Pamela

I notice that if I have been away for a little while, when I return Ginger greets me excited etc but she mouths my arm - almost like she going to suck on it or something h aha - Anyway I have heard different opinions about this. Some say she is "owning" me and not recognizing me as pack leader, others say she is loving me - dunno - need to know what to do. Right now I say 'no bite' (cause no mouth sounds silly lol) and close her mouth with my hands. What to you all think about this?

Also, I can't get to all the little moving icons. Anyone else have that problem? I have only two rows and I can see there are more but can't get there even by maximizing my window.

WonderPup

As far as what you should and should not correct thats up to you. One of my tibbies will mouth me when she gets over excited. She has such a soft mouth not really bitting down so I ignore the behavior. Where I work we have another dog that comes to work every day who will mouth when she gets excited. She's an Akita Chow mix, we don't ignore that even though she too has a really soft mouth, it could be a big deal should she ever do it to a customer and they misunderstood it.
When she does it we, I don't know how else to put this, squeal and turn our back to her. If she does it again she goes into time out for two minutes. She doesn't ever have to go into time out anymore though.
Dog' learn bite inhibition from their mother and litter mates and the concept of the squeal is that it what a litter mate would do. The litter mate would also likely end whatever "game" was taking place or perhaps bite back lol. With some dog's a loud gasp works better.
I haven't heard the theory that the dog is claiming ownership of you or that they lack respect. Puppies mouth adults in order to get food when they are very young, this is not a lack of respect on the pup's part. Adult dog's mouth eachother in play. In play one dog mouthing the other is not a display of dominance either because if you watch both dogs will mouth eachother, not just one dog doing all the mouthing.

Just my two cents.

-Leia

Pamela

Thanks Leia, that's good. I didn't really think it was dominance either but someone told me it was so...I just softly close her mouth. She jsut loves me so much and I got her so young it really could be like a pup to a mom - Teddy doesn't do that to me but they do it to each other when playing and he isn't dominant at all. Thanks again!

WonderPup

Sometimes the age they are when you get them can make a difference. I have a puppy right now who is just turned 6 weeks yesterday, we have been partially hand raising him because Wonder decided she didn't really want to be a mommy. He was the only puppy in the litter. Puppies like this, or those that go to new homes early on are often more likely to display mouthy behavior, among other issues they sometimes have. Mr. Wonderful is not the first singleton pup I've raised, his father Howie was also an only puppy, though not orphaned, as was a grandson from Howie. Merlin, the grandson was extremely difficult to deal with. He was pushy, mouthy, and lord help you if he wasn't the center of attention. All because those important lessons were missed when he was young. I'm hoping to prevent that with Mr. Wonderful. We'll see. LoL, they each have their own personality

Pamela

I think she missed a lot her mom could have taught her. She was only 6 weeks old two days after we brought her home. She wasn't in the house with the humans either lol - she was out in the barn in a fenced in area with the mother and her littermates. I really wish I could have afforded to buy two pups - our minis Gabie and Cassie were littermates and they are so close and so social. But the social part I think was that they were raised in the house with all the pups and the woman and her son and visitors etc.

WonderPup

For the reccord, it's not usually a good idea to buy litter mates. In most (no all, but most), cases the pups bond more strongly with eachother than with their human family. This can really really be a serious issue as what often happens is one puppy is the stronger personality and the other puppy relies on his litter mate for direction. They have a hard time being seperated and the "follower puppy" can be really really distressed when on it's own. I'm working right now with a pair of shihtzus with this issue. It's a problem I deal with in training pretty often. In my area it seems to be really popular to get two at a time. It's a subject that is very dear to my heart since all the time people e-mail wanting to purchase two tibbie puppies from a litter. It's such a pet peeve for me that most of them don't even make it onto my waiting list. I'd say good job to you if you're mini's have avoided these issues, although you may be right in that how the pups are raised early on makes it's easier too.

Again another two cents from me to you LoL

Blue Fox

We are dealing with the mouthing issue at the moment. T is also loosing puppy teeth although after checking this moring I think they're all gone, even the retained canine that I was starting to think was going to be a problem.

I am doing the same - yelping and ending the behaviour and this seems to be working. T does it as his first greeting after work or if I have been away for anything longer than about 1/2 hour. He jumps up and then grabs my hand on the way down which can be quite painful. Once I yelp he now immediately lets go and his mouthing is getting softer so now it is more of a mouthing rather than a bite or chewing. Thankfully he has also stopped snapping at faces (after doing the same yelping thing) and will happily give me a kiss (lick) and I don't have to worry about having my nose nipped

Pamela

Yes I have heard that about littermates. I think the reason these guys are ok is that they were raised with so many puppies and dogs in the house. She had eight adult minis and at the time I think 3 litters of pups or maybe two. so there was a lot going on. they have very distinct personalties, are very close, but not dependent. So it worked out well. Knowing my luck Ginger's littermate and her would have been like the cases you described lol