Play biting is not always a bad thing.
Today, learn how to teach your dog some acceptable things to bite and the level of biting allowed.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to figure out and work on what level you are willing to let your dog play bite.
Show Highlights
- Some people are okay with play biting and some are not.
- Devin likes play biting with his parents’ dog Macy.
- Dogs use their mouths for:
- Communication
- Picking things up
- Eating things
- They have fewer taste buds – about 1/4 – 1/6 compared to humans and only around the tip of their tongue
- Dogs eat quickly because they don’t start the digestive process in their mouths like humans. Their food needs to enter their stomach in order to start.
- Suckling
- Weening with the mother to learn how to do it appropriately without hurting her
- When you scream out when your dog bites you hard when you are playing with it and it doesn’t let go immediately, could mean it wasn’t weened properly
- When two puppies are playing and one bites harder, the other screams and it lets go – this teaches the puppy an acceptable level of tolerance.
- Dogs have a much higher threshold of pain.
- Be mindful of when your dog play bites with children, they have a lower threshold of pain tolerance.
- Different types of dogs have different bites:
- Golden/Labrador Retrievers have a soft bite – when they go out to retrieve game, they are to bring it back unharmed.
- They are also the number one bite people go into the emergency room for.
- 3x more popular of a breed than the other top three breeds put together.
- Pitbull/Bulldogs are bred to have a hard bite – made to hold and destroy – it is a locking bite.
- Could be the same “bite” as a retriever, but you will see more damage from a pitbull/bulldog because of the “lock” and hard bite they are bred to have.
- Golden/Labrador Retrievers have a soft bite – when they go out to retrieve game, they are to bring it back unharmed.
- Does allowance or non-allowance of play biting affect a dog?
- A dog’s mouth needs to be exercised
- by using things for them to carry.
- giving them things to chew on like a toy and not humans.
- A dog’s mouth needs to be exercised
- Bennie thinks it is okay for play biting as long as it is practiced so the dog can learn the acceptable level of biting and the acceptable things to bite.
- It really comes down to teaching your dog – you need to work on figuring out what level you are willing to let your dog do that.
- With a puppy, you want to get different textured toys so your dog learns different textures and you can learn what your dog prefers to chew on.
Homework
- For people who don’t want their dogs to play bite:
- Start your dog on a leash, put your arm or hand about 2” in front of their face – balled up or hand out, you are not going to push your hand in front of their face, your dog needs to put their mouth on your arm and when they do you are going to pop the leash and tell them no.
- Repeat the above process.
- If the dog doesn’t bite your arm this time then praise them.
- Once you have praised 10 times more than you have corrected take it to the next level and put your hand in the dogs mouth and go through the same steps.
- This is about your dog learning to keep its mouth to itself when people are leaning towards it or reaching it.
- 10-1 rule for every one time you correct your dog you have to praise your dog ten times for making the right decision – using affirmation to keep your dog from play biting.
- Episode 050 is a great reference for the tracking calendar and has a video as well to remind you of the 10-1 ratio.
Call to Action
Go to FamilyDogFusion.com/insurance to check out Healthy Paws Pet Insurance.
Also, email us your suggestions for our Kickstarter campaign to publish and launch Bennie’s book: Family Dog Fusion.
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