# Snapping at Face - In a Non-Playful Way?



## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

Whenever anyone blows on Ozzy's head, he'll turn and snap at their face. Not in a playful way, but in a way that he's gonna tear their face off.

Now I know nobody should be blowing on Ozzy's head/face. However, I personally find it unacceptable for him to be showing this behavior. 

Should I tell people not to do it? (Because my mom and Dad and Mom's friend and everyone who does it to him thinks it's funny to do it). Or should I try and discourage Ozzy's behavior? If so, how?


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## armymp1014 (Aug 14, 2010)

i would tell people to not do it. if people where blowing in my face i would get mad too. lol


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## katieliz (Mar 29, 2007)

it's our job to protect our dog(s). i think blowing on a dog's head that obviously does not like it, is quite an aggressive act on the part of whomever is doing it. no one should be provoking a dog like this, it's not cute or funny and you should really tell people to stop. if they will not stop you should not expose ozzy to these situations.

he has no voice to tell people to stop, you must be his voice.


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## KZoppa (Aug 14, 2010)

i would tell them not to do it. and warn them that you and Ozzy will NOT be held accountable if he does hurt someone. They were warned. Riley HATES when anyone blows in his face. He starts throwing a fit and snapping at people. He's a 90lb boy doing this. Not a good idea no matter what the size.


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## PaddyD (Jul 22, 2010)

Some people think taunting a dog is fun. They, of course, are idiots. It's only fair to warn the idiots but once they are warned you may get an opportunity to say "I told you so, you idiot." Makes me sad to see people who I think are otherwise responsible do this to an animal .... and very disappointed.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

I"m going to keep it simple and say Stop Blowing On His Head! What would be the point of this other than to antagonize the dog?

A lot of animals don't like that. I can blow in Jax's ear, on her nose to get her to swallow but if I did it to Sierra I would lose the tip of my nose.


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## smyke (Sep 24, 2009)

I have never met a dog that didn't react this way to being blown on.
I bet they wouldn't try it with a grown GSD.


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## fgshepherd (Sep 1, 2010)

I had an American Eskimo Dog. He didn't mind me kissing his face, but if I looked as though I were going to kiss his ear, he'd snap at me. I didn't try it twice to find out if he'd make good on his threat. There is no way I'd try it with your dog! If they think it is funny, they'll soon find out the hard way that he doesn't like it. Unfortunately, the dog gets to be the bad guy.


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## Shavy (Feb 12, 2009)

You need to put a stop to it ASAP. Not only is it cruel to allow others to have fun at your dogs' expense, but it's very possible that one day someone's face WILL be too close, they WILL end up in the hospital, and your dog very well may end up euthanized as a result.

We had a puppymill Sibe when I was growing up that would snarl viciously whenever anyone came too close to her face. Guess what? When she got older and less tolerant, she finally bit someone and was euthanized. It's not "cute" or "funny" to antagonized dogs, and it sure doesn't end well for either person or dog.


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## codmaster (Aug 5, 2009)

We had a female GSD who used to react when we would blow in her face also. But we got her to at least put up with it by using treats to give her while we would blow at her. She never would snap or growl but she would react and jump up toward the blower.

I would think that if the dog reacted aggressively (and who can blame them!) that you would want to train him/her not to just in case of the idiot who was doing the blowing, sort of like we train them not to be toy/bone passesive just in case a child tries to take something away from them or go near them while they are eating.


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## APBTLove (Feb 23, 2009)

I don't think it's acceptable either. I like Codmaster's way.


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## Narny (Sep 8, 2010)

I personally think both should be taken care of. People should be told not to do it and your dog should be trained not to react to this as well. 

I think positive training like treats when doing it would be good. At least by you doing it you will have a little bit more understanding of where the dog is at emotionally and _hopefully _you will be able to prevent bad things from 
happening. 

IMO I think that unless the dog is a unattended guard dog most aggressive behaviors in regards to people should be dealt with. I worry to much about accidents, misunderstandings, lawsuits and dog bites to allow that kind of behavior to continue. Good luck with the training.


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## pac liter (Jul 22, 2010)

definately agree with the last 4 posts. Seems very possible that somebody may blow or breath on these dogs by accident and get bitten undeservedly. 

Especially with kids this situation would stress me out a lot. 

Can you imagine? "Becky I told you not to blow on or breath on the dog. You deserved to get torn up and injured! I warned you!"

Im no legal expert but I don't think the courts would care that I warned them. I would be paying a mortgage for a house that somebody else owns. 

Just my 2 cents. 

Cheers


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## chicagojosh (Jun 22, 2010)

hmmm,

-it is definitely bogus to purposely annoy the dog by any means

-however, i also think Ozzy (and all dogs of course) should understand that you just DO NOT snap on a human. Ex...a visit to the vet. the vet is poking and prodding all over the dog. im sure most dogs find this annoying or dont like it, yet it would be unacceptable for the dog to snap on the vet.

Codmaster had a sweet idea with the treats. Still tell people not to annoy / bug your dog, but at the same time the dog should tolarate it knowing the human is higher ranking... just my 2 Euro's


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## lisgje (Sep 3, 2010)

I agree that it is not acceptable for pp to do that or for the dog to react that way. If you find you are not comfortable trying to stop the behavior with the dog, contact a trainer right away. No one will care if you warned them or not if they get hurt and neither will the police/courts. If you know your dog has a potentially dangerous reaction to something, they will hold you responsible no matter what if someone gets hurt. Ultimately, it comes down to the owner being 100% responsible for the behavior of their dog. I really hope you can teach your dog not to be so intolerant and teach the pp doing that to your dog that they have to stop antagonizing your pet that way.


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## mssandslinger (Sep 21, 2010)

i have family that are like that too though. my dad will NEVER listen to me about MY dogs, he undermines me and gives them random treats for doing nothing and gives them people scraps which is NOT tolerated by me at all. But he still will do what he wants, he thinks pulling his min pins toes till he gets mad is funny, i tell him he is an idiot for being cruel to him like that. But i do understand where the OP is coming from in the fact that my family doesn't care about what i say, so in the case that she cant stop the parents/ family, how could you help teach the dog not to bite at least.


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## lisgje (Sep 3, 2010)

May sound harsh, but I would tell that family member that unless they respect the rules with the dog, they are not allowed in the home and i would not take the dog to visit them either. Until the dog has been trained to tolerate that behavior, keep the situation from arising by keeping the person who is antagonizing the dog out of the mix. You can choose your friends, but not your family and if they can't respect your rules or the obvious discomfort their behavior is causing your dog, keep them apart. Realize that is not the easiest thing to do, but in order to keep the dog safe and not hurt someone, don't see what other choice there is.


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## JazzNScout (Aug 2, 2008)

As other have indicicated, I think it is the humans here that need the training. Why, oh, why do people think it's funny to taunt dogs? And do you ever notice they don't taunt 80 pound German shepherds?


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## codmaster (Aug 5, 2009)

Actually I do and think it is fun to sometimes tease our 90lb male GSD. Hold something out of his reach or put it near him and tell him to "Wait". Helps him develop his self control according to the animal behaviorist that we have used.

Nothing that will physically harm Baron.


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## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

codmaster said:


> Actually I do and think it is fun to sometimes tease our 90lb male GSD. Hold something out of his reach or put it near him and tell him to "Wait". Helps him develop his self control according to the animal behaviorist that we have used.
> 
> Nothing that will physically harm Baron.


He's also your dog and you know how he's going to react. But random people who only see Ozzy every once in a while and don't know him as well as I do, taunting him and thinking it's funny when he snaps at them is different. 

I've been working on it and he's doing better. He'll tolerate being blown on for longer, but he gets this look on his face that I think anyone could see as a, "You're really annoying me, I'm about to bite you," face.


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## JeanKBBMMMAAN (May 11, 2005)

Good that you're working on it. I had read somewhere that dogs hate this - absolutely hate having anyone blow in their face. So of course I had to check it out with my own personal dogs. I could see that some didn't care for it at all. Now we've turned it into a game and they all like it. I started playing it with my adult foster dog - now that we have trust - and just today he decided to make it fun by playing bowing and running off. I laughed, so he really got into it. 

They also have all decided that they can ask to have me breathe on them when I get home. Like little doggy breathalyzers, checking to see if I ate anything good that I might want to regurge for them. 

So continue to work on it - I mean, it doesn't have to be a huge breath, and definitely reward, and put salt in the beds of the people who have done this to him. KIDDING!


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## codmaster (Aug 5, 2009)

Konotashi said:


> He's also your dog and you know how he's going to react. But random people who only see Ozzy every once in a while and don't know him as well as I do, taunting him and *thinking it's funny when he snaps at them is different.*
> I've been working on it and he's doing better. He'll tolerate being blown on for longer, but he gets this look on his face that I think anyone could see as a, "You're really annoying me, I'm about to bite you," face.


Yea, I think anyone who thinks it's funny when a GSD snaps at them has got to be crazy.

OTOH, a dog who would try to bite someone who teases them by blowing on them seems like they could use a little more training. It is good that your guy is getting better with that.


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## JeanKBBMMMAAN (May 11, 2005)

I think Ozzy is a Pom - so basically a little wolf.


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## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

codmaster said:


> Yea, I think anyone who thinks it's funny when a *GSD snaps at them* has got to be crazy.
> 
> OTOH, a dog who would try to bite someone who teases them by blowing on them seems like they could use a little more training. It is good that your guy is getting better with that.


He's a Pom, so it's not scary to who he's snapping at, it's funny. It's scary to me because if he does nab someone, we're screwed. 

Is the law that if the dog is being taunted when it bit someone, then the dog isn't necessarily at fault? Regardless of the answer to that, he needs to be okay with it.


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## PaddyD (Jul 22, 2010)

Dog should be trained to handle as many stressful situations as possible. Try starting gently and using treats. Before you know it he will be wagging his tail when someone blows in his face.


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## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

He's fine with it now. I got him used to it a little while ago, but I still do it to keep him used to it. He just sits there with this irritated look on his face, but no matter how much I blow on him, he won't do anything now.


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## Lin (Jul 3, 2007)

Its only funny to them because he's a pom 

Which is ridiculous, as people have pointed out no one would find snapping funny in a GSD. But thats the problem with many people and small dogs, acts of aggression are seen as "cute"

I think you dealt with it properly. Both making sure he is safe, and not letting idiots treat him that way!


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