There are many reasons that a dog may bite. Nipping is a natural kind of biting in puppy play. However, you must modify your dogs behavior when it begins to bite aggressively or else it may get worse and eventually get you and your pet in some trouble. Having your dog put down and yourself sued because of your dog’s aggressive behavior is something you really want to avoid.
Before you begin to modify your dogs behavior, you will need some basic instruction and tips on the process of reversing your dogs bad habits.
1. Begin With a Thorough Physical Exam For Your Dog.
Make sure you don’t address your dogs behavioral problems before you make sure that it is not a physiological issue. Have a vet perform tests on your dog’s thyroid, physiological, and circulation indicators for signs of a chemical imbalance. Due to physical malfunctions or defects that can be otherwise asymptomatic, dogs can become aggressive. Before undergoing behavior modification, you should consider overruling these possibilities.
2. Identify The Stimulus.
A dog may bite for multiple reasons such as fear, over stimulation, aggression, or perceived threats over territory. It is essential to understand what causes your dog to react in this manner. There are two options available, you can modify your dogs behavior to respond differently to such trigger of you may remove the trigger.
Tips And Techniques
There are a couple of methods you may use to modify your dogs behavior once you have established that your dog’s biting habits are behavioral.
1. Simulate Bite Inhibition With Your Puppy.
Have you ever noticed that your puppies play nip and bite each other over their mothers nipples? If you ever closely observe puppy play, then you will notice how a puppy may sometimes yip and withdraw from the play. The puppy that stops the play is showing bite inhibition. This sort of behavior shows the more aggressive puppy that he has over stepped his boundaries and that it is unacceptable to bite in areas where it hurts. This sort of behavior may also be simulated when your puppy gets too rambunctious during play. Make a loud yelp and then halt the game immediately. In no time your puppy will soon learn to stop this behavior.
2. Allow your dog some space and time to adjust to the new environment.
Walk your dog in a low distraction area close to home and keep your concentration on your dog. This will allow an easy space for training and an environment where you can take your puppy out of harms way when you may need to. Your dog will then not feel any sort of threat from his or her surroundings and your dog will pay close attention because of the lack of distraction.
3. Communicating With Your Dog.
Although dogs are not smarter than humans, they are smart and can recognize the hand that puts food in their bowls. So speak to your dog. They can recognize the mood you are in and respond accordingly. In that same manner, construct a relationship with your dog. Your prime communication goal is attention. It becomes easier to communicate and eventually adapt to the various alternative responses to certain triggers once you can hold your dog’s attention.
It will take some commitment, commendable effort, and time to modify your dogs behavior. Work with your dog, not against him. When it comes to a grown dog, you may want to seek the help of a professional to modify the dogs behavior.
If you want to learn more, you can read this article on how to Stop Dog Biting or these reviews of products that address dog biting problems Best Dog Training Products. For more information about dog training and dog behavior problems visit Dog Training.
By: Jonathan Gunn