Poll - Dog's mouthing

So we have a live topic at the moment and differences of opinions so lets put it to the poll

Is it ok to allow your dog to mouth so it can learn it's bite inhibition or should you train the dog not to mouth in the first place , please comment on your reasons if you have time

Ive put other.

I dont think its a case of my dog being allowed, nor would I say never..

When she was very young, she mouthed alot, my understanding is that is pretty natural for a young pup, and a way of them exploring things too.

What I did do was encourage her to do it less and less, softer and softer, until she stopped doing it at all.

So yes, she was allowed to start with, as i knew she would anyway, but I think there is an age limit where it should be stopped if possible..

Rob wrote:Ive put other.

I dont think its a case of my dog being allowed, nor would I say never..

When she was very young, she mouthed alot, my understanding is that is pretty natural for a young pup, and a way of them exploring things too.

What I did do was encourage her to do it less and less, softer and softer, until she stopped doing it at all.

So yes, she was allowed to start with, as i knew she would anyway, but I think there is an age limit where it should be stopped if possible..

Thanks Rob and you have a valid point I have re worded the question as it was a bit all or nothing

My dog was never allowed to mouth and never allowed to lick me without me asking for it (which i never do...) and she now doesn't anxious lick me, doesn't tyr to jump up to lick my or anyone elses face, doesn't automatically try to mouth you when you get her hyper and tickle her belly.

Dogs shouldn't be allowed to mouth! It's only good manners. We are not dogs we are humans, we CAN'T let our dogs have natural behaviours around us.

Hayley wrote:My dog was never allowed to mouth and never allowed to lick me without me asking for it (which i never do...) and she now doesn't anxious lick me, doesn't tyr to jump up to lick my or anyone elses face, doesn't automatically try to mouth you when you get her hyper and tickle her belly.

Dogs shouldn't be allowed to mouth! It's only good manners. We are not dogs we are humans, we CAN'T let our dogs have natural behaviours around us.

Sorry Hayley , I think our friendship should end here , you forbid staffy kisses I thought you were someone different , you farmer types are all the same . How could you not share the love of a staffy tongue, I do frenchies with Tilly all the time

I've said yes but Ledger was 2 when I rescued him and he already mouthed although I have discouraged it from greetings which he has done we do still use it in play situations in the home

I will be interested to see peoples opinions on this as I don't know if it is something that I would have allowed if I got him as a pup but on the flip side he has developed the boundaries and especially as 'drop' is the one command that I have struggled with if he does pick up something he shouldn't and is being stubborn I have fished my fingers into his mouth and as soon as I do he relaxes his jaw I know its not the best example but its an option for us which is actually used rarely as I worked on my observation and 'leave' is getting better

Dave wrote:

Hayley wrote:My dog was never allowed to mouth and never allowed to lick me without me asking for it (which i never do...) and she now doesn't anxious lick me, doesn't tyr to jump up to lick my or anyone elses face, doesn't automatically try to mouth you when you get her hyper and tickle her belly.

Dogs shouldn't be allowed to mouth! It's only good manners. We are not dogs we are humans, we CAN'T let our dogs have natural behaviours around us.

Sorry Hayley , I think our friendship should end here , you forbid staffy kisses I thought you were someone different , you farmer types are all the same . How could you not share the love of a staffy tongue, I do frenchies with Tilly all the time

lmao if you saw what a farm dog eats you wouldn't! she regularly has mice and chickens for breakfast and badger poo for desert!

jshrew wrote:I've said yes but Ledger was 2 when I rescued him and he already mouthed although I have discouraged it from greetings which he has done we do still use it in play situations in the home

I will be interested to see peoples opinions on this as I don't know if it is something that I would have allowed if I got him as a pup but on the flip side he has developed the boundaries and especially as 'drop' is the one command that I have struggled with if he does pick up something he shouldn't and is being stubborn I have fished my fingers into his mouth and as soon as I do he relaxes his jaw I know its not the best example but its an option for us which is actually used rarely as I worked on my observation and 'leave' is getting better

It's an interesting point but from my own experience we trained Tilly out of it as soon as possible and if her mouth was big enough then I am sure I could put my head in there without any concern and I think that is more to do with their 2nd sense of love for humans and their naturally gentle nature with humans than anything else

when romeo was very small i would let him alittle, but when he actually bite down to where i felt pain i would scream a pain sound pretty loudly. sometimes he will mouth when playing, but that is the only time. Romeo has great bite inhibition eiher way, but play is the only time he is allowed to mouth

Hayley wrote:

Dave wrote:

Hayley wrote:My dog was never allowed to mouth and never allowed to lick me without me asking for it (which i never do...) and she now doesn't anxious lick me, doesn't tyr to jump up to lick my or anyone elses face, doesn't automatically try to mouth you when you get her hyper and tickle her belly.

Dogs shouldn't be allowed to mouth! It's only good manners. We are not dogs we are humans, we CAN'T let our dogs have natural behaviours around us.

Sorry Hayley , I think our friendship should end here , you forbid staffy kisses I thought you were someone different , you farmer types are all the same . How could you not share the love of a staffy tongue, I do frenchies with Tilly all the time

lmao if you saw what a farm dog eats you wouldn't! she regularly has mice and chickens for breakfast and badger poo for desert!

Fair point , no kisses for Lexi

Mia will mouth when playin but if she is told no then she has to stop and if she doesn't she is put in time out.

However she never really mouths me or anyone else, only my husband!!

I put other as well.

Harv was taught as a pup that nipping and mouthing was not allowed, HOWEVER he was also taught that if we started 'play' then play biting is allowed, the same goes for Chance.

I no alot of people will not play fight with their dogs, but me and the OH do and i mean proper play fighting, as in pinning them down, allowing play biting from us and the boys etc etc

They are not allowed under any circumstances to do it to someone who doesn't want. Like my dad for example really play fights with them, but if a young child came to our house then it is not allowed.

I put other. Occasional play bites are fine if I'm down on the floor wrestling. Never hard and must never be with anybody else. Otherwise a no go on mouthing. Too much risk with how many little ones we have coming round.

I've put other because I think it's important for a puppy to learn to soften their bite before learning to stop it all together.

I don't think it's OK for an adult dog to just start mouthing, however, I think it's OK if they only do it when invited to during play fighting for example.

Right from the start I discouraged Dempsey from nipping/mouthing. He was big right from the start, with a very strong & hard bite. Even at 8 weeks old he hurt, and could draw blood from nipping, and that just couldn't be allowed. He was coming to work with me, in a place where parents automatically assumed their children were safe & no nipping could be tolerated.

I did the "No" & turn away, with totally ignoring, no interraction at all. Sometimes he had to be taken out of the room or put in his crate to calm down. However he now does not mouth at all, unless my oh is playing rough with him. Even then, although for him the mouthing is soft, for us it bloody well hurts! He never does it to me, even when I play rough with him.

That was always my aim & I acheived that without trying to get him to inhibit his bite first.

I just don't understand how playing can be encouraged. It is fun for the dog yes, but accidents can happen so easily. God forbid your dogs goot out and a child got hurt? Lexi won't even lick a child so never tries to get her head anywhere near any of their limbs/face. I feel much safer that way.

Polly only ever mouths when she is worried, it's almost a comfort thing with her and she only does it to me and my OH, she is a very licky girl though and I haven't been able to stop her doing that to anyone she wants to greet, she is really gentle though and brilliant with children.

Charlie has never mouthed, he will nip sometimes when he is excited or playing but even now that is more in accident than intent.

I don't have a problem with mouthing when it is a gentle comfort thing but I wouldn't allow it when they are excited or during rough play, they have both got great bite inhibition but when they get excited they play rough.

Rocky was about 9 months old when we got him from the rescue centre and was already out of the mouthing stage just about anyway, but I would have trained him not to do it anyway.

i allow Trouble to mouth me and family memebers but no one else ..and he doesnt ,and i love the staffy kisses

I don't believe in allowing them to mouth at all. I think this is the safest route espically given their bite strength and all the negative sterotypes out there.

I do have to admit I am guilty of playfighting with Suki.

I think I have to say I let Cal do it but in a limited way. And I'm not sure if I should or not, but it has become so gentle I haven't felt the need to stop her. It's when she cuddles. It turns into licking and snorting, and more with me than husband or kids (teens, not little ones).
We don't wrestle and let her play bite. I can tell she couldn't control that yet.

I haven't and don't let any of the dogs we have had mouth us. We have kids so I just find that unacceptable. How could a dog distinguish between one of my family members and visitors to my home?Or even people they meet out and about. If one of my dogs mouthed one of my kids friends, all hell would break loose I'm sure. I just couldn't take the risk.

But we did have a little Yorkie that kinda did this, but only with my oldest son. It was his baby and she used to lay in his arms as such, he used to wave his hand around and she used to follow it, mouth open, with her head, making the ole growling noises. But she never put her teeth on him. Ever. She didn't have to. And just to add, before that little girl died, she was in ALOT of pain, my son picked her up and she went for him. But she didn't bite down. She just had his hand in her mouth. It wasn't her fault, it was a natural reaction. Anyway, we got her put down to end her misery and we, especially my son, miss her terribly still 3 years on. She was a gem.

Sorry for the long winded post, but I thought that last bit may have been relevant to the subject.

ive put other as i wont let the dogs mouth me at all, they are disaplined as soon as thier mouth are on me but my hubby doesnt mind so long as its gentle. It was a bit confusing for them to start with but now they no what they can get away with with hubby lol

Rachb26 wrote:How could a dog distinguish between one of my family members and visitors to my home?Or even people they meet out and about. If one of my dogs mouthed one of my kids friends, all hell would break loose I'm sure. I just couldn't take the risk.

Rachb26 wrote:...But we did have a little Yorkie that kinda did this, but only with my oldest son. It was his baby and she used to lay in his arms as such, he used to wave his hand around and she used to follow it, mouth open, with her head, making the ole growling noises. But she never put her teeth on him. Ever. She didn't have to. And just to add, before that little girl died, she was in ALOT of pain, my son picked her up and she went for him. But she didn't bite down. She just had his hand in her mouth. It wasn't her fault, it was a natural reaction. Anyway, we got her put down to end her misery and we, especially my son, miss her terribly still 3 years on. She was a gem.

This is a correlation often seen in all breeds, hence why many trainers now recommend puppies are taught to soften their bite before being taught to stop their bite.

As said in the other topic, I discouraged mouthing right from the start with Charlie, but now that is older, when we play, I'll let him put his mouth around my arm, because I know that's as far as it goes. He has never once put his teeth on me or anyone else (including my kids), when playing. He sort of keeps his mouth over his teeth, and kind of 'gums' us. I'm fine with that.

Rachb26 wrote:I haven't and don't let any of the dogs we have had mouth us. We have kids so I just find that unacceptable. How could a dog distinguish between one of my family members and visitors to my home?Or even people they meet out and about. If one of my dogs mouthed one of my kids friends, all hell would break loose I'm sure. I just couldn't take the risk.

They can very easily be taught who they can and cannot play with etc it's not exactly that hard........

ella wrote:

Rachb26 wrote:I haven't and don't let any of the dogs we have had mouth us. We have kids so I just find that unacceptable. How could a dog distinguish between one of my family members and visitors to my home?Or even people they meet out and about. If one of my dogs mouthed one of my kids friends, all hell would break loose I'm sure. I just couldn't take the risk.

They can very easily be taught who they can and cannot play with etc it's not exactly that hard........

From my own experiences, I'd go along with that - that they can differentiate who they can do what with. I don't like being licked on the face (if you knew what I've seen my terriers eat you wouldn't either! *) and my dogs know that so they never do it. My OH however doesn't give a damn and has always let them lick his face so they do it frequently.

* ETA: Or maybe you would...

Galadriel wrote:

ella wrote:

Rachb26 wrote:I haven't and don't let any of the dogs we have had mouth us. We have kids so I just find that unacceptable. How could a dog distinguish between one of my family members and visitors to my home?Or even people they meet out and about. If one of my dogs mouthed one of my kids friends, all hell would break loose I'm sure. I just couldn't take the risk.

They can very easily be taught who they can and cannot play with etc it's not exactly that hard........

From my own experiences, I'd go along with that - that they can differentiate who they can do what with. I don't like being licked on the face (if you knew what I've seen my terriers eat you wouldn't either! *) and my dogs know that so they never do it. My OH however doesn't give a damn and has always let them lick his face so they do it frequently.

* ETA: Or maybe you would...

My and my OH both allow them to lick our face, i would miss my doggie snogs but again if someone didn't want it then they are not allowed

We swap tongues with Tilly all the time

ella wrote:

Galadriel wrote:

ella wrote:

Rachb26 wrote:I haven't and don't let any of the dogs we have had mouth us. We have kids so I just find that unacceptable. How could a dog distinguish between one of my family members and visitors to my home?Or even people they meet out and about. If one of my dogs mouthed one of my kids friends, all hell would break loose I'm sure. I just couldn't take the risk.

They can very easily be taught who they can and cannot play with etc it's not exactly that hard........

From my own experiences, I'd go along with that - that they can differentiate who they can do what with. I don't like being licked on the face (if you knew what I've seen my terriers eat you wouldn't either! *) and my dogs know that so they never do it. My OH however doesn't give a damn and has always let them lick his face so they do it frequently.

* ETA: Or maybe you would...

My and my OH both allow them to lick our face, i would miss my doggie snogs but again if someone didn't want it then they are not allowed

Well you're braver than me! Or maybe your two don't have the same penchant for poo that my two terriers do!

Hmmm staffy snogs

Galadriel wrote:

ella wrote:

Galadriel wrote:

ella wrote:

Rachb26 wrote:I haven't and don't let any of the dogs we have had mouth us. We have kids so I just find that unacceptable. How could a dog distinguish between one of my family members and visitors to my home?Or even people they meet out and about. If one of my dogs mouthed one of my kids friends, all hell would break loose I'm sure. I just couldn't take the risk.

They can very easily be taught who they can and cannot play with etc it's not exactly that hard........

From my own experiences, I'd go along with that - that they can differentiate who they can do what with. I don't like being licked on the face (if you knew what I've seen my terriers eat you wouldn't either! *) and my dogs know that so they never do it. My OH however doesn't give a damn and has always let them lick his face so they do it frequently.

* ETA: Or maybe you would...

My and my OH both allow them to lick our face, i would miss my doggie snogs but again if someone didn't want it then they are not allowed

Well you're braver than me! Or maybe your two don't have the same penchant for poo that my two terriers do!

My two won't stand in poo never mind eat it!

we voted no, buster mouths occasionly and we continually work at stopping him when he does by yelping at him he then looks all guilty and licks you. our main reason for wanting to stop his mouthing is with us living in a pub he has lots of contct with strangers and if he was to mouth someone who mistook it for a bite we'd have a nightmare of a time. r high pitched yelps seem to have worked though and he hardley ever does it, we do look silly doing it though

ella wrote:

Galadriel wrote:

ella wrote:

Galadriel wrote:

ella wrote:

Rachb26 wrote:I haven't and don't let any of the dogs we have had mouth us. We have kids so I just find that unacceptable. How could a dog distinguish between one of my family members and visitors to my home?Or even people they meet out and about. If one of my dogs mouthed one of my kids friends, all hell would break loose I'm sure. I just couldn't take the risk.

They can very easily be taught who they can and cannot play with etc it's not exactly that hard........

From my own experiences, I'd go along with that - that they can differentiate who they can do what with. I don't like being licked on the face (if you knew what I've seen my terriers eat you wouldn't either! *) and my dogs know that so they never do it. My OH however doesn't give a damn and has always let them lick his face so they do it frequently.

* ETA: Or maybe you would...

My and my OH both allow them to lick our face, i would miss my doggie snogs but again if someone didn't want it then they are not allowed

Well you're braver than me! Or maybe your two don't have the same penchant for poo that my two terriers do!

My two won't stand in poo never mind eat it!

Well I'd snog your two then

I'm sure you would!

Galadriel wrote:

Rachb26 wrote:...But we did have a little Yorkie that kinda did this, but only with my oldest son. It was his baby and she used to lay in his arms as such, he used to wave his hand around and she used to follow it, mouth open, with her head, making the ole growling noises. But she never put her teeth on him. Ever. She didn't have to. And just to add, before that little girl died, she was in ALOT of pain, my son picked her up and she went for him. But she didn't bite down. She just had his hand in her mouth. It wasn't her fault, it was a natural reaction. Anyway, we got her put down to end her misery and we, especially my son, miss her terribly still 3 years on. She was a gem.

This is a correlation often seen in all breeds, hence why many trainers now recommend puppies are taught to soften their bite before being taught to stop their bite.

She was taught from the off not to put her teeth on anybody. So in reality, from my example, it didnt matter how she was taught, the end result was still the same, Minnie had good bite inhibition even under exceptional stress. So my personal method of forbidding teeth contact from the beginning, worked just as well, in this case, as training her to bite softly first.

Also to add, what if a dog who has been taught to play fight softly, unintentionally bites too hard? It happens everyday. Dogs aren't perfect, they may get it right 99% of the time but there's always the 1%. And if a child happens to be on recieving end of an accident, not only does the child suffer, the dog would be put down. I couldn't take the risk to my kids or my dog.

I think it is personal choice and i have no problem with it.

Rachb26 wrote:

Galadriel wrote:

Rachb26 wrote:...But we did have a little Yorkie that kinda did this, but only with my oldest son. It was his baby and she used to lay in his arms as such, he used to wave his hand around and she used to follow it, mouth open, with her head, making the ole growling noises. But she never put her teeth on him. Ever. She didn't have to. And just to add, before that little girl died, she was in ALOT of pain, my son picked her up and she went for him. But she didn't bite down. She just had his hand in her mouth. It wasn't her fault, it was a natural reaction. Anyway, we got her put down to end her misery and we, especially my son, miss her terribly still 3 years on. She was a gem.

This is a correlation often seen in all breeds, hence why many trainers now recommend puppies are taught to soften their bite before being taught to stop their bite.

She was taught from the off not to put her teeth on anybody. So in reality, from my example, it didnt matter how she was taught, the end result was still the same, Minnie had good bite inhibition even under exceptional stress. So my personal method of forbidding teeth contact from the beginning, worked just as well, in this case, as training her to bite softly first.

Also to add, what if a dog who has been taught to play fight softly, unintentionally bites too hard? It happens everyday. Dogs aren't perfect, they may get it right 99% of the time but there's always the 1%. And if a child happens to be on recieving end of an accident, not only does the child suffer, the dog would be put down. I couldn't take the risk to my kids or my dog.

Ah OK, I read it wrong, thought you said she used to mouth him

Rachb26 wrote:

Galadriel wrote:

Rachb26 wrote:...But we did have a little Yorkie that kinda did this, but only with my oldest son. It was his baby and she used to lay in his arms as such, he used to wave his hand around and she used to follow it, mouth open, with her head, making the ole growling noises. But she never put her teeth on him. Ever. She didn't have to. And just to add, before that little girl died, she was in ALOT of pain, my son picked her up and she went for him. But she didn't bite down. She just had his hand in her mouth. It wasn't her fault, it was a natural reaction. Anyway, we got her put down to end her misery and we, especially my son, miss her terribly still 3 years on. She was a gem.

This is a correlation often seen in all breeds, hence why many trainers now recommend puppies are taught to soften their bite before being taught to stop their bite.

She was taught from the off not to put her teeth on anybody. So in reality, from my example, it didnt matter how she was taught, the end result was still the same, Minnie had good bite inhibition even under exceptional stress. So my personal method of forbidding teeth contact from the beginning, worked just as well, in this case, as training her to bite softly first.

Also to add, what if a dog who has been taught to play fight softly, unintentionally bites too hard? It happens everyday. Dogs aren't perfect, they may get it right 99% of the time but there's always the 1%. And if a child happens to be on recieving end of an accident, not only does the child suffer, the dog would be put down. I couldn't take the risk to my kids or my dog.

I'll say when we play fight with the boys the biting isn't exactly 'soft' it doesn't hurt us but it is far from a soft mouthing bite. If they do bite too hard a sharp 'AH' and it's done, it's not that difficult to teach.

I think the difference they are trying to state is that a soft bite to you would rip a childs arm apart.

Erm not really a child's arm isn't much different to ours

To be honest play biting with dogs to me is second nature as every i know with dogs AND kids do. I was brought up like it so don't see the problem

This is something that is an issue at the moment with Lily. As a rescue we don't know what she has been allowed or encouraged to do in the past so I don't want her to mouth at all. Everyone agrees that you can never trust a dog 100% so I am not leaving it up to the dog to decide that my grandchildren are delicate, therefore don't press too hard with your mighty jaws. As it has become worse since we got her, we are having a behaviourist assess her on Friday with a view to the best way to discourage.

i think teaching a dog when its a pup to control its mouthing can only be a good thing, if they learn early that touching skin with teath hurts and is a nono then they will hopefully be more carfull with there mouth.
i think the dogs mouthing should be fazed out after teething is finished , but chew toys will be destroyed by the hundreds in its life time lol.

we dont generally let Miley mouth us or anyone else. A nice tip for trying to get the dog to stop doing this or be gentle if they do carry on doing it is fill a baloon with water and let the dog pick it up. If the dog busts the baloon they get a soaking. They soon learn to be gentle though

thats a great idea mazz, im going to sugest that to my brother , hes just about to get a pupy staffie , and im going to point him to this site also as its full of hiden gems of staffie info .

No problem

I have always allowed my puppies to mouth in the process of teaching them bite inhibition (you all know the process - the yelping, turning away etc if it gets too hard) and I did the same when we got our Staff puppy.

The only problem is that the Staff is much more excitable than my previous Dobes were, and it's taking him longer to learn. He does sometimes genuinely hurt and my yelp is then also genuine - he is SO sorry and licks and kisses! But he only does it with me or my (grown-up) son so I think he IS learning.

In retrospect, if I ever had another Staffy puppy I would be more likely to curtail the touching of teeth AT ALL, as I had under-estimated the Staff's exuberance and excitability.

But I do love the Staffy snogs even if I can hardly breathe! He never bites at our faces, it's sheer love.

I am find with Gwen mouthing as long as she stops when we tell her to! However if I had young kids I may feel differently!