Anyone with knowledge of dogs?

I just adopted a 10 month old pitbull puppy. He's great, but he enjoys nibbling my wife and I's finger. He'll just take my thumb nibble a little and go on. Im sure it's some type of display of affection, but what does it mean?

dont nessoseroly know what it means but my dog always did it to me n noone else, at first i thought he hated me but im like his best mate out of everyone, he always comes to me to play and such (no sick jokes please)

Theeassassin said:

dont nessoseroly know what it means but my dog always did it to me n noone else, at first i thought he hated me but im like his best mate out of everyone, he always comes to me to play and such (no sick jokes please)

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No sick jokes from me. I call my dog Moosie in a ghey ass voice, and am currently looking for moose antlers so I can dress him up. Dogs are truly mans best friend. Nowhere else will you find true unbiased fondness, and loyalty.

aslong as you feed em n keep them happy they will love you forever lol

maybe he's teething or it just reminds him of his mothers teet, like young kids that suck their thumb.

Biggravy22 said:

I just adopted a 10 month old pitbull puppy. He's great, but he enjoys nibbling my wife and I's finger. He'll just take my thumb nibble a little and go on. Im sure it's some type of display of affection, but what does it mean?

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Pits and terriers tend to be mouthy dogs. I am very strict with any dog -- ABSOLUTELY NO TEETH ON HUMANS. Especially with a dog such as a pit bull, that mouth will just get stronger. I do this because I don't expect them to understand that human skin and sensitivity is not the same as a dog's (their skin is incredibly tough, especially compared to ours, and their pain tolerance is also far above ours). It's not so much due to what I can or can't handle myself, but so that I prevent problems when they interact with other people, such as my very thin-skinned grandparents or very young children. Not seeing or feeling what he's doing, I can't say that it's affection or anything like that. I would suggest trying not to anthropomorphise what your dog is doing. Dog psyche is not the same as human psyche.

Personally, I would like to see exactly what's going on when he does this, there is other "body English" going on that will indicate exactly what's on his mind. Is he "mothering" you? Or is he dominating you? Or is he comforting himself?

I have a 3 month old pitt myself who does the same thing, you need to tell him no in an assertive voice than hand him something acceptable to chew that is his, like i use a nyla bone...it works pretty good. another thing is if that doesnt work submit him/her, what i mean is you turn the pup onto its back or side not rough just assertive, then you place your hand on its chest holding it down while your above him. wait til the puppy submits by no longer squirming. what this does is asserts you as the dominant leader in the pack(family) and lets him no that you are the pack leader and dont approve of his/her current action. hope it helps

Yes I agree with seamaiden/
The dog is still a puppy and that is a normal thing for them to do. Its more of an affection thing but you don't want to have the dog keep it up.
Try putting some tabasco sauce on her hand for a while or something that the dog does not like that will not harm him.

Or replace her hand with a toy as you say 'no.'

If the dog does not realize that his or her mouth is strong and can cause damage you don't know what might happen if the dog thinks its just playing with someone elses kid.

It is a very lovely dog and I LOVE all dogs emensely.

Seamaiden said:

Pits and terriers tend to be mouthy dogs. I am very strict with any dog -- ABSOLUTELY NO TEETH ON HUMANS. Especially with a dog such as a pit bull, that mouth will just get stronger. I do this because I don't expect them to understand that human skin and sensitivity is not the same as a dog's (their skin is incredibly tough, especially compared to ours, and their pain tolerance is also far above ours). It's not so much due to what I can or can't handle myself, but so that I prevent problems when they interact with other people, such as my very thin-skinned grandparents or very young children. Not seeing or feeling what he's doing, I can't say that it's affection or anything like that. I would suggest trying not to anthropomorphise what your dog is doing. Dog psyche is not the same as human psyche.

Personally, I would like to see exactly what's going on when he does this, there is other "body English" going on that will indicate exactly what's on his mind. Is he "mothering" you? Or is he dominating you? Or is he comforting himself?

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Yes exactly. They are pack animals

blinkykush said:

I have a 3 month old pitt myself who does the same thing, you need to tell him no in an assertive voice than hand him something acceptable to chew that is his, like i use a nyla bone...it works pretty good. another thing is if that doesnt work submit him/her, what i mean is you turn the pup onto its back or side not rough just assertive, then you place your hand on its chest holding it down while your above him. wait til the puppy submits by no longer squirming. what this does is asserts you as the dominant leader in the pack(family) and lets him no that you are the pack leader and dont approve of his/her current action. hope it helps

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don't feed 'em chocolate

best way to train him is to grab him by the scruff of the neck and give a slight tug while saying "NO!" - thats how his momma would have grabbed him to discipline him.

then you want to give him something he is allowed to chew on and while he is chewing give him some "good boy!" and pats on the head.

also you should work on getting him to let you take back whatever it is he is chewing on. hand it to him and take it back a few times.

also just another note.. whenever you leave and enter the house with the dog make sure you go in or out first. in a pack of dogs the head dog always goes in/out first. the rest know their place..

yes. wow. that was good.

kingpapawawa said:

best way to train him is to grab him by the scruff of the neck and give a slight tug while saying "NO!" - thats how his momma would have grabbed him to discipline him.

then you want to give him something he is allowed to chew on and while he is chewing give him some "good boy!" and pats on the head.

also you should work on getting him to let you take back whatever it is he is chewing on. hand it to him and take it back a few times.

also just another note.. whenever you leave and enter the house with the dog make sure you go in or out first. in a pack of dogs the head dog always goes in/out first. the rest know their place..

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if you have ever seen a pit in action you would teach them to not use there mouths on peps. but that is your call you have the dog. As for my dogs they use there mouths feet and bodys on peps. Maybe I'm a bad master I spoil them rotten. any way my big guy Tag would never use his mouth he had no controle and knew it. his sister on the other hand has a soft mouth and we can play all day long she will pull me by the hand or what ever and never hurt me. Don't get me wrong my hands were bruised after a good play but teeth are hard. the little guy only uses his teeth when I grab his tail. It's a play thing not hurting him at all. hehe

my boy braxton is 12 weeks old and weighs 35 pounds his dad was 93 pounds he is Razor bloodline.....i would suggest picking up a book on the breed and reading up, not to sound like a f ing book worm I havnt read anything since this months issue of hightines, but this breed is a very handson breed and need a lot of attention and socialization. take it to dog parks and socialize the pitt with other dogs and peeps....and if your dog ever snaps at another dog dont automaticly assume he is gonna rip the next ten yearolds arm off that walks by, human aggression and dog aggression are two different behaviors and just b;c your pitt may have one doesnt mean he has the other.

Dogs just do the mouthing thing. In my experience, Terriers and the like have a greater tendency to do it, but I have observed it in many breeds. In all of my dogs it have been perfectly harmless. Dogs understand the distinction between gnawing on you and biting.

our old roomates had 2 pits and the youngest, a male, used the fiance as his personal chew toy lol would chew and slobber all over his arms, ewww lol

My dog jumped in the river today...went out in the middle..then starting howling until i had to go in and bring him out
i turned him around and he was looking at me and jumped back in
and did the process over

._.


but back to the thread
i love pit's there awesome dogs

i wouldnt take what its doing serious
may just want attention?

Just gotta big note myself for a bit...

We've had a *lot* of dogs in our time...lotsa different breeds and mixes. At one point we had 23 dogs in various stages of maturity. All of them, except the youngest pups knew that there was a 'no biting' rule in our pack. That is, absolutely no mouthing of people or their doggie pack. I'd love to show you some pics of them playing (might do if this thread continues). There was also a rule of 'no jumping'. We implemented this rule so that our dogs wouldn't jump up on kids as a sign of affection. They also, all except the 8 youngest pups that were learning the rule, would sit until we said "OK" at feed time. It's pretty cool to see 15 dogs all sitting and waiting until all the bowls are filled and then waiting for the OK. They all came when called without hesitation. We loved our pack...had to give all except one away when we moved back to town...

Anyway, I'd suggest being the pack leader and teaching him that it's bad form to mouth or nibble. You can do what King Papawawa suggested with the scruff of the neck shake and a big 'no biting'. That's a very strong signal in the dog world, because it harks back to severe puppy discipline from their mother. Just re-inforce it every time he/she does it. After a while (in our dogs' cases), they would sometimes forget and put their mouth near an arm or whatever. "No Biting!" was all it took for them to remember. You could see the "Oh, sorry dude" look on their faces.

Consistency in your actions are what they understand and respect.

For the record, we rarely used harsh discipline on our pack. The worst was a severe shaking by the scruff of the neck and then a hold down with lots of angry words (much like growling and snarling at them but in human terms) if they did something really bad, like going walk about when they weren't supposed to. It was rare, but we had one of our spoiled girls who would lead the others astray. She just couldn't stay around the house when there was thousands of acres around her to explore.

Seamaiden, Lucy and blinkykush are all right on the button re dogs. You are their leader and therefore you have to show them leadership. Otherwise they'll do what they want and start to consider themselves a contender.

I hadn't thought about the jumping, I have a thing that dogs are not allowed to put their feet on me, either. That's because they don't understand that their feet may be dirty one day or I may be wearing something nice another day, I don't expect them to tell the difference.

My Ridgie is so good about the mouth that I will play with her and put my hand in her mouth and she pulls her lips over her teeth and never shuts her jaws. She's gotten quite good about it. Now if only I could teach her to stop with that whip of a tail. Only way I know of to stop the wagging is to cut it off.

I, too, disapprove of human forms of negative reinforcement, no hitting or yelling. They just want to please us most of the time, and they need to know where we stand and where they stand. Once they understand that they're much happier and so are we.

Now... if only we could convince the kids of how to work with their new little terrier (terror is more like it). Smart as a whip and he needs direction, good dog, but again, he needs direction. And his balls cut, he's begun marking in the house.

Seamaiden said:

I hadn't thought about the jumping, I have a thing that dogs are not allowed to put their feet on me, either. That's because they don't understand that their feet may be dirty one day or I may be wearing something nice another day, I don't expect them to tell the difference.

My Ridgie is so good about the mouth that I will play with her and put my hand in her mouth and she pulls her lips over her teeth and never shuts her jaws. She's gotten quite good about it. Now if only I could teach her to stop with that whip of a tail. Only way I know of to stop the wagging is to cut it off.
...

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Hehehe, Jack, the only pup (three years old going on four) we have left from the 23 we had a couple years back, is a wagger. We're constantly going "Tail Dude!" if he gets too close. He's not a big dog, but yep, he has a steel whip too.

Yeah, Jack just doesn't mouth anymore. He nibbles on my fingers on occasion, but very rarely. Oh, the clothes thing is another reason we have the jump/paws on body rule. He puts his paw up on us when he is craving some lurv though. Then we say "Gimme Five" and he does, and he *always* sits if he wants a pat.

We love our puppy.