Sometimes a topic for a blog post has to jump up and down in front of me waving its metaphorical arms, before I realize I need to write it. This was apparently one of those times. First, someone on Twitter asked Snickers (@snick_the_dog) about puppy nipping and teething, which we did cover in Dealing with Puppy Biting and Chewing. Then someone on Yahoo Answers, asked How to teach a Shiba Inu Bite Inhibition? Lastly, it came up briefly on my favorite breed-specific mailing list, Shiba-L.
What Exactly Is Bite Inhibition?
Pups usually learn bite inhibition – as it pertains to other dogs – from playing with their litter mates and their mother. They learn from their interactions how much force is too much and they learn to make a conscious decision to limit the force of their bite. They have to learn to translate that desire not to injure others to humans as well.
Bite inhibition in companion dogs is much too important to leave to chance. I am fairly convinced though that many dog owners do exactly that. Of course, they are surprised when the dog eventually bites someone and then it is the dog who pays the price for their negligence. Too many people don’t respect how much damage a dog can do. Even a small dog! If our companions are not raised to have a STRONG inhibition to bite humans, they can inflict serious pain while reacting instinctively.
Two Examples of Inadequate Bite Inhibition
I evaluated a Shiba for rescue last summer who was being given up AFTER SIX YEARS because she bit her owner in the face. The problem was, it was the owner’s fault. The dog was a great dog with a nice temperament and even came from a good background. The owners, however, had not socialized her with other dogs and treated her like a human, not a dog. Consequently they didn’t know anything about dog body language. The owner startled the dog and then leaned over her in a threatening manner. The dog reacted by biting and then looking horrified that she had bitten her beloved owner. The damage was done though – the owner was never comfortable around the dog again and gave her away.
A less drastic, but still frustrating, example of poor bite inhibition happened to me a few days ago. I was at the local dog run near my new apartment. There was a super overweight lab there who kept jumping up on my daughter and me. When I put my arm out to try to block the dog, he grabbed onto my wrist and hand with his mouth. He only barely scratched my skin, but his intention was clearly to hold onto me with his mouth. So COMPLETELY unacceptable. His owner was unfortunately clueless about how bad his dog’s behavior was. 🙁
An Example of Excellent Bite Inhibition
Even when Snick is snuggling with me, I’m careful not to startle him awake. I was incredibly grateful for his bite inhibition a couple weeks when he was surprised in his sleep. I walked into my bedroom and he was curled up sleeping on my bed. I bent over to give him a kiss. At exactly the same moment, Secret launched herself onto the bed and LANDED ON HIS TAIL. He jolted awake all fangs and fury only centimeters from my face. Yikes! Luckily, his reaction to seeing me so close to his teeth was as immediate as his displeasure at being stepped on and he stopped himself before accidentally biting me. Nasty facial scar avoided.
Tips on Teaching Bite Inhibition
One of the best pieces of advice anyone gave me when Snick was a puppy was regarding how to teach him not to bite and play so rough with my daughter. He thought of her as a litter mate – an equal instead of a superior – so we used that to teach him. Whenever he played too rough and bit her too hard, she would YELP like a hurt puppy and then turn her back on him and ignore him for about 10 seconds. It worked like a charm. His puppy brain completely understood and he totally stopped biting her in about a week. What I didn’t know at the time was that this great advice was based on the excellent training method of Dr. Ian Dunbar. Dr. Dunbar’s wonderful article, Puppy Biting, explains the reasoning behind the method.
In addition to self control, dogs need to learn self confidence. Many dogs bite to defend territory or because they are afraid. Raise a confident, well-socialized dog and he is a lot less likely to ever feel the need to bite.
Bond with your dog. If your dog sees humans as his key pack members, he is more likely to understand that biting humans is undesirable.
Don’t put your dog in any situation he can’t handle. Protect your dog from having to defend himself. If your dog is confident that you will take care of him, he won’t feel like he needs to protect himself and is less likely to bite out of fear.
Don’t startle your dog – or let anyone else startle him – especially when he is sleeping. If he’s going blind or deaf, pay special attention to how you interact with him.
Read your dog’s signals. Most dogs communicate multiple warnings before biting and will only bite as a last resort. Are you paying attention to what your dog is "saying" when he or she is stressed or in an unusual situation? Have you learned enough about canine communication to send your dog calming signals so he doesn’t worry as much?
Be your dog’s defender, his teacher, his advocate and his friend.
I believe one of the most important parts of teaching bite inhibition is leaving the puppies with the mother and each other long enough.
The mother teaches the puppies not to bite too hard. It is fasinating to watch this in action. Later the litter teaches each other by biting back if someone gets too aggressive.
Some breeders separate them too soon and the puppies lose out on this valuable natural teaching.
Loretta
Loretta, thank you for adding such a very good point! I was thinking from the owner’s perspective and didn’t think of that. There’s no doubt in my mind that is one reason that a higher percentage of puppy mill/pet store dogs seem to have biting issues.
Agree with all this, however, my situation with Mickey seems unique … I never ever thought I would tolerate a dog trying to bite me, but it’s difficult to hold a 15 year old to the same standard. Of course, he doesn’t see or hear well, but I’m never quite sure he knows exactly who I am (sniffer apparently going away too). I just have to be faster than he is!
EXCELLET article, Jenna! I allowed Sushi to nip for too long, he nipped until he was 7 months old. Live & learn. We tried many things, but timeouts worked best. In about a week, the nipping stopped. Sometimes it can boil down to a dog’s frustration – not enough mental or physical stimulation, and they act out. Again, it’s up to the owner to understand the need of their dog.
Bonnie & Sushi
I’m in the throes of this as we speak.
I’m with Bonnie.. appears that the time out seems to work the best.
I’m also trying to tire him out so that he’s too tired to chew. Unfortunately
weather is not helping.. it’s been over 100 for almost 2 weeks here now.
With all the “pay attention to me!” nipping on the backs of my legs.. i don’t
believe i will be wearing anything but jeans this summer.
Lynda – I can totally understand, and sympathize with, that. I hope my Snick lives long enough for me to need to show him the same understanding.
Bonnie – Thanks. 🙂
Maura – When am I getting more photos of the pupster? The last email update had no photos!
Shimi has excellent bite inhibition with his family, but has the fierce Shiba loyalty and fear of strangers. He is so gentle with us that he can clean bits of food out from under my fingernails (trying to get every last bit of treat) and never hurt me. We can play rough and he knows when he’s getting too rough and will go grab a toy so we can keep playing. But he still injured me pretty badly when I got in the way of him protecting me from the big dumb dog next door who just had to come over the fence to check us out. I just point this out to illustrate that dogs aren’t the same in every situation and you should never take it for granted that your dog will always know when to practice bite inhibition. I’d like to think that he would have figured out he was biting me, but he didn’t. He was all instinct at that point and probably didn’t know I was there, even though I stopped the big dumb dog from fighting back (Thank God he was more obedient than my dog.)
I used to wear the same pants when I’d come home from work, they were called “the Sushi pants”. Lots of teeny little holes from Sushi grabbing at them.
Michelle – You said it… instinct. I think too many people forget that biting is a natural reaction for a dog!
Bonnie – Pretty smart way to end up with only one pair of ruined pants. lol
Great article and responses. I agree about instinct, and biting being a natural reaction especially when a dog feels there’s a threat, real or imagined. Earning your dog’s trust is so important, as is socialization in as many situations as possible. Even then it’s impossible to duplicate every possibility, vigilance is important when outside the dog’s comfort zone. Michelle gave an excellent example of how quickly things can change putting anyone, including an owner, in danger. Thanks Jenna, with summer and more dogs/owners enjoying time outside the security of their homes and yards, it’s important to remember dogs will be dogs no matter how well loved, cared for, or trained.
Forgot to add..
Consistency is the key in whatever training you do with any pup.
Unfortunately with Shibas… they have that mind control and have mastered the talent
of manipulation..
so i write the consistency part to remind myself.. “DON’T LOOK TOO DEEPLY IN THOSE EYES! STAND YOUR GROUND!”
i’m so weak
Great blog post! Winnie grew up a singleton (no siblings) and her mother didn’t do much in teaching her about bite inhibition. Of course my breeder did try to get as much interaction with other pups as much as possible – there was coincidentally another singleton Shiba about the same age as Winnie and they were playmates, but I have a feeling they didn’t have an opportunity to spend a lot of time together. I think I had a really tough time with Winnie throughout her puppyhood because of all of this. But, you are absolutely right – with consistency, vigilance and building their confidence, all of this can be turned around.
I hope you don’t mind, but if I get any questions about bite inhibition, I’ll be sending them to this post.
Thank you! Not only do I not mind if you send people to read this post, I’m flattered. 🙂
Pups from one-pup litters have a special hurdle to overcome. I’ve talked to a couple breeders about this in regard to bite inhibition (because of a rescue Shiba that had been a single pup actually). They told me that they try to get them mixed in and playing with pups of a similar age as soon as possible. That’s tough if you don’t have another litter available though!
Frozen baby carrots! Nutritious, yummy and good for the teeth.
Hi Jenna! You answered my question on Yahoo about bite inhibition and I am happy to report that it worked AWESOME!! Kittie no longer nips or bites. She will ocassionally take my hand in her mouth when we are laying on the couch at night, but now she sorta sucks on it like she’s trying to nurse or something. There is no pressure or teeth! What a relife from the sharp little puppy teeth! I however have a new problem that I need shiba peoples advice on! Kittie is now 14 weeks and is the perfect pet around me and she even loves strangers. I have been socializing her with the other pups and dogs in the neighborhood since we got her at 10 weeks and we have had zero problems. Notice I said had. On Thursday when my husband was taking Kit on a jog he ran into Tessie a boston terrier. Kit did her normal tailwag greeting and went over to say hi, next thing my husband new Kit was snarling and had the other dogs face wrinkles in her mouth!!! YIKES! She did not hurt Tessie (I think maybe the bite inhibition training kept her from breaking the skin and doing damage) but she scared her and royal cheesed the neighbor. My husband told me this and I went “huh, Tessie must have started it somehow, Kittie would never attack like that.” Well I now see that that was a HUGE and irresponsible mistake on my part because yesterday she repeated the behavior with an italian greyhound puppy who had previously been her best friend (no damage, just snarl and grab), and she did it right in front of the president of the home owners association who happens to be incapable of reconzing the diff. between a shiba and an akita and hates both. So now I am the irresponsible owner with the ‘vicious’ dog. Our HOA is very strict and I was told by a friend that there might be a petition to force me to rehome her or move. This seems really drastic to me, so I need advice on what type of training to give her so that this doesn’t happen. I don’t want her to live a life without doggie friends, but I can’t risk loosing her either. I don’t know what to do. Any help from people who have had a similar problem would be welcome.
Hi Jodi!
I am so glad that my answer to your bite inhibition question was useful and flattered that you came to visit my website! After reading your comment here, I realized you’d also posted this question on Yahoo Answers so I answered it there. Here is what I said…
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There are really no short and easy answers to these questions and, without meeting your dog, it’s hard to even feel confident making suggestions. Aggression is SUCH a serious issue and not something that can be remedied easily.
The good news is, Kit is a PUPPY and the chances that she’s really a dangerously aggressive dog already are fairly slim! Keep in mind that I am just another Shiba owner – not a dog trainer or behaviorist – but here are some points/ideas that may help you figure out what to do next.
Also, here are some great books that might help you.