCPhoenix]

I have to comment on the puppy biting, also, if only to reinforce what others have said.

My first dog as an adult I adopted as a 6 month old 65 pound puppy. She had a terrible habit of jumping and biting.

I cured the jumping by “pinching” the webbing betwen her toes every time she jumped up, so it wasn’t long before she began to keep her paws on the floor and just run around excitedly while being petted.

The biting was cured through 2 methods:

• yipping every time her teeth touched my skin or anything (such as my fuzzy slippers) which were attached to me at the time.
• replacement…every time I knew she would be excited, such as when I came home from work, or was outside for 5 minutes…etc…she would come at me for a love bite greeting. I’d just stuff a toy in her mouth. When I was rubbing her belly and she became “Jaws”, I’d stuff a toy in her mouth.

It wasn’t long before she got excited about someone new coming over or me coming home than she was just grabbing a “happy toy” and running around with it while greeting the favored party.

I still use these techniques with my 3 1/2 year old GSD because she, as a working dog, has the same kind of nipping habit and loves to bite at me when I rub her belly. She’s just as happy with a favored toy.

The key is to be consistent, even if something seems weird. I actually helped a cousin with is coyote/fox/dox mix puppy with this biting behavior and had him refraining from the bite within literally minutes.

Puppies learn not to hurt each other because of their cries which tell the others they are in pain…this is how they learn limits. We have to teach our puppies, then, that we are so delicate that a tooth touching our skin is a mortal wound.

It works…try it.

 

[Ana]

auroraj42:

Also, a note about pinch collars and Labs…or Lab Mixes…Labs tend to have a very high pain threshold, and often if they are focused on an activity, or acting with lab instincts, they will NOT notice any pain

Sooo true! my parents have a Lab. They put up an electric fence around their six acres. It worked for like maybe … umm … half a second. She just sailed right through the fence yipping and yapping from the voltage…then kept going. Funny thing is, when she came back, she would sit outside of the boundary line, bark, and wait for someone to come and take her collar off to come back through.

I have a dog named Daisy too. A beautiful English Mastiff.

 

[minncin]

Ana:

Sooo true! my parents have a Lab. They put up an electric fence around their six acres. It worked for like maybe … umm … half a second. She just sailed right through the fence yipping and yapping from the voltage…then kept going. Funny thing is, when she came back, she would sit outside of the boundary line, bark, and wait for someone to come and take her collar off to come back through.

I have a dog named Daisy too. A beautiful English Mastiff.

I just had to laugh at that! We put in that invisible fencing for our black Lab, Penny, and she would just run through it yelping the whole time but she would not come back through! The other thing with our Lab is that she has to have something in her mouth all the time. And their mouths are so big you can’t always tell she has something in her mouth. I can’t tell you how many times I drive up our driveway and have to stop to pick up a sock she carried outside and dropped. I find socks all the time! And springtime is the best when the snow melts and we find little treasures that we’ve been wondering where they’ve gone to. We live in the country and have alot of acreage so she has alot of space to roam. We gave up on the invisible fencing. We realized she just wanted to be wherever we were, so we let her. She’s almost 6 now and we just love her.

 

[mary_bobo]

LSK:

It’s just a matter of opinion…I have about 20 years experience and trained under Terry Arnold and Julia Priest. I believe pinch collars are safer than chokes…BUT, you are correct when you say they must be used properly - my experience has been that most people misuse choke collars and stay away from pinch collars because of the way they LOOK rather than how they WORK.

BUT, going to an onsite training class is always the best.

Don’t doubt you know what you are doing but to say that chokes are not safe, IMO, is not correct. Of course, it depends on how you use it. Your do not have to jerk the dog up to make it do what is wanted behavior. And OF COURSE you never leave a choke on a dog for any reason if you are not on the other end of the lead.

As far a jumping is concerned, try turning your back on the dog when it tries this. Or when it is pulling on the lead, turn and go the other way. Try this a few times, and I bet it helps.

I have never heard that a pinch collar is better than a choke, but then I have not heard of the people you cited. To each his own.

 

[LSK]

mary bobo:

I have never heard that a pinch collar is better than a choke, but then I have not heard of the people you cited. To each his own.

absolutely! As they say in our 12 step group, opinions are like eyebrows…everyone has at least two…