Re: such a biter!

In Reply to: such a biter!
Category:   Behavior Problems
Posted by:  roberta
Posted on:  June 27, 2002 at 12:36:43

: My female JRT is a sweet loveable dog with a lot of energy but is such a biter! She's only 6 months, and was recently spayed.

: When she was a pup, she was quite a nipper and giving her timeouts only helped for a little bit.
:
: She doesn't bite hard and it doesn't break skin (especially since she lost her sharp baby teeth!) but she only bites when she is excited or playing as if she trying to swallow you with love since because she doesn't know what else to do.

: We went through puppy school and the trainer suggested using the bitter apple spray. She is now scared of the spray bottle, and I think she knows that it's wrong, but she's such an excited little pup - I want to show her licking is okay and biting is not!

: Thanks for all your help!

Response:

Hi Roberta,
Sounds to me like your pup is a "mouther", not a biter. Ie., she likes to show affection by placing her mouth around your hands, arms, etc...with no thought of aggression.

I have two terriers (male 6 years old, female 4 years old) who have been mouthing from day one. The way I broke them was to #1: say NO #2: get up and walk away when they did it and #3) ignore them for 30 minutes to an hour. I'm talking no eye contact whatsoever, no playing, no nothing.They still try to mouth every now & then...a gentle "no" tells them to stop.

I might be off-base here with the other Jack Talk Reps, but I'm not too crazy about licking. Maybe because I had a JR 22 years ago that would lick mine & everbody elses' faces/ears nonstop. It was flat-out annoying. Please know I like a few dog kisses every now & then...when I say, "Give me a kiss". Be careful about those kisses - like the mouthing it can get out of control.

Best,
Judy