Controlling Mouthing

[Zoey's Mommy]

Now that we have confined Zoey to the kitchen her barking is starting to lessen. She is responding to a nice loud, "NO BARK". However she now is full of energy and everytime we try and play with her she tries to mouth/bite us. You can't pet her without her going for fingers. When you put her on her back and play w/ her belly she goes for fingers. If you are just around her and your fingers are just out of reach she jumps and snaps at them. You can't let her lick your face w/out getting your nose bitten. Right now she is young enough it doesn't hurt at all (7-8 weeks), but I want to stop it now. I'm sure we encourage it with her rope chew toy and I know she is just playing, but how can we get her to stop it?

[LisaH]

Yes, the problem is that the usual way pups are taught not to bite is by other dogs--their Mom, for example. You'll need to teach her. There are a variety of ways, depending on the pup's temperament. You can try folding your arms and turning your back on her for a few seconds when she bites (which shows her she won't get attention if she bites). Get her lots of chew toys and PRAISE her for biting them--you need to tell her what she SHOULD bite as well as what she shouldn't. You can also try biting her yourself. Gently hold her muzzle closed and lay your teeth on either side of it, giving just enough pressure to show that you have teeth. This is what other dogs would do to her, and it conveys the message very clearly, the message being "I am alpha, and I bite you if I want, but you do NOT bite me." And beware of those puppy teeth! It seems to be a real dachshund thing to bite noses, and my husband got quite a scratch from our Annie was she was a tiny pup!

[Mark]

Hi,

If all else fails, try a lightly administered chin bop(just hard enough to "clack" their teeth together when doing it). IMO mouthing is just another way a dog tests the whole dominance/alpha issue to see how far they can get. Top Spin did that to us when he was younger, once he got bopped it not only stopped him from mouthing, we found that other dominance and confrontational issues also disappeared.

I know the mouthing seems innocent enough, but it isn't to them.

Mark

[Mrs.F]

Luckily, there are several good ways to work on this! You can find out what works best for you and your pup. Both of my girls responded pretty well to this tactic:

When she would start to nip (especially at the face - that frightens me!) I would gently but firmly hold the snout closed with one hand while saying, "No bite - good girl" and pet her back or head. She quickly figured out that the "Good girl" was for NOT biting. It took a couple of weeks to totally extinguish the behavior, but I was more comfortable with what I felt was a gentle approach and it worked quite well.

(Penny was 8 weeks old when we got her and she got the message pretty quickly. Maggie was 7 months old when I got her and YIKES! - it really hurt when she would nip at us! She took a little bit longer to learn but she had some other dominance issues that we were working on too.)

Good luck, and congratulations on working to extinguish this behavior! We know a 2 year old dachsie that still nips at lips and noses when he's happy to see you..... <IMG SRC="http://dachsie.org/ubb/cwmsmilies/cwm19.gif" border=0>
Heidi

<FONT COLOR="#00FFFF" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Arial">This message has been edited by Mrs.F on January 07, 2001 at 07:38 AM</font>

[Annie's granny]

Hi ZM,
We got some very helpful advice here when we first brought our Annie home. Maybe you could read our post from Jan. 2nd, "New Puppy." What's worked the best for us, is as Mrs. F suggested, holding her mouth closed and saying "no biting" - at least that works for the length of time that we're holding her then. Now the NEXT time we pick her up, well...we start all over again. But I just think of her like I did my twin boys when they were toddlers, if you just be consistent, and use the same method over and over and over, eventually they will get it, and usually about the time when you're ready to give up. I agree with Mark that this is not innocent to them. And we can already tell a difference in how much more it hurts when Annie "mouths" us now, than even a week or so ago. We feel that she is just one very headstrong pup, and are determined to make sure she learns her place here, so that we can all enjoy having a civilized dog, which in turn, should make her feel secure and happy.