Expert: Lee Charles Kelley - 1/4/2008

Question
hi

i have a 7 month old male jack russell terrier.  i also have a two and a half year old jack russell bitch.  they get on great but recently a problem has occured with the young male nippnig the female on the back legs.  they usually play well together although if my female runs away the pup will chase her and nip her back legs.  she has now started holding her leg off the ground and limping.  she yelps when he nips her, although when i have seen this happening it doesnt seem to be a bite, definatley more of a nip.  she now doesnt like me toching her back legs and has growled when i have done this.  although when she is being bathed she has no problems with me rubbing her legs with a towel to dry her and she doesnt seem to be in pain - she also gets groomed once a day, she stands on the outside table on all four legs and lets me brush her legs with no problem.  this has me confused as i dont think she is in pain, but why would she still be holding her leg up when walking.  would this be to keep it out of the pups way?  any help would be greatly appreciated

thank you

Answer
Hey, Caleb,

Nice name. I'm currently training a Welsh springer spaniel with that moniker. I'll tell him you said hi.

Some dogs will exhibit "pretend lameness," which a lot of people think is done to elicit sympathy and/or attention. But in your female's case, it sounds to me like you hit the nail on the head. She's probably doing it to keep the pup from grabbing her leg all the time.

If you want to change the pup's behavior, I'd start by playing tug-of-war with him. Always let him win and praise him enthusiastically for winning. That way he'll get a lot of intense satisfaction from biting the toy. Once he's really "addicted" to playing tug (if he's not already), it'll be much easier, whenever he gets an impulse to chase and nip the female, to redirect that urge to bite back into the tug toy.

It boils down to this: the urge to bite, even in play, is one of the strongest components of a dog's psyche. You can't just expect it to go away; you have to give it a satisfying outlet. Ultimately, while nipping the female when she's moving away from him does feel good up to a point, on a certain level he knows that she doesn't like it. Plus he never gets to really bite down hard, which is what he's been bred to do. Biting the tug rag, on the other hand, comes with no limitations, no yelping from the tug rag or you, etc. It's pure satisfaction.

I hope this helps!

LCK