Hank's Behavior, can it be changed with a lot of work?

[Freedom]

Amy, thankfully no. Never bit enough to break the skin, but left a mark. I don't think he's doing it intentionally to injure someone. It's just the reason of WHY he is doing that. WHY he does it without any warning.

This is VERY important. He KNOWS bite inhibition. If you decide to find a trainer to help w/ this, be SURE to include this in the initial presentation (which you did not do in the OP of this thread). It is CRITICAL, as some won't work w/ a dog that does bite.

Dogs don't have hands. If a human does something the dog doesn't like, they can't reach up and push the human away. Dogs use the mouth for this purpose.

It "could" be as easy as, these people are invading "his" space. We all have an area around us we don"t want folks to enter. This is why if you are talking to a person face to face and get too close, they take a step back, or to the side. Every person has a different idea of how close is too close; and every dog does, as well.

She was sitting by him and she was leaning over to get her purse, . . . .

She leaned over HIM? Or across or in front of HIM?

With what you DO know about each incident, does this apply?

[CountryWolf07]

It sounds like that's the problem. He does try to control things his way. Food. Play. Sleep. Go outside. Come inside. HIS way. We've been working on him with that.

I am starting to think, it has to do something with personal space. I found out that with the daughter, she was sitting and Hank was on top of the couch, just sitting, and she shifted to her side to reach over to get her purse on the floor, and for some reason, he just nipped her on the cheek. Everyone was just, "What just happened?" and we put him in the crate for rest of the time while she and her mom was here.

This is VERY important. He KNOWS bite inhibition. If you decide to find a trainer to help w/ this, be SURE to include this in the initial presentation (which you did not do in the OP of this thread). It is CRITICAL, as some won't work w/ a dog that does bite.

Dogs don't have hands. If a human does something the dog doesn't like, they can't reach up and push the human away. Dogs use the mouth for this purpose.

It "could" be as easy as, these people are invading "his" space. We all have an area around us we don"t want folks to enter. This is why if you are talking to a person face to face and get too close, they take a step back, or to the side. Every person has a different idea of how close is too close; and every dog does, as well.



She leaned over HIM? Or across or in front of HIM?

With what you DO know about each incident, does this apply?