# Why does our new dog keep 'mouthing' the other dog and my arm? Help!



## dan88 (Aug 26, 2012)

We recently rescued a lurcher/greyhound from a dogs home, after loosing our Lurcher in June this year we decided to get another dog to keep our four your old collie bitch company. We've had him for two months now and he's been fine, no accidents, no problems what so ever apart from one problem. 

Since bringing the new do home he keeps biting or 'mouthing' as I've seen it called on her muzzle and the back of her neck and this is constant or until he gets bored. At first she used to snap and put him in his place but now she doesn't flinch. Our new dog also does this when we come home, particularly with me and he grabs my arm or hand and sort or bites down but doesn't hurt. It's driving us mad and I'd like to find out how we can get home to stop. 

The animal centre estimated his age to be around four, I'm not convinced due to his juvenile behaviour. If anyone could offer and advice that would be great!


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## 912142 (Mar 28, 2011)

I own Great Danes and they are renouned for 'mouthing'. 

Danes for anyone that is unaware are half greyhound half mastiff and were originally bred for wild boar hunt. They would pin the boar down by the back of the neck so I am guessing 'mouthing' is a hunting instinct. 

I have never had a Dane that has made an impression on my skin though, they merely take your hand or arm as though to say 'hello'

I personally would not be too concerned unless of course your dog is marking your skin.

Sorry meant to say you could ask the dog to sit when you come in and either offer a treat or just spend a couple of minutes fussing over him/her, then do the same with your other dog.


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## SpringerLex (Jul 24, 2012)

dan88 said:


> We recently rescued a lurcher/greyhound from a dogs home, after loosing our Lurcher in June this year we decided to get another dog to keep our four your old collie bitch company. We've had him for two months now and he's been fine, no accidents, no problems what so ever apart from one problem.
> 
> Since bringing the new do home he keeps biting or 'mouthing' as I've seen it called on her muzzle and the back of her neck and this is constant or until he gets bored. At first she used to snap and put him in his place but now she doesn't flinch. Our new dog also does this when we come home, particularly with me and he grabs my arm or hand and sort or bites down but doesn't hurt. It's driving us mad and I'd like to find out how we can get home to stop.
> 
> The animal centre estimated his age to be around four, I'm not convinced due to his juvenile behaviour. If anyone could offer and advice that would be great!


Do you have any background on him? Sounds like a case of puppy mouthing. If your other dog was telling him off and he stopped when this is what his litter mates would have done when he was a puppy, as would his Mother. If he was hurting your other dog she would soon let him know.

Try make a loud sudden squeal to get him to let go. When he lets go tell him he's a good boy and reward him. If he persists...ignore him and walk into another room. He will soon grasp the concept.


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## dan88 (Aug 26, 2012)

Thanks for your replies. 

We have no history on him, he was a rescue from our local dogs home as he was found as a stray in quite a poor condition. He's slowly looking back to full health and is certainly part of the family now  

It could have been that as a puppy he might not have had litter mates or he could have been taken from his mother before he learned all the rules of 'dog eticate' and the way to behave. We'll never know any of this but learning how to control it now is difficult. 

Our other dog 'Lola' doesn't flinch when he grabs the back of her neck, perhaps this is a dominance thing. Could grabbing her neck and mouthing be his way of asserting some sort of dominance? Or it could just be playful behaviour.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

dan88 said:


> We recently rescued a lurcher/greyhound from a dogs home, after loosing our Lurcher in June this year we decided to get another dog to keep our four your old collie bitch company. We've had him for two months now and he's been fine, no accidents, no problems what so ever apart from one problem.
> 
> Since bringing the new do home he keeps biting or 'mouthing' as I've seen it called on her muzzle and the back of her neck and this is constant or until he gets bored. At first she used to snap and put him in his place but now she doesn't flinch. Our new dog also does this when we come home, particularly with me and he grabs my arm or hand and sort or bites down but doesn't hurt. It's driving us mad and I'd like to find out how we can get home to stop.
> 
> The animal centre estimated his age to be around four, I'm not convinced due to his juvenile behaviour. If anyone could offer and advice that would be great!


Some breeds especially when they want to instigate play or in play mouth a
lot my breeds for instance play rough there is a lot of mouthing and grabbing and dragging about by loose skin putting mouths around other dogs muzzles and heads etc, especially if he is younger too as you think its probably is play especially when there is no marking or real hard biting involved. They often do it to humans for attention too especally if not trained when younger.

Dont know if this is any help I did a post on biting and mouthing the other day may be some help.

Although this was a puppy may give you some ideas to stop it. If he wont take heed now from her or she isnt telling him off when shes had enough, and he becomes relentless you will need to help her out.

#2 (permalink) Yesterday, 11:28 PM 
Sled dog hotel 
Pet Forums VIP Member Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 15,418

Puppies in the litter chase and nip and bite in play and to instigate play, if they have learned bite inhibition in the litter with mum and litter mates by when they bite too hard the fellow pup yelps or if they bite mum to hard and she reprimands them then often giving a puppy yelp as if you have been hurt 
should make her cease. if they havent learnt it then it wont stop her and some pups it can make them do it more, so try giving a puppy hurt yelp, but if it doesnt work after you have tried it a few times then abandon it.

The other reason puppies mouth and bite is often when they are too over excited and hyped up, or bad behaviour and mouthing usually often starts when they become over tired and grouchy. Puppies need to rest and sleep and ideally should have periods of acvity followed by rest, so if you dont now start to give her periods of rest after play with a Kong or puppy safe chew so that she self amuses and winds down and gets some sleep inbetween. if puppies are continuously over stimulated then they will often keep going making them over tired and grouchy and then they will often have bad behaviour.

You need to stop the behaviour as soon as you see her starting to get over excited or hyped, the more she gets over excited and into the nippy mouthy behaviour the harder it is to get them to stop and calm down. As a lot of it is also attention seeking and trying to instigate play, you need to ensure you dont reward them for it in anyway. Saying no, trying to restrain them, pushing them down, even making eye contact is attention and so rewards it.

Fold your arms, turn your back on her and as you are turning say OFF, stand turned away looking upwards really still and ignore her, and stay like that until she has stopped and calmed down. When she stops, just walk away and totally ignore her until you are sure she is going to stop and has fully calmed down, call her to you get her to sit and then give a treat and attention. Keep doing it repeatedly be persistent the second you see her start to hype or go to mouth.

Another thing you can so is to put her out say and do nothing just give her time out, again you need to make sure she is calm before letting her out, but just walk up let her out and continue to ignore her for a further minute or two, then when you are sure she is calm again call her to you, get her to sit and then give a treat and attention. Again she begins to hype or mouth then repeat the whole thing again. Be persistent.

Also getting her used to having to sit calmly and treating before she gets anything can also help, they learn if your persistent that sitting calmly gets things not jumping biting mouthy nipping behaviour, you basically are rewarding calm behaviour with attention and treats the behaviour you want and not rewarding jumping biting mouthing behaviour. People often say these things dont work because of four reasons, they are waiting before the pups get way too over excited and hyped making it hard to get them to calm down,
are not following through enough to make sure they are calm before giving attention, not being persistent enough, and also inadvertently in error rewarding the behaviour in the first place.

Another way you can teach her controlled play once she is a bit calmer is to have a soft knotted towel, at your instigation invite play, when she starts to get hyped overexcited and starts to bite hard, say OFF stop the game and put it away, wait until she is calm and then at your instigation start it again, 
she plays nicely game continues, she starts to get hyped and rough game ceases again and so on. You also finally need to end the game and put it away when you decide.

Making sure she has plenty of chews, stuffed Kongs and ther chew toys to take out fraustration and keep her amused will help too they especially need things like this when they are teething which is another time when biting often gets worse, you can even re-direct her onto her own toys and things she can bite and chew praising when she plays with and bites and chews them instead.


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