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Rather than "No bite," I strongly, strongly, strongly urge you to teach your puppy bite inhibition instead. Bite inhibition is a "soft mouth." It teaches the pup how to use his mouth gently. Does this mean that the pup will forever be mouthing you? No; not at all. Actually, regardless of the method used, puppies generally grow out of mouthing behavior after a few months.
So why should you teach bite inhibition? Because dogs have one defense: their teeth. Every dog can bite. If frightened enough or in pain or threatened, your dog will bite. That doesn't in any way make him a "bad" dog. It makes him a dog. It's your responsibility therefore, to teach your dog that human skin is incredibly fragile. If you teach your dog bite inhibition, that training will carry over even if he is later in a position where he feels forced to bite.
A story...Ian Dunbar tells a story of a bite incident he had to assess. A Golden Retriever therapy dog was leaving a nursing home when his tail was accidentally shut in a car door. The owner went to help, and the dog delivered four, Level Four bites before she could react.
FYI, a standard scale has been developed to judge the severity of dog bites, based on damage inflicted. The scale is:
Technically, the woman received a Level Five bite from a long-time therapy dog. Dr Dunbar wasn't the least bit surprised by the bites. I mean, the dog got his tail shut in a car door! Of course he bit! What shocked Dr Dunbar was that a dog with no bite inhibition was being used as a therapy dog. "But he's never bitten before." Of course not; and barring an accident like that, he probably would never have. But an accident is just that. An accident. Unpredicted. What if it had happened in the nursing home? So how do you teach bite inhibition?
Again from Dr Dunbar, there are four stages of bite inhibition. The first two stages involve decreasing the force of the bites. The second two stages involve decreasing the frequency of the bites. The training must be done in that order, If you decrease the frequency first, the dog won't learn to soften his bite. The stages:
None of these stages require anything more aversive than time outs or withdrawal of attention. When teaching these behaviors, put your hands in your dog's mouth all the time. Get him used to your being there. Make sure you can open his mouth and examine his teeth -- the vet is going to do that, and you should prepare your dog. Play mouth games. Teach your dog never to touch an object in your hand unless invited. Make sure he knows that when he is invited, he is never to bite both the toy and your hand at the same time.
| Melissa Alexander |
| mcalex@connectexpress.com |
| copyright 2001 Melissa C. Alexander |
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