Puppy Playful Biting and Prey Drive
What do prey drive and puppy nipping have to do with each other? Everything! The strongest drive a dog has is the prey drive. If it moves, they go after it. Dogs are predators and their survival depended on seeing a bunny and chasing it down for their food. In the domestication of dogs we must understand that domesticating them hasn’t taken away their instincts. The instinct to fetch a ball, hunt down a bird, tree a raccoon, chase a frisbee, follow a falling leaf, herd sheep, track a scent, hunt varmints (love those little terrier breeds), chase each other while biting each others legs then falling into a tumbling wrestling match and go after our pant legs as we walk or playfully bite us when we’re interacting with them is the instinctive prey drive in all it’s glory. Our job is to teach them what’s appropriate and what’s not. While we have so much fun with them in all these aspects we don’t realize that our own body language and energy is actually perpetuating playful biting in our puppy’s as well as not meeting their needs with dog to dog play time, exercise and a training program, every day until they hit their age of maturity which is somewhere between the ages of 11/2 – 3 yrs of age. What most people do when their dog is nipping them is to get reactive by either pushing them away, yelling at them, holding their mouths closed, hitting them, flicking them under their chin and any number of other things I shudder to think about. Think about this for a moment. When a puppy is playful biting they are engaging you to interact with them. Puppy’s love a good game of chase, tug-o-war and wrestling so when you push and retract your hand the puppy sees the movement of your hand as prey and they go after it for more fun. If you yell at or hit your dog you will create a fearful dog and a fearful dog is likely to become aggressive as an adult dog. The key here is to RESPOND not REACT. Reacting is what your pup is after so we need to learn to respond with appropriate body language and energy while teaching them how we want them to behave. Remember, they don’t understand the difference between the movement of your legs/hands or a ball that you toss just like they don’t understand the difference between the ball they bring you to throw and you gladly oblige them or the shoe they bring for fetch and you yell at them. It’s all the same in their world and it’s up to us to teach what’s OK in our world and what isn’t by responding with appropriate body language and energy not reacting. What to do? Disengage, by shutting down your body language and energy completely and ignore the dog. This means no eye contact, no movement at all, be still. Say NO or OUCH. Stay quiet for at least 15 seconds or more if need be. Make a fist if he’s biting your hand, stop moving if he’s biting your pant leg, STOP everything. When the puppy stops, redirect the energy into something familiar like SIT at which time you can quietly praise the puppy while offering a toy for a replacement. If he starts again, repeat until he stops. If he doesn’t you must look to what part of your communication was ineffective and try again. Learning to respond not react means that you are becoming more aware of your own body language/energy and you are understanding what your puppy’s body language and needs are so that you are able to teach the puppy what behaviors you want and don’t want. This kind of communication is where real training starts. Jill Breitner I've been studying dog body language for almost 40 years. My lifelong interest in helping people train their dogs began at the age of nine after reading a LIFE magazine article about Dr. Jane Goodall. Goodall's work observing chimpanzees fired my own devotion to animals into a full-blown passion. From that early age, I keenly observed the creatures around me and how people interacted with them. Years later, my zeal schooled by a degree in Animal Science and sharpened by working as a Veterinary Technician, I came to understand that my true calling was educating people how to better understand and train their dog. The Dog Decoder smartphone app is my latest endeavor in this education of humane education and safety between humans and dogs. http://www.uniquedobermans.com/ Leave a Reply. |
Author ~ JanI've been "Owned" by a Doberman since 1973, they are the only dog for me.. Archives
January 2021
April 2020
January 2020
November 2019
October 2019
June 2019
January 2019
November 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
November 2017
September 2017
August 2017
Categories |
- Home
- Puppies For Sale
- Doberman Males
- NUVET Vitamins
- Kuranda Dog Beds
- CONTACT US
- Doberman Moms
- OUR DOBERMANS
- ABOUT US
- Doberman Blog
- Doberman Supplies
- Doberman Puppy Care
- PUPPY BUYERS TESTIMONY
- EAR CROPPING DOBERMAN PUPPIES
- BRINGING YOUR PUPPY HOME
- Feeding Dobermans
- All About Unique Dobermans
- JAPHET
- DRACULA VON SAGRAMOS IPO1
- ENZO VON DER TOPFERSTADT
- BRADLEY VON UNIQUE
- Introduction to Dobermans
- European Doberman vs American Doberman which is better?
- Doberman Videos
- Are European Dobermans Good With KIDS?
- DOBERMAN TEMPERAMENT
- DOBERMAN PINSCHER HEALTH TESTING
- Local Resorts and Motels while visiting Unique Dobermans
- Doberman Temperament Testing
- 8 Tips on Training Your Doberman Puppy For Free
- WATCH OR GUARD DOG
- BALANCED TOTAL DOBERMAN
- IDIOPATHIC HEAD TREMORS
- Raw Dog Bones
- Worming Your Doberman
- Holistic Veterinarians
- In Memory of Dobermans
- Vaccine Delimma and yur Doberman
- Vaccinating Your Doberman Part 1
- Vaccinating Your Doberman Part 2
- DCM and DOBERMAN PINSCHER HEALTH
- Tips on Keeping Safe in Real Life Situations using Dobermans for Protection
- Warlock Doberman For Sale
- Mourning and Grieving the loss of your Dog
- Will I see my dog in Heaven?
- The Lords Prayer
- We The People
- Dobermans for Schutzhund/IPO
- Doberman Dilated Cardiomyopathy
- Dobermans and the Deadly Seven Sires
- Canine Whelping and Age Calculator
- Kennel Blindness
- DOBERMAN SIBLING RIVALRY
- Schutzhund Commands
- Started Puppies
- Fruita
- Harriet
- KALLIE
- Jasmine von Unique
- ALFA
- RETIRED BREEDING DOBERMANS
- Jasmine pedigree