Hooking your fingers behind a canines canines.

[Salty seadog]

I cannot be alone in this but all my life as a bonding exercise with already friendly dogs I have hooked the two fingers nearest my thumb inside a dogs mouth so they are behind the canines and we have a little tug'o'war where I pull the mutts head around, they resist and go the other way and repeat. Those Jaws could crush my two fingers in a split second as they are already between them.

I've played this game with many many dogs including @Fab Foodie whippet Basil (although I think he just wanted to keep chewing my shoes) in the end I just let Fabbers have them.

Anyway, that's my musings on having trust with dogs.

 

[Mo1959]

I cannot be alone in this but all my life as a bonding exercise with already friendly dogs I have hooked the two fingers nearest my thumb inside a dogs mouth so they are behind the canines and we have a little tug'o'war where I pull the mutts head around, they resist and go the other way and repeat. Those Jaws could crush my two fingers in a split second as they are already between them.

I've played this game with many many dogs including @Fab Foodie whippet Basil (although I think he just wanted to keep chewing my shoes) in the end I just Fabbers have them.

Anyway, that's my musings on having trust with dogs.

I used to hold a treat between my lips and my Rough Collie would very gently take it. I never tried it with my greedy lab cross though.

 

[newfhouse]

I think it works most reliably with dogs that were properly socialised with other dogs as pups. That’s when they learn to calibrate the strength of their bite during play.

 

[Reynard]

I used to hold a treat between my lips and my Rough Collie would very gently take it. I never tried it with my greedy lab cross though.

I do this with my cats - mainly with Poppy. Lexi not so much, as I rather value my nose, and she's prone to nip.

Fecking tickly when the whiskers go up your nose, though...

 

[I like Skol]

Not had a dog for a long time but when I did, or playing with other Friendly dogs often have fun grabbing their bottom jaw. Obviously not something you can do so easily with a small dog but does seem to be an acceptable form of 'play' with the dogs I have encountered. Good job really as it does leave you exposed to getting your fingers bitten off.....

 

[gbb]

My wife and myself find ourselves at odds sometimes with playtime with the dog.
I do the finger behind the canines, dog seems to enjoys this (he is a labrador, im sure theyre not entirely happy unless they have something in their mouth ). We wrestle, he play bites constantly, as a pup, he is still learning bite strength but that is coming.
But is it a good thing ?...as you walk past, he will graze at your fingers, any attempt to engage play, but as my wife says, you shouldnt be encouraging it, what if he does it to someone else, the kids ?
No right, no wrong...only if it goes wrong, which is unlikely based on 40 years of keeping dogs.

Holding a dogs bottom jaw, i try not to do, they can probably do less damage (its the jaw that has the biting strength, not the head)...but my dogs never seemed to like it, uncomfortable for them perhaps ?

 

[Drago]

Gun dogs, selectively bred to be soft mouthed.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

I used to hold a treat between my lips and my Rough Collie would very gently take it. I never tried it with my greedy lab cross though.

I could do that with both Border Collies
The present dumb-ass Cockerpoo is too greedy though!

Gypsy (?? - 2007)

Jack (1995 - 2005)

Taken 2013
(June 2012 - ....)

 

[Drago]

Miss my old Disco 1 3.9. It was crap really, but so very somehow good at the same time. I can remember bringing baby Lemmy home from the breeders in it. Fond memories.

 

[cosmicbike]

We clean our 3's teeth daily, so hands/fingers in the mouth is normal to them. As a game, not really, we play at throwing toys rather than tug games which got quite messy one day when I forgot to remove the last toy and put it away. One bloody dog later and I've not forgotten since.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

Miss my old Disco 1 3.9. It was crap really, but so very somehow good at the same time. I can remember bringing baby Lemmy home from the breeders in it. Fond memories.

Mine was a 50th Anniversary model
(300Tdi/manual)

 

[Time Waster]

I did this with my grans Yorkshire terrier. She went to a breeder, KC registered and everything, but saw a 4 yo bitch that couldn't breed so the breeder didn't treat it well at all. My gran wasn't going to leave it there one minute longer. She picked it up into my arms then took the breeder into her front room. No idea what happened but she paid her something.

My gran took her to the vets for a check over. It had only ever been fed with cheap puppy food which rotted her teeth. The vet removed them all but her upper and lower canine teeth. So that was perfect for ragging her around by the teeth. Don't be fooled by Yorkshire terriers, they're still terriers and pretty tough with it considering their size. She later on lost another two.