Hi, New here! Jack Russell pup query!

[gazmix]

Yes your right, it's early days
She seems happy in her cage except when the door is shut at times when we can't keep an eye on her.
He yelps then & i assume it's because he's full of energy & wants to explore as he would at that age!

At the moment i'm covered in little cuts as he loves to put my finger in his mouth & his teeth are razors!
He has plenty of toys & i try divert him to them, like a rope with a rubber bit in the middle that is supposed to be for teething, but still seems to enjoy my trowser leg or finger.

[smiffy]

ah puppy training i had forgotten the joys :lol:

you need to start teaching a bite inhibition. when he catchs hold of you even if it gentle snatch your hand away and shout ouch. after that get up and walk away.

you can teach that so long as he is gentle play will carry on but the moment the teeth join in the game all play will stop.

[champ]

Smiffy, you describe teaching 'bite inhibition' as not allowing any contact from teeth? I always thought bite inhibition meant teaching dogs to be gentle with their teeth, so that if they bit somebody down the track, the bite would be 'inhibited' - IOW gentle.

I'm a firm beleiver in this principle, whatever it's called:D & from my own experience & what I've heard, it's a valuable lesson to teach. You allow the puppy to mouth you in play, but when they start to get a little rough or at all hurtful, yelp, withdraw the hand(or whatever bodypart :lol: ) and quit playing for a minute - turn away, get up & leave, whatever it takes. If you do this consistently, the dog will soon learn that in order to continue playing he must do so gently. He learns that he can hurt a human very easily with his teeth & must not play as rough as he plays with other dogs.

After at least a few weeks of this when your dog is *reliably* being gentle with you, then you can teach it, by the same negative punishment(taking away attention & play), that human skin is completely out of bounds to his teeth.

Teaching bite inhibition is good because dogs will be dogs & no matter how well trained, situations can arise where they feel the need to defend themselves. They are less likely to go in hard, more likely to give only a gentle warning bite. Another reason for it is if you(or anybody, say a child) hand feeds your dog. They learn to take the treat gently & if/when their teeth accidentally connect with skin, they are gentle about it.

[smiffy]

hi champ i always understood 'bite inhibition' as teaching the dog to become 'inhibited' about biting. i think i will have to go back and study some more on this :lol:

by going the way i described none of my dogs will touch our skin with their teeth which i see as great but your right you can teach that a certain amount of control is acceptable but i wouldnt consider teaching anyone to teach this (remember i teach pet dog owners anyway) i could see a use for it if the owner were to want to get into shutzand (sp) as the dogs have to bite objects but do it with an element of control.

i have my dogs around kids and my dal in the pic i was training to be a pat dog so i needed her to be bomb proof. the only thing that is stopping her is the fact she cant hear things coming towards her so if she catches sight of something falling towards her she will spin around quick so i cant risk having her around anyone that cant move quickly away from her rather large rump :)

mind you i've just sat here thinking about the girls and their teeth and my little shih tzu at agility training will catch hold of my middle finger and just hold it while she performs the walkways. maybe this is a confidence thing??

[champ]

Smiffy, I thought shutzhund dogs were meant to bite hard?? :lol:

I too teach mainly pet dog owners. Why I think it's a good idea is that dogs will be dogs, no matter how well trained or otherwise. Being dogs, they defend themselves with their teeth if they feel a need, or if they are startled, for eg.

I beleive it's been demonstrated often enough that dogs bite a lot more gently if provoked, when taught this way. They are also a lot gentler at taking treats etc, than dogs who haven't been taught. My young kids, well supervised as I can with the dogs, have still managed to teach them a lot of bad behaviour, especially where food is concerned :roll: but the dogs are still very gentle when it comes to taking anything from them.

Of course, after the bite inhibition training, or whatever you call it :) I think it's a very good idea to teach dogs that a human is completely off bounds to their teeth(& tongues!). I think there are too many instances of dog 'attacks' especially on kids, where it's been found that one or more people in the household encourage 'rough play' with the dog.[/list]

[smiffy]

rough play has a lot to answer for i think. my dad used to think it very important that he should get on the floor every evening to wrestle with the dog and prove he was the man of the house.

i had just moved back home after a nasty split from the ex but even then (i hadnt started to study behaviour or training at this stage) i could see the problems with it and how the dog was treated during the day were causing yet more problems.

now my two young siblings were told to stay on the sofa while dad 'plays' with the dog and one day my sister (then about 5) got off the sofa and the dog lunged at her and dad saw what was about to happen and he made a grab for her and she was left with teeth marks and a ripped night dress but it could have been so much worse.

anyway mum freaks out says the dog has to go and the dog ends up with the ppl who owned him before as they had said he was to go back. it was explained how the dog 'attacked' my sister.

next thing i heard the owner had put her granddaughter in her moses basket and biff had made a lunge for her leaving her with stitches and puncture wounds.

now i dont think any of this was the dogs 'fault' at all i think it was my family doing what they thought was best and screwing up a perfectly good dog.

there were other factors too to start with his breeding - he came from a puppy farmer with a small gene pool and there were lots of reports of his dogs 'going bad'

i think so long as your firm with your boundaries the dog would have a better understanding of whats expected and poor biff had no clear boundaries - how was he to know he can grab and pull with this human but not with the small one?

this boy was a german short haired pointer and i think his breed played a part - his needs just were not met! i wouldnt expect a pointer to be happy and well behaved anyway on one walk in the afternoon and a wrestle in the evening and be expected to stay on his bed all day. thats enough to drive any animal nuts!

thankfully i am now in a position to speak to them and be heard instead of poo pooed and my mum now has a very content patterdale terrier with lots of toys (appropriate) play and nice walks over fields.

i think i've gone well off topic here as i'm just typing about something i find very very sad. what could have helped biff? education for his owners?? most definitely.

ps re shutzhund (ta for sp) dont they still have to show control? ie yes he can bite the target but its got to stop at a bite. he cant rip it from its fittings or tear a hole in it?
obviously i dont know that much about shutzhund :lol: :lol:

[celtechfarms]

I schutzhund a dog is trained to bite, bite full and hard without adjusting their grip and must stop when the handler tells them to. They are trained to bite padding only and if the helper drops the padding the dog will stand there with the sleeve in his mouth and ignore the helper completely. Its said a schutzhund dog is an unreliable protection dog simply because they are trained to attack padding and not people.

[champ]

Thanks for the info Celt, on Clutzhund... I mean :wink: I too know very little about this subject & am not interested to learn more.

There's enough grief in the world through ignorant owners inadvertantly(or otherwise) teaching their dogs to be aggressive, as with Smiffy's experiences.

I think this sort of training should be restricted to police dogs & the like, not for any egotistical owner of a big dog. What do they really expect or want out of their dog? If it's protection, there should be signs on their house - burglars don this padded suit before entering so my dog can attack you. :lol:

Anyway, yes, we've got very off topic! Any more questions, Gazmix??