What is bite inhibition?
Bite inhibition basically means training your dog to have a soft mouth.
When they are puppies, dogs automatically learn this lesson from their mother and their litter-mates. When a puppy bites down too hard on a litter-mate, he will get a yelp and play stops while the hurt party licks his wounds.
Through this process, puppies learn to control the force of their bites because they know that biting too hard will cause play to stop.
Dog bite inhibition.
Dogs use their mouth to interact and play, not just to attack.
The mouthier a dog is, the more important to teach him bite inhibition.
It is important to continue this lesson throughout a dog’s life. The mouthier a dog is, the more important to teach him bite inhibition. My Shiba Inu is an extremely mouthy dog, and I am extremely thankful that I taught him bite inhibition from a young age.
Later on, he really started acting out and doing leash biting, humping my leg, and biting on my hands and arms. Throughout all this, he never broke skin.
Bite inhibition, made it possible for us to re-train him and re-train ourselves with very little wear and tear on both dog and humans.
When excited, dogs may mouth on people, not to hurt them, but to interact with them.
Bite inhibition is important even for normally even-tempered, social dogs.
Dogs use their mouth to interact, not just to attack.
When excited, dogs may mouth on people, not to hurt them, but to interact with them. This may cause accidental bites if the dog does not have good bite inhibition training.
Dogs may also bite as a reflex when they are startled, for example, when you accidentally step on their tail. A dog with bite inhibition may scratch your arm, but an untrained dog will cause deep puncture wounds.
The best time to teach dogs bite inhibition is when they are young. Puppies may have sharp teeth, but they have not developed the jaw strength of an adult dog yet, so they cannot inflict the same type of damage that an adult dog can.
The best time to teach dogs bite inhibition is when they are young.
Hand-feeding is a great way for teaching bite inhibition to my dogs.
I have found that hand-feeding is a fun and good way for teaching bite inhibition to my dogs.
Hand-feed your dog at least some of his kibble every day. If he bites too hard when getting his food, do a sharp ouch or yelp and ignore him for a few seconds then start hand-feeding him again. When your dog takes food from you gently, praise him and keep feeding him.
First, make it easy for your dog to get at the food without biting you, then slowly make it more difficult by covering the food partially with your fingers. You can also combine hand-feeding with training and handling sessions.
Hand-feeding also helps to prevent resource guarding issues, so it is good to continue this practice throughout your dog’s life.
I first learned about bite inhibition from Ian Dunbar’s book After You Get Your Puppy. He has more in his book on bite inhibition and puppy socialization.
Although it is easier and safer to teach dogs bite inhibition when they are young, it is never too late to teach them to have a soft mouth.
Bite inhibition will significantly enhance your relationship with your dog because a dog with a soft mouth is easier to trust, easier to handle, and a joy to spend time with.
Note – If your dog is already food aggressive or resource aggressive, it is best to consult a professional trainer. Do not perform bite inhibition exercises on such dogs as they may bite anybody or anything that comes near their food.
A dog with a soft mouth is easier to trust, easier to handle, and a joy to spend time with.
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Gotta love that Shiba spirit!
Hi Sarah,
Happy Holidays.
Wrt. the food aggression, it is just as important to not reward him for showing any kind of aggression. If he bites, then non-mark and stop feeding. If he continues, then stop feeding altogether and try later.
It sounds like Shiba has learned that showing aggression means he gets the food all to himself, so you want to show him that aggression = no food whereas calm = food. In general, it is best to not put him in a situation where he is likely to practice aggression. The more he practices it, the more it will become a habit.
Another thing that may help is to put a lead on him and stand a certain distance from the food bowl. Then walk a step towards the food bowl, do some obedience commands with him, and reward him for doing the commands. If he is calm and able to handle that, then move a bit closer and so on. If he starts acting out in any way, then you have moved forward too quickly, so move back and repeat.
The key to the exercise is to always set him up for success – i.e. only move to a distance that you are sure he can handle so that he does not keep practicing aggression around the food bowl. You want to reduce the number of aggression episodes and increase the number of calm successes. I would only try one thing at a time, so that there is less chance of confusion, and greater consistency.
Is he only aggressive with the food bowl? Is he aggressive with food toys?
With aggression, it is usually very helpful to get a professional trainer to come over and observe Shiba. A lot of training is very situational and based on timing things exactly right. A good professional trainer will be able to read Shiba’s body language and come up with a good step-by-step program to help Shiba achieve success.
Good luck. Shania sends her licks, love, and positive energy.
Hello once again! My puppy is now 6 months old and has shown major progress in almost ALL his behaviors. He never did the leash-biting thing, he loves his walks so much that stopping for ANYTHING just doesnt interest him, haha. His bite inhibition is wonderful, he almost NEVER puts his teeth on me and if he accidentally does, he licks where he bit. I have fully accepted that he loves to steal things he is not supposed to, so I just laugh, give him a stern “no” and swap the item out with one of his favorite toys. Now, when I said almost all his behaviors and almost never bites .. I still have made ZERO progress with his food aggression. I hand fed him every day and night for 2 weeks straight, stroking his chest, cheeks, or chin while he ate from my hand .. my puppy doesnt care, he will bite any hand that feeds him. There have been days where one meal would take 3 hours to eat bc he just wants to tear apart whichever hand doesnt have food in it. I’ve tried taking him on a walk before each meal, forget it. I have tried approaching him without touching him and instead put pieces of his favorite treat into his bowl, usually repeated that about 4-5 times throughout the duration of his meal. Well that was okay. But once he knows food is present, he just gets angry at anything that tries to touch him in any manner. He is not aggressive when someone is near, its when he’s being touched or sees he’s about to be touched. And outside of mealtime, I have never taken something away from him without redirecting or replacing whatever he wasnt supposed to have with something he is allowed to have. I do not think I have ever approached him in any negative manner .. so for the life of me, I can not explain why he absolutely HATES being touched in the presence of his food. His food has never been taken away from him, never had another dog to compete with, nothing I can think of that would make him WANT to guard his food so heavily. But he has broken skin now more than 10x during his mealtime while he try to figure out what works and what doesnt. But I just dont know what DOES work!
Anything else I could try? Or is being touched just something that my dog will never accept during mealtime??