Day 10 Let's talk about puppy biting

We are in a fresh cycle of Ember biting.  I'm watching Susan's videos about protocol to help puppy learn bite inhibition.  Again.

Her protocol for when you get bit:

1. Freeze.  (I am not good at this!)
2. If puppy has not let go, vocalize (OUCH!)
3. Once puppy lets go, calmly praise them and stroke them, for doing so.
4. Analyze what you did that might have encouraged the bite or its continuation.  Analyze the puppy's possible state that might have increased the likelihood of biting.

• Is puppy in pain?
• Is puppy under-exercised?
• Is puppy over-tired?
• Is puppy over-hungry?

5. Provide "fix" for the issue.  Feed the puppy.  Or put the puppy down for a nap.  Take the puppy out for an active game.  If it's pain, best check on it... vet visit needed?  Or is it something you can fix at home?

Things you might be doing that increase the likelihood of biting or encourage its continuation?  Take into account where your puppy is in the stages of learning bite inhibition.  

• Getting down on a face-to-face level with the puppy, especially if they have not started to learn bite inhibition at all.  
• When you get bit, if you try to pull the body part away.  This can result in a more severe bite (breaking the skin and causing bleeding), or additional biting, etc.  This is one of my big issues, and it applies not just to puppy biting but to kitty scratches, too.
• Running or walking away (I am guilty of this one, too).  A puppy is going to want to chase and continue "the game".

She also classifies the hardness of the bite:

1. "Oops!  My bad."  I.e. it was an accident, puppy backs right off and just continues with the training or game.  You felt teeth but not pain.  

2. Puppy lets go right away, no marks left behind, but you can tell you were bit (i.e. it might hurt).  

3. Indentations visible on the skin, but no skin broken, no blood.  This shows the puppy is starting to have some awareness of the need to inhibit their bite.

4. Clothing torn or skin broken.  This implies the puppy is clueless about how hard they are biting!

5. Red alert, they don't let go and bite repeatedly, breaking the skin, i.e. this is not a game.  See a veterinarian behaviorist!

Ember has never been a #5, but she's still having a few episodes of level 4, even this week. I was bold enough to wear one of my new sweatshirts while the last of the old ones was being laundered.  It earned a hole in it yesterday morning. I'm still well invested in bandages.  But there was a golden period when it mostly was 2 or 3.  The end goal, of course, is to have it always at level 1.

Anyway, the journey continues.  After puppy nap #1, my son's mother-in-law came over to pick up some t-shirts for next Saturday's baseball outing (sponsored, we all have matching shirts to wear to identify us).  She is retired, but worked as a nurse, and DIL vouches for her mom's expertise in the area of wound care, so I had her take a look at Ember's tummy, and she agrees it is healing up well.  Clean, dry, no discharge or swelling.

Ember was enthusiastic in her greeting of our guest but calmed down as we went about our human business, and we managed to manipulate her for the observational task.  After Donna left with shirts and tickets in hand, I gave Ember the chewstick in the photo above, and she stayed up for her "salad" before settling down to puppy nap #2.

After puppy nap #2, we had another leash walk.  I had a hard time convincing her to eat much in the way of supper, and she's now tucked in for the night.  She was sleeping when I went down to do the eye drops, so we have survived Day 10 Post-op!

Life is good.  Spark on!