My Experience with Sunny’s Biting
I was so excited the day Sunny walked into my life. I had dreamed of this moment for so long and now it was finally going to come true. I had imagined the 10 hr drive home to be one of total joy with a sleeping Bully puppy curled up in my lap. Little did I know that an alligator was about to enter my life. It started on the way home when I picked up Sunny. Here I was the totally ignorant new Bully owner. Sunny was my first dog and nothing I had read about Bullies had prepared me for those teeth. The trip home was filled with many moments of peaceful sleep but it was also filled with moments of sheer pain from the sharpness of those little Bully teeth. As the weeks went by the biting got worse and I began to get discouraged. It felt hopeless. I thought I was doomed to have a nipping dog. So, I joined an email list to consult with about this problem. The list I joined was not supportive of me. They made me out to be some sort of monster and worse yet they didn’t want to help me. They felt I was going to raise Sunny to be a vicious dog. I didn’t know where to turn. Somehow my posts to the list had gotten taken totally out of context, and I eventually got an email from the breeder asking me to return Sunny. She was worried about the biting because of the way my posts must have sounded. I grew quiet of the whole situation, quit the list but it didn’t stop the biting. Every time I went to pet my lovely pup there were those teeth again. Sunny would jump up on me and rip my clothes, he would hucklerun and jump in midair and catch my flesh or my clothes and tear them to bits. I read all I could read about this problem and everything I read said it would eventually stop on its own. I started Sunny in a puppy class at this point. The trainer told me to quit worrying about it and it would stop. She gave me things to do to stop it. Every time he bit I was to scream ouch and stop playing with him. If it still didn’t stop I was to leave the room. The idea was to show him that if he bit me then playtime was over. When that didn’t work I tried the spray bottle. Every time he got to rough I would squirt him in the butt. Did any of these really work? No, the only thing that worked for us was time. As Sunny’s baby teeth fell out, the need to bite things all the time also ceased. I was able to start petting my Bully when he was around five months old. Looking back on the whole incident I realize what went wrong with Sunny…NOTHING! Sunny was being a total normal Bully puppy. But being as he was my first dog I didn’t realize how extreme the biting could be. Sunny never bit me in anger, fear, disgust, or from trying to be dominant. He only bit me when he was trying to play. I had to teach him through his first year how to play without his teeth. It has been a slow process and that first year was really tough. Bully pups play hard and I wasn’t prepared for it. Bullies are also so hardheaded and when they want to do something especially as a pup it is so hard to persuade them not to. Sunny has came so far since the day I brought him home. He will actually let me love on him now for long periods of time, and I never feel those teeth anymore. Well, sometimes he does get really excited in playing and forgets but he doesn’t bite down like he used to. So, for all of you new puppy owners out there I want you to know that what your Bully is doing with those teeth is totally normal. Be firm and consistent and they will learn when they are being to rough. The first few months are hard no doubt, but don’t worry someday you will actually miss these days.
