- Joined
- Sep 21, 2008
- Messages
- 240
- Purraise
- 20
The dog in question is a 9 year old Mini Doberman Pinscher who has been living at my house. I am NOT the owner, and yes he does have an owner (also living here). He is blind in one eye and half blind in the other. He lives with another Mini Pinscher, who sometimes growls at him and sometimes cuddles with him. Usually he enjoys being petted. He has bitten me on two occasions now:
1- I was trying to get him to go into the "dog room", where we put the dogs while no one's home. He wouldn't come for a treat, so I reached for his collar and tried to gently pull him. He whipped his head around and bit my hand.
2- Today, the owner had been away for over 12 hours, at which point I realized that apparently I was supposed to feed the dogs, though no one had told me to do so. The other dog ate, but this one only had a few bites. I didn't want him to starve, so I gave him a Milk Bone. Being blind, he seemed unable to find it on the floor, so I reached for the bone to show him where it was. He bit me.
Just FYI, I am horrible at disciplining anyone. Instead of saying "NO" when he bit me today, I said, "Sorry for messing with your bone."
How can I prevent this dog from biting again? It's one thing for an animal to bite its owner, but when he's biting someone else....unacceptable. He can be sweet, but how can I avoid getting on his bad side? As far as I know he's never bitten his owner. He obviously nees to learn some discipline.
(By the way, these incidents were the first times I've been bitten by a dog, and let me say, it does so much more damage than being bitten by a cat!)
1- I was trying to get him to go into the "dog room", where we put the dogs while no one's home. He wouldn't come for a treat, so I reached for his collar and tried to gently pull him. He whipped his head around and bit my hand.
2- Today, the owner had been away for over 12 hours, at which point I realized that apparently I was supposed to feed the dogs, though no one had told me to do so. The other dog ate, but this one only had a few bites. I didn't want him to starve, so I gave him a Milk Bone. Being blind, he seemed unable to find it on the floor, so I reached for the bone to show him where it was. He bit me.
Just FYI, I am horrible at disciplining anyone. Instead of saying "NO" when he bit me today, I said, "Sorry for messing with your bone."
How can I prevent this dog from biting again? It's one thing for an animal to bite its owner, but when he's biting someone else....unacceptable. He can be sweet, but how can I avoid getting on his bad side? As far as I know he's never bitten his owner. He obviously nees to learn some discipline.
(By the way, these incidents were the first times I've been bitten by a dog, and let me say, it does so much more damage than being bitten by a cat!)
