Most pups munch on anything when they are teething, but some of them take up a habit of biting people's legs and/or tugging their pants. I hear it's also called "herding" because that's how a dog herds the sheep and it's very common in breeds that have an ancestry from sheep dogs.
My dogs don't do that, mainly because I eye or grumble at them menacingly if they bite at me on purpose, to make them realise that it's not a game. It's primeval of me, but it works well to break the habit, as they stop permanently after two or three times.
I've seen dogs that persist though. How do you deal with this?
You're right, we should never tolerate that attitude. I think I am also lucky enough that my dog right now doesn't play-bite anymore. However, my previous dog used to do that a lot of times and she wouldn't stop even after numerous corrections. I would just usually divert her attention to a toy so that she can bite it instead.
My dog outgrew his biting time but he was never a biter though. He stopped as soon as we said OUCH, loudly! I think we are very lucky since he also stopped chewing on my chair legs after I rubbed hot sauce on the legs.
Well I have to be honest this is the first that I have heard of "herding", but I guess that makes sense. I know our little guy went through a phase like this, but I am pretty sure that all dogs do at some point. I would think that enough of the glares like you use and getting the message across that it is not okay should be enough to alter their behavior, with some time and love of course.
Our youngest dog is Barbie, she's a 4-year old pekingese. Admittedly, she is my favorite and she probably knows it that's why her puppy habit of biting (but often it is nibbling only) the hand. She would only be restrained when she sees the threat of a slipper although we never hit her. I don't know how we could stop that bad habit of her biting our hand mostly for fun, I guess. But sometimes she bites my foot when she wants to go outside and I would ignore her.
With strangers, I still don't know if Barbie would bite a real injurious bite. But one of our dogs, Pipoy the hyperactive pug had bitten several already so we don't bring him outside anymore.
A way to get them to stop would be to express that you do not like it, or that you are in pain. Tell everyone in your family to shout out loud whenever they get bitten or tugged at. Do not shout directly at the dog, but out loud, at the ceiling. The dog should get a little sort of shock, but not a fright. He will learnt hat such behaviour isn't "play" and will stop pretty soon.
I want to share one of the effective ways to stop a dog from biting based on my personal experience. Whenever I'm on playtime with my puppies, I let my hands be played with the puppy's mouth. The puppy continually do its biting enjoyment untill its teeth are pressing harder into my hands. At this kind of moment, I fake a cry and my dog release its hard-pressed teeth freely from my hands. Sometimes it won't work so I put a moderate effect slap on its face and the dog stop its biting. I continue to do same remedy and it's quite effective.
Well It is so hard to train no biting to puppies because they are starting to grow their teeth so they actually biting something for some reason.
Well It is so hard to train no biting to puppies because they are starting to grow their teeth so they actually biting something for some reason.
Yeah, I totally agree with you but whatever circumstances you are in with training your dogs, you can find your own solution to your dog's biting problem.