Comments on: Dog Bite Inhibition

By: shibashake

shibashake — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 20:58:30 +0000

Hello Jess,

Time of day could be a reason. Dogs are crepuscular, so they are most active at dawn and dusk. My dogs usually have the most active play sessions during those times. However, my Sibe puppy, Lara (who is now over 1 year old), is pretty energetic throughout the day and tires everybody out.

Lara is also very good at sensing the emotions of people around her and she is very attuned to motion. Sometimes, when I get excited, frustrated, and fearful, she picks up on that, and gets really hyper because that is the way that she deals with stress. I find that remaining calm is very important while dealing with Lara’s hyper bouts.

With Lara, I left a drag-lead on her during her early training period. When she starts any craziness, I no-mark the behavior calmly (Ack-ack) to let her know that it is undesirable. Then I redirect her onto a toy. If she redirects, then I praise her and play with her. This rewards her for doing the right thing.

If she continues, then I withdraw my attention by standing up, folding up my arms, and turning away from her. If she escalates her behavior by jumping and biting on clothing, then I calmly say “Timeout” and remove her to her timeout area.

Here are some of my additional hyper dog experiences.

Congratulations on your new family addition and 4 paws up for helping out a dog in need.

By: jess

jess — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 06:53:29 +0000

Hi! GReat page thank you for all your info!
Q for you..
We adopted a year old am staff from shelter. hes great, no food aggression or toy/bone etc..but he gets these bursts of energy and will start to bounce off the walls/couch etc (literary!) and bite really. he gets very excited and will start panting for an hour while being extremely bite-y..it all seems playful but is unacceptable and its extremely difficult making him stop as he simply gets ‘crazy’. he gets plenty of walks etc..but still seems to get super anxious and does this regardless. he can be really calm on the floor or next to us and chew his toys/bones but w/in minutes he drops whatever toy hes playing with and charges at us while we are sitting on the couch ane he does so with teeth biting jumping on your head face back and grab whatever he can with the teeth. ‘ouch’ ‘stop’ and any noise simply excites him MORE. hes very brave and nothing scares or startles him to make him stop etc. w/o putting him into a corner, his cage or separate room for 15minutes ethers no way of stopping him from this frenzy..why is he doing this? he bites really hard and im all bruised up, he also can grab arm and hes not mouthy he bites and holds..and how can i correct this? hes already 55lbs and looks like he will probably gain 10 more and we cant have him become this out of control..its like hes literary in a zone when he gets like this and if you dont defend yourself he will keep attacking and biting..help!! its completely unprovoked and he will just see you sitting on the couch/chair and he will run up biting! im at loss of what to do here with him
thanks for any input!

By: shibashake

shibashake — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:09:02 +0000

Hello Jacqui,

Congratulations on your new Sibe! Here are some of the things that helped with my puppies -
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-obedience-training
http://shibashake.hubpages.com/_srec/hub/Train-a-Puppy-Obedience

With recall training, I start it at home, where there are few distractions. Puppy will usually like following us, so we can use that to teach recall. Here is what I did in terms of recall with my Husky Shania -
http://shibashake.com/dog/hyperactive-dogs-how-to-calm-a-hyper-dog-or-hyper-puppy/comment-page-2#comment-20671

Make sure to take lots of puppy pictures and share them with us!

By: Jacqui

Jacqui — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 05:24:46 +0000

Hi there!

Thank you for your fantastic page, it has been very helpful to me! i have just purchased a sibe off a local breeder and she will be coming home with me in 2weeks. i was hoping you could give me some advice on all aspects of basic training. is there any particular books you recommend? i am particularly wanting to ensure that she does not take ‘a liking’ to my cat and chase it or worse. I am also concerned about recall training as i have heard it is not one of their strong points? any help would be greatly appreciated! thanks, Jacqui

By: shibashake

shibashake — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 00:54:57 +0000

Yeah, I got a new Siberian Husky puppy last year (puppy Lara). In the beginning, my Shiba Inu (Sephy) would also guard his food and toys from puppy. Dogs usually compete and fight over resources which may include food and toys, but it may also be attention from us, sleeping space, digging space, etc.

Some things that helped Sephy and Lara get along-
1. I supervise them very closely and make sure that there is no stealing. When I cannot supervise, I make sure that no stealing can occur.
2. When there are conflicts, I step in and resolve them. In this way, my dogs learn to let me handle things and not try to handle it themselves.
3. I do not allow them to use aggression with each other. If they show aggressive behavior I non-mark them (No or Ack-ack) to let them know that it is unacceptable. If they continue, they go to time-out.
4. I set them up for success. For example bully sticks is really high priority with my dogs, so when they are working on those, I separate them. In this way they can enjoy their bully stick without worrying about being disturbed.
5. All dogs have to follow the same rules and I try to be very consistent about rewards and consequences.

I also did a lot of group obedience training sessions with Sephy and Lara. This teaches them that when they work together they both get really good treats, attention, and even fun games. I try to manage things so that they get rewarded most when they cooperate. I also reward them for being calm around each other.

Here are more of my experiences with introducing a new dog into the family-
http://shibashake.com/dog/second-dog-introducing-a-second-dog

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:56:56 +0000

I have 2 huskies. The female is 12 years old and is sweet and gentle. We have had her since she was 4 (our friends owned her before that.) She is never aggressive unless chasing squirrels. She doesn’t even bother our cats. about a year and a half ago, we got a male husky that had been in 2 homes before age one. The original owner bought the dog for their adult son and then he was left chained to a tree outside for 12-14 hours a day. They were told they had to get rid of him and they gave him to a neighbor. The neighbor didn’t like that he chewed things and could jump their fence. This is how we got him. We have an acre of land with a fence and an electric fence. He is a male dog. He is very aggressive and possessive of toys, food, and me. He guards the food at times and did not like if we took the food. Same with his toys. I have been hand feeding him. He tends to take it softer if I flat hand the food but if I am holding out a bone he sometimes takes it aggressively.
My main concern is that he is aggressive towards our other dog. I can give them both a biscuit and our female will eat it but the male will sit down with it in front of him. Even when the 2 dogs are separated he will do this. Then if he thinks the other dog wants it, a fight insues. He actually tore her lower eyelid this past time. When our female want to come near me, he will get up and block her way. How can I get him to realize he cannot behave this way? I don’t want to have to make him go to yet another home. We have had him for 1 1/2 years. He is a sweet dog and they don’t conflict all day just certain times. We used to leave fod out for them in 2 bowls but I have stopped that. I just don’t know when to feed them as they don’t eat on a regular schedule like other dogs.

By: shibashake

shibashake — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:24:18 +0000

Good luck Nelma.

Here are a couple of articles on my experiences with dog biting -
http://shibashake.hubpages.com/_srec/hub/How-to-stop-your-dog-from-biting-you-and-biting-others-dog-aggression-aggressive-dog
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-biting-how-to-stop-puppy-biting

By: Nelma Rose

Nelma Rose — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 13:47:49 +0000

Hi, I have a puppy named Zara that will turn 2 months old this Nov. 10. She’s cute and I like to hold her always but she’s really very energetic and just like yours, she bites anything including my hands and feet.
I can relate much to BOLDASLOVE’s comment. But, I will try your advice regarding hand-feeding and hopefully this will lessen or soften her biting habit.
Thank you so much for this article.

By: shibashake

shibashake — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 23:55:41 +0000

Hello Deana,
One of the things that really helped with Sephy was getting some help from a professional trainer. There were several cases where we had a difficult time reading his body language, but the trainer was able to see it, teach us what to look out for, and what to do when it happens.

Also, Shiba Sephy is a lot more tolerant with people and dogs that he is familiar with. For example, he has no problems letting his play pals and the other family dogs sniff his butt, invade his space, and play rough with him. However, he does not like new dogs invading his space and he definitely does not allow butt sniffing. He also prefers being scratched in the chest rather than being petted from above, which can sometimes appear threatening. Usually, when he is uncomfortable, he has a very stiff posture, his mouth is closed, and sometimes he may vocalize.

Dog body language is often difficult to read and some of it happens very quickly. A professional trainer can really help with that. Another possibility is to record Raider and then play it back in slow motion.

Another thing that helped with Sephy are handling exercises. We slowly desensitized him to being touched in various places, so now he is more tolerant of people touching his tail, paws, head, etc.
http://shibashake.com/dog/hug-dog-teach-your-dog-to-enjoy-hugging

This article on dog greetings may also be of interest -
http://shibashake.com/dog/dogs-children-prevent-dog-attacks

By: Deana Lawrence

Deana Lawrence — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 18:56:51 +0000

Well, I have a 4 year old neutered male Shiba (Raider) and right when I was about to give up on him ever being a normal dog, his behavior stabilized. He is over the biting up our things (including the whole underneath of an antique velvet chair) and having accidents inside. He has never shown aggression, leash biting or possessive behaviors for toys or food. What I’m trying to figure out is why he just bit my 4 year old nephew in the face. My nephew has several large breed dogs so he has no fear and was simply petting him on the head. I know Raider doesn’t have that much experience with children but he’s enjoying being petted by him and without a single growl or bark he just bit. Obviously I can’t have an animal that just bites people in the face without at least giving them a warning growl. I sure love that little shiba so any advice on what to do would be really appreciated!