Biting?

[Brandi0785]

I have a 10 month old female doberman. She tends to want to "mouth" me. She takes my hand, arm, leg, shorts, shirts, whatever she can, and hold it in her mouth. Can anyone explain this and tell me how to break her of it? I lvoe her to deat but dont love being covered in slobber constantly! lol Thanks!

[RKCM]

I am not sure how others handle this but we use our dogs in therapy with handicapped children. Due to health issues, they don't like the dogs to lick or play with them using their mouth. From the time they are puppies, we did not let our dogs lick or play bite with us. I am not one to be too rough with any dog and so took lessons from the mother-dog. The mother will gentle take the puppies muzzle in her mouth and press. She actually teaches the puppies that way.

I think if I had an older dog that was playing too rough that I would look at what I was doing to discourage it. I would use the muzzle, like the mother and tell them NO. I would be consistant with it. I would give them something to chew on and reward them for doing that. Once they learn that you do not like them to lick or bite at you sitting down, they will transfer that to out in the yard etc. They really do want to please you and this has always worked for us.

There is a strong urge amoung us to want to play rough with a puppy from day one. Sometimes they get the wrong idea and those baby teeth hurt. They have to learn what is accepted behavior and what is not. Now if the dog is biting you, I would seek further help, maybe from an experienced trainer. I've never had a dog that wanted to bite me. I have had ones that thought I was the chew toy and had to find a way to let them know it hurts!

[Sue J]

I read this that your girl is NOT biting you, just mouthing. Is that correct? If she's biting I'd get expert help from a trainer. It's natural for a puppy to explore their environment with the mouth and paws, but I don't like slobbers all the time either. Our 7 mo. old girl did a little mouthing recently when she wanted to show me something. I was advised to teach her to give me a paw instead of taking my hand, it's slow because she doesn't do it all the time so I have to wait until I can ask for a paw. Ever since she was little when she mouthed I put my hand around her muzzle and said NO, ask her for what I wanted or gave her a toy to mouth and when she cooperated in a new behavior she got a treat. She hasn't mouthed for a little while now. Can you identify what triggers her mouthing? If you can it might help you redirect. Also, is she teething?