Biting my legs

[vgsoundran]

During the play,my dog comes and bite my legs....how to stop it

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hello,

Welcome to the forums!

How old is your dog? What breed?

What kind of play do you engage in when the biting happens?

How hard does he/she bite? Gentle mouthing/tolerable(just feel pressure)/painful (triggers an ouch!)

Does he/she leave teeth marks? Like puncture wounds or teeth scratches?

Thanks

[HarrietM]

Ours does too, on occasion. Hard to predict. She is an 18 month old golden Retriever. We are usually playing frisbee with 2 discs. She doesn't mean to bite, but it is painful, and would have left a puncture wound, except we always wear blue jeans to play with her. She also on occasion (maybe once a week) gets hyper aroused and starts lunging at us from all different directions and biting at us and the leash when she is on the leash. We stand still and raise our hands and put them in our armpits to avoid bites and tell her "stop". She may stop immediately or it may take a minute or more of "attacking us." Is there a section that addresses this?

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hello HarrietM,

Welcome to the forums!

Can you please provide more details about the biting when playing Frisbee? More precisely, what do you mean when you state "she doesn't mean to bite?" Does she accidentally happen to grab your hands/legs when trying to actually grab the Frisbee? Or does she seem to purposely bite, but doesn't mean to hurt you? If so, when does the biting occur? like when you are about to toss the ball? Once she gets a bit tired and loses interest in the ball?

 

The behavior you describe of biting at you and the leash when leashed seems to fit the description of a dog who is in a state of high arousal possibly either due to excess energy, but sometimes can also be triggered by anxiety or frustration. It would be important seeing if there is an exact trigger that evokes the behavior. Have you noticed if it happens upon spotting other people or dogs you dog may want to interact with? Does it happen at the end of the walk? Do you always walk in the same areas? Do you stop sometimes to allow your dog to sniff? Is your dog fairly new to being walked on a leash?

 

I don't think there's an exact section specifically on this, but similar cases have been discussed before in the forums:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?276-Aggressive-When-Cold

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/forum/showthread.php?229-Biting-on-leash

 

It sounds like though the standing still and raising your hands to avoid the biting is working, but since she's in an aroused state, perhaps it takes a bit for her to notice the consequence of her behavior (every time I bite, they stop walking/stand still and all the fun ends, so I must stop biting for the walk to continue). It would be therefore important to verify whether there is an exact trigger so we can prevent these episodes from happening in the first place and prevent rehearsal of the problem behavior.

Edited January 21, 2020 by Adrienne Farricelli