She Bit Me!!

I have posted a few times on here but am mostly a lurker trying to find guidance and info, i dont have a lot to contribute, yet.
We have had Louby since Nov, we found her as a stray. She is now 11 months old.
Last night i took her for a walk onto a field, where its all fenced off, so she cant go anywhere. I was playing with her, running away from her and her chasing me. She does jump up at me, and i say no and turn round. But last night as i turned my back on her she bit my elbow, it really hurt and i thought it could have been bleeding. I took her straight home, and luckily she has 'just' bruised me, didnt break the skin.
My husband is not overly keen on us having her as her behaviou isnt the best, so needless to say he was not impressed with her biting me. I said it wasnt so bad as it was in play, not acceptable but not enough to haul her down to the vets.
Am i right or am i making excuses for her?
We are starting one to one training on tuesday.
Thank you in advance for your help. x

Sounds like shes getting over excited - Alfie does this too. I have endless amounts of bruises and cuts from him doing this, and I know how much this hurts!
You need to teach her that this isnt acceptable - I tried turning my back but this didnt help. Stop all interaction with her until she has calmed down, then carry on. I also found shutting Alfie in a different room for a few minutes has helped massivlely. Stay positive, shes had a rough start by the sounds of it and is still learning right from wrong

As a breed they have a strong prey drive so they will chase you if you run. They also tend to play on the rough side. If you want to avoid instances like that it's best to not engage in that type of play.

I play like that with Suki but I usually have a bruise or two to show for it.

I have to agree with above its just excitment, Moo does it also so I don't play those sort of games with her Xx

You are all very right, when i have got her to chase me before she ususally does jump up at me, but this is the first time she has bit me, but i will agree that i will not do this in future.

They are very rough players as said above.

I play fight with Logan and he enjoys it but he does tend to take it a bit far after a while. It's important to be able to stop it when neccessary

So we all agree that she doesnt need putting to sleep?
People at my work, oohed and aahed about this, saying im making up excuses for her, but i do believe that it was in play (still not acceptable), and she was not attacking me.
We are biased though as we are staffy/dog lovers.

Mrs McFisher wrote:So we all agree that she doesnt need putting to sleep?

Absolutely not!!

Its all problems that can be solved with some training

Mrs McFisher wrote:So we all agree that she doesnt need putting to sleep?

No way!!

It blows my mind that people think "bad behaviour? Put them to sleep". As a pup Logan was absolutely mental, he nipped, mouthed, jumped all over people, barked when I had guests.

Only with patience and time will you ever see improvement. As they get older things def do become easier.

Yes i am praying for her to get a wee bit older.
As i say her training starts properly next week.

The only thing i dont like about having a staffy is other peoples opinions and prejudices against staffys, i think we are automatically looked down upon for having one, seen as a 'chav' dog. They will automatically rip your throat out, as soon as they look at you..People have said this to me!! Very frustrating. Poeple are ignorant.

Mrs McFisher wrote:Yes i am praying for her to get a wee bit older.
As i say her training starts properly next week.

The only thing i dont like about having a staffy is other peoples opinions and prejudices against staffys, i think we are automatically looked down upon for having one, seen as a 'chav' dog. They will automatically rip your throat out, as soon as they look at you..People have said this to me!! Very frustrating. Poeple are ignorant.

Unfortunately they do - but thats their problem and ignorance like you say, not ours We know better!

Oh, my goodness, she shouldn't be pts for being over exuberant in play, because that's all it is!

When dogs chase, they will often 'grab' when they catch up with whatever they're chasing. It isn't aggression, it isn't nastiness. In fact, it's because she likes you that she chased you in the first place.

If you don't want her to be rough in play, then don't play rough with her, and chasing is (to a dog) rough exuberant play.

Please tell everybody, your hubby as well, that she has actually done nothing wrong! You just haven't managed to get through to her that grabbing your arm (or anything else) isn't acceptable.

I totally agree with you Caryll, i certainly will not be talked in to doing anything so rash...
The reason i put it on here is because i know there will be voices of reason on here, and not just have people saying something should be done about her. Plus its something i can show my hubby. Although he isnt actually saying to put her to sleep, he just isnt happy that she managed to bruise me quite badly through a hoody and a thick coat.
I will not play like this again with her.
I love her so much that the thought of PTS is totally mortifying to me.
Thanks x

Mrs McFisher wrote:
I love her so much that the thought of PTS is totally mortifying to me.
Thanks x

I can see why - Louby looks gorgeous in your avatar!

She's definitely not done anything wrong. I mean, wrong to us, but nothing that would mean she should be put to sleep. Loki's 11 months old and still bites if he gets REALLY excited. He's broken my finger and only a few weeks back he made me bleed quite badly, but it was 100% playful and non-aggressive. You need to know yours and her limits. If she still bites or bites too hard then you need to limit the excitement. If she gets excited and playful to a point where you think it might end up the same way, just stop for a while, do some training with her, a bit of mental stimulation, etc., and carry on playing when she's calmed down again. It's definitely not aggression, they get a bit psycho when they're all running around, they forget their manners. As I said, Loki's hurt me pretty badly but it just makes me more careful and determined to teach him to not bite even during play. You'll get there.

Tara wrote:She's definitely not done anything wrong. I mean, wrong to us, but nothing that would mean she should be put to sleep. Loki's 11 months old and still bites if he gets REALLY excited. He's broken my finger and only a few weeks back he made me bleed quite badly, but it was 100% playful and non-aggressive. You need to know yours and her limits. If she still bites or bites too hard then you need to limit the excitement. If she gets excited and playful to a point where you think it might end up the same way, just stop for a while, do some training with her, a bit of mental stimulation, etc., and carry on playing when she's calmed down again. It's definitely not aggression, they get a bit psycho when they're all running around, they forget their manners. As I said, Loki's hurt me pretty badly but it just makes me more careful and determined to teach him to not bite even during play. You'll get there.

Similar story with me and Logan, I play fight with him and have ended up with black eyes and bruises all over. But I normally start the fight, for a bit of fun >

He knows when I say it's enough it's time to leave it though. I wouldn't do it otherwise. I also wouldn't let anyone else do it, because he is totally playing but it probably wouldn't seem like that to someone else.

Yeah, I don't play-fight with Loki because I just want him to get completely out of the habit of biting first. I think it'd confuse him to tell him he can't bite strangers no matter how excited he is, but play-fighting with me is OK. Hopefully one day though

Tara wrote:Yeah, I don't play-fight with Loki because I just want him to get completely out of the habit of biting first. I think it'd confuse him to tell him he can't bite strangers no matter how excited he is, but play-fighting with me is OK. Hopefully one day though

Same here Tara!

She is still very young and if you got her as a stray she probably hasn't had the right guidance - you are going to training classes and doing right by her.

I play with my dogs like this, they have learnt the mouth gently so they do not do any damage but every now and then the youngest one does get a little carried away.

Thank you everyone..as i say, i just needed to hear it from others, and that i wasnt making excuses for her.
x

Darcy is a lot more calm now in play & I have less bruises lol, louby sounds like she was very excited, probably best not to Initiate this type of play until she's out if the biting stage as Tara says^^^.

EllieSmith wrote:

Mrs McFisher wrote:
I love her so much that the thought of PTS is totally mortifying to me.
Thanks x

I can see why - Louby looks gorgeous in your avatar!

Thank you, i do think she is rather cute and a gorgeous face, if i do say so myself. x

Sounds like over excitement and being a pup.

My chance properly bit me which resulted in a number of puncture wounds and it's a very different sort of bite.

I have however taught him proper bite inhibition so even after this incident i still play fight with him and allow play biting

I sometimes think their bad reputation makes me more determined to help my dog be the best dog he can possibly be. I think sometimes the challenge can be part of the enormous reward about having these dogs.

See what happens. She will probably do it again, but it's all about consistency of response from you. I sometimes forget that.