| Re: from Mexico - when will he calm down?
I had a rescue that was very clumsy with his mouth when I first got him. We spent a lot of time getting him to practice having a gentle mouth by hand feeding him popcorn, one piece at a time.
We started with it tucked in a hand and got a few scraped knuckles in the process. Guinness learned that "Ouch" was a negative word and "careful" meant to slow down and be careful. Once he developed the ability to be gentle with a closed hand we moved on to holding the popcorn in our fingers.
It took a while for him to learn to be calm and to learn that he was supposed to be gentle and aware of where his head is. In his case it was never a question of him being aggressive or dangerous, he was just a very happy, eager to please dog who's first home didn't train basic manners and then was very heavy handed in punishing a dog that just did not know what was expected of him. I did get a few tooth bruises on my hand the first couple of times he waved his head around like a fool - but all it took was hearing "ouch" a few times before he learned to be more careful. Once he figured it out we kept practicing almost every day for several months until he was always super gentle. Then for the rest of his life we'd do the practice every few weeks just to keep him very skilled at using a gentle mouth.
Several years after I got Guinness he got one of those big, hard plastic treat dispensing cube-shaped toys stuck in his mouth - with his canines stuck in a couple of the holes and his mouth wedged wide open. Our mouth handling work with the popcorn allowed the vet to very safely handle him and try to get the toy loose. Guinness stayed calm through it all, and didn't wave his head around like he would have when I first got him. After about 5 - 10minutes of trying to remove the toy the vet actually had to anesthitize him to get it loose because it was so firmly stuck.
I was really glad to have a dog that was so gentle with that many people's hands in his mouth that night.
So try the popcorn - calmly and patiently teaching him to be more aware of and gentle with his head and mouth.
Lynda  |