Dear Inquisitive Canine,
Q: Often, when I enter a room, my dog greets me excitedly and bites my pants, legs and feet because she wants to play.
I don’t want to encourage this behavior by engaging, but it’s hard to ignore because she’ll keep biting until I intervene.
What is the right thing to do?
Dear Inquisitive Pet Parent,
A: Returning home at the end of a long day to be greeted by a bum-wiggling, tail-wagging, exuberant ball of love — simply because you are you and you are here — is one of the great joys of sharing our lives with pets!
But, when your canine’s excitement escalates to mouthing and biting, that level of enthusiasm becomes “not so cute” and sometimes a concern.
The good news is that you can develop a training and management plan for safer greetings that will make everyone happy, including your dog.
The plan will look something like this:
- Determine what you want from your dog. In this case, it’s for her mouth to be redirected away from your body and your clothes when you enter a room.
- Provide appropriate alternative outlets for her happy playfulness and exuberance.
- Replace the unwanted behavior (grabbing your clothes) with ones that are positively reinforceable, such as grabbing a toy, or greeting and soliciting play/attention in a more human-centric way.
- Reward her heavily for making good choices when greeting you.
For the first step, the intention is to redirect her mouth before she can mouth your clothes (or your person!) when she’s happy to see you.
Keep in mind that the replacement behavior should meet the energy demand of her state of mind in that moment.
It’s a lot to ask your inquisitive canine to maintain self-control around stimulating things and beloved people. For instance, it might be hard for her to offer a “sit” on cue when she’s super excited.
There are a variety of ways to redirect your pup’s mouth and channel her joyous energy, such as with a soft squeaky toy (just giving it to her) or a game of tug or fetch.
Providing items for your dog to hold in her mouth, and/or play with, will help redirect her chompers to a more appropriate place, keeping your pant legs and toes safe!
Games and toys help your pooch get her energy out, while engaging in normal doggy behavior.
Another fun game to teach your pup is “Find It!” Take a piece of kibble or treat and throw it away from you — out of striking distance.
You’ll have to walk in prepared, with food or treats in a treat pouch or your pocket; you might even keep a supply in your car or near the front door.
You can then follow up by asking for greeting behavior that is more pleasant for you, meets her energy level, and addresses the underlying need(s) her behavior is communicating.
Once she’s not using you as a human tug toy, you can spend more time saying hi.
Behavior is communication. Often looking for, and meeting, the underlying needs our pups are communicating with their behavior will help improve the situation for our dogs and for us!
By meeting her needs for attention and play, it’s likely that you’ll soon enjoy being greeted by a dog that is happy that you’re home but is not biting at your feet!
Finally, remember to reward the behavior you do want so that it will be repeated. Reinforce your dog with petting, praise, treats, or the toss of a toy when and if she greets you with “four on the floor” (all four paws on the floor) or by sitting nicely.
Bonus Tip
Although the idea is to redirect your pup’s mouth before she grabs on to your clothes, if she’s already on the pant leg, you can use the “leave it” cue that I outlined in a previous column.
After instructing her to “leave” what she’s doing, redirect her to an alternate behavior that can be positively reinforced, as described above. If it’s not too challenging for her in this context, you can also teach her to “target” a bed or mat when you step through the door … a “go to your place” (or similar) cue is so versatile!
As with all training, creating positive learning experiences will not only enhance the bond you share but will also get impressive results.
Thank you for being an inquisitive dog guardian!