Preventing dog bites is often fairly simple. Most of the time, your dog is likely not biting to display aggression but rather is performing a behavior known as “ mouthing.” Mouthing often occurs as a result of play or “love biting.” Your dog is not attempting to hurt you when he is mouthing but is rather showing a form of affection or attempting to get you to play with him.
Preventing Mouthing in Dogs
Preventing mouthing behavior is fairly simple and you can get rid of the behavior quickly. When your dog reaches over to mouth you, simply direct his or her attention to another object. A toy, for example, works perfectly. After several times, you dog is likely to begin to understand you do not enjoy the behavior and would rather she play with her toy than mouth you. You can also ignore her if you would rather do this. If you ignore her while she is mouthing you, she will understand that is not an effective way to gain your attention.
Biting Due to Aggression in Dogs
Dog bites due to aggression are not common as compared to mouthing behavior; however, they are still a definite possibility. If your dog is biting due to aggression, this is not as simple to repair and could take a significant amount of time to resolve. Dog bites are extremely dangerous and if you have a family the dog should not be near children until the issue is resolved completely.
Dog Bite Prevention Week
Dog Bite Prevention Week, the third week of May, is a week which highlights the education of people in an effort to prevent dog bites. A large number of bite victims are children; if effort is given to preventing dog bites, we may reduce the number of children bitten each year. Preventing dog bites is possible regardless of the breed of dog with additional education for the pet parent.
If you would like to learn more about Dog Bite Prevention Week and/or preventing dog bites, please contact our behavior and nutrition consultant here at PetPremium!
Also, If you are unsure of what type of dog bites you are experiencing, you should contact our dog behavior specialist. Our dog behavior specialist will assist you in determining the cause of the dog bites you are experiencing as well as how to reduce or eliminate them all together.
Learn more about how to stop a dog from biting.
Amber Johnson, Animal Behaviorist
Miss Amber Johnson has many years of experience with pets and is a licensed cat and dog nutrition and behavior specialist. She currently collaborates with PetPremium where she counsels clients in pet behavior and nutrition. The statements made in this article are the personal opinions of Miss Amber Johnson and based on independent experiences and could be different from the opinions of PetPremium Pet health Insurance or any other pet health insurance provider.