Mouthy - Page 1

I just purchased a large Sch1 titled male. He is VERY outgoing and confident and made himself comfortable from the moment he entered our home even tho he was mainly in the kennel before coming to me....now he is part of our family...HOWEVER! He has only been with me for about 2 weeks now, and has bonded to me exclusively. He accepts the other household members, but will bark aggressively whenevern my husband tries to come near. This, I can work on. But I need to know your thoughts on how to make him quit being 'mouthy' towards me. When he is excited to see me, he will take my arm or hand in his mouth and 'pinch'. Last night he actually pinched hard enough to leave a purple bruise INSTANTLY on the inside tender part of my upper arm. I don't want to break his spirit, but yet don't want him to think this behavior is acceptable. He is obedient, but just gets so excited to see me that he doesn't seem to be able to contain himself! I have been doing NILIF for two days now and I refuse to give him the attention he's seeking when he does this....but any other ideas would be greatly appreciated! :)

Well, it is a male dog and you are a woman. I am not saying this is acceptable behaviour but it happens very frequently. I know, as I have a male like this. He likes me fine, but absolutely adores my wife. He is her "protector" in all situations and herds her around the house, takes her by the hand and pinches (it's down to a light pinch-he used to pinch very hard) a bit. She is the love of his life-and I delivered him when he was a baby. Gee.... I agree that you do not want to break his spirit. You can attempt to ignore him when he is pushy by turning away from him when he makes an undesirable move and only giving him attention when he is behaving correctly. He is obviously an intelligent dog and should be able to figure this out after several times. I would try this before I made any harder corrections. As far as his behaviour towards other members of your household, it sounds as if he is being jealous more than being protective. I would assume this most pronounced behaviour is toward the male members of your family. In the end, your dog seems to love you very much. He just needs to learn some respect for your flesh.

Thanks Bob-O! Not only good advise, but you made me laugh too! Have a great weekend!

That is a bite no matter how inhibited it is. There are people on this board witht a lot of good training experience, they may be able to give you some some advice. You do not want to let that continue. Don't ever excuse a dog's taking you by the hand no matter how little pressue he exerts. It doesn't mean it is not a bite, it means he had excellent bite inhibition at the time. My GSD has done that to a neighbor, took him by the hand and tried to oull him off our deck. No pressure, no marks on his hand, but still a bite and I did not take it lightly. He now has to live on tough love, NILIF but he is just a pet not intended for Schutzund. NILIF might or might not be a good thing for your dog.

Correct me if I'm wrong but it kind of sounds like there's some dominance issues here. I assumed since my bitch was so submissive and obedient on the field that i would not have any problems with dominance. I realized the field was not the issue, I had been spoiling her in the house and she was taking advantage. To me it sounds like he's being posessive of you with your husband. Take care, Melanie

If that were the case, what would you suggest, Melanie? You're right, Blitzen....I definately need to get control of this behavior because it has the POTENTIAL to get out of hand someday. But to be fair, he has only done this with me...and I think it's his 'sign of affection'. I've just never had a dog do this sort of thing, and really am not sure how to correct it properly! ESPECIALLY since he has only been with me for such a short time. I'm setting Alpha and he seems to view me as such. In all honesty, I don't believe he intends to dominate me with this behavior...he's just VERY happy to see me. But like Bob-O said, 'he needs to respect my flesh'!

The first thing with the male is Rank. You are #1 he is #2 and everyone else is below him. Had the same problem with a male I had except he would growl at my wife. A few corrections and time he realized she was under my protection. Later on he realized he had to listen to her. Just took a little time. Funny thing was even years later if I was around and she told him to do something he would look at me first aas if asking if he had to listen to her. As far as the mouthy. I have a male here right now that is that way. Not just with me but my wife and the kids. He just wants attention. He also knows to be gentle about it. With yours biteing down that hard he should get a correction. look at dogs playing, they chew on each other but they know how hard. The other dog will let them know if they are getting too rough. So you need to let your dog know he is being too rough. Hope this helps

After Blitz took the neighbor by the hand, I had him evaluated by a canine behaviorist who said - a bite is a bite no matter how little pressure is applied. It is not play behavior or a sign of affection, it is dominance. I guess another behaviorist might evalute the action differently. At least you have recognized it as something to be concerned over and not to be ignored. In my limited experience, GSD's will test you every day and the dog will never be the one to say - enough!! It's up to the owner to set limits, the dog will never set his own LOL. I'd just as soon that Blitz doesn't take anyone by the hand again, I don't see it as a form of play ot affection and have done all I know to discourage him from ever doing it again. My concern is that allowing him, a pet, to put his mouth on any human is not a good thing. I don't know how it works with a Schutzhund dog, maybe you don't want to discoursge that instinct?

Hi Blitzen, I absolutely 100% agree with you that in your case the dog taking the neighbor by the hand is a form of dominance/ aggression. It was definetly something to be concerned with. If left unchecked the next thing you would have, would have been an all out bite. Your dog was not being mouthy it did not want the neighbor there and was trying to remove him and assert dominance over him. There is however a difference between a dog that is mouthy with it's owner and a dog that is handler aggresive. I have dealt with quite a few aggresive dogs, being 1 of the 3 trainers over a 128 dog kennels of working dogs. Handler aggressive dog is not mouthy, It will straight up go at you in order to challenge you for dominance. Usually starts out with a growl when you correct it and if not dealt with properly at the begining will go to an all out attack. Have had some dogs that had gotten away with it with a previous handler and when I was handleing them it went from me giving them a correction, slight pop on the choke chain to fighting with them. some went as far as I had to choke them out cold cause the fight was on and if I hadn't I would have been on the looseing end. These were not mouthy dogs. Yes you have to set limits with the dog. As I said I have a mouthy male. He is only mouthy with the family, not strangers. He rubs up against you wanting attention and mouths you, wanting you to pet him and pay attention to him. Mostly this is when the other dogs(females) are around and he wants you to pay attention to him. I do set limits, and when I am trying to work around the kennels and clean up and he is being too pesty I tell him to go and he does. Yes set limits. Will I ever change the fact that my male is mouthy, no. It's sort of like the friend that when they talk to you they stand too close invading your personal space. Your not going to change them. Is my dog being dominant or aggressive, no. Is he being and wanting affection yes. Mike

You know, I had an interesting experience with a mouthy dog several years ago. The car that I drove broke down and I decided to walk the remaining five (5) miles to my home. As I walked up the highway I passed a K-9 officer's home. He was washing his patrol car and evidently had the dog freely walking around the yard and a bit out of sight. As I passed his yard I heard the dog coming. No bark or growl, just the unmistakeable sound of GSD feet. I glanced over my shoulder and kept my cool. The dog ran to my side and placed his mouth completely over my right hand. Not a hard bite, but continual pressure. I continued to walk and glanced over my shoulder again. The policeman saw everything then and froze in place wide-eyed. I guess the dog was tired of walking with me as he finally relaxed his grip and ran towards his owner. I was fortunate and was able to rely on my instints. The behaviour of a different person could have caused a very serious dog bite. To me it is one (1) thing if the dog mouths only you, but a very different thing if he mouths other people. I agree with the above post that the dog saw me as a threat and wanted to move me away from his owner. As far as the dog being mouthy only with the owner then the owner must set the limits as mentioned above. But, if the dog mouths a person who is not his owner then that behaviour must be modified. It has the potential to turn ugly very quickly.