Anne is a founding member of APDT Ireland and is CAP2 certified (with distinctions).
She works with a large canine welfare organisation, A Dog's Life, as a training/behaviour consultant and board member through which she sees hundreds of dogs and their people every year.
What's the difference between these (nipping, mouthing, biting)?
I suppose these are just terms that I use in my business to differentiate these behaviours as they are distinct by motivation and therefore the way we approach modifying them will be different too.
Nipping – I am specifically talking about puppies and bite inhibition practice when I use that term. This is relevant to puppies under the age of 14/16 weeks only.
This is a explanation and advice for this behaviour in the nursery section of website for younger pups : Bite Inhibition
Mouthing
This is adolescent behaviour (so puppies over 16 weeks and may be seen in full grown adults too – I have had a client with an 8 year old GSD do this!
Neither nipping nor mouthing are aggressive per se, even if accompanied by snarling, growling etc. The motivation for this behaviour is different to aggression, even though there may be shared similarities in some signalling like vocalisation.
Adolescent mouthing is seen when adolescent dogs are over aroused (over excited) and are having trouble calming down. This causes them something known as emotional conflict which causes the adolescent frustration and stress. Being a teenager is tough!
Adolescents are tough to live with because they are having a very hard time during this developmental stage. They need a lot of extra management and tons more enrichment and activity than puppies do.
More on enrichment here: http://pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/enrichments/
Get rid of food bowls, especially for teenagers!!
Mouthing is usually seen when the teenager is anticipating excitement, or experiencing excitement (this might be happy excitement or not-so-happy excitement), and will often be seen where the teenager is frustrated (restrained, confined etc.) and may also be learnt as a behaviour that gets lots of attention.
So, first off we need to manage this behaviour. This means to stop putting them in situations where this is likely to occur – yes, this is our responsibility!
If this happens during greeting, erect a baby gate; if this happens when you are trying to relax, have puppy wear a houseline, crate train him, mat train him; if this happens on walkies have pup walked by two people on two leashes; always have tug toys near by to divert his mouth and so on.
Have a look at the last five times there was a mouthing incident. What was going on? Who was there? What just happened? What happened just after?
Now you need to work on ways to having pup avoid those scenarios.
Next you need to look at ways of teaching pup to better control his impulses (not at all easy for teenagers):
- crate train – this installs self control easily and offers an easy way of comfortably confining pup when there are exciting things going on that may lead to mouthing
http://pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/crateforcalm/
- do mat work – have pup earn at least one meal a day for mat work exercises (armchair training – you relax while pup works!) http://pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/matwork/
- do a lot of self-control work like these exercises:http://pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/selfcontrolexercises/
and get going with a program of training to improve self-control and your control of the dog in lots of situations: http://pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/trainyourdogmonth/
It is important that children are not involved in teaching mothers not to mouth. Behaviour around children MUST be managed so that pup is not experiencing that arousing feeling around children. Therefore confine pup away when kids are running around, being active, being noisy etc. and allow only very short interactions. Get kids involved in teaching pup self-control training exercises, on opposite sides of a baby gate if needs be.
Because mouthing is a stress response and the teenager cannot help this behaviour (they are experiencing development akin to brain damage during this stage!) if you use strong aversives such as pain, startle, fear etc. you may suppress this behaviour but you will not improve the dog’s self-control. Indeed you may contribute to the dog becoming more frustrated and this manifesting itself elsewhere.
You will also associated the strong aversive with people present – the dog is already experiencing negative emotions in these situations without adding something yucky.
But putting all those things and management in place may still not be enough. Use time outs sparingly. Always have a houseline on the teenager (when supervised only, otherwise he will tangle in it or chew it) and if they mouth immediately and calmly say “too bad”, take the house line and lead the dog to a time out area.
Set up a time out area in a boring place. Have the dog go there for no more than 20 seconds.
To earn the use of one time out, you must have rewarded desired behaviour 10 times. If you can’t make this ratio you are not managing well enough and measures need to be stepped up!
After time out, because mouthing is often a sign the dog is over tired, take the dog back in with you, practice two or three obedience behaviours, reward him and put him to bed with a stuffed Kong so that he has the opportunity to come down from all the stress.
Biting
This is different and as seen as part of distance increasing behaviour. This means that the dog is so distressed in a social situation that they are now using very escalated behaviour to ask for distance, time and space.
Dogs use distance increasing signalling that is very subtle at first and when that is not responded to appropriately (you don’t move away and give them space) then the dog escalates to growling, then snapping, then snarling, then biting. Dogs don’t just bite out of the blue!
See The Ladder of Aggression:
http://www.kendalshepherd.com/app/download/5741399162/Ladder+of+Aggression+and+text.pdf?t=1363339642
A dog showing signs of any of those behaviours in social situations, especially in the presence of children, requires immediate help.
Again, the application of aversives here is strongly contra-indicated.
Biting, like mouthing, will be seen when the dog is under serious distress. If you apply aversives you will suppress the dog’s warning behaviour they have been so-far relying on. Without that you may not realise that you are getting close to a dog that is terribly uncomfortable and likely to move up the ladder with little obvious signalling.
‘Punishing’ growling is often likened to removing the batteries from your smoke alarm!
For more info and advice see here too: http://pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/mouthing/
She works with a large canine welfare organisation, A Dog's Life, as a training/behaviour consultant and board member through which she sees hundreds of dogs and their people every year.
What's the difference between these (nipping, mouthing, biting)?
I suppose these are just terms that I use in my business to differentiate these behaviours as they are distinct by motivation and therefore the way we approach modifying them will be different too.
Nipping – I am specifically talking about puppies and bite inhibition practice when I use that term. This is relevant to puppies under the age of 14/16 weeks only.
This is a explanation and advice for this behaviour in the nursery section of website for younger pups : Bite Inhibition
Mouthing
This is adolescent behaviour (so puppies over 16 weeks and may be seen in full grown adults too – I have had a client with an 8 year old GSD do this!
Neither nipping nor mouthing are aggressive per se, even if accompanied by snarling, growling etc. The motivation for this behaviour is different to aggression, even though there may be shared similarities in some signalling like vocalisation.
Adolescent mouthing is seen when adolescent dogs are over aroused (over excited) and are having trouble calming down. This causes them something known as emotional conflict which causes the adolescent frustration and stress. Being a teenager is tough!
Adolescents are tough to live with because they are having a very hard time during this developmental stage. They need a lot of extra management and tons more enrichment and activity than puppies do.
More on enrichment here: http://pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/enrichments/
Get rid of food bowls, especially for teenagers!!
Mouthing is usually seen when the teenager is anticipating excitement, or experiencing excitement (this might be happy excitement or not-so-happy excitement), and will often be seen where the teenager is frustrated (restrained, confined etc.) and may also be learnt as a behaviour that gets lots of attention.
So, first off we need to manage this behaviour. This means to stop putting them in situations where this is likely to occur – yes, this is our responsibility!
If this happens during greeting, erect a baby gate; if this happens when you are trying to relax, have puppy wear a houseline, crate train him, mat train him; if this happens on walkies have pup walked by two people on two leashes; always have tug toys near by to divert his mouth and so on.
Have a look at the last five times there was a mouthing incident. What was going on? Who was there? What just happened? What happened just after?
Now you need to work on ways to having pup avoid those scenarios.
Next you need to look at ways of teaching pup to better control his impulses (not at all easy for teenagers):
- crate train – this installs self control easily and offers an easy way of comfortably confining pup when there are exciting things going on that may lead to mouthing
http://pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/crateforcalm/
- do mat work – have pup earn at least one meal a day for mat work exercises (armchair training – you relax while pup works!) http://pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/matwork/
- do a lot of self-control work like these exercises:http://pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/selfcontrolexercises/
and get going with a program of training to improve self-control and your control of the dog in lots of situations: http://pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/trainyourdogmonth/
It is important that children are not involved in teaching mothers not to mouth. Behaviour around children MUST be managed so that pup is not experiencing that arousing feeling around children. Therefore confine pup away when kids are running around, being active, being noisy etc. and allow only very short interactions. Get kids involved in teaching pup self-control training exercises, on opposite sides of a baby gate if needs be.
Because mouthing is a stress response and the teenager cannot help this behaviour (they are experiencing development akin to brain damage during this stage!) if you use strong aversives such as pain, startle, fear etc. you may suppress this behaviour but you will not improve the dog’s self-control. Indeed you may contribute to the dog becoming more frustrated and this manifesting itself elsewhere.
You will also associated the strong aversive with people present – the dog is already experiencing negative emotions in these situations without adding something yucky.
But putting all those things and management in place may still not be enough. Use time outs sparingly. Always have a houseline on the teenager (when supervised only, otherwise he will tangle in it or chew it) and if they mouth immediately and calmly say “too bad”, take the house line and lead the dog to a time out area.
Set up a time out area in a boring place. Have the dog go there for no more than 20 seconds.
To earn the use of one time out, you must have rewarded desired behaviour 10 times. If you can’t make this ratio you are not managing well enough and measures need to be stepped up!
After time out, because mouthing is often a sign the dog is over tired, take the dog back in with you, practice two or three obedience behaviours, reward him and put him to bed with a stuffed Kong so that he has the opportunity to come down from all the stress.
Biting
This is different and as seen as part of distance increasing behaviour. This means that the dog is so distressed in a social situation that they are now using very escalated behaviour to ask for distance, time and space.
Dogs use distance increasing signalling that is very subtle at first and when that is not responded to appropriately (you don’t move away and give them space) then the dog escalates to growling, then snapping, then snarling, then biting. Dogs don’t just bite out of the blue!
See The Ladder of Aggression:
http://www.kendalshepherd.com/app/download/5741399162/Ladder+of+Aggression+and+text.pdf?t=1363339642
A dog showing signs of any of those behaviours in social situations, especially in the presence of children, requires immediate help.
Again, the application of aversives here is strongly contra-indicated.
Biting, like mouthing, will be seen when the dog is under serious distress. If you apply aversives you will suppress the dog’s warning behaviour they have been so-far relying on. Without that you may not realise that you are getting close to a dog that is terribly uncomfortable and likely to move up the ladder with little obvious signalling.
‘Punishing’ growling is often likened to removing the batteries from your smoke alarm!
For more info and advice see here too: http://pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/2010/12/27/mouthing/