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Originally Posted by capt_noonie  These vids are much better!  Uni is mine (first vid), and I'll be the first to admit, she does not NOT ever growl, nip, bite, etc. She's a dog, and if taunted or annoyed enough, she will do those things. But we have trained her, and we have watched for signs of when she is getting annoyed, to stop whoever is causing the annoying behaviour before it gets to that point. HOWEVER, she does also have a play/happy growl, bark, AND nip, believe it or not. You can tell the difference in the body language. Ears up instead of down, tail up and waggin instead of between the legs, etc. But she does show teeth. We do have some tricks where we tease her and she "bites", for example if we stick out butt in her face and pretend to fart, she gets "mad" and will growl and bite at our pants. But when she actually bites it's barely a touch.
Now we have given her very high value treats before, such as bully sticks/wishbones, etc. She guards those and gives nasty growls if you get near her. If you try to take it away, she tries to bite to cause damage, and HAS. We solved the problem by never giving her bullys anymore. I could imagine if we gave Uni a porterhouse steak bone she would act the same way. BTW, who in their right mind would give their dog a highly fatty, cooked and seasoned bone??? Oh right, a bad owner who doesn't know how to train their dogs, and thinks teasing them is funny. |
LOL!
To the OP, teaching bite inhibition to any dog is crucial. That means the dog learns how to control use of their teeth. Max gives me playful bites on the nose that are very gentle. His signature greeting for me and my father is kiss, kiss, nose nibble.
Both of my dogs will gently and slowly place their teeth on my hand when I accidentally bonk them while playing. They did that more when they were younger.
We had a recent incident meeting a person on the street who wanted to pet my dogs. The man was football player size and I think he was intoxicated. He smacked Max on the top of the head and Max snapped at his hand. Max has never snapped at anyone in his 4.5 years.
Although I think Max was sort of justified, he knew it was wrong and immediately went into a sit position.
Body language -- a wagging tail is not always a happy tail. It can be a battle flag too. But as Capt Noonie wrote, you learn to read body language, the little nuances of the ears, tail, torso, legs.