# Mouthing



## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Interesting idea came up about mouthing on retrieves. They taught their dog to mouth the dumbbell on command so they could have an on off switch for it. They said it worked and now their dogs only mouth with permission. Anyone ever heard of this or seen it done? I'm a little skeptical because it sounds an awful lot like the "teach the dog to bark so you can teach him to only do it on command" technique that I rarely hear works.


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## JDandBigAm (Aug 25, 2008)

I would be too scared to try that technique. Jonah is getting less and less mouthy but he still does it some. I'm trying to stop him from throwing the dumbell to the back of his mouth which is when he mouths but I've only had minimal luck. Any suggestions? I take the dumbell and tell him to take it placing it right behind his canines but when he looks up in the front position he opens his mouth and it falls to the back teeth.


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## Titan1 (Jan 19, 2010)

You could not pay me enough to teach my dog to mouth. I've worked way to hard to stop Titan from rolling the dumbbell in his mouth and I've seen the dogs they teach to bark to relax and then I also watch said dogs get into the ring and stress out and the 1st thing they do is start barking..


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## Bender (Dec 30, 2008)

Turbo, my old guy, was a horrible mouther. We did scent hurdle and he was BAD. We had to have at least three dumbells at any given time, as he'd usually chew through them. No dog would pick up his splintered mess though!

I've heard of using a weighted dumbell, so it's not as light and easy to mouth, or putting a fishing line on it to pop it out if they start to mouth so they learn to hold on tighter. Has not been an issue with the goldens though here...


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

If there was a magical way to train dogs to stop mouthing - I wanna know. But I don't want anything to do with teaching him to mouth stuff. Unless it's his rawhide bones, I guess. 

One method that seems to work (and I'm still working on it) is the standing there watching him chew and not taking the dumbbell out and rewarding until he stops chewing and actually holds it properly for a second. <- That's about as close as I would get to "permitting" chewing.


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## FlyingQuizini (Oct 24, 2006)

I can't see how it would work in the mouthing was the least bit reinforcing, which, IMO, it has to be for so many dogs to continue doing it despite the myriad corrections trainers have come up with for attempting to address it over the years.

I think the biggest reason for mouthing problems is rushing duration of the hold. The shape of the dumbbell also encourages lazy holding, since they can roll it back and it won't likely fall out of their mouths.

With my next dog, I'm going to shape a quiet hold on an un-evenly weighted dowel first, long before I ever introduce a dumbbell.


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

I hate working on mouthing. He won't mouth if I work him when he's calm (well, calm for Flip). He won't mouth if my hands go anywhere near his face. He won't mouth if I tell him not to. But what I will probably be working on forever is having him have a nice hold while he is amped up without me first giving him some kind of cue or command not to mouth. 

His articles all have strings attached to them and I almost always pull on them before taking them. He will immediately clamp down. I could pull him off the floor and he would still be clamped. I just need to figure out a way to get that from him without my hands moving first.


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## sammydog (Aug 23, 2008)

Sounds like a bad idea to me... I am one of those people who tried to put barking on command for Barley... Watch my Barley 2010 video, go to about midway through.... He is known for barking on the start line, on the table, on some contacts, and anytime he thinks I don't know what I am doing. Barking on command is something I won't teach again, IMO it just makes it more fun and more likely to come out in certain situations...


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Sounds like a bad idea to me. Mouthing has to be inherently rewarding or I don't think so many dogs would enjoy it so. Gnawing and mouthing their dumbbells - no, I too work pretty hard at teaching a solid hold and the idea of teaching a mouthing behavior ? Not me


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## Loisiana (Jul 29, 2009)

Well good, since nobody else here thinks it's a good idea either then I'm not going to try it. It sounded awfully scary to me but I didn't know if maybe I was looking at a good opportunity to knock out a problem. I think I'll avoid trying that.


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

Yeah sounds like the barking idea--this comes from science which says behaviors put on a continuous reinforcement schedule then dropped go extinct quicker, but I am skeptical as well. I've heard the barking thing does not work either.


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