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.
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.
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 or wake them up from a deep sleep. 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.
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 food aggression and 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.
Shiba Shake,
Its been almost a week into my new training techniques (Thanks to you and Sephy!) and I have had wonderful progress! After I asked about the petting vs being near food, I have learned my little Shiba shows his worst aggression when someone attempts to pet him. So I decided to work on the approaching part first and made sure that no one touched him while he ate. I would drop a few yummy treats in his dish while he was eating and give his chin a quick rub .. and now there is ZERO aggression towards me when I approach or try to take his dish away. He is aggressive when someone else tries to do it, so I’m going to work on that some more. But I sense great progress in the future. :]
And the NILIF program is working great too. The first couple days or so were difficult, especially when I let him out and it was time to come inside, I would ask him to sit and he wouldnt so I just closed the door and walked away. He eventually caught on that “no listen” meant “no inside” for him, haha. His overall behavior is a lot more calm too. He’s not actually calm, but a lot more from what he used to be!, haha.
That is awesome to hear Jeff!!
It is great that you took such positive steps, and put in the time and effort, as soon as you noticed the problem. That is the best way to retrain a negative behavior.
I think Jack is meant to stay with you and your family as well 🙂 Lucky Shiba!
Post us a picture of that rascal when you have the time 🙂
Another week in and Jack (the Shiba) is doing very well. He is getting along with everyone, dogs, people, kids. We gave him a kong toy and that he keeps on out on the porch. He has lost all interest in being possessive.
Our beagle is now accepting him more and more, although with a few skirmishes.
Being that we are fostering him, we did have a visit with a family last Saturday. The visit went very well, but apparently Jack is meant to stay with us.
He is slowly becoming a part of the family.
Hi Sarah,
Both can occur.
Dogs usually see petting from above as a threat or dominance move and may get fearful and/or aggressive. According to what I read, when dogs interact with other dogs, they often show dominance by placing their paw across another dog’s shoulders. This is similar to when we pet dogs from above, so dogs may not react well to this gesture.
Aggression can happen with or without food, although it is even more likely to occur when food is involved because then, the dog has something valuable to protect.
When meeting new dogs I always approach them from below the head and scratch their chest rather than patting them on the head.
Food aggression in response to petting is usually the first step – and then that may develop into an aggressive response to just proximity.
The good news is that dogs, even Shibas, can be trained/conditioned to like petting and stroking. Here is an article on dog hug training. 🙂
For now, I would stop petting him from above while he is eating. Instead, do desensitization exercises with light touches that are paired with hand-feeding.
Good luck! Keep us updated on your progress.
Hi ShibaShake! Thank you so much! I really enjoyed the second article you posted, there were a lot of great tips in there that I havent tried yet. The funny thing with my Shiba is, he does not guard his toys. Only his food .. or any food including my own, that may be present. I am definitely going to try to follow that NILIF program with him, hopefully keeping him in a steady routine with all of this will help.
After reading the article, I tried the very first tip and added some treats to my Shibas bowl while he was eating. He would take a few steps back at first when he saw my hand, but he never growled and barely curled his lips, lol. I’m just wondering .. is food aggression generally displayed when a dog is approached while eating or from being touched while eating?? I have noticed my Shiba will not show as much aggression when he’s being approached at his eye level, but when he’s being approached from above his head, like when being pet, he gets really aggressive. I read specifically not to reach down and pet or stroke him while he’s eating, my fiance does this a lot so it peaked my curiosity.
It took me forever to find good, Shiba-related articles so I am so glad I have come across you and Sephy! :]
Hi Sarah,
You are absolutely right that Shibas are more of a challenge than many other dog breeds. They are naturally more dominant, extremely stubborn, and will use their dog smarts to challenge you in any way that they can.
lol – that sounds really familiar. Shibas are generally that way. If you want them to do something, you have to make it worth their while. This does not mean you have to always give them food – you just have to show them that it is in their best interest to listen to you.
I highly recommend following the NILIF (Nothing in Life is Free) program. This simply means Shiba has to do something for you before he gets anything in return. He sits before getting to go out in the backyard, he does a series of obedience commands before getting a food toy, etc.
As for object guarding – my Shiba used to do a bit of that when he was a puppy. When he was young, he was always picking up crap when we go out on walks – tissues, dirty objects, whatever. I did not want him to eat the stuff and get sick, so I always took it out of his mouth. Soon he began to associate me coming near him as a signal that he was about to lose his prized possessions so he started guarding.
In general, you want to stop him before the gets the stuff by body blocking him or by using a lead. My Shiba still wears a short drag lead which was extremely useful (and still is useful) for keeping him out of trouble.
At the same time, you want to help your Shiba associate people coming near him while he is eating with good things and positive experiences. Here are some techniques that may help –
http://www.shibashake.com/dog/stop-food-aggression-stop-resource-guarding
The object exchange game, and interactive food toys were very good for my Shiba. Let Shiba work for all of his food from interactive food toys rather than giving everything to him in a bowl.
In general you want to set Shiba up for success and don’t expose him to situations where he resorts to aggression. If he uses aggression and people back away, he will learn that aggression works and keep repeating that behavior.
Instead you want to show him that people coming up to him means he gets even more food, and nothing gets taken away from him. But do it slowly – for example just give him a little bit of food in the bowl. Then walk away to a good distance. From a distance, toss a bit of food into the bowl. Then walk a bit closer, and if he is calm and behaves, then toss more food into the bowl. If he starts showing aggression, then you have moved forward too quickly. So just walk away and Shiba gets nothing.
Wait for a bit and then try again. In this way, he learns that people coming near him means more food in his bowl but showing aggression means people will leave and the food stops appearing.
If he is doing well with hand-feeding I would also continue doing that, and also do bite inhibition training. Bite inhibition is extremely useful for a Shiba because they are a naturally mouthy breed.
My Shiba was doing some crazy leash biting when he was younger, and bite inhibition really saved us both 🙂
Getting a professional trainer can also be very helpful. Find one who has previous experience with Shibas. Initially I went to some trainers that had no clue how to train and interact with Shibas and the results were not the best. Reward training worked best on my Shiba.
Thanks for dropping by Sarah. Let me know how it goes.
And also, the friend wasnt feeding him and our puppy was just diligently sitting in front of him while he ate, I’m sure in hopes of getting something. My concern in that his aggression seems to be getting out of control and I feel partial to blame never having a dog like this before, but he’s still young and I feel its not to late to fix this. I knew what I was getting into with Shibas, but all of them are very different. He has never hurt anyone, but that is not a risk I am willing to take.
Hi there! I have found all of your articles incredibly useful and I am so glad that I have come across this. I was reading through previous user posts to see if anyone has had any issues similar to mine and it seems I am on my own. I may need to seek a professional, but I suppose it doesnt hurt to ask! I have a 4 month old Shiba that I purchased from a great cage-free kennel close to my home. I got him at exactly 8 weeks old and he started his puppy obedience training at about 10 weeks. I have never had a dog quite like the Shiba, I’m used to your typical calm, collective Labrador! This is quite the change, so any tips I can get are greatly welcomed.
He did alright in the classes, but he is very, very food driven and getting him to cooperate or listen to me is difficult unless he knows I have a treat. There are times where I may ask him to “sit” and instead of sitting right away, he will come up to me, sniff, and if there’s nothing he likes, he walks away. How can I curb this and get him to cooperate without the constant need for a treat, but still get him to want to listen??
And now my biggest concern .. My puppy is EXTREMELY food aggressive. We keep him on a strict diet getting fed once in the late morning and once a few hours before bedtime. Never people food or table scraps of any sort and always eating after I do. I have tried feeding him by hand and he is wonderfully gentle. But the moment his food turns up in a bowl, anyone within 6 inches from him gets a good growl from him and occasionally he’ll snap. He has never hurt anyone though. I read about trying to associate my hand with “good food” while he’s eating, I have not yet tried that and just may.
However, he knows he will never get table scraps or food while I eat, but just recently he has been getting aggressive with HUMAN food. Last week, I dropped a piece of chocolate onto the ground and he managed to run off with it, when I caught up to him and tried to take it and throw it away, he growled at me the moment my hand got near it. I figured it was because he had already gotten a hold of it and already deemed it “HIS” before I was able to pick it up. We use “no no” when he does something wrong, so he got one of those and some time alone in his kennel. Just yesterday, my fiances friend came over to hang out and brought lunch with him and while he was sitting down eating it, my fiance tried to pick up our dog so he wasnt bothering the friend while he ate, and he snapped quite a few times at my fiance. Still hadnt had people food by that point and wasnt able to run off with anything, so I was not understanding why he was being aggressive over this and snapping when WE got anywhere near the food he wanted.
So I’m just curious if you’ve ever heard of Shibas doing this before or if there is any way we can begin to fix that issue?? I understand food aggression, I just have never known a dog to act that way over something he never gets.
Hi Jeff, So glad to hear that things are going so well.
Rollerblading with Shiba sounds like a lot of fun for everyone. I would love to do it too but our area is pretty hilly and my rollerblading skills are pretty lame 🙂 Need a lot more practice.
Make sure he doesn’t misbehave with your wife either. Shibas will take advantage of whomever they can take advantage of 🙂
Hi Kelly, Hope things are better. I would be very interested to hear how Kumi behaves after her spay – so please drop by and let us know. 🙂 Good luck!