Cattle

Archive for February 25th, 2012

If your dog is about fifteen weeks old or more than that, then he should not be having this habit of biting or nipping. A lot of dog owners are still striving to curtail this issue of biting of their dogs which are more than fifteen weeks old, such that most of them have gone to the extent of putting a muzzle over their dogs mouth in order to deal with the biting. Before your dog reaches fifteen weeks, you should give appropriate training and basic common commands so that it stops this irritating habit of mouthing. However, if this habit persists or you have taken in a dog that is over 15 weeks old or the dog is new to its home, you can try out the following to make it stop biting the hand and fingers.

a) The very first thing to do to curb this habit is to stop immediately all the dog games involving rough play. Whenever a new puppy or dog is in the home, we generally play games like wrestling and tug-of-war which are sadly not good for the dogs. As, if the dog still bites, it is imperative to stop the above game activities. These games send a wrong signal to the dog that it is okay to indulge in rough play with anyone whenever it wishes. You need to be extremely cautious not to let your dog become hostile to young kids and strangers.

b) It may be okay to allow gentle and soft biting from the puppies which are still very young. But for dog over 15 weeks, biting of all forms should stop at all cost, even if it is a simple harmless nibble on your hand or finger tips. You need to stop the dog by commanding it to stop biting firmly and at once take away your arm.

c) You can try out a method that will shock your pet dog to refrain from biting. This method is quite harmless and involves a spray bottle by which you can spray water quickly on the head or body of the dog while it is biting or nibbling. This shall startle the dog to stop this habit. This ploy is very effective and is many times the only thing needed to stop this mouthing issue.

d) A method of putting across your message is through disciplinary and firm commands. It can be applied to puppies or dogs of all ages and for all purposes too. Hence, whenever you feel the dog is going to bite your hand, it is okay to quickly say firmly and loudly No Bite! command to your dog while staring at the dog. You need to remember two things while using this method. Firstly, you should not say the command loudly such that the dog gets scared and misses the point. Secondly, you should stare at the dog for sometime only as you are trying to make the dog focus on you. If you stare for long, the dog will think that you are confronting it.