Bitting

[Rona]

Originally Posted by André

And the habit disappeared? I'm curious to know.

I'm not sure about Nicolas' pup. Mine had this "habit" extremely strongly developed, probably also because she has always been very lively on the one hand and quiet on the other. She hardly ever made any sounds and we understood this was her method of communicating, asking for attention, showing affection, etc. With time we managed to teach her to grab our hands very gently, only when welcoming us or asking e.g. for a walk, and NOT to grab hands of people from outside the immediate pack. But I must admit it wasn't easy at all and the process took us about one year.

We found very helpful teaching her the command "plug" - carrying a soft toy when welcoming a visitor made her mouth busy and prevented her from grasping hands. In fact she is deeply convinced now that a well-mannered dog welcomes a guest by running around him with a toy in the mouth

[rogue_cris]

Awwwh, that is such an extremely cute habit!!!

[avgrunn]

Originally Posted by Rona

We found very helpful teaching her the command "plug" - carrying a soft toy when welcoming a visitor made her mouth busy and prevented her from grasping hands. In fact she is deeply convinced now that a well-mannered dog welcomes a guest by running around him with a toy in the mouth

I believe this is the best method, we've introduced it a couple of months ago and it is much better now. Besides, he is looking very proud when he is carrying his toy around, showing it to every guest.

[André]

Originally Posted by avgrunn

I believe this is the best method, we've introduced it a couple of months ago and it is much better now. Besides, he is looking very proud when he is carrying his toy around, showing it to every guest.

I also have the same problem. I "only" say no and open her jaws. It is much better now because she stops to bite after the first minutes of contact with a stranger... but the first impact is the same.
I think if I give her a toy she will drop it down to bite the guest
I believe this is something related to wolfdogs - they use a lot more the mouth to play and some of them to grab attention...

[avgrunn]

Originally Posted by André

I believe this is something related to wolfdogs - they use a lot more the mouth to play and some of them to grab attention...

Yeah I believe so too, but after some time this is just tiring. At first we've said no, we;ve told him to sit but when the guests arrived or when we came back home after longer period of absence he was just too happy and energetic and at that particular moment also deaf .
The toy helps him to ease this energy, you just have to try with something big. At the beginning we used a round pillow, something like that http://www.mikpol.pl/product/image/1...05c895e668.jpg
He just clenched his teeth on it and it was ok, now even a small toy is good enough.

[Rona]

Originally Posted by André

I think if I give her a toy she will drop it down to bite the guest

Tell your guests to keep turning their backs at her when she does not carry a toy. As long as she holds it, they should show attention and praise her. Toy dropped = attention lost. Sooner or later she will catch what the desired behaviour is. When our girl was a little, ADHDish puppy, our trainer advised us to keep her in crate for the first 5-10 minutes on the visitors arrival, and only let her out when the first excitement was gone. It worked OK and was a good occasion to train "go to crate" command.

Originally Posted by André

I believe this is something related to wolfdogs - they use a lot more the mouth to play and some of them to grab attention...

So did I think until I met litter G Atropa Bella Dona. They're all gentelman- and lady-like and don't bite.

I think it's an individual personality trait; some CSV have it more, while others less stronly exhibited. When comparing with other CSV pups I'm aware now our Lorka was an extreme case , but we managed!

[avgrunn]

Originally Posted by Rona

Tell your guests to keep turning their backs at her when she does not carry a toy.

This may have worked on Lorka, but when it comes to Uro it is very dangerous to turn your back on him when he does not have anything in his mouth He just loves to pinch people's buttocks

[Rona]

Originally Posted by avgrunn

He just loves to pinch people's buttocks

We had this problem whem running with our dog until she was about a year or so.

[André]

When did your dogs learn the good way?
We are struggling a bit with this behavior. She is very sociable with dogs and people but with strangers she can't control the bite (not agressive, just excited).
I will try the toy...