Tail Biting

Question
I have two male collie dogs.  One is constantly hanging on to the other by his tail and bites it until it is raw. I have tried applying mustard to the tail as a deterrant but this does not work. do you have any ideas how i could stop this as it is causing distress?  

Answer

Hi Gillian,

The best solution to this problem is to supervise your dogs, so the one can be "corrected" out of the habit of biting the other dog's tail. This continual tail biting can lead to bacterial or yeast skin infections, which can be be difficult and expensive to treat.

Get a water pistol or squirt bottle and fill it with water. The instant you see that dog going over to bite the tail of the other dog, firmly say "NO!", as you give him a squirt right in his face. You must be consistent with these corrections, meaning this is an "all the time"  thing, not "sometimes". Praise your dog the minute he moves away from the other dog. Whenever you aren't able to supervise the dogs, they should be separated.

A good way of supervising the dog that's doing the biting, is to keep him on his leash, and tie the leash to your belt-loop, so there's no chance of him being able to make contact with your other dog.

With constant supervision and "corrections", your dog should learn that the tail biting is wrong, in about 2 weeks or so.

Best of luck,

Patti