behaviour

Species: dog | Category: behaviour | Submitted: 31-Oct-07 12:54PM | viewed 34794 times

Debby asks about max (dog - staffordshire bull terrier, M) (age 0 years, 6 months):

Hi Max is very lively of course but he seems to get very excited and bites the children, not hard or breaking the skin but nevertheless painful. He has all his adult teeth I think but still chews everything. He has his own toys /chews etc but he's worse now than ever. Any suggestions?

Samantha says: This may be a play activity but it does need to be addressed. You may be able to tell if this is definitely a play activity by looking out for the "play-bow" which dogs will often make to signal non-aggression. They tend to bow their front end leaving their bottom in the air and tail often wagging.

The biting (in play or not), does need to stop. Try to think of situations which invoke the biting and then avoid them completely (make sure everyone in the household does this). Then start to teach Max basic obedience commands such as "sit" and "down". Start to teach him when he is very calm, but as he learns you can ask him to perform these tasks in more exciting situations until you are sure you have complete control over him in all situations. He should be taught to respond to obedience commands from all members of the family. In this way he should eventually be asked to "sit" or go "down" before play becomes too rough.

Staffies can grow to be very strong dogs with incredibly powerful jaws. There is always a chance that things can unexpectedly get out of hand with dogs and children with tragic consequences. I would recommend that dogs are NEVER left alone at all with young children- who may not be able to recognise the signs of a problem developing/ warning signals given by the dog etc. They are also not strong enough to fight off any attack.

With older children it is still very necessary to exercise caution, especially with stronger breeds of dog.

Dogs do make great pets and with time hopefully Max will grow into a lovely family pet, but we must also remember that dogs are natural predators with an inbuilt desire to hunt, stalk, chase, kill and eat. Each of these behaviours brings a reward of its own so dogs can enjoy the "chase" without necessarily wishing to "kill" or "eat" but unfortunately things can get out of hand when the thrill of the activity is high. That is why dogs can be a problem when children are around since they are around the size of a dogs natural prey, they run and scream or make high pitched noises as would prey species and once caught or bitten they continue to do all these things which excite a dog and arouse it further. For example it is very difficult to teach a child to stay still rather than run when threatened by a dog and in this way the child will almost certainly get chased.

I definitely do not want to sound alarmist but the primary concern must be the safety of your children. It is probably a minor play problem at the moment due to Max's young age. To prevent anything further developing supervise the dog and children carefully and perhaps involve an animal behaviourist in your area who can help much more than I can over the internet.

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