Nibbling

[Shifty]

Looking for some input, our boy has picked up a little habit of nibbling on items. Not biting or chewing but actually using his front teeth and nibbling. It doesn't seem to matter what the object might be but he prefers my wife's quilts and my arm. My wife swears the owner prior to the rescue must have fed him nothing but corn on the cob... just curious if anyone else has seen anything similiar and knows any 'special' tricks for helping to end it.

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90% Newf, 10% Who Cares.

 

[Maggiesmom]

How old is he? Maggie went through a stage of doing that all the time til she hit about 10-11 mths old now she only occasionaly does it.

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Shawn....
Maggie, JoJo, Alex, & Destiny too
http://www.geocities.com/furrycritterspage/furrycritterspage.html

 

[Shifty]

PJ is roughly 13 months old right now...hopefully it is only a phase. He does stop after getting the big "NO!" but seems to quickly forget the next day. It's actually somewhat comical to watch but it's just one of those things we can't always allow. I'm hoping it's his age and his still adjusting to his new enviroment. Past few days have just been scold, praise, scold, praise, scold, praise.

But I can't complain, he's a good boy considering all he's gone through so we'll love him just the same.

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90% Newf, 10% Who Cares.

 

[Sound Bay Newfs]

One of my dogs does that (he's 9 1/2) but not as much as he used to. My other two do not, so it sounds like an individual thing. I know that they do that to themselves when they have and itch that they can't scratch with a paw. So maybe it gets transferred over to people.
Lynn

 

[Kodiak]

From what I'm to understand, this type of nibbling is sometimes called "flea biting" which is a form of affection. Our late golden did it and Kodi our 10 mth old Newfie does the same thing. It's not a form of aggression.

Brenda

 

[kzdz]

There was a thread about this a few months ago -- not sure where. Morgan also "nibbles" but usually on my head. Not to worry. It sounded like a lot of our dogs do this.

 

[AmyPC]

Rory used to be a big time nibbler!

It was definitely an affectionate gesture, not an aggressive one. And we too descrived it as her 'corn eating' manouvre!

She has pretty much stopped with the nibbling though. She's 16 months now.

 

[Miyax]

I don't know if this will work or if you think it'll suit your purpose but...if there are things, like the quilts and/or your arm, that you really don't want him to nibble on, could you try spraying bitter apple on them? I honestly don't know if bitter apple will stain fabric. I guess if you decide to try this you could do a sample spray on an unimportant peice of fabric and see if it stains. I've sprayed it on the bottom edge of our couch when I caught Ese nibbling it when he was younger. He wasn't full mouth chewing, just doing that "flea-nibble" thing, but it was fraying the fabric. He never bothered it again and the bitter apple didn't stain the couch. I've never known him to nibble before or since. I just thought I'd throw that out as a possible option.

- Miyax

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A tribute to his Newfoundland:
"... beauty without vanity
strength without insolence
courage without ferocity
and all the virtues of man without his vices"
- Lord Byron, 1808