mouthing

hi im new here.weve just got a male staffi whos around 10 months old,and im looking for advice on how to stop him mouthing and biteing our hands.hes a rescue dog too

A firm no or yelp (like his siblins would do) seems to do the trick but it may also wind him up the first couple of time, so for him to know you are serious take him by the collar and walk him out of the room and shut the door, wait a few seconds/minutes then let him back in, sooner or later he will learn that mouth/nipping is not acceptable and he is not going to be allowed around you (who he wants to be around) while he is doing it.

thank you very much x

Also confusion plays a big part, if you don't want him to rough house with you i.e nipping, mouthing or clawing, don't rough house with him when it come to boisterous play, like competition games like tugawar, rough housing with your hands and feet etc. I'm sure you don't but many do then wonder why their pups/dogs are being a little too rough with them.

theres also another thing ive just rememberd .i also hav a yorkie whos been bought up with big dogs and they get on even though weve only had him just over a week.the thing is when it comes to feeding him and i put both bowls down on the floor the staffi (bailey) nose dives the yorkie away from the bowls .he hasnt bit him but ive resorted to feeding them in different rooms.this might be due to him been in the rescue place for 2 weeks before we got him.

Avoid showing him any attention if he nips. Turn around and ignore him. As a breed they crave attention and they hate to be ignored. If he persits in the behaviour move him to a seperate room for a few minutes.

vic1974 wrote:theres also another thing ive just rememberd .i also hav a yorkie whos been bought up with big dogs and they get on even though weve only had him just over a week.the thing is when it comes to feeding him and i put both bowls down on the floor the staffi (bailey) nose dives the yorkie away from the bowls .he hasnt bit him but ive resorted to feeding them in different rooms.this might be due to him been in the rescue place for 2 weeks before we got him.

This can either be possessive behaviour/habit(from having to fight for food with his brothers and sisters or as you say in the kennels) or dominance. I would highly recommend feeding seperatly until he realised that he is going to be fed on a daily basis and he no longer has to fight for his food. Once this has happened allow them to feed together again if you want, having them both calm while your preparing the food and giving the calmest dog the food first including treats and toys is key that way either one of them learn what they have to do to get the yummies.
Having your staffy on a leash may be apropiate while you feed them together for the first few times especially if your yorkie gets fed first from being the calmest. One vital thing to remember is keeping the trust between you and your dogs, if you allow one to be bullied away from a toy or snack etc they may think you can't protect them so they can lose trust in you and misbehave by not listening, so just remember not to allow it and step in when things get out of hand including boisterous play. Learning dog behaviour/vocal behaviour and body language is important so do some research on this. Dogs growl/bark/yelp for many reason not just aggression,fear or pain so watching and knowing the body language as they do these things is very important, it'll give you alot more understanding and its a good read and it never goes to waste while owning a dog.

jstaff wrote:Avoid showing him any attention if he nips. Turn around and ignore him. As a breed they crave attention and they hate to be ignored. If he persits in the behaviour move him to a seperate room for a few minutes.

Spot on jstaff. Dog's don't have hands to love on you with so sometimes they use their mouths. When they are young you don't want to scold them anytime they put their mouth on you because this is an opportunity to teach them how to gauge between play and not so play. In your case if the nipping is too rough than like jstaff says no attention for them as that is worse than death for a dog.

tyvm ill try the lead thing tomorrow .thats the only posesive behaveior hes showing the rest of the time hes so loving hes like ababy .frightened of the dark the hover the hairdryer even black binbags.hes the same with the water bowl so its makes me wonder if hes had to fight for food.like i say we got him from the pound and theres no background on him .but thankyou.

nothing to add to the advice above apart from to be patient. welcome from me and woody

nicolalouises wrote:nothing to add to the advice above apart from to be patient. welcome from me and woody

same here, you have done a great job getting a rescue just time and patience from now on and good luck

Hi and welcome to the forum

nicolalouises wrote:nothing to add to the advice above apart from to be patient. welcome from me and woody

same here welcome to the forum

thank you all

welcome x

hi and welcome..yes well done on giving a rescue doggie a good home.

it takes time and patience but eventually the mouthing will be a thing of the past...

Hi from me and Harvey