Hello all, So im looking for some advice from yall. I have an 18 month old black lab mix, I adopted her about 2 months ago and she has come such a long way already. Her last owner was a small woman who ended up tearing both her ACLs and coundnt handle her. She never walked her and it seems she may have trained her once in a while since she had a basic understanding of commands, but nowhere near where she is now. I work at a golf course and she comes with me to work every day, she absolutely loves running around the course following my cart and playing fetch. Its not often a dog has hundreds of acres to run around and just be a dog and i love seeing how happy she is out there. The concern i have though is with her "air snapping" and clacking her teeth together when we play. When we are playing fetch and she gives the ball back she'll chomp and clack her teeth together waiting for me to throw it. Sometimes if she is really riled up, she'll even show her teeth. I am not sure what to make of this behavior, I have read about submissive smiling but i am not sure if that is what shes doing. It seems innocent enough since we are playing but also causes me concern and I am not sure if i should try to correct the behavior. She will sometimes show her teeth when you try to touch her feet or when she is tired which I am trying to correct. She also loves to play with her teeth (obviously as dogs often do) and i am working to keep her from touching people with her teeth when playing. Has anyone else had similar experiences or some advice to offer? All input is greatly appreciated.
Quinn does the air snapping thing too...she started it when she was a small puppy and we had a toy she wanted or we were sitting on the couch and not playing. When she wrestles with OH she also does it...kind of shows her teeth at times and does lots of sneezing and rolling around too. We do not take it as aggression - more like frustration and playfulness. For example, every morning the routine is that I get up and shower then do my makeup while she sits outside the bathroom door waiting for me...she usually gets her ball and if I am not paying attention or playing with her, she will whine...if I look at her she will nose the ball toward me and snap her teeth. I ignore her. She sometimes makes a whine like noise or a grunt along with it. We didn't/haven't done any training to get her to stop as she only ever does it to myself or OH. We do make her sit before she gets what she wants (toy, treat).
I know someone who has a "smiley" labrador - that is, one that shows his teeth all the time! Not in aggression at all but it does look a bit disconcerting. I'm no expert, but I wouldn't think your girl is being aggressive. The only thing I'd suggest (obvious, I know) is to be careful not to reward the snapping behaviour by paying any attention to it.... and just as with teaching bite inhibition with puppies, any tooth-play simply results in the abrupt end of the game. Welcome to the forum! Your girl must believe she has landed in dog-heaven, with a WHOLE GOLF COURSE just for herself and someone to love her and care enough to train her!
I always make sure to stop playing whenever i feel teeth hit me. Shes getting better, slowly. Im just trying to see if anyone else had experienced this and what they have done (or not done) in regards to correcting it. It seems like shes just very excited and cannot contain herself but if its a behavioral issue i want to nip it in the bud before it becomes a real problem.
Hello and welcome to the forum. I have a "smiler" in Willow. It's not a submissive thing, but she does it when greeting anyone she really really really likes - basically that's me and my husband, the breeders and a couple of other close friends we see regularly. When other people see her doing it, they can think she's snarling, but it's nothing like that - I've seen her show her teeth to her brother to tell him to back away from her when she's eating or something, so I know what that looks like! I would separate two things you've described here - the clacking of teeth when you're playing ball sounds like a combination of excitement and maybe a touch of frustration. If you sense there is frustration in there, I'd be looking to work on that, so she learns some self control. As for the excited part, it's your shout whether you find it acceptable or not. I wouldn't mind, but if you do, there's a simple fix - just stop playing as soon as she does it. Turn away and ignore her for a few seconds. As soon as she stops, initiate play again. The same method as you'd use for a nippy puppy. The other side is showing her teeth when she's tired or if you go to touch her feet. That sounds to me a bit like she's asking you to back off. In which case, I'd start to employ a regimen of desensitisation and counter-conditioning to foot touching (once you've ruled out any potential issues with her feet with a vet check). So, lots of treats for her letting you near her feet. When you say you're correcting her, can you explain how you go about doing that? I have a girl, Willow, who is grumpy when she's tired. I can sympathise, I'm exactly the same But, of course, we can't have our dogs dictating what they can and can't do, and if I need her to move off the sofa or bed, I need her to do that. My boy, Shadow, well, he's soft and I could roll him onto the floor without a second thought; he'd wag his tail and roll onto his back for a tummy rub. Not so with The Duchess, though, so I've had to train a good "off" behaviour, which involves her getting a good reward for moving. This is a signal that she's just playing, however ferocious she looks. My two do it all the time. They look and sound fearsome, but the constant sneezing is to tell the other one that it's not serious
When I say correcting I mean desensitizing. Ive been working on her letting me play with her feet by giving her a treat every time she lets me touch them. She was at the vet two weeks ago to have her shots updated and get a basic overlook to make sure shes healthy. No problems reported, vet said shes healthy as can be. They even cut her nails for me, which is extremely appreciated seeing how she is with her feet. She took the shots and bloodwork like a champ. Didnt even flinch, but when he went to cut her nails she starts whining and freaking out. I have NO idea what it is about her feet, but she absolutely hates when people touch them. Perhaps the previous owner used to cut her nails past the quips all the time. Not sure but the progress is slow and ongoing haha
Oh, you're talking to the expert on foot desensitisation Hehe, Willow was really sensitive about her feet - at first, it took two of us to cut her nails; J would squeeze pureed sardines from a baby food pouch for her to lick while I snipped away. It worked, but less and less each time, until it got to the point we'd have had to have physically restrained her, which I wasn't prepared to do. So, I went back to the drawing board and started a looooooong programme of desensitisation. I decided I would change to using a Dremel to file her nails, rather than the clippers. I started off just touching her foot very lightly with my hand and rewarding her keeping it in place for the slightest instant. I found it easier to start this off by running my hand down her leg, rather than just reaching straight for the foot. In the end, I could just touch the foot directly. Slowly, slowly, I started to lift the foot, then to manipulate it slightly, giving really high value treats for doing so (think prawns and smoked salmon!). Then, I started with a regular metal file. I put it on the sofa (where she was sat) wile I played with her feet. Then I held it in one hand while I touched her feet with the other. Gradually worked up to touching her on the top of the foot with it, then the top of the nail. Then the end of the nail. Then drawing it lightly and slowly over the end of the nail. Lots and lots and lots of treats. I always gave her the option of leaving if she wanted to. There was no pressure to continue. But, it worked out that she would see me grab the file and she'd jump on the sofa ready. I got to the point where I was making ten strokes on each nail quite happily. I never held her paw hard, so again, she always had the option to pull it away if she wanted. This was really important for her. I managed to get her to "give permission" to continue, by waiting for her to present the paw to me. This is fabulous, because I know that she's ready and willing to work for those treats. When I got the Dremel, it was a case of having it running on the table next to us while I used the regular metal file. Also, having it touch her foot, then her nails, while it was turned off. Sloooowly managing to get her used to it touching a single nail for the briefest time. It took months and months of about three training sessions a day to get that far. Here we are, doing some gentle filing (by the way, I cringe watching this back, because of the mistakes I made! And here's Shadow, at an earlier stage (I got the year wrong on the video, this was December 2015 I actually don't do Shadow's nails with the Dremel, because he prefers the clippers, but all this was still invaluable to getting him comfortable having his feet touched. And, again, I don't need an assistant feeding treats for distraction with him anymore.
