10 month old Boxador play biting

Supergurrier

Recently got a rescue from the Galway SPCA a very skinny Boxador pup male who is always hungry and full of beans but thats to be expected.

The problem is this little guy loves playbiting and when walking him or just walking around off the lead he will playfully bite at your hands or even my nose when he is in range and any type of petting/rubbing always decends into him wanting to playbite, i used to let him away with it but now it is becoming a bad habit i want rid of.

I bought him some edible chewtoys he spent hours chewing the first 2 and evern one since he has immediately buried and any plastic or rubber toy i buy he had it in pieces in an hour or so. I don't want to have to resort to physically overpowering him and smacking him as i understand he wants to play but he needs to see that biting and in general using his teeth on a member of the family is a nono as im a big guy and even when he is fully grown i can quickly lay down the law but there are kids in the house and when he gets playful he will 100% ignore all commands.

Thanks for reading

DBB

You've a bit of work to undo if you've been allowing him to do this up til now: consistency is really important with training, and now your pup thinks that mouthing/biting you is ok!
However, all is not lost by any stretch of the imagination! Biting is fairly straightforward to deal with, but you need to know that you need to be really consistent, and really patient, for the next few months while you deal with this.
First of all, during any play, you need to take breaks from the play, just for a few seconds, every couple of minutes. Dogs introduce these little breaks into their play naturally, it's how they lower the intensity of the game when things are getting a little too fraught. So, every couple of minyutes, just stop, say "Enough" to the pup, and walk away if you need to.
Now, when he bites, say "ouch" in a high pitch... you don't have to shout it, just try and get it high-pitched if you can. The ouch will become your warning to him, that if he ignores the ouch, the next step is coming!
And the next step can be the following:
You say "Enough" and either
Get up and walk away from him,
or
Gently lead him to a quiet, boring, dog-safe room: it can be very useful to have a string or lead attached to his collar for this, which he trails around behind him: he MUST always be under supervision with the lead on, never leave him alone unsupervised with the lead on. He stays in the quiet room (say, the utility room?) for about 30 seconds. When this time is up, let him out, and continue your game at a lower level of intensity.
If he bites again, "Ouch"! If he ignores the ouch, again, say "Enough", and either leave the room, or lead him gently to his "Time Out Zone" for 30 sec.
Now, be under no illusion: this takes a lot of repetition, but it is very effective, and very gentle, using an acceptable, ethical form of punishment (Time Out). We've all seen Supernanny putting the bold kids on the Naughty Step. The Naughty Step is the Time Out Zone, and we always see that Jo Frost has to re-position the child on the steps dozens of times at first. The child is used to not having to do anything he's told (that's why he's bold:o), but repeating this consistently eventually convinces the child that it's actually more worth his while to do his time on the Naughty Step and get it over and done with.
With the dog, consistently and gently putting him into a Time Out Zone convinces him that if he ignores the "Ouch", there's going to be a consequence to pay. You don't shout at the dog, or scold him, or manhandle him... you simply give the warning, and if it's ignored, say "enough", and he's gently put into the Time Out Zone.
Does that sound do-able?:)

scudzilla

Heard it all now.......Boxador :rolleyes:

racso1975

ya should look at donedeal some great ones there just saw teagles for sale!!!

Supergurrier

We haven't allowed him to do it up till now as we have had him 2 weeks as i said he was a rescue. He was found at 5-6 months wandering around in a town in Galway and since then he had been in the SPCA centre in portumna in Galway.

This behaviour was apparent from the off and we thought maybe it was a phase/teething but now we are trying to correct something that has not been addressed until now, we had a lab for 13 years and we didn't have this issue as from the start it was not encouraged and as you said above we used the time out method then, however in this dog it seems like it may have been encourged in the past.

Beyond that Ted is a great dog and im glad we can give him a good life with 6 mile walks lots of open spaces and good food, he is intellegent/playful and very good with other dogs and very loveable im just trying to correct this for his own future wellbeing, i just thought there might be afew more methods to run alongside the best known one.

DBB

You said in your op that you'd been letting him away with it until now, but have now decided you don't want him doing it. That's why I addressed this issue, but now you've changed the story a little.
You mentioned nothing about trying, or knowing about, the Time Out method either. All you said was you had tried some toys, and also that you didn't want to resort to hitting him. The fact that you even suggested resorting to hitting him is anathema to the Time Out method, so you'll forgive your readers for thinking this is not a method you were familiar with. Indeed, you references to "overpowering him", "being a big guy" and "laying down the law" all suggest you're inclined to use diametrically opposed techniques to the Time Out method.
Anyone here can only go with what you tell us. Your op prompted me to try to help you, as for the above reasons it sounded like you were lost for what to do next in the absence of knowing any effective techniques. But it appears you're already well equipped with everything you need to know. It seems I needn't have bothered!

fatmammycat

Op, pups love chewing and mouthing and digging and barking and jumping up on people, they just love it. The more energetic and large a pup the more they seem to love doing all the things that come naturally to them and drive us up the walls.
The key to any change of behaviour is to make that behaviour no fun at all, and to do that you need to be consistent with training (and make sure the family are on board too)
Playing- great, but the moment the pub bites, issue a shape No and stop play immediately. Same for jumping. It takes time to get this across that the dog's idea of fun leads to no fun at all, but it can be done.
My guy here is a large GSD of 7 months and used to like jumping, but he was ignored and reprimanded every time he jumped, and patted when he sat, now he equates sitting with getting his reward (a quick pat on the head, any fussing and he'd probably jump again– he's still only a baby). Same with barking; barking, NO, silence, reward. That one was quite quick actually.
Digging was a bit harder, but we work from home so were able to catch him in the act and offer him an alternative, so that's almost sorted.
But it all takes times and it needs everyone on board I think. SO if your pup is play biting the children, they also need to say 'No' and walk away. It won't be long before he realises that biting is a sure fired way for play to end and hopefully he will stop.
Best of luck with the new dog.

Supergurrier

We have only had him a wet day and he has come around very well to alot of our commands and he even learned to sit and give the paw, he has even stopped jumping when it is inapproapriate, overall he is shaping into a great dog even when you consider he must have been eating out of bins when he wqs found wandering. I want him to play as it is only fair he gets to experience being a puppy after all of that he has been through.

I tried saying no and folding my arms and i have told the family to do it but like you said if 1-2 people arent playing ball then it's that bit harder and even though i don't want to be the party pooper he needs consistency to make sense of the message we are trying to get across.


Also i would never hit my dog when there is an alternative and i only mentioned my size as a comparison to other members of the family.

fatmammycat

Supergurrier wrote: »

We have only had him a wet day and he has come around very well to alot of our commands and he even learned to sit and give the paw, he has even stopped jumping when it is inapproapriate, overall he is shaping into a great dog even when you consider he must have been eating out of bins when he wqs found wandering. I want him to play as it is only fair he gets to experience being a puppy after all of that he has been through.

I tried saying no and folding my arms and i have told the family to do it but like you said if 1-2 people arent playing ball then it's that bit harder and even though i don't want to be the party pooper he needs consistency to make sense of the message we are trying to get across.

Also i would never hit my dog when there is an alternative and i only mentioned my size as a comparison to other members of the family.

That's great that he's picking up commands easily, sounds like a smart lad. Like I said, just get everyone on board and be consistent, you're not being a party pooper, pups needs play, but they also need to know what is acceptable and what is not. Stick with it and you'll have a nicely balanced dog at the end of it all. Best.