Mister Mouthy

A requirement that Conker enacted for the "privilege" of getting to pet him is for your hand to be thoroughly mouthed first. He isn't pet by very many people because of this, even though he is not mouthing very hard at all. I guess it's the "hand in a dog's mouth" thing that gets to some people.

I use Conker's mouthiness to look at his teeth. He does not like having his teeth looked at and will try to get away every time I do it, so I ask him to play and once he's got my hand in his mouth, I tell him to "wait" for a moment and get a quick glance of his teeth in. If I see anything I don't like, then I will actually hold him still and get a better look.
I firmly believe that Conker's mouthiness is essential for him. It's his way of doing things, and for some dogs, being mouthy can be a calming thing. I don't think that is necessarily the case with Conker, but it's a big part of who he is. Taking that away wouldn't be fair to him. I know he would find something "worse" to do because I did try to train the mouthiness completely out of him, and it resulted in him "stealth chewing" all sorts of things he "should know" aren't his and are off-limits.
Call me lazy, call me a bad dog trainer/owner, but it's too much work to deal with training out behavior after behavior (because they will always be replaced) if the first one wasn't even that bad to begin with.

Plus, I like it. It's fun to hand-mouth wrestle with Conker, and I find that it helps strengthen our bond. It could just be time, but when I stopped trying to train out the mouthiness and instead incorporated it into play, Conker seemed to grow more attached to me.
Why take that away because someone else thinks it's bad?


Note: Conker was a terrible biter as a pup. He does not bite anymore because I trained him not to clamp down on me. That is how I allow him to be so mouthy. He is not hurting me or anyone, so I do not see it as a bad thing anymore.

(May, 2011)