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Location: North Yorkshire, UK
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 655
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Ella, even at fourteen months, is still very mouthy. I wouldn't say that she bites, but she occasionally decides to have a chew on fingers. A huge yelp from us normally does the trick, and the chewing has reduced drastically. She does have plenty of toys, blankets and a baby brother to chew on
but I guess fingers are just tastier
Suprisingly our four month old pup isn't very mouthy at all when it comes to people. He occasionally just takes my hand or finger in his mouth to get my attention, but he never chews on me like Ella does. The difference seems to be that Ella was taken from her mum and littermates very young, and Roux remained with his siblings until he was fourteen weeks old, and then had other dogs to wrestle with and learn bite inhibition from.
As for actual biting, rather than playful mouthing or chewing, in my experience, most dogs who bite are pre-empting an attack or are very nervous around people and not really sure how to interact. I've only known one dog who regularly bit with no history of abuse or poor-handling. I think he was just a very nervous dog and he improved after seeing a behaviourist (although I understand it really wasn't a quick-fix).
Teaching recall is one of my favourtie bits of training
We're working on this with Roux, and it really is helping having Ella on hand to help out. We started out by teaching him his name - whenever he reacted to it, he got a fuss and lots of praise. He's very praise-orientated and loves being told that he's a "good boy", which is helpful as he is so eager to please.
Once he was reliably responding to his name, we started a series of exercises first in the same room and then in separate rooms, calling him and giving him a fuss and a treat when he came. As he got used to the game, we began moving outside on a longline, and then one day took the plunge and let him go in a secure area. As much as he enjoys running and playing with Ella, he is very much my shadow and will spend ages just hanging around me. If I'm not in his sight, he comes back of his own accord to find me.
All in all, it took him about ten days to learn that when we called his name, it meant "come back". My OH is now teaching him to respond to the dog whistle, which is where Ella is so useful, because she already knows this, and he follows her lead. We have yet to let him off on the beach, or in the woods, as there are so many distractions, so we're confining training to secure areas until he is responding immediately on the first whistle.
There are loads of other techniques, but this is what works for us. I'm sure if you typed "recall training" into the search, it would bring up loads of different ideas and opinions on teaching recall.