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Huskies and Hand Biting


tschultz77

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Hello,

My Husky Loki is a 9 month old neutered male. He is for the most part as well behaved as husky can be. He is apt to eat most anything, and pulls on the leash sometimes. He is our first husky and can be a handful at times. I do get they have a distinct pecking order and it is evident in Loki's behavior. For the most part he will not bother with me, other than to say hello or interact when playing. Once the wife or daughter are around it seems he becomes different. He definitely asserts him self and I get the dominance thing, but he does bite Not hard but annoying) and mouth their hands. He will also start mouthing my hands when he goes into this mode. He only does it to me when others are around. He for the most part will not bother me, he will also jump up on people intermittently. I was wondering what the best way to stop the mouthing and hand biting. We have tried the assertive "no" verbal command and remove ourselves from the room when he is acting up. We were also thinking about an assertive choke collar to help get his attention when he is in wild mode. I appreciate any thought or insights as to what the best way would be to curb hi enthusiasm.

 

Thaks in advance,

Tom S

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi! I had a massive issue with this for most of my pup’s younger months. He’s nearly a year old and has stopped the biting unless he gets super annoyed (which is rare). We tried EVERYTHING and nothing worked. The only thing that stopped him is...biting his ear. This sounds crazy (we got the idea from Snow Dogs) but it really works and shows them who’s boss. You need to bite a little harder than a nip but not too hard. I would suggest that your wife and daughter do this too so they assert themselves as dominant over him too. 
I know this sounds mad but this is genuinely the only thing that worked for us. Any commands or luring away/distracting simply didn’t work and his bites were getting really bad. So the ear bites really helped us! Good luck, he will get there. 
P.S. he is stunning! 

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If I tried biting either of my two huskies ears I would probably get my throat bitten.      When Marley was growing up I had problems with bite inhibition   - but he was younger than Loki,   I started yelping loudly, pushing him away or walking away from him whenever he did this,   even when I only just felt the teeth - on occasions separating him from the rest of the family for around 5 minutes.   He eventually stopped the behaviour.   I am sure others will have better ideas  - but this worked for Marley.     Marley never opens his mouth near me now unless he is getting a treat  -  wish I could say the same for Mikey ...........  but he only came to us a couple of months ago   -  he has a habit of coming up to kiss me  - and nipping my nose!

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Lol! I guess it depends on your dog but literally nothing else worked for us. I even tried associated the biting with horrible loud noises and that didn’t work. Tried ignoring, leaving the room, telling him off, putting a chew toy in his mouth instead, but nothing (each of these were all done over a fair period of time to assess efficacy). I think what you need to find is something that snaps them out of it - ear biting was it for us and we very rarely have to reinforce this now. If you look at dogs in play, they do nip ears to show who’s boss. So might be worth trying - you never know!

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Ear biting- I have heard of people doing that and it worked for them. It doesn’t take a lot of pressure and it’s not done abusively so I get it. Very old school. 

My two were little piranhas. LOL

I chose the ignore route. It took a couple of months but eventually it worked. For me at least. Everyone else in the house is fare game, still.

The girl grabs fingers and just holds them in her mouth when greeting the family. The boy shows his teeth and snaps at my husband during play with him. ( if that is play, I would really hate to see him mad) They both jump and scream when anyone comes over.

 I advise them (people) on how to train them not to allow that but they don’t listen. So, I stay out of it. I guess when they get tired of being taken out every time they come through the door they will start correcting the pups.

 I don’t like using the word  dominance. I believe with Huskies (at least with mine) it is a  Mutual respect. They are very independent and extremely intelligent. 

My training method is a give and take. I understand my pups personalities and work with their strengths. I believe because of this I get respect in return. 

Since I do all the feedings, trainings, and dictate what goes on with the pups every day, I don’t get jumped on or get mouthed. 

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Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the comments. This issue was bad for us, mainly my wife and daughter. Loki has mostly always been civil with me, I had to contact a trainer that was a friend of a friend. We ended up using a spray bottle (soap and water) and a verbal command "NO!", this has worked wonders. I am not sure I could bite him though even if he has very cute ears !

 

Thanks Again and I hope this the end of this problem, on to the next !

Thanks for the compliment PPamar1993, he is a handsome young man

 

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Ah yes the old spray bottle. That also didn’t work for us 😂🙈. I’m glad to hear it’s working for you though! Keep at it and it seems like it’ll pay off. 😊 

2Huskyfun - yes I definitely agree with the mutual respect but with huskies that’s been so difficult to train (my pup has absolutely no recall ability despite our best efforts), so I suppose it’s classed more as ‘dominance’ than respect. 
 

Good luck with the biting! 😊 

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Love the spray bottle

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Unfortunately mine like getting sprayed. They run up wanting me to spray them. LOL I use straight water.

For recall: have you tried using a long line? Let them get to almost to the end and then call him, giving a yummy treat or play tug (with a toy he only gets to play with for this)?

It also works great for when you need to distract while on walks.

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I have gone through so many training tools and have taken them through so many classes. I honestly thought that mine would never get it. But now at 19 months I think a lightbulb went off. It’s like everything has finally clicked.

 I still spend a few hours a day between walks, place training,  impulse training. So hang in there. 😁

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