Dani is so much better today

I'm so happy Dani is feeling so much better and tonight I will start introducing some boiled chicken to go with her rice.

Anyway this morning when I woke up I got the bum happy dance and the tail was going a mile a minute so I knew today was going to be a great day.

I have a question and even though searching through past posts I see a lot on the subject of mouthing no posts really say why it is not a good thing and I am curious.

Ok here goes Dani has this cute thing she does only for me when I give a cutesy tone to Dani like "Dani Dani who's Daddys baby" she will flop over on her back and have all 4 legs up in the air for a tickle of course which I do.

So this morning when she did that I was so happy to see her back to normal and I started to play rough with her. Tail was going like crazy and I was palying rough with her nose so she would mouth my hand no pressure at all and then she would lick my hand. My wife made me stop and she said "Lewis check on the bulletin board and you are suer to see that is not a good thing to encourage" Myra is an over the shoulder forum reader . Sometimes when she sees I get emotianal over some of the sadder posts she will come see what I am reading. Many rainbow bridge stories still make me remember my cockapoo Muffin who crossed over to the bridge at 15 in November last year. I loved him to pieces and after euthanizing him so he would suffer no more I swore never again. BUT the house was empty without me having a furry companion so well..... you know the rest Dani is in the picture now.

Okay guess I went on what I see is called a rant or off topic post but can someone tell me is it a dominating thing like alpha male or something when it comes to mouthing and is this playful thing for sure not good and I should not do it anymore ?

Have a great Thursday to you all.
Lewis

It depends entirely on the dog and the situation, my Peaches gets that way, but I have to stop her immediately, since she does have leash dominance issues and occasionally oversteps her bounds with me for Alpha female in the house (poor Simon - surrounded by girls!). My brother and sister in law have a Collie puppy who ONLY gets mouthy like that when my dad brings out his glove to play. She spends a good deal of time with my parents, and Dad taught her that at play time with the glove, she can get rough. He also taught her that when play time is over, no more and scarily enough, she sticks to that period, whether my folks are around or not (she's also a wicked smart dog). If you're concerned that Dani may not know her boundaries and get mouthy with your kids (and unintentionally scare or hurt them), then I wouldn't continue allowing it. From the sounds of it though, she's a sweet and smart dog and may end up like my bro's Jasmine.

It depends entirely on the dog and the situation, my Peaches gets that way, but I have to stop her immediately, since she does have leash dominance issues and occasionally oversteps her bounds with me for Alpha female in the house (poor Simon - surrounded by girls!). My brother and sister in law have a Collie puppy who ONLY gets mouthy like that when my dad brings out his glove to play. She spends a good deal of time with my parents, and Dad taught her that at play time with the glove, she can get rough. He also taught her that when play time is over, no more and scarily enough, she sticks to that period, whether my folks are around or not (she's also a wicked smart dog). If you're concerned that Dani may not know her boundaries and get mouthy with your kids (and unintentionally scare or hurt them), then I wouldn't continue allowing it. From the sounds of it though, she's a sweet and smart dog and may end up like my bro's Jasmine.

I suspect she IS smart enough as she tried to be mouthy with my wife and all she said once was NO Dani and she stopped immedeatly. So if this is the case I can continue to play with her and let her no I'M the Alpha male :)

Lewis

Often with dogs that mouth, they will play nip or when they get excited, if she does to a child or a stranger, someone could mistake the behaviour for a bite even if it is very gentle and lead to her being labelled as aggressive

Often with dogs that mouth, they will play nip or when they get excited, if she does to a child or a stranger, someone could mistake the behaviour for a bite even if it is very gentle and lead to her being labelled as aggressive

Thanks to you all I now know it is not a good thing so I will stop her if she trys to mouth me again. Kissing and licking is much better then :)

Jemma is only teethy with me. Never with my man or anybody else. She knows there is a context for it and can turn it off in a second. I don't think that mouthiness is dominance when you are playing as long as you have the power to end it ASAP. And if your wife doesn't like it at all, to me, the dog should be able to understand the difference.

There should also be a specific command to stop ("enough") and another when it's getting too rough (like "easy" or "gentle").

Thanks Prin ,
I am going to try the enough and gentle commands.
Dani is so smart I am sure she will learn fast !!!

Best,
Lewis

IMO, she should also know that "OW!" or a yelp (or both) mean to stop right away. Sometimes these rescue dogs don't know the limits of appropriate behavior and have to be taught. I know the two little fosters I had would bite me slowly watching my reaction, just to know how far they could go before hurting me.

My childhood dog had the neatest trick. I would say "mean dog" and he would start growling and show his teeth, then I would say "kisses" and he would stop and give kisses, then I would do the mean dog and so on. I definitely think it depends on the dogs overall behavior. Jesse gets mouthy sometimes, but she is finally starting to transition her mouthy-ness, into mouthing-off-ness. She's not mouthing so much now, but she is getting very vocal and arguing with us (tail wagging the entire time). :p