# Dog Biting and Pulling Clothes



## jojo80 (Jan 18, 2010)

Hello,

My names Joanne, my partner and I have a 18 month old Husky/Staffy cross "Max". In nearly every aspect of day to day life he is very obidenant. 

He won't leave the house to get in the car unless we tell him to, he waits for his food until told he can have it, he sits, stays, waits, lays down, spins. Knows all the word commands you would expect. 

There's one issue, that I can't seem to rectify. He constantly bites/pulls (not hard) my hands, arms or pulls my clothes, he will not listen to no. He will listen to my partner if he tells him to stop doing this to me...and will go over and kiss my other half to say sorry and come straight back to doing this to me. I have tried everything, from putting him in the kitchen and saying naughty everytime he does this, but as soon as I let him out he does the same thing again. He rarely tries this with my other half, and if he does, one No and Max stops. Max also doesn't do this to anyone else. 

Have you got any suggestions that could solve this problem? he's not agressive with it and his tail is constanly wagging and think its all a game. The only thing I can think is that he is trying to get me to play or needs something. As he know I walk him and feed him the most and in the middle of the night he comes and gets me out of bed to let him out of the house for a wee. Could he just be associating me with doing things for him.....and Daddy's there for the cuddles! 

I've never play fought with him and try to avoid tug of war games so can't understand where he gets this from.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Many Thanks Jo


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## REB (Sep 18, 2009)

Our dog, a standard poodle/schnauzer mix, also does this-- and he's also ~1+ year old. He mouths at hands/shirt cuffs when he wants attention. He does it to me and to my husband (we both feed/walk him). He seems only to do it when he's in a particularly playful mood. My theory is that it's partly the age-- adolescent dogs will try to test boundaries. But he should know that even playful mouthing isn't okay with humans, so we're working on stopping the behavior altogether. When he mouths at our hands, we say "no," or "ah-ah-ah!" cross our arms (so our hands are out of reach), and turn around and walk away from him. Since Mac is doing it for play/attention, having us leave is exactly what he *doesn't* want. I think it's slowly getting better! Mac goes through phases where he does it more or less frequently. I'll think he's outgrown it, and then there it is again. All part of the dog's growing up! 

If other people have other ideas, I'll be very glad to hear them, too!


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