How To Stop Dogs Biting

Does your dog make you feel like a giant chew toy?  Chances are, if you have a puppy then there are times that he may take a nip at you.  Sometimes it happens when you’re playing together but it can happen at other times.  Maybe he chews on your toes and fingers.  Even some adult dogs continue this bad behavior if they haven’t been stopped as pupsters. 

The reason puppies and dogs engage in biting and chewing on people this way is because they haven’t properly learned “bite inhibition.”  This is a different behavior from aggression-motivated biting where your dog may growl at you or bite because you remove a toy from him or make him get off the couch.  That’s a guarding or dominance behavior.  With bite inhibition your puppy or dog has failed to learn something that he should have learned from his mother and from you.  Fortunately, you can still teach your puppy or dog to curb his biting and nipping problem. 

When a puppy is in the whelping box with his littermates and his mom and he’s getting his sharp little teeth, he engages in all kinds of rough biting and play.  However, his littermates and his mother quickly teach him that if he bites too hard or plays too rough that they won’t put up with him.  Littermates will get up and stop playing with him.  His mother may nip him to make him stop.  When he bites a brother or sister too hard they may bite back harder or walk away.  Your puppy is supposed to learn that if he bites too hard or plays too rough there will be no more play and he will be outside the group.  And that’s the last thing any puppy wants.  This is how a puppy learns bite inhibition in the litter. 

When your puppy comes to you you should continue these lessons — without biting your puppy, of course.  When your puppy plays too rough you should stop playing with him.  Call a time out.  If your puppy nips you the best way to handle it is the same way his brothers and sisters handle it.  You need to make a big fuss about it and stop playing with him.  Yell out loudly to let him know it HURT!  Then stop playing with your puppy for a minute until he has calmed down.  If he can continue playing calmly you can go back to playing with him.  But, if he is still playing too roughly, you should leave the room and stop playing with him for a while.  Let your puppy learn that if he nips or otherwise plays too roughly that there won’t be anymore fun. 

You should do this every time your puppy nips or tries to chew on you.  YELP!  Make sure that he knows it hurt.  Even if it doesn’t hurt much or not at all you need to make a big fuss about it so that he knows he went too far.  If your puppy even touches his teeth to your skin you should give a yelp.  Make sure that everyone in your household is doing the same thing so your puppy doesn’t single out someone that he thinks he can play with roughly. 

If you follow these suggestions your puppy will soon learn that it’s unacceptable for him to bite or chew on people.  As always, make sure that you provide your puppy with plenty of good things to chew on and toys to play with.  When he has good alternatives to play with he will be less tempted to chew on you.

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How To Stop Dogs Jumping

As much as we love them, dogs do lots of things that drive us crazy.  One of the things that people complain about most frequently is dogs jumping on them.  Have you come home from work, tired and irritable, only to be met by a frenzied, happy dog knocking you down at the door?  Or maybe you let your dog in the house and she jumps on your clean clothes with big muddy paws?  Or, how about you have company over and your dog is so excited that she goes from person to person leaping on them?  They are not amused.  They came for dinner.  They thought your dog was better trained. 

How embarrassing. You love your dog and you know that she is just very happy to see you and other people.  But you want her to stop jumping on everybody!  Luckily, there are things you can do to teach your dog, gently, to stop the jumping.

There are several approaches to teach your dog some better manners when it comes to greeting people.  They range from ignoring her to teaching her what she should do instead of jumping.

Ignore your dog

This first approach is just what it’s called:  ignore your dog.  It’s based on the idea that your dog jumps on you to get attention.  “See me!  See me!  See me!”  Whether you pet her or push her away, you are giving her attention.  So, when your dog jumps on you, you must ignore her completely.  Don’t speak to her, don’t pat her, don’t touch her.  Don’t push her away.  You must completely ignore her until she is calm and standing on the floor the way you want her to behave.

This approach only works if every single person in the household also ignores the dog when she jumps on them.  If your five-year-old daughter giggles when your dog jumps on her, it won’t work.  This approach doesn’t work for everyone because you can’t always control how other people in your house will react.  But, if you and everyone else can ignore your dog completely when she jumps on you, she will eventually stop jumping because she is not getting the feedback that she wants.  She is only getting feedback when she is calmly standing on the floor.

Hold Paws

This approach is good for big dogs.  When your big dog jumps on you, you grab hold of their front paws.  Keep them standing long after than want to get down.  The idea here is that jumping stops being very fun for them.  In fact, it gets boring.  Obviously, this doesn’t work for small dogs or some medium-sized dogs because you would have to bend down to hold their paws.

Step on leash

Some people suggest stepping on your dog’s leash when she jumps on you (you have to prepare for this exercise by having your dog wear her leash).  When your dog jumps up, just at the moment she is at her highest point, you step on the leash to bring her back down.  The important thing here is that she should connect the pull-back with the leash instead of with you (which is a little sneaky).  This is a version of leash correction.

Sitting

You can also teach your dog to greet people politely by sitting when they come to the door instead of jumping on them.  You need a friend to help you with this exercise and your dog needs to already know the “Sit” command.  Your friend will knock at the door or ring the bell.  Your dog may go bonkers, as usual.  When you let your friend in through the door you should tell your dog to “Sit.”  She may or may not obey you, even if she normally would, because she is very excited about someone entering the house.  If she obeys you, you should praise her lavishly and reward her.  Tell her what a wonderful dog she is!  If she doesn’t obey you and she jumps on your friend, don’t be surprised.  You should ignore her and repeat the exercise.  You may have to repeat several times until your dog actually sits when you ask her to do so.  If she knows “Sit” she will eventually sit when your friend comes in the house.  This exercise takes some practice because it’s very hard for your jumping dog to obey you under these circumstances.  Keep practicing and she will learn to sit when people come in the house.

These suggestions have helped people teach their dogs to stop jumping on people.  Choose one which you think will work in your situation.  If one doesn’t work, try another.  Your dog should soon get the idea that she gets more praise and rewards when she doesn’t jump on people.  Don’t skimp on the praise and rewards!

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How To Use Different Vocal Tones To Instruct Your Dog

Just like humans, dogs recognize the various tones that we use in our voices.So unless we are consistent with what tone we use for different circumstances, we are going to end up with one confused dog!

Praise

This vocal tone is quite high pitched, which girls usually find easier to achieve. However, this is not an excuse for the guys to get out of using their high voice. They will just have to work harder get their voice to reach the higher pitch!

This higher pitched voice is similar to that which we use when we’re praising a child. For example:

“Good boy!” or “Good girl!”

So when your dog hears this tone in your voice, their tail will probably start to wag as they are happy that they’ve made you happy.

Command

When you are giving your dog a command, your voice needs to move into the lower vocal range and have an authoritative tone. Your dog should recognise that with this tone that they must follow the particular commands that you are giving immediately.

If you were to use your ‘praise’ voice whist giving a command, your dog may think that you are commending them for something, even though they are not actually following your commands.

The ‘command’ voice is usually short and sharp. For example:

“Sit”, “Drop”, “Stay”

Although you are showing your authority, your dog is just being asked to follow commands and hasn’t done anything wrong at this point in time. Therefore your voice must sound different to when you are correcting your dog when they have done something wrong.

Correction

When your dog has been naughty, your corrective voice should be used. Your voice should sound lower than your command voice, which is now more difficult for the girls to achieve!

With a low resounding “No”, your dog should instantly recognize that you are no longer happy with their behaviour, and stop their activity. You may follow this up by changing to your ‘command’ voice and giving them an instruction eg. sit.

Once again, if you were to use your ‘praise’ voice, your dog will think that you are happy with their bad behaviour and will continue with whatever they are doing.

So as you have now learnt, something as simple as the tone in your voice can affect how well your dog understands and obeys your instructions. You may find this difficult to implement at first as you may not have recognized what tone or tones you have been speaking to your dog with. However, if you continue to use the methods that I’ve explained above, your dog will also learn to understand what you want them to do.

How To Toilet Train Your Dog

Toilet training your dog isn’t hard but it does take time and patience.  Your dog will need you to be very alert and to watch for the signs that he gives when he needs to go outside.  Whether you have a young puppy or an older dog that hasn’t been toilet trained, your dog will need you to teach him what he needs to learn.

When you first get a new puppy or dog you should ask if they have any any kind of previous toilet training.  Some puppies or dogs may have been paper trained or even taught to use a litter box.  If that’s the case you can start by using papers or a litter box indoors and gradually move them outside.

Most puppies probably won’t have have any toilet training when they come to live with you.  You’ll be starting with the basics.  You can count on your puppy having some accidents.  This is a normal part of house training and something that your puppy can’t help.  He doesn’t understand what you want him to do yet.

You can help your puppy learn what you want by making it easy for him.  That means taking him outside frequently and giving him lots of praise when he uses the bathroom outdoors.  Give him every opportunity to do the right thing.  When you take him out, stay outside with him and give him lots of time.  Don’t rush him.  Some puppies may play first or take a long time to choose just the right spot.  If you become annoyed you will only make him anxious and he probably won’t use the bathroom at all.  So, take a cup of coffee with you or a cola and give him lots of time.

You should plan on taking your puppy outdoors at the following times: 

• When he first wakes up in the morning
• As soon as he eats and drinks
• After he plays
• After he wakes up from a nap
• Before bed time

It’s also a good idea to feed your puppy at least two to three hours before bed time so he has time to relieve himself before he goes to sleep.  You should also put his water up before he goes out for the last time at night.  This will help him make fewer trips outside at night.  If your puppy is very young he may need to go out during the night at least once.

While you are toilet training your puppy you will have to keep a careful eye on him in the house.  Some people recommend restricting your puppy to just one or two rooms so it’s easier to watch him until he is house trained.  (This also makes it easier to keep a puppy from chewing on things.)  You should observe your puppy for signs that he needs to go out:  sniffing the floor, looking for a private spot, going back to places where he’s had an accident before, wandering by the door to go out.  If your puppy does any of these things you should take him outside quickly.  Praise him and reward him for giving you the signals that he needs to go out.  He’s catching on.

It may take several weeks or a couple of months before your puppy is fully toilet trained.  Some breeds are easier to toilet train than others.  If you are house training an adult dog you can follow this same process.  Adult dogs usually catch on very quickly and can be toilet trained in just a few days or weeks.

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