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Post by Laura on Feb 14, 2005 14:21:09 GMT -5
Bite inhibition is one of the most important issues when dealing with an aggressive or dominant dog. Starting with puppy development, right through adolescence, teaching your dog appropriate mouth behaviors are crucial. The dog with good bite inhibition will bruise, but not break skin, the dog with the hard, untrained mouth will not hesitate to pierce and rip flesh. Beginning with puppyhood, start teaching the pup that a soft mouth is appropriate. You can accomplish this by sqealing loudly when the pup nips too hard, turning your back on the pup, and stopping play altogether. If these tactics fail, a gentle scruffing is fine, it mimics how a mother dog will correct her pups for mouthing to hard. The physical correction should be extremely swift, and then be over as quickly as it was administered. As the pup becomes older, you can reinforce the soft mouth with training excercises. One method is to teach the "hold", using a small ball. Placing the ball in the dogs mouth, have the dog focus on you, and on a count of two, praise and have him drop it for a treat. As the dog becomes more proficient at the hold, switch the ball for a softer and softer object (i.e. tennis ball for an orange, an orange for a balloon). All of these excercises will enable the dog to have a soft mouth that will be less of a threat should the defensive drive be triggered in your dog.
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Post by Jayehawk70 on Apr 12, 2005 18:38:51 GMT -5
I made a new thread with this question so the whole board can help out .
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