Bite inhibition:
Expect puppies
under four months of age to bite and mouth.
Like human babies, this is how they learn about their world, and it is how
they play with their litter-mates. This
behavior may intensify after four months when they are teething. This is another good reason to supervise your
puppy around the children! Work on bite
inhibition with your puppy yourself, and teach your children how to do it. You must gradually teach the young puppy to
restrain his bite, and you must impress upon him that human skin is very
tender.
Since biting is a
natural dog behavior, and a young puppy is still learning to control his jaw
strength, you must do this patiently and over the course of time in order to be
humane. At first, focus your efforts on
the puppy’s harder and less tolerable bites.
Say, “Ouch!” in a low, growly voice (it needn’t be loud; it’s the tone
that’s important) and move away, ignoring the puppy for at least ten
seconds. The puppy should understand from
your reaction that he was too rough, since puppies will briefly ignore a
litter-mate and refuse to play if treated too roughly. After this time-out you can resume play. Encourage the puppy to mouth and chew
appropriate toys, instead. As the puppy
grows, you can gradually become pickier and pickier about how much pressure you
will tolerate from his teeth, until you reach the point where Fido won’t touch
your skin with his teeth at all. If you
got Fido at eight weeks of age and have had time to work with him, you can
expect this type of bite-inhibition by six months of age. Remember to give him objects to teethe on
besides your flesh, provide puppy play-dates with other dogs, and teach him
some games to interact with you more appropriately, and he may reach this point
of self-control even earlier!
Teaching dogs that human skin is fragile is useful. I once hurt my dog Terra by accident when I was removing a harness from his leg. It must have hurt badly, because he bit me, but not hard enough to break the skin. I told him what a good dog he was for just giving me the warning. He could have done damage if he had wanted to. He had great bite inhibition, and so he knew how to get my attention without breaking the skin. Luckily, he remembered that human skin is much more fragile than a dog's.
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