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Let me share one of my favorite exercises for biting dogs...I believe this
method originates with Ian Dunbar (though I have modified it a bit).
Begin with a yummy treat in your enclosed fist and wait...the pup will bite and
mouth
your hand or perhaps attempt to dig out the treat with his paws. No matter just
wait...eventually the pup will back off your hand. C/T and then open your hand
and
give the pup the treat.
The behavior you are training is "back off" no contact with my hand.
Repeat, repeat, repeat...eventually the pup will back off immediately (when the
pup
has figured this out) then put the behavior on cue. My cue is "gentle" gentle
means
no teeth on humans.
Play this game with your pup/dog for about 2 weeks do it right before you feed
him -
with his kibble perhaps.
Now when the little beastie is about to bite cue "gentle" the pup should back
off
your hand.
If your pup does not bite/mouth. Continue to play with your puppy.
If your pup does bite/mouth completely ignore the puppy. I do not have a puppy
for the next few minutes.
If your pup zeroes in on another target like your ankle perform the "tongue in
cheek"
technique that I described in my two minute stand up routine yesterday...it
does work
I am not biting my tongue
Recently I went to visit the mouthiest puppy I have encountered in a long time
by the
end of the session with me she was beginning to understand...of course my hands
were
bleeding
Now as a caution I will say...I do not redirect a biting pup to a chew toy nor
do I
do a lot of "oh you stopped biting here is a treat" the reason I don't do that
or
teach that to clients is because I have seen too many of them train a "chain of
behaviors" they teach their pups to "bite and then let go for their treat or
toy".
This occurs because the pup bites they cue "off" and then reward the pup with a
toy/treat...a clever and hungry pup will learn to bite and then let go for the
treat. "Geez haven't had a treat in a while but every time I bite her we play
the
"off" game".
This is interrupting undesirable behavior with positive reinforcement...one of
the
few big "no, no's" you can make using positive reinforcement to train. If I'm
redirecting a dog I follow a 5 second rule...5 seconds of the desirable behavior
before I reinforce in that way the dog will learn that the "appropriate
behavior" is
being reinforced not stopping the undesirable behavior.
Janet Smith
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