We adopted Riley (now 4 yrs old) last April and we're thrilled with his calm, friendly nature.
One thing we've noticed is that when he gets really worked up when playing with my husband or I, he will get excited and mouth us, and often the mouthing turns to biting. There seems to be no bite inhibition at this stage when he gets REALLY excited. It's never aggression, it seems to be pure excitment and playing. He's never broken the skin, but it hurts. What we've been doing is at the first sign of a mouth/bite that hurts us, we yell OUCH and stop the play. We turn our backs and walk away. Is that an appropriate reaction? We've been doing that for months and it hasn't really changed the behaviour at all. So we're at a loss. Does sort of bite inhibition have to be learned when the dog is young and once they're older, it can't be fixed?
Otherwise Riley is a lovely dog who is gentle with our young kids - we've never let them wrestle with him, mostly due to the above problem, and his size (100 pounds). The biting thing has never happened around our kids - they've accidently fallen on Riley when he's asleep and he is fine. No problems with food or kids being around his food when he's eating. It only seems to happen when he's very excited and engaged in play.
I'd appreciate any thoughts you might have.
One thing we've noticed is that when he gets really worked up when playing with my husband or I, he will get excited and mouth us, and often the mouthing turns to biting. There seems to be no bite inhibition at this stage when he gets REALLY excited. It's never aggression, it seems to be pure excitment and playing. He's never broken the skin, but it hurts. What we've been doing is at the first sign of a mouth/bite that hurts us, we yell OUCH and stop the play. We turn our backs and walk away. Is that an appropriate reaction? We've been doing that for months and it hasn't really changed the behaviour at all. So we're at a loss. Does sort of bite inhibition have to be learned when the dog is young and once they're older, it can't be fixed?
Otherwise Riley is a lovely dog who is gentle with our young kids - we've never let them wrestle with him, mostly due to the above problem, and his size (100 pounds). The biting thing has never happened around our kids - they've accidently fallen on Riley when he's asleep and he is fine. No problems with food or kids being around his food when he's eating. It only seems to happen when he's very excited and engaged in play.
I'd appreciate any thoughts you might have.