[alienex]

Everything is going very well with Duke. Except he likes to snap when your playing or petting him sometimes. Any advice?

 

[dobebug]

Alienex, when he snaps stop whatever you are doing immediately--stop petting or stop the play. I'd say "NO!" or "NO snap!" just once and turn my back and ignore him.

Basically you want him to get no gratification from the snaps--ignoring him will do that.

I've had one puppy who thought that snapping at the air near people who were petting him was a cute way of getting attention--telling him no and ignoring him was helping but he was getting to dog show age and even though he had never connected with the snaps I didn't think it was appropriate when he was going to be spending a fair amount of time around people who didn't know him and who might be frightened by the snaps--dog shows and trials tend to have a lot of general public people around.

With him I started snapping a leash onto his collar after I had told him no snap and having him do either sits or downs when he started snapping. It gave him something else to think about, gave him attention for positive behavior and also gave him some rock solid sits and downs which worked very well for both of us later when he started to do obedience and agility.

 

[les strat]

I agree - denying attention is a great punishment for things like that as long as the pup is not really biting. Stop playing immediatley ignoring him/her.

 

[alienex]

Is this a puppy thing or is this a possible problem when he is older?

 

[DaKari]

It's usually a puppy thing. Mine did it, I turned my back on her and she stopped after she got the message that if she snapped I ignored and they don't want to be ignored.

 

[LapDog]

Its a puppy thing...try not to move your hands alot..and sometimes attempting to pull your hands away makes it more of a game...so stay calm...slowly take them away...and give him a bone to chew on...or my dogs always like when I hold the bone for them...
even though it is a puppy thing your not going to want to encourage this behavior so it stays only a puppy thing

 

[Hero's Mom]

I would have said the same

That is what our trainer told us to do.Good Luck!!

Alienex, when he snaps stop whatever you are doing immediately--stop petting or stop the play. I'd say "NO!" or "NO snap!" just once and turn my back and ignore him.

Basically you want him to get no gratification from the snaps--ignoring him will do that.

I've had one puppy who thought that snapping at the air near people who were petting him was a cute way of getting attention--telling him no and ignoring him was helping but he was getting to dog show age and even though he had never connected with the snaps I didn't think it was appropriate when he was going to be spending a fair amount of time around people who didn't know him and who might be frightened by the snaps--dog shows and trials tend to have a lot of general public people around.

With him I started snapping a leash onto his collar after I had told him no snap and having him do either sits or downs when he started snapping. It gave him something else to think about, gave him attention for positive behavior and also gave him some rock solid sits and downs which worked very well for both of us later when he started to do obedience and agility.

 

[Dobesanddragons]

Is this a puppy thing or is this a possible problem when he is older?

Mostly a puppy thing. All Dobe puppies are mouthy, some are more so than others. It is a stage. He will become less mouthy with time and training. I keep TONS of toys around for puppies as an outlet for their need to mouth and chew on things.

You can do a search on this topic for more information on this forum, I think this has come up before and other threads might be of interest to you

 

[Dobesanddragons]

Another thing, do NOT let people play hand/mouth games with him where they move their hands like prey in front of the dog, always use a toy or some other object for games like that.

I socialize Dobe puppies a ton and I always find there are people who want to play this way with the Dobes when they are puppies (some people just think of this as a way of playing with all breeds of puppies), this does not help the problem and I don't let it happen and always have toys/treats to substitute for more appropriate ways to play.

 

[Dobesanddragons]

they don't want to be ignored.

lol! isn't that the truth.