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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   4098 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 9, 2022

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Will tug of war encourage a puppy’s teething/biting? Fam got a Great Pyrenees and she’s smart, after a week she’s learned sit/stay/come/fetch/shake. But the biting seems difficult to eradicate. Our plan is to stop playing with her when she bites but I wonder if tug of war encourages the behavior?

The problem isn't biting, it's biting hard when the target is inappropriate. You want to train a soft mouth. Yelp and act injured / upset whenever she bites hard enough to hurt you.

I think puppies are supposed to bite, that's how thay play. In my experience they grow out of it as they mature. I'd only rebuke the puppy if she's biting too hard.

Recently trained a dane/mastiff mix on this. When she got too nippy, I would make an exaggerated show of refusing to give her attention for a minute, but tug ropes are a fine and fun game for us to play. She does still randomly bring other things like toys (or stuffed animals she stole from one of the kids rooms) like she wants to play tug, but I just gently take it from her and get a rope. It's more silly than a problem, similarly with how she occasionally wants to put her mouth on you, or nibble on my beard.

So, I am no expert, but compartmentalizing when and how the tug of war game could be played worked easily for training.

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