Why does a dog bite when he greets you?

Question

I just want to understand my brother's girlfriend's dog who lives with us.

When he greets you, he cries and barks, he jumps on you relentlessly. If you come at him to block him, he will just find another angle to jump on you and he bites you as he does it. It doesn't look as an attack but it still hurts. He looks excited to see you.

If he doesn't get his way with you, he'll just start barking and biting my dog. Why is that? Can someone explain to me?

It seems the only way to calm him down is by literally always facing him as he comes to you, prevent him from jumping before he gets a chance, and follow him (as he will try to sneak on you from another angle) until he sits down and waits. But the issue with that is that he often will just bark relentlessly. At least he stopped jumping and biting. And if my dog is anywhere near (which he wants to because he wants to greet me too) her dog will just start attacking him. He's like that with everyone, not just me. I feel bad for my dog as he avoids greeting people and stays in his little corner alone more and more because of her dog.

Karen L · Accepted Answer

Excitement. He's happy to see you and wants to play. He's sort of treating you as if you are another dog. He doesn't mean any harm, though he's bound to do some sooner or later. It's normal behaviour for a dog, but that doesn't mean it's acceptable behaviour. It isn't. It's the behaviour of a dog which has not been taught what is acceptable and what isn't. The dog needs to be trained not to do it, and doing so will be much harder now that the behaviour is established than it would have been to train it that way from the start. If the owner of the dog is not going to step up and do it, and since she hasn't bothered to correct the behaviour so far she is unlikely to do it now, maybe someone else in the house will. Frankly, if I was confronted by a dog which did this every time and I had to deal with it often because the dog lived in my house, I would very quickly lose patience and deal with it myself. If the dog jumped on me, I'd knock it over. If the owner of the dog didn't like that, too bad. I don't know whose house it is, but if it was my house I would demand that the dog be trained or confined so it couldn't intimidate your dog or hurt anyone.

bluebonnetgranny · Answer

One of the very first things you train a pup for is to 'stop biting'.  This dog has had NO training & doesn't know he is doing anything wrong.  Someone have to learn how to teach him not to bite.

It is just a matter of lack of any training.  A dog is just a dog until it has been trained & training can go on & on & on depending on how far you want to take it.

Owner is very ignorant (uneducated) about the dog.

Elaine M · Answer

He's doing a 'mouthing/ like puppies do constantly.

You have to train the dog to stop that.  Immediate correction, make him sit and calm down.

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Why does a dog bite when he greets you?

3 Answers