Anyone have any tips to stop my EBT girl nipping,,, this is a new thing she has started in the last few months as she never used to do it,,, now each time you stroke her she licks and then nips you with her front teeth causing bruising,

its like she pinches you with her front teeth and today as i was rubbing her chest when i put her lead on she jumped up and nipped my blooming lip the cow,,, arggggg its getting on my nerves now as when people meet and greet her im now having to warn them she does this which puts them off of stroking her,,

any ideas why shes started doing it and how to stop it, thanks,

how old is she ?

shes 6 yrs old now so its not a puppy thing,,, and when she does it , its like shes excited wagging her tail and happy enough then as your stroking her she blooming nips ya hand or arm like a pinch,,, shes cut my lip today the madam!!,,,

Have you thought that she might be protecting a sore place?  What I mean is that she might have a physical issue that means when you touch her in a certain place she's reacting, or, for instance you put the collar on but she moves her neck and it hurts her.

A friend had a fiend of a puppy - right as rain one minute then a biting, snapping monster the next, turns out to be a neck injury and the poor little girl was in a lot of pain which badly altered her behaviour.  They were at wits end and had seen vets and behaviourists, trainers etc until at 17 months a muscle specialist looked at her.

Food for thought I hope. I had a pierced eyebrow off a pup once - v. painful.

thanks Mowgli,,,, but its really not a nasty nip she's giving,,,, it seems to be her getting very excited when people come to stroke her,, or if i give her a stroke and tell her good girl and im fussing her up as such,,,, she licks ya,, waging her tail all excited then inbetween them licks as your their  petting her she'll lick and suddenly Nips you, theirs def no medical prob with her of that i am sure,, its bdef a behaviourly thing with her,,,, Im starting a new thread here on Female Dogs,,,, Dont you think their moods are more trouble than boys,,,, i'd like to here others views,,, i swear my girl gets pmt,,,, and she's been done years ago,,, but still she gets on one being a bitch around the time she would av been in season,,,, she went into me downstairs toilet today whe nwe where out and ripped up a toilet roll and went thu a bucket pulling out my paint roller and chewed it to bits,,,, she has done this sort of thing since we had her spaded,,,, and it always falls in line with when she would have been in season  if we hadnt av had her done,,,, anyone with spaded bitches ever noticed these things,,,?????? or is my bully girl as nutty as the reast of my household lmaoloool,,,,, xxxx Love ya all hope you all well and ya dogs are thriving xxxx

Hi CG,

Hard to say at a distance but all else being equal it sounds like it might be an OTT play thing and she does not know it hurts you, or she cannot control the impulse to lick and then nip you. It could be that her bite inhibition has gone awry in that she does not know how hard she is nipping.

I'd think she needs to be taught this is unwelcome and learn to inhibit it- you don't want it to become entrenched.

AS a matter of interest how do you react when she does this? What would happen if you simply got up abruptly and walked away from her and ignored her with a very cross face on. I would not advise doing an 'ow  or telling her off in case it excites her more. If she'd be inclined to follow you then I would have her on a line in the house, knowing that she can be very securely tethered somewhere and ignored if she nips- the idea is to go back to bite inhibition training.

Is this the same dog that was nipping at your Rottie or am I getting confused?

Might be worth a trip to the vet just to explain your thoughts about cycles of excitement. Also, as Mowgli said to ensure she has not got a sore area. What appears to you as a playful nip could be her very polite and controlled way, through gritted teeth, of saying don't touch there.

As I said, so hard to know at remote. Have a good think and try to look at every angle of the situation when she has done this- is there a pattern, are there factors in common every time she has nipped?

thanks Freelancer yes i do feel it really is her just getting over excited ,, i admit i have done the OW bit when she's nipped as it was a shock at first when she started doing it,, now i just move my hand away and stop stroking her straight away,, but she does get madly excited from time to time, i have started now to only stroke her when she keeps her tongue in  so the minute she licks i stop,, she seems to be getting better, and i started petting her only when she it sitting quiet,, as appose to when shes been playing with bully boy ands excited already,

oh And no its not the bully who nips my rottie that im talking about here,, thats my bully boy he's fine when stroking him he dont seem to get as excited as my female when people stroke him he dont jump up or lick he'll just wag his tail ands really to interested in looking around to be bothered with people who come up to us and want to pet him, ,, he's actually been very Good lately, makes a change lol ;-),,
he's been loving the rain he likes puddles and digging in the water watching it ripple,, has had us in stitches last few days,,his been very good on our walks to.

Ellie my Girl bully will jump up lick and get very over excited if people come up and stroke her then as you think shes sweet ahh bless shes licking away then suddenly Nip,,, we went vets a while ago and i did mention it he said it was a behavior thing,, (my fault then :-( ,_

sounds like subordinent nipping to me - the type of 'Nitting' that a subordinent does to a higher dog - the grooming of a superior

Has the pack dynamics recently changed? change in hours worked? new dog / animal?

nope no changes here,, will say she is a very submissive dog tho always has been she always lays on her back when other dogs come up to her in the park,, oh god yes thinking about it the only change has been that hubby has been off work for last 8 wks with a broken arm,, so i been doing most of the dogs walks,, i take them separately
tho  bullies first then my Rottie,

I think lots of dogs like to do 'lickynips'-  especially bitches. It's just that they have learned bite inhibition to the extent that the nips are barely felt by us and they certainly don't hurt. Ellie is not inhibiting her nips enough- it just might be something she is not skilled at and she is, as you say, getting too excited as well. The most important thing is to give immediate feedback that this is not acceptable for you and break off the interaction as fast as you can. 

she does not know it hurts you,

sounds like subordinent nipping to me

I tend to agree with both those. I think your trying to translate what you call nipping in an anthropomorphic way, we often try to interpret dog behaviour in a way we would interpret a human doing the same, I don't think he does actually "nip", if a dog closes his incisors on a lip you would almost certainly need stitches.

What he might be doing is a human equivalent of kissing, a display of love behaviour in human terms, don't overlook the fact how far human love stretches, even in the Bible it tells us that "Greater love hath no man than to lay down his wife for a friend."

Maybe it's a form of dog love behaviour. The way to have 'nipped' it in the bud in the first place (& many other problems on here) would have been to have taught an effective "no" but like so many dogs they don't have an effective "no" command, so, the human owner gets punished for not teaching it.
.

Our most subordinent dogs over the years all 'nit' as I call it - I see the way they do this to their Mum who we own , down low on the floor,licking her mouth and nitting her - teir form of grooming.So its all submissive I'd say,which I know dosent help the bruises !

> when people meet and greet her im now having to warn them she does this which puts them off of stroking her,

Buster can get a bit 'nippy' when excited, it's his front teeth he uses, mostly not painfull but occasionally it can give a painfull pinch (he's undershot).
When greeting people outside, I've taught him to turn his butt to the person and his head towards me, that way I can give him a treat for being good and the person can stroke his back/rump which is less exciting for him and keeps their hands a safe distance away from his face.
It also takes away the risk of him knocking somebody over with his rear end if he turns to face me for a 'good boy biccy' as he's allready facing me.

I just tell people he gets excited, so it's better if they can stroke him on the back/rump, and to NOT touch his face/head/neck (he isn't comfortable with strange adults stroking his head, despite a lot of effort to try to get him to be OK with it, I also taught him to lick hands to give him an alternative behaviour to interact with us with instead of nipping, but he refuses to lick the hand of anybody outside of our family - even if bribed with high-value food rewards!)