Dogs were given an incredible tool for selfpreservation called biting.
Nature gave them this tool as part of their fightfor-survival instinct and it has gotten them pretty far up the evolutionary chain within their own species. But we humans don't like it so much. We tend to see biting as a bad thing when it is misunderstood - and many dogs are needlessly euthanized due to this natural canine behaviour.
We humans view biting as being bad because we misunderstand it and assume the dog must be bad because it bit a human or another dog.
The truth of the matter is that biting is neither good nor bad - it just is. It is a natural expression of a dog's behaviour when it is placed in an uncomfortable situation and its other means of displaying its discomfort have gone ignored by either the human or the other dog. In other words, someone was not paying attention to what the dog was saying! This is not to say that we should allow our dogs to bite. Rather, we should understand that the human's inability to read a dog's behaviour and to teach proper bite inhibition is the cause of a dog biting.
The bite itself is the end result of a series of behaviors a dog expresses to communicate its discomfort or displeasure in a situation. In a situation where a dog is uncomfortable, its first means of communication is quite passive and resembles a tense stiff body, hard eyes, a freeze of motion and a pulling forward of the corners of the lips.
When these pleas are ignored, behaviours escalate to include a growl and showing of teeth. The dog may air-snap its jaws with a sharp bark and finally, when the offender does not pay heed to its request, the dog may bite. Up until the bite, the dog was actually saying, "I can hurt you but I don't want to!"As dog trainers we then begin to assess the bite. Was there contact with skin and where? Was there a puncture? How many? And so on. What we are doing at this point is assessing the dog's bite inhibition. Bite inhibition is a term used to define a dog's ability to control the pressure of his mouth when biting. A dog with good bite inhibition will cause little or no damage when it bites.
No dog is a saint and given the wrong circumstances all dogs have the potential to bite. The degree of provocation is related to many things: age, stress, pain and human interaction and misunderstanding. Generally this misunderstanding starts with puppies and humans punishing their puppies for their initial display of displeasure - usually the growl. They have ignored, or more realistically were unaware of, the preceding warning behaviours and at the expression of a growl the puppy is punished. The end result is a puppy that has been taught to suppress its natural warning behaviours out of fear of punishment so it then bypasses the warning behaviours and goes straight for the bite.
It is easier to teach bite inhibition to a puppy or adult dog than to micromanage a dog that has weak or no bite inhibition. With proper patience and guidance a dog of any age can be taught to use its mouth appropriately.
When working with puppies, the owner's homework for the first week is nothing more than teaching the sit command and bite inhibition. I do this by firmly clasping a tasty treat in my hand and allowing the puppy to investigate. The puppy's natural curiosity will lead it to begin gnawing on my hand gently until it gets frustrated. It then removes its mouth from my hand of its own accord and at that point I use the word "gentle" then open my hand allowing the puppy to scoop up the treat with its lips and tongue. Repeated enough, the puppy quickly develops a gentle mouth.
Regardless of how gentle your dog's mouth is, a responsible dog owner will always recognize when their dog is showing signs of being uncomfortable and will begin to manage the dog's behaviour, depending on the circumstances and environment, to prevent a bite.
Joan has been working with dogs for over 15 years in obedience, tracking and behavioural rehabilitation. Contact her at k9kinship.com.
