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Puppies don't know their own strength so to speak. Their play with their littermates
includes some biting, If the biting is too hard, the injured dog yelps. This is
usually sufficient to cause the offending puppy to inhibit his biting. If the biting
continues, the injured puppy turns his back and walks away. This is effective because
the offending dog wants to play.
If your puppy is a normal dog, you can usually control his biting by a sharply worded
"Ouch" or two and by walking away from the play session.
If you have an adult dog with a biting problem, you should seek professional help.
Further, I am convinced that adult dogs don't suddenly begin biting without any prior
warning. Owners should be able to see the problems coming. Some examples follow.
- Last week I was petting an adorable eight month old Chow puppy. As the dog was licking
my hand, the owner jerked on the leash (attached to a prong collar). The dog bit me.
As the owner released the leash, the dog approached me again. The owner jerked again and
the dog bit me again. I told the owner that the dog was biting me each time that she jerked
the collar. She replied that she had to jerk the collar to keep the dog from jumping on me.
It seems ridiculous to have to say that jumping was not the major problem here. And as for
the jumping, the dog was not jumping until the woman began jerking it. Over the next hour
I watched the woman attempt to train her dog. She was jerking the leash at random and
for no reason. Also she would jerk the leash first and then give a command second.
She was driving her dog berserk.
- One hour later I ran into a husband/wife team who were having difficulty with their Chow puppy.
I watched this man also jerking his dog at random. These people had been very irregular in
their attendance at dog training class - evidence to me that they didn't really care.
- Week before last, I read on the Internet about a man who thought that it was wonderful that his
four year old child could play roughly with his eight week old Chow puppy. This rough play
included tail pulling.
- Some time ago I corresponded with a woman whose adult Chow would not allow her family to enter
their own back yard. This dog simply didn't realize that he was a part of the family and that
the back yard did not belong to him alone.
I wrote that she should integrate the Chow into the household and work on some extensive
socialization. She responded that the dog had a very fine garage for shelter and as for
socialization, the dog was taken to the veterinarian's office once a year.
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