I'm Dr. Clayton Greenway with
healthcareforpets.com and we're answering
questions this morning that came into
the website.
Here's another one from Sandy and it
says, "my dog is five months old,
it's a Beagle Blue Heeler [Dr. Clayton Greenway: and she's
using behavioral modification to deal
with puppy bites that cause bleeding on
her legs and arms]. She thinks it's a game,
she'll nip and then shall run around
like a maniac and bites really hard, it
hurts, it bleeds, it's hard to catch the
dogs, she is really running like a maniac.
So I appreciate the question
I like this question, it's an interesting
one for me to come at because I'm not a
behaviorist I'm a veterinarian so it's
always good to go to a training facility
get advice from from people who do this
professionally and what's interesting
about this and what I always tell
clients is, these days training is all
about positive reinforcement and not
about dominance and not as much about
discipline so with positive
reinforcement what you want to try to
achieve is that when the puppy kind of
calms down, you want to positively
reinforce that by giving a treat
except it's it's really hard to
implement that so and to execute it
properly, so I'd have you work with
someone to try to figure that out. I do
have a way that I've always told clients
to deal with biting, but let's talk
about a couple things before I get to it.
When they get into this zone and they're
biting, they're in a high state of energy,
they're at a high energy level so you don't
want to engage them at that time. You
particularly don't want to grab their
face because usually when they pull away
they're gonna want to nip your fingers,
become the play thing, you become the
play thing. So what you want to do is you
want to give that puppy things to do
when they're in maniac zone. You want to
give them toys stuff like that but you
have to do it in a way that you're not
positively reinforcing it. You just want
to turn your back as well, you don't want
to be the play thing so you want to turn
your back,
go about your business and wait until
your puppy calms down a bit. Now the one
thing that I tell people to do
in the appointment room that I think
works really well, these things I have to
say everyone has their different
opinions about them, some people may
disagree with this, but this is what
you're going to get from trainers,
behaviorists. You will get different
opinions when a puppy bites another
puppy.
What is that other puppy do? It yelps and
that's how they actually know they're
hurting that other puppy and so what I
do in the room is I take their puppy,
they're sitting on the table and I put
my fingers in front of its face and it
naturally starts to bite on them. You
gotta remember these puppies, they
explore the world with their mouths and
this is this is what they do. In a sense
they're teething, so they're gonna start
biting on my fingers. Well the second
they bite on my fingers I let out a yelp
and I mean I have a really good yelp and
in fact, before I do it I tell people
that it's gonna be me yelping and not
the dog because they actually think the
dog did it and here's what I do.
Okay I go like [Dr. Clayton Greenway: High pitch yelp] that big, that loud
and everyone in the clinic can hear it
and the dog instantly reacts to that and
sees I I hurt this this person. It might
freak them out just a little bit and
that's why people may not go with that
advice.
It might be just a little scary, so you
have to talk to a trainer or behaviorist and
do what's right for you but the second I
do that I then put my fingers in front
of this puppy's face again and they
start going like this and they start
moving away from my fingers. They don't
want to hurt me, they don't want that to
happen and sometimes I'm not sure
whether they're thinking they don't want
to hurt me verse they're a little scared
of my fingers so you have to talk to
your veterinarian about this. People have
come back to me and said this works
extremely well they don't see any other
negative effects in their puppy when a
puppy bites another puppy that's exactly
what they do, so you are doing something
that's naturally occurring so I don't see
much wrong with that but other people
may have different opinions. So collect
your opinions, figure out what you think
and employ some of those strategies and
I think you'll find that they work
pretty well. I really appreciate the
question,
good luck, it's not easy raising a puppy and
keep those questions coming to
healthcareforpets.com where we're dedicated to to your pet's health.