Dog putting his teeth on you?

[Momily]

3 times in the past few days Lyle has jumped to take something out of my hand or DS's hand (twice was a treat, once was a ball DS was throwing for him) and has ended up touching us with his teeth. He's not biting or snapping, more like grabbing and sliding along our hand as he does so.

I am entirely unsure as to whether he's being slightly aggressive, or uncoordinated. He's definitely being more assertive in other ways (e.g. he'll bark when he wants to come in from the yard, he's refusing to come back upstairs with me in the morning because he knows he'll be locked in the bedroom so I can go to work, and we've had a few times where he's tried to jump up to look at the table while we're eating), but hasn't shown any other signs of aggression.

After the first two times I've started showing him the treat, and then keeping it inside my fist until I'm ready to give it to him, and then having him take it off my open palm. That has solved the issue with the treats, but then today he did it with the ball. I guess because the only other dog I've lived with (my childhood dog) was a lab with a very "soft" mouth, I was pretty surprised to suddenly

How should I respond when this happens? I assume the play session should end immediately? Is that enough?

Thanks!

[Ola_]

I have two dogs and one will jump back as soon as her teeth touch your skin, while the other is totally oblivious. LOL When I'm playing with him he's just grabbing at the ball, not particularly aware of where my fingers are.

One thing you can try easily is when he grabs your hand is push towards him, rather than pulling your hand away as we instinctually do. This often causes the dog to pull back. Might be better for you to try this rather than your DS since it takes a bit of coordination "in the moment". You can try this with treats also - push towards his mouth when he goes to grab the treat, not roughly, just a bit so that he notices.

[Shera971]

I think that this type of behaviour (whether by accident or budding aggression) needs to be curbed as soon as possible. I also adopted an adult dog that mouthed A LOT!. Like I would be walking down the hall and he would grab my hand lightly in his mouth. I think it was his version of play but b/c he is an 80lbs huskey we had to stop it. We did this:
every time a tooth touched my or DH's skin we would loudly say "ouch" and then disengage from the dog. Stop petting, playing ball whatever. Very quickly our dog realized that all the fun stopped when his teeth touched us.

I also like Ola's suggestion. If you push towards the dog there is less of a chance of getting scraped by those pointy teeth.

In regards to playing ball, can you set up some rules? Like when Lyle returns the ball he needs to sit for a few seconds. And he is not allowed out of the sit until the ball is thrown. You can give a release like "Get it!" when you throw the ball. My dog can get crazy excited when playing and I find that just a few seconds of a sit can get him to calm down and focus again.

On a side note, when we first got our dog (who was 4) he was very timid and submissive. After a short while he got comfortable with us and a completely different dog emerged. The rescue agency we got him from assured us he was gentle and submissive - uh big NO. Very dominant dog and keeps us on our toes. What I'm trying to say is that along with everything else Lyle is also trying to figure out where he stands in his new "pack". Its important that he knows he's the bottom of the heap. (which I'm sure you know... but I seem to be babbling tonight LOL)

[Girl In The Fire]

Remind me again how old and what breed? Is he a young Sheltie?

I think these issues could be solved easily though from your description it sounds like he may be uncoordinated and also rude and pushy.

I would start with NILIF, I think everyone should use NILIF with new dogs. Just google it if you dont know what it is.

The teeth contact- Yes end the game immediately and if you have treat in your hand do not give him the treat. To be proactive with this issue you could teach him to "wait" and "take nice" or whatever command you want to use.

Wait command is a bit different from the stay command. The stay command is a very black and white command, when I say stay the dog stays until I release the dog from the stay. Wait is a bit looser, wait means my dog stops and pauses and then can continue. If we are playing stick (my dog only plays with sticks rather than balls) I tell her to sit and wait, when I throw the stick she can chase it w/o being released from the wait. If I told her stay she would stay until I released her. I did not want "stay" being blurred and I don't want a fun game like stick to be turned into an obedience exercise so I use the different commands.

So back to teaching "wait" - say you are playing ball, Lyle needs to sit nicely until you have thrown the ball. Tell him sit and do not throw the ball until he remains sitting. He will probably break the sit several times initially dont throw the ball until he stays sitting. Dogs tend to pick this up easily... Once he seems to get that you wont throw the ball until his butt is on the ground introduce "wait" when his butt hits the ground. It wont take long for him to learn the command. You can also do this with treats he needs to sit down nicely until you give him the treat. If you do not tolerate the rude pushy behavior and dont reward it he wont do it any more.

"Take nice" is another one most dogs learn quickly there are a ton of different ways to teach it, personally I hold the treat in my closed fist sticking out just a little bit and if they do anything other than try and take the treat gently they don't get the treat. After a few seconds we try again until they figure out they need to be gentle. You don't want to do this when they are excited but do it a few times randomly during the day when they are calm and just hanging out.

Being pesky while eating dinner- Set up a spot for him like a dog bed and make him "go lay down" when you are eating. When you sit down at the table he should go lay on his bed until you are done. Put a leash on him and lead him to his bed have him lay down and give a him a treat. Go back to the table and if he gets up repeat the process. Make it positive and reward him every time he lays on his bed. Again this is another command that doesn't take to long for them to pick up. If he is laying nicely on his bed he cant pester you.

Not wanting to go upstairs-(This is condensed version since I have to run) Make it very positive for him to go upstairs. You want the prospect of being in the room to be better than you leaving. Lots of good toys like kongs and treats.