Good advice.

 

We were told by a professional trainer and behavioralist to 'ween' Kai off play biting. Puppies mouth by nature. Stopping a puppy from biting is impossible without running the risk of frustrating them. They also don't get the chance to learn that we humans are more fragile than their furry playmates.

So she had us start teaching him that when he mouthed too hard we left the room. Basically all the fun stopped and we went away. Takes a bit longer but Kai actually has a very soft mouth with us when he does get too excited while playing now. And now we stop him whenever he does hit flesh or clothes while playing.

All dogs will bite. Period. If hurt, angered, frustrated or scared enough, they will lash out regardless of how much they've been taught not to bite. Reaching into the middle of a giant furball of dogs to separate them, tooth will hit flesh. It's during those times the bite inhibition taught to them as puppies will decide if skin gets broken (or worse). The time Kai did go for a bite with me was a taste of what he was capable of. It hurt but never broke skin. He definitely pulled his punch. I'm confident that if / when Kai does bite someone, nobody will have to visit a doctor.

But back to the topic at hand, we're spending a lot of time training Kai. Making sure he meets all kinds of people, of all ages and sizes and races, so he won't freak out meeting a kid for the first time. Making sure he knows human flesh isn't as tough as dog flesh so he knows to be careful with humans. Making sure he knows he shouldn't be mouthing humans anyway for obvious reasons. That way there are multiple layers of training to prevent an incident with someone. And on top of that we take the simplest precaution possible:

Kai isn't allowed to be alone with kids of any age. Never will be. No matter how much I trust him, I can't trust them not to do something stupid and **** him off.

 

I do the same with my dog, Darek. He has never shown aggression towards kids, but you can never be sure how they'll react to unknowns. My german trainer always said "No matter how well trained, they can still do what they want."

 

 

Loud and clear Kuroshio. It seems like our advice meshes. John Smith(my doggie) was a huge puppy and even then could do major damage. With his 'big' teeth i am in awe when I look in his mouth. Lots of good advice here.One one my buddies tried to stop his chows from fighting by reaching in and grabbing one. He was a bass player. was..On the topic, training and good common sense is the rule.and never ever leave a dog with your kid.Pits have the reputation ,but any of them can do harm. Those folks were stupid and uncaring,particularly with a pit..the dog ,of course has to go. The parents responsible should get some time to think about what they have done.If nothing else, it will get a dumb a$$ off the road for a while