Thursday, October 24, 2013

Day 11 -- Play Time

Dogs need to play. In their litters, they use their mouth and paws a lot in play with their littermates. They don't come to us knowing they shouldn't play with us like that so we spend a lot of time teaching them; mouth on dogs is ok most times, mouth on people is never ok.

We can help him out by having toys around for him to chew on. As he is teething and his jaw is growing, he needs to chew.

We can also help him out by the way we act around him. Fast movements are going to entice his use his mouth so moving around him slowly will help.


If he is already revved up, we can avoid petting him. He is more likely to be mouthy when he's already a little hyper.


If he does get mouthy, we can interrupt the behavior with a loud "OUCH!" and redirect him to a more appropriate toy.

Praising him when he is using his mouth on the appropriate toy will help him learn what behavior you expect of him.

You can also catch him chewing on appropriate toys and praise/reward him for it.

If you are interacting with him, use slow movements. Pet him slowly so he's not fooled into thinking you are wrestling with him.

Find games that burn off energy but don't entice him to be mouthy. He LOVES playing fetch and it's a great way to exercise him.

If he is still being mouthy even with all the above precautions, you can put him in a quick time-out.

It's doubtful you will need many time-outs for that behavior though. He's a pretty good guy and quickly learned to keep his teeth off of humans.

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