Sunday 29 July 2012

Puppy Biting - Emily Larlham


This video is on how to stop your puppy biting you. 

The technique of clicking the absence of biting was shown to Emily by her mentor Kyle Rayon, who is one of the most amazing and innovative trainers, though she is very modest!



Dogs use their mouths to interact with their environment, so it is normal for a puppy to want to bite your hands or clothes. However in our society it is highly inappropriate. To train a puppy to stop using their mouth when interacting with humans is simple. All you have to do is set up training scenarios where your puppy would normally start biting and train an alternate response- calmly sitting, lying down, standing, or walking with a closed mouth. First you would start with the least arousing game- so simply just a reaching hand. As you reach, click or say "yes" and then feed a treat. As the puppy is successful you can progress to more and more arousing stimulus.

You should not allow your dog to be man handled or petted roughly. Petting should not only be rewarding for the human but for the dog as well. However at some point in your dogs life, someone might get to your dog before you can stop them and be overly rough. You can prepare your dog for these situations by playing training games. But when these situations do occur in real life, respect your dog, and get them out of the stressful situation. Do practice handling exercises for grooming as well as vet visits regularly...

Tips-

These exercises should only be done by ADULTS. As children can actually TEACH dogs to find mouthing and biting fun.

If you want to work with your child as the distraction, have your puppy with you on leash while you control all interactions. Making sure to end the game if the puppy is getting too aroused. 

(Once your puppy is good at these games you can also teach your child how to appropriately interact with your dog under your supervision. Miranda)

Put your puppy on leash and tether him to a door so that you can escape him if you make a mistake by progressing too quickly and elicit mouthing.

If your puppy starts mouthing you during the training games it means you have gone too far too quickly- go back a step and make the game easier.

Make sure your puppy can always back away from you, so they don't feel trapped or forced when being handled. This is because they could start learning to bite out of fear or stress.

If you have an adult dog or adolescent dog that is mouthy watch my Handling Shyness video.



If you must rough house with your dog- have a structured game where you hold a toy in each hand that the dog can bite. Never allow your dog to bite your hands when playing. If you feel teeth the game ends. Always have a cue to start and end the game, and never reinforce the dog for starting the game on his own.


1 comment:

  1. The video of how to stop your puppy biting you was so important for all dog owners. I read some tips from the Vets North Somerset I saw before and I continue reading because this topic was so interesting. I understand more the benefits of training our dog to stop biting and I learned the different best technique here in your blog. Learn more information please visit this link: http://wellpets.co.uk/weston/

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