If you are concerned about your dog's temperament, I suggest you seek assistance from a behaviorist who can evaluate your puppy and, it is hoped, reassure you she simply is extremely dominant and tenacious. A certain number of dogs display abnormal behaviors that are unresponsive to typical training methods. Though rare, these dogs need an expert help to have the best odds for improvement.

More typically, "mouthing" puppies that are reacted to or countered with scolding develop increasingly combative, adversarial, testy attitudes toward their human family members. Rather than backing down when confronted by their owners, these feisty dogs see physical or emotional discipline as a call to arms (or more teeth on arms)!

A dog that has an aggressive self-defense reflex mechanism will react with counteraggression, rather than inhibition, when confronted. The attention experienced, though negative, still serves to reinforce the undesirable behavior. Attempts to correct the combative dog escalate into struggles to punish or restrain it; as the pet grows more forceful in resistance to authority and restraint, many owners fear it will begin to perceive itself as the "top dog" in the relationship. Desperate not to back down or "lose face," many owners lose control instead and trigger more and more aggression from their dogs during what is literally a vicious cycle.

The benefit of "dominance rollovers" during aggressive incidents is questionable; although some dogs may settle and feel "put in their place" by the technique (which involves rolling a dog onto its side or back by restraining it with one hand by the scruff of the neck and using the other to topple or "roll" the dog), many are agitated into higher, rather than lower, aggression levels. Some dogs do inhibit their aggressiveness when physically overpowered, but many simply will give up for the moment and save themselves for the next go-around a few minutes later. If the owner actually totally bullies the dog into submission, it may reduce its aggressiveness with that particular individual, but in backlash it may test other family members in an equally physical manner. Having learned "might makes right," and that social rank is established through physical superiority, some dogs may continue to throw their weight around with smaller or meeker family members.

Have your dog assessed by your vet and also by a behaviorist to determine that it is both medically and mentally sound. Seek a behavioral modification program that avoids methods that would have you personally counter your dog's inappropriate behavior and uses positive reinforcement instead. To react at all, even with disapproval or anger, will reinforce the mouthing and biting with negative attention. Although negative, it still is attention-predictable and possibly exciting to challenge. Many dogs develop canine "juvenile delinquent" tendencies, deliberately repeating behaviors they know will work to draw a challenger into action.

The most important first step in addressing a mouthing problem is to examine other aspects of daily life with the dog. Is the unwitting owner accidentally giving the message that the dog is in control? Dogs that bark or scratch to demand their owners take them out are more likely to be mouthy than dogs that are taken out on a schedule or with the owners' suggestion. Dogs that lead or drag their owners through doorways and while out walking also are more likely to demonstrate excessive dominance compared with dogs that follow their owners through doorways and walk in a controlled and respectful manner. Dogs that are given attention without being required first to demonstrate polite, solicitous behaviors, such as sitting, and that demand attention by pestering, mouthing and jumping, are much more likely to resist their owners' attempts to control them.

Properly educated dogs show self-control and require no commands to stop attention-demanding misbehaviors. Instead, they are taught that certain behaviors earn good results, and other behaviors earn none. Withholding attention and requiring a dog to be polite before lavishing affection on it helps the dog to want to be self-controlled and to seek the owner's positive attention by demonstrating deliberate social quietness. Finally, dogs that are scolded and punished actually demonstrate less self-control and more impoliteness than dogs that are trained with positive reinforcement. Ignoring or impersonally interrupting mouthiness without eye contact or attention would greatly reduce your pup's desire to repeat her mouthy behaviors.

If ignoring doesn't seem to put a damper on her oral enthusiasm you may need to introduce a remote, or impersonal, correction. Place a few pennies in a small, empty plastic bottle and screw the cap back on. Drop the bottle on the ground near your pup so she will investigate it, and just as she sniffs it, drop a second noisy bottle so it actually lands very near, or in the case of a more aggressive canine, upon the dog. Be sure not to strike the dog with the noisy bottle while holding it in your hand, and don't release it with force. Keep it light (10 or 15 pennies), and do not use it if you are in a bad mood. The objective is to allow her to experiment; when she goes to investigate the "new thing" in her world, it will be perceived as more positive or negative based on experience and association. You need your dog to develop a sense that the noisy bottle is a negative thing, and that the noise it makes warns of the possibility of another unpleasant experience similar to the one that made the initial negative impression. If she receives no personal attention from you when mouthing, and instead hears the sound she associates with a previous, bad experience, her train of thought will be derailed from mouthing. During temporary moments of bite inhibition she should be petted and praised, but if touch inspires the next go-around with baby "jaws," the noisy bottle again should either be shaken or dropped. For more information on dealing with mouthing behavior problems, see my article "Training Tips Straight For The Puppy's Mouth" in the February 2000 issue of DOG WORLD Magazine.

One of the most powerful and least damaging methods for improving a dog's social behavior is the process known as shaping-the strategic withholding of positive reinforcement and attention until a dog demonstrates a desirable behavior. Shaping your puppy's behavior by responding to it only during moments when she is not mouthing at all or when she is gnawing upon a deliberately presented toy rather than a hand or an arm, allows the dog to learn to earn positive reinforcement. Once she knows it feels good to follow rules she will do so willingly.

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• Aggression

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