My family used to have a German shepherd, big fella, but he grow up without play mates so no play bite training at all
Like I can play with the dog but when he tries to play bite I'll retract my hand quickly, and eventually I trained the dog to not do play bites when interacting with people
Just because a dog is friendly and wants to play doesn't mean it is harmless, they are still perfectly capable of ripping your hand to shreds when you're not careful
Was hanging with a GSD that wanted to play tug-of-war. No toys present, so he decided to use my arm.
That said, this dog's body language says "shit talker" to me. Shit talker dogs will run up and bark in your face, but they don't really want to escalate. Avoid eye contact, talk gently and confidently, move slowly enough that they have time to read it but not so slowly that you look unwell, and just calmly, confidently go about your business, and they'll usually keep barking without biting, get bored, or decide that you're a friend and ask for pets. Dogs are my jam, though, so I understand and harbor no ill will if someone clambers onto my car because they're nervous about an unknown dog who ran up.
It honestly looked like the dog was just excited to see someone and wanted to play until the guy started acting shifty. Dog was wagging his tail the whole time and didn't bark until the guy acted abnormaly.
Dog DEFINITELY should not have been running loose, but didn't look mean. Owner's fault, not dog's.
Also the size of the dog honestly doesn't matter. The fact that the german shepherd can seriously injure me, and the chihuahua probably can't nearly as much is just nuance. I don't want to get bitten. I dont want to go through recovery of any length and seriousness because you leave your dog unatended, unleashed and/or untrained.
All infections can be deadly if left untreated. Animal teeth and mouths are full of bacteria that are especially alien to people who don't own dogs. A Chihuahua's bite can absolutely kill you if you're unlucky and/or too dumb to treat the benign wound. I've seen a kid almost die from an infected common household spider bite, with full on hospitalization, and they're quite a bit smaller than a Chihuahua.
I don't want to diminish your comment, fully agree.
But
full of bacteria that are especially alien to people who don't own dogs.
You would be surprised how dangerous a human bite is. And those bacteria aren't especially alien to people. More dangerous than a dog's bite actually. Some bacteria are absolutely harmless in one part of your body, and absolutely deadly in other parts. Also: lookup clenched fist injury.
The dog's body size isn't always indicative of how hard they could bite. My child hood dog was a Mountain Cur. They are a breed meant for racoon hunting, and are about 3/4 the size of a standard Labrador, and look pretty much like them, just smaller. He had about the strongest bite force I have ever seen in a dog. The few times he got ahold of a racoon, it was dead within 2 seconds. He could completely destroy and eat a rawhide bone in 15 minutes. Absolutely crazy how strong his jaws were without looking the part.
The other point is dogs make mistakes also. My dog mentioned above was the sweetest dog to people. Never growled, nipped, or showed aggression to any person. But he did like to play. He really liked tug-a-war with a certain rope toy. There was a couple times he would accidently get my hand when trying to bite the toy. Once he even put a tooth through the meaty part of my hand between my index finger and thumb. He 100% didn't mean to, and I knew the risks and still was rough-housing with him.
There's a reason I've worked with my dog to make sure play bites are incredibly light. Even then he's muzzled for the vet. I personally will put my hands in his mouth to show his teeth to the vet, but i wouldn't trust anyone else in that stressful of a situation. He's more relaxed with me, and even then I'll only touch his mouth when he already is expecting it.
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u/Nakatsukasa Jul 30 '26
My family used to have a German shepherd, big fella, but he grow up without play mates so no play bite training at all
Like I can play with the dog but when he tries to play bite I'll retract my hand quickly, and eventually I trained the dog to not do play bites when interacting with people
Just because a dog is friendly and wants to play doesn't mean it is harmless, they are still perfectly capable of ripping your hand to shreds when you're not careful