Food for thought on how you react to your dog's behavior:

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=124687

Thanks for the post.

That seems to fit in with the basic idea that our dogs tend to imitate our input to them. When loud, frantic, or unstable people interact with Link he gets visibly anxious because he never gets that type of energy from us. My partner and I are relatively quiet, calm people.

Human anxiety, fear, or instability can also promote aggression in their dogs as well. It's not only human aggression that promotes dog aggression.

It's interesting they mention tug and how to play it safely. I have been wondering lately if tug might create bite inhibition issues. I don't think it creates aggression, but just a hard mouth vs. a soft mouth kind of thing. Any thoughts?

seattlesibe wrote:

Thanks for the post.

That seems to fit in with the basic idea that our dogs tend to imitate our input to them. When loud, frantic, or unstable people interact with Link he gets visibly anxious because he never gets that type of energy from us. My partner and I are relatively quiet, calm people.

Human anxiety, fear, or instability can also promote aggression in their dogs as well. It's not only human aggression that promotes dog aggression.

You're welcome, and I completely agree with you. We're lucky that we got such a chill dog with a wonderful temperament with Ghost, but this is pretty evident with Lulu and her behavioral issues. It's pretty much a guarantee that she was mistreated if not abused before Aaron took her in, and he would always yell at her if she did something bad. He always claimed that's how she responded best. We wound up with a very maladjusted and fear-aggressive dog on our hands, who honestly could be on a bad episode of Dog Whisperer. We found an awesome behaviorist up here in Maryland, who preaches "move slower, and lower not louder" when dealing with dogs. Just reinforcing that with us as the trainers has helped Lulu a lot, and the fear-aggression has abated a fair amount.

Do you mean playing tug-of-war with a rope toy of sorts? I've always bought into the idea that this should be avoided UNTIL your dog knows the "release" or "leave it" or "easy" commands. My pup know these but I have yet to begin playing tug-of-war as he is currently going through a spurt where is he pushing limits a little bit and seeing what he can get away with.

Just my anecdotal story

I'm always amazed at the people who do nothing but yell and scream at their dogs and then shockingly, when their dog is constantly misbehaving and never being calm or polite they shout "I don't know why he's like this...."

I'm always going...."really? because I sure as heck do."

seattlesibe wrote:

Do you mean playing tug-of-war with a rope toy of sorts? I've always bought into the idea that this should be avoided UNTIL your dog knows the "release" or "leave it" or "easy" commands. My pup know these but I have yet to begin playing tug-of-war as he is currently going through a spurt where is he pushing limits a little bit and seeing what he can get away with.

Just my anecdotal story

Yes exactly. Even at 4 weeks, when I visited my guy, he seemed to think grabbing onto anything and pulling was just the most awesome thing ever! That makes sense about teaching 'leave it' and 'easy' first, before attempting to play tug, and, I definitely plan to do that, but have been debating about tug and weather or not it would desensitize his mouth and cause a back slide in bite inhibition.

seattlesibe wrote:

I'm always amazed at the people who do nothing but yell and scream at their dogs and then shockingly, when their dog is constantly misbehaving and never being calm or polite they shout "I don't know why he's like this...."

I'm always going...."really? because I sure as heck do."

Yes, reminds me of people that yell and scream at their kids, and then are shocked with the kid throws a screaming fit in public.

Hmm, good question. I wouldn't know from experience but it does seem that bite inhibition could be reinforced with "easy" (this I know from experience) and that tug-of-war is kinda the opposite of "easy."

True. I'm glad you're a couple months ahead of me with Link lol...

We haven't seen any issues with bite inhibition vs tug of war with Ghost, but we also didn't play it a whole lot with her when she was a puppy. We did, however, teach her "gentle", and that has helped a lot.

But "gentle" was first, right? Fits in to your link above perfectly. Treat your dog how you want your dog to treat you and others.

I suspect dogs who never learn "gentle" are rarely gentle

Yeah, gentle and leave it were some of the first things Ghost learned. It's actually one of the few things that Lulu knows well too, and that is thanks to Aaron.

Franco seems to be completely oblivious to mos things that I say when it comes to him biting. I've tried the small hurt voice, the stern NO, and replacing what hes biting with a toy or something that he is allowed to chew on. None of this has helped thus far. He still bites. So getting him to be easy, let go, gentle, or leave it is last on my list of things to teach him. Although, he has learned sit, lay down, and shake...he tries to do all three to get a treat faster...he's pretty smart, just super headstrong. I'm at a bit of a loss when it comes to what to do with the biting and chewing. He is now 11.5 weeks.