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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
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