Pet Fox Enclosures: Fencing

As a small forward, sorry for this post being so late. We're in the middle of a major move, and I haven't had time to update.

After you have the location and flooring decided, the next major component of a fox enclosure are the walls. Any material that is safe and strong enough to keep the fox in (and curious or malicious strangers out) will do, though some work better than others. The enclosure should also be tall enough for you to enter and exit easily.

One of the best enclosure wall designs are large, bolted-together panels. They're strong, made of fox-safe material, weather-resistant, and very easy for one person to take apart and re-assemble. Due to their modular design, it's very easy to move or alter your enclosure if you need to. The same panels can be used for flooring under a layer of mulch, and for an escape-proof roof. This is what I made both Gizmo's indoor play-pen and outdoor play-yard out of, and I have never had an escape or injury.

One such kennel set can be purchased here. Please note that if you do go this route, you will need to buy several of the sets to make an enclosure big enough. Also keep in mind that the roof that comes with the kennel set is not sufficient to keep a fox enclosed. To create a minimum 10' by 10' enclosure for one fox, using panels for both flooring and roofing, you will need to purchase 3 sets.

Another alternative is to use chain link fencing for an enclosure perimeter. This is a cheaper option, though they are generally less portable and more difficult to construct, so keep that in mind. They do manufacture chain link 'dog kennel' sets similar to the metal panels I described above, but buyer beware. Some sets come with rounded doors on them as opposed to squared-off ones. Your fox may try to escape through this "corner" and get caught--I know of at least one dog who suffocated this way. If you do go with chain link, find a set with a door that closes flush with it's frame.

I would advise against using wood to build fox enclosure walls. To be safe for the fox (they chew everything), the wood would have to be untreated, and untreated wood for an outdoor enclosure would have a relatively short lifespan. Once it starts to weaken and rot, it becomes both and escape and a splinter hazard.

Pet Fox Enclosures: Choosing The Location

The first two things to consider when building a fox enclosure are size and location. For a red fox, an absolute minimum of 100 square feet is needed. If multiple foxes are to be kept in the same enclosure, start with a base of 100 square feet, and then add an additional 50 square feet for each fox in the enclosure (so an enclosure to keep 3 foxes should be a minimum of 250 square feet.) Keep in mind that these are the absolute minimums. If at all possible, your fox’s outdoor enclosure should be much bigger. The more room you can give them while keeping them safe and secure, the happier they will be.

The enclosure should be in a safe location. Ideally, it should be protected by a privacy fence, and invisible from the road, to discourage curious passerby or those with bad intentions. Inspect the area you’re considering turning into a pen. Avoid marshy ground or standing pools of water, as these indicate drainage issues that will not be easy to fix. If you build the enclosure on a slope, keep in mind that foxes love to dig in well-drained, sloped soil, so you will need to take even more precautions against dig outs.

The last thing you need to consider about location is exposure. Your pet will need to be sheltered from the elements. Consider if your chosen location has a windbreak and a source of shade; if either of these things is lacking, you will need to come up with a means of providing them.

Now that you’ve got your location picked out, it’s time to build! Be sure to come back next week when I start to discuss the actual construction of the enclosure.

Nail Care Part II: 7 Tips for Trimming Fox Nails

Nails in need of a trim.

Monday, I covered easy, hands-off techniques for maintaining your fox's nails. Today's article is about tips and tricks you can use for trimming a fox's nails.

The actual act of cutting a fox's nails is identical in most respects to trimming a dog's nails, and every trimming tool is different, so this isn't so much a step-by-step guide as it is tips that will apply no matter what tool you're using.

1. Start Young
The younger your pet fox is when you start a nail-trimming routine, the faster they'll become comfortable with it. It's a good idea to trim your kits nails at least once a week. (And if they don't particularly need trimmed, just go through the motions of doing it anyway.)

If getting their nails done is an established part of the routine, the fox will put up much less of a fuss about it later.

2. Handle Daily
Foxes, and most canines in general, are very sensitive about having their feet messed with. This natural aversion can be difficult to break, but like most things with foxes, patience and persistence will pay off. A few times a day, during both play and rest, examine your fox's feet. Touch them, look at the paw pads, gently spread the toes so you can get a better look at the nails, etc. Be gentle during your examinations, and work them into the routine. Over time, this will help desensitize your fox to having their feet touched.

Even after your pet fox is comfortable with having their feet handled, continue this practice. Ideally, for every one time you trim your fox's nails, there should be ten times that you just look at them without clipping. This will help to prevent your fox from associating getting their paws touched with the clippers.

3. Use a Clipper You're Comfortable With
The specific brand and style of the nail clipper is not important. Anything that will clip a dog's toenails will also work on a fox. What's important is that you're confident in using the clipper, and that it will not slip out of your grasp. (I personally prefer clippers that have a scissor-style grip on them.)

Because there are so many varieties of clipper, I can't give specific instructions on how to use them all. I will say that it's generally best to avoid "dremel" style nail-grinders, as the noise they produce tends to freak foxes out.

4. Wait 'Til He's Sleepy
It's much easier to clip the nails on a sleepy, worn-out fox than one who is hyper and ready to play.

5. Use Distractions
Depending on how toy-possessive your fox is, giving them a ball to chew on while you work on their nails can be a very effective strategy. I wouldn't recommend giving them a particularly new or well-loved ball; if it's too much of a treasure, the fox is likely to be protective of it.

Another technique is to have someone else rub and pet and distract the fox while you trim the nails.

6. Err on the Side of Too Long
Foxes are not very forgiving if you nip the quick while cutting their nails. It's best to leave the nails a smidgen too long than risk hitting the quick.

7. Watch for Sharp Edges
The toe nails are at their sharpest right after they've been clipped--use caution until the fox has had a day or two to wear the straight edge down.

Nail Care Part I: Easy Ways to Keep Your Fox's Nails In Shape

For a lot of pets, nail clipping can be a major chore, and foxes are no different. I've found Gizmo to be very sensitive about his feet, and very creative in the ways he tries to avoid getting his toenails trimmed. Still, it is very important to make sure that your fox's nails are kept neat and trimmed.

Foxes walk on their toes, so long nails can make walking uncomfortable. Nails that get too long can splinter or break, which is extremely painful for the animal, and can cause profuse bleeding. Such open wounds are the perfect gateway for infection, and can cause serious illness. Worse, as the nail grows, so does the quick, so if the toenails are neglected for too long, it can become impossible to trim them back without hurting the fox further.

The easiest way to tell whether your fox's nails are getting to be a bit long is to walk him or her across a hard surface. If the nails touch the floor or make a noise as the fox walks, they are too long and need to be trimmed back.

One great way to keep nails filed down is to take your fox on frequent walks. Of course, this depends heavily on how social and at home in public your fox is, the temperament of your neighborhood in regards to pet foxes, and local laws. But for foxes and locales that will allow it, an hour-long walk on a concrete sidewalk each day is a wonderful way to keep nails filed down. To be effective, the walks must be of considerable length, and must be taken daily. For a long time, this was all the nail maintenance Gizmo required. And on top of the benefits to the nails, this is also a great way to exercise your fox (and yourself!) and to get rid of his or her excess energy.

Another possibility is to give your fox frequent access to rough material to dig in, such as a kiddie-pool full of gravel. Foxes are natural diggers, and are usually happy to make use of any digging material you provide for them. As always, be careful that your pet fox cannot dig out of their enclosure, and frequently check their paw-pads for any sign of wear and damage. If their paws seem cracked or raw, take away their digging spot until the damage heals, and replace it later with a less-abrasive material.

For many foxes, these two things used consistently are all that is needed to keep their toenails in good condition. However, sometimes they are not enough, and additional care is needed to keep the fox's toenails in good shape--sitting down and trimming the nails is necessary.

Wednesday I'll be covering tips and advice for clipping your pet fox's nails if they get a bit too long.

7 Tips for Introducing Foxes to Other Pets

Do foxes eat cats? Will my dog get along with a pet fox? Can I have a pet skunk AND a pet fox? I hear these questions a lot, and no two fox owners will give you quite the same answer, as no two foxes are alike. However, there are some basic rules of thumb that can increase the odds of a pet fox blending in well.

#1. Always Supervise
It's never advisable to leave a fox and another pet alone together, especially when they're just starting to get used to each other. Even if both animals are friendly, play can get a bit too rough and things can escalate. I know of more than one case where a fox and another pet who had always gotten along in the past were left alone together, and one or both were seriously injured when a fight broke out.

#2. No Pocket Pets
Don't try to introduce a fox to a caged pet or "pocket pet". Just don't. When your fox looks at your pet hamster/lizard/parakeet/sugar glider it doesn't see a friend, it sees food. Attempting to introduce a fox to a pocket pet will only end in tears, and it won't be the foxes fault.

#3. Buy the Smaller Animal First
Although not always possible, this can be a huge step towards pets in the house at least coexisting. It's much easier for an established full-grown cat to teach a fox kit to respect it's space than it is for a kitten to teach an adult fox the same thing.

#4. Make Changes Early
If introducing a new pet will make major changes to an established pets life (i.e. not allowed to go in a certain room, less attention, etc.) make those changes BEFORE you bring the new pet home, so the old one will not associate the restriction of it's freedom with the new arrival.

#5. Trade Blankets Before the Introduction
Animals rely a lot more on smell than we do, and an unfamiliar scent can cause a great deal of stress. Before introducing a fox to another pet, get them both used to the other one's smell. One of the easiest ways to do this is to take the blanket from one animal's bed and trade it with the other animal's blanket. This will allow them to get comfortable with the other one's scent ahead of time, so that when they do meet it won't be a completely "unfamiliar" animal.

#6. Introduce on Neutral Territory
Whenever possible, introduce animals on territory that neither one "owns". If neither animal feels like it owns an area and has to protect it, things are less likely to go south.

#7. Let Both Animals Have an "Escape Route"
Especially at first, both pets must be able to get away from the situation if they're starting to feel stressed. If the fox or the other animal feels cornered, things can turn nasty quite quickly. The easiest way to do this is to leash both pets, and have a responsible adult have a hold of each one. Make sure that each one can retreat out of reach of the other one's leash.

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For those of you readers who are from multi-pet households, how did you introduce your animals at first? What techniques have worked for you?

The Importance of Collars and Tags

Gizmo showing off his bright blue tags.

Last night, our neighbors found two Golden Retrievers in our neighborhood who were wearing bandannas, but no identification or real collars. Both dogs were friendly, well-fed, and well-groomed, so they were obviously a pair of lost pets. To keep the dogs safe and contained, we closed them in our garage while we started to look for the owners. This story has a happy ending, as it took less than an hour of asking around the neighborhood to locate the missing family, but not all lost pets are so lucky.

I am a firm supporter of collars and tags--there is no better way to get a lost pet home again

In the case of exotic pets like Gizmo, having a plain, easy-to-see identification on them is even more important than it is for dogs and cats. If someone sees a cat or a dog in their backyard, their first impulse is "lost pet." If someone sees a fox, raccoon, or skunk, their first impulse is "wild animal". If your pet dog gets out, most folks will try and catch it and return it to you. If your pet fox or pet skunk gets out, they're more likely to call animal control.

This is one of the situations where having a friendly pet fox can make the situation worse, if they're not wearing a collar or harness. Most wild animals will not approach a human unless they are sick. A lost pet fox trotting up for an ear-rub might get shot by a wildlife official, simply because it's not behaving "normally" for it's species. And with no obvious identification, how can we expect them to know it's a pet?

Gizmo wears harnesses in bright colors--usually red, blue, or green, to stand out against his butterscotch-and-black coat. The more obnoxious the shade, the more I like it. I want it to be obvious from space that he's a pet. He wears many identification tags, and is micro-chipped. (However, micro-chipping alone is not an effective way of getting your pet fox back--without any external means of seeing it's a pet, they've got no reason to check for a chip).

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Some people choose not to keep collars on their pets due to fur-wear. Nylon collars can cause the guard hairs around the neck area to break off, leaving a woolly texture instead of a sleek one. Snug-fitting collars in animals with long or curly coats, like a Persian cat or a poodle, can cause issues with matting up the hair under them. Although fur-wear is a minor cosmetic inconvenience, matting can be difficult to groom out, and can be painful for the animal.

One solution that we've found works very well, both against fur-wear and against matting, is to use what's called a rolled leather collar. They don't flatten the fur under it like a nylon or flat leather collar does, and we've had great luck using them both on Gizmo and our shaggy mess of a dog. (Our dog is a Bouvier de Flandres, which have thick, woolly, curly coats).

They are a bit more expensive than traditional flat collars, and can be hard to find, but they're long-lasting and worth the price. Gizmo is hard on his things (I'm constantly having to buy new harnesses for him) and it took him almost two years to wear out the collar to the point where I had to replace it. Our dog is still on her first collar.

Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any break-away rolled collars for cats. At least, none that I've found (if any of you come across one, please let me know!) For our long-haired cat, Kali, an effective way to avoid collar-matting is frequently removing and grooming the hair under the collar, and keeping the hair around her neck clipped short. A bit of a hassle, but it's worth it for her safety.

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Another reason I hear quite a bit for why people don't put collars on their pets (particularly cats and pet foxes) is that the pet "won't wear it". This is actually a pretty easy problem to fix, but it does take a bit of thought and work.

Step #1.
When you first buy the collar, wash it thoroughly, and wear it around your arm or ankle for about a week. This helps to soften the collar up so it will be more comfortable, and replaces the "alien" smells of the store with the more familiar smells of you and your home.

Step #2.
Having a bag of treats or a toy ready, put the collar on your cat or pet fox. Leave it on for about five minutes, and have an intense "love the pet" session. Treats, toys, ear-rubs, belly-rubs, whatever your pet likes best. Then take the collar off and ignore them for the next half an hour. Refuse to give them attention of any kind.

Step #3.
Put the collar back on, this time for about ten minutes, and once again shower them with love and praise and treats. Once you take it off, again break off all praise, treats, affection, etc.

Step #4.
Rinse repeat. Each time, increase the amount of time that you leave the collar on. If you feed your pet meals instead of free-range, put the collar on and have them wear it while they eat their dinner. The whole goal behind all of this is to make them associate the collar with good things.

After a day or two of this, even the most stubborn of cats will probably be wearing the collar with no problem! Foxes can take a bit longer to acclimate to it, but with patience and persistence will also learn to wear it no problem.

The Daily Health Check

Gizmo gets a health check every morning, and I highly recommend it for all pet owners. It helps you to recognize what's normal for your pet, and lets you catch problems really early on. And, as an added bonus, it gets them used to being handled.

I feel all along his back and sides for any lumps or bumps, his feet and pawpads get looked at to make sure they're in good shape, and I look in his eyes, ears, and mouth. I also check under his tail just to make sure he's keeping the fur there clean and dry.

Important Note: Always end the health-check with ear-rubbings. Otherwise, the fox will be obligated to scream at the top of his lungs to let the entire county know that you're skipping the most important step, and that you're neglecting him.

Trick Files: Shake

 It might surprise you to see this next on the list. Most dog-training courses have you teach "down" before "shake". However, as most foxes are extremely adroit with their paws, shake is a very easy trick for them to learn--they'll pick it up much more quickly than "Down", and this will help to build both your confidence and your pet's.

Prerequisites: Your fox must be conditioned to the clicker, and know the command "Sit".

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To teach your fox to "shake", have it sit in front of you and hold the treat in your closed hand on the ground, palm up. Your fox will probably sniff and lick at your hand at first, and may even nom you gently, but don't release the treat. Generally, he will very quickly shift to pawing at your hand to get it open--the instant he does this, click the clicker and release the treat, praising him enthusiastically.

Most foxes catch on to this very quickly, and will start tapping your hand right off the bat. Once he does this, lift your hand a little bit off the ground when you offer the treat, and say "Shake" first. Again, this generally takes very little time to master.

The next part is a bit more difficult. Start offering your right hand (Still with a treat in it) and telling him to "shake" but rewarding him with a treat from your left hand. This will take a little longer for him to understand (I hit hand A, but hand B rewards me). Once he does, though, you don't need to be holding a treat in the offered hand--just offer a flattened palm for him to paw at.

From there, just gradually build up what he has to do to get the treat. At first, just tapping the hand is sufficient. Next make him hold his paw there for a moment. After that's been mastered, he has to let you curl your fingers around said paw. Eventually, you get to the point where he has to let you hold his paw and shake it gently.

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Related Posts:

• How to Handle A Play Biter
• How to Get Your Fox to Take Treats Nicely
• Trick Files: Intro to the Clicker
• Trick Files: Eyes On Me
• Trick Files: Sit

Trick Files: Sit

The first (and arguably the easiest) trick to teach a fox or most any other four-legged creature is to sit. You can start teaching this one very early on. Gizmo had a good handle on it by the time he was ten weeks old. It makes for a great "trick preschool", as it's easy to learn and gets your fox used to the whole training routine with very little stress or confusion on their part.

Another good reason to start with "Sit" is that it's something of a gateway trick. A lot of the tricks I'll be teaching later on involve starting with a sitting fox; it's much easier and more effective to have them sit on command than to try and manhandle them into position.

Prerequisites: For this trick, I assume that your fox has already been conditioned to a training clicker. "Eyes On Me" is also useful, though not necessary.

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For A Kit:

This is easiest if your kit is in a pretty mellow mood--don't try to teach sit right in the middle of playtime. You want him to be alert, but not bouncing off the walls. Get something your fox really likes (ham, little bits of hardboiled egg, and cat treats all work well.)

Sit on the floor with the kit standing in front of you. Hold the treat so that he can see it and smell it. If he noms on your fingers, do NOT release the treat, or you'll be rewarding him for biting at you, which is not the lesson you want to teach.

Slowly move the treat over his head, right between his eyes and back towards his ears, and say "Sit" (Only say it once). To continue watching the treat move, the kit will sit down to keep it in his field of vision. The second his rump hits the ground, click the clicker and give him his treat, praising lavishly.

Repeat this a few times a day, and he'll have caught on in no time.

Troubleshooting: If your kit turns around to watch the treat instead of sitting down, you're moving it too quickly.

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For An Adult Fox:

Get something your fox really likes (ham, little bits of hardboiled egg, and cat treats all work well.) Let him see that you have the treat, then hold it up over his head, out of reach. Calmly say "Sit."

The fox will probably respond by jumping for the treat, and perhaps screaming hysterically. Don't give it to them. Continue holding the treat out of reach, and repeat the command "Sit" every now and then. Eventually, your fox will sit, if only to give you an exasperated look. The instant it's rump hits the ground, click your clicker and toss it the treat, enthusing "Good sit! Good fox!".

Repeat this process a few times in a row. I recommend 3-to-5 treats, 3-to-5 times a day. After a week or so, your fox should have definitely caught on that sitting down is what's getting them the treat. Once this happens, you can work on "polishing" the trick.

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Polishing The Trick:

You can increase the amount of time that your fox has to stay sitting. Tell your fox to sit, and do a brief count in your head before clicking and rewarding. 1-2-treat. Later on, up it to 1-2-3-treat. So long as you increase the amount of time your fox has to stay sitting slowly enough, they should pick up on this in no time.

You can also tighten up their response time by making it so they have to respond faster to get the treat. Give the command, and mentally count to five slowly. If your fox doesn't sit within that count, don't give them the treat. (Note: If they never sit that quickly, you're starting with too short of a count. You might have to start with a seven or even a ten count, depending on your fox and how quickly you count)

Once your fox is consistantly sitting within the count you've specified, subtract a number from it--in this case, make it so the fox has to respond within the count of four instead of the count of five. As always, make sure these changes happen slowly and gradually, and your fox will be responding to you in the blink of an eye.

Oh, it's also best to focus on ONE area of polishing at a time. If one day you're working on making them sit longer, and the next you're trying to make them sit faster, your fox may become confused and frustrated, as they're not sure what you want. Focus on one or the other first, and once your fox has mastered either sitting for a while or sitting quickly, then move on to the other one and focus on it.

Happy training! If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments section.

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Related Posts:

• How to Handle A Play Biter
• How to Get Your Fox to Take Treats Nicely
• Trick Files: Intro to the Clicker
• Trick Files: Eyes On Me
• Trick Files: Shake

Trick Files: Eyes On Me

Like conditioning to a clicker, "Eyes On Me" is more of a training tool than it is a trick in and of itself, but it can be incredibly useful. Foxes have the attention spans of gnats, so it's helpful to have a way to quickly redirect them to looking at you when they're starting to get a bit off-task.

Prerequisites: For this trick, I assume that your fox has already been conditioned to a training clicker.

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I've heard people use a lot of different commands for this, everything from "Watch me!" to "Pay attention!" I prefer to use "Eyes on me!" because it's a phrase that is unlikely to come up in conversation. That way, every time you say "Eyes on me", it will be when you are trying to get your fox to look at you. Otherwise, every time you say "watch me" to someone else, your fox will look but get no treat, and the command will weaken over time.

Hold a treat out so that your fox can smell it, then slowly raise it so that it's at the level of your eyes, saying "Eyes on me". The instant your fox makes eye contact, click and reward. Rinse repeat multiple times a day with multiple treats per "session", making sure to only click when your fox makes eye contact.

After a few days of doing this, stop using the treat to "lead" them to your face. Just approach your fox and say "Eyes on me". If they look at your face at all, click and reward. Once they're consistently looking in the general direction of your face, start to only click and reward if they make eye contact.

Over the period of a few weeks, your fox should make eye contact whenever you say "Eyes on me".

Troubleshooting: If they immediately look for your hand instead of your face, it means they've misunderstood the concept. This is a pretty easy fix. Next time, hide your hands behind your back before saying "Eyes on me" again. If there's no hands to look at, the fox will generally look to your face in confusion as if to say "What do you want?". The instant it looks at you, click and reward.

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Related Posts:

• How to Handle A Play Biter
• How to Get Your Fox to Take Treats Nicely
• Trick Files: Intro to the Clicker
• Trick Files: Sit
• Trick Files: Shake

Trick Files: Intro to the Clicker

A tool that has been invaluable in training Gizmo is what's commonly called a "clicker". It's a very simple device, but in my opinion it's the most important training tool you can buy. They're usually of fairly simple construction; a plastic casing with a flexible piece of metal inside it that makes a very distinct "CLICK" noise when you apply pressure with your thumb.

The goal of the clicker is to enable you to reward the correct behavior the exact instant that the fox does it, instead of delaying while you fumble with your treat bag. By the time you get the treat out, your fox may have moved on to doing something else, and will be confused as to exactly what behavior you're rewarding.

There are some fancier designs, but most training clickers look roughly like this:

I'm not going to delve too deeply into behavioral theory and WHY the clicker works--there are countless books and web pages on that subject already. I'm simply going to provide a crash-course here in how to use it effectively.

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Step #1: Training Yourself

I've had good luck with clicker-training Gizmo, but you have to get the timing EXACT or he just doesn't get it. So far, he's been a lot more sensitive to time than my cats or my dog was when I was training them.

Before you start clicker-training your fox, work on your reaction time. I suggest that (somewhere out of earshot of the fox) you have a friend start throwing a tennis ball up in the air and catching it. See if you can time your click RIGHT as the ball hits it's highest point and before it starts down.

I did this ten minutes a day for a week straight, and it really did wonders for my timing. I highly recommend that you don't skip this step--it will make training much easier later on.

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Step #2: Conditioning the Fox

Now it's time to teach your fox that click = treat. Sit your (preferably hungry) fox down in front of you with the clicker and the bag of treats. Offer it a treat. The instant before it's got the treat in it's mouth, click the clicker.

Repeat this many times: Click, treat. Click treat. Click treat. At first it's important to click the instant the fox gets the treat, but after a few sessions you can gradually increase the time between the click and the treat.

Do a few sessions of this a day, for maybe three days. By the end of it, the instant you click the clicker, the fox should be looking to you for a treat. Now you're ready to begin serious trick training.

If you're teaching a fox to sit, click the clicker the instant his rump hits the ground. If you're teaching him to shake, click when he puts his paw in your hand, etc. Basically, the click comes to mean "That's exactly what I wanted! I'm going to give you a treat!"--it's an instant reward.

Important Note: For this to be effective, the clicker must NEVER lie. Even if you click for the wrong thing, give your fox a treat anyway.

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Related Posts:

• How to Handle A Play Biter
• How to Get Your Fox to Take Treats Nicely
• Trick Files: Eyes On Me
• Trick Files: Sit
• Trick Files: Shake

How to Get Your Fox to Take Treats Nicely.

What I did with Gizmo (and my dog) for curbing the "taking your fingers along with the treats" problem worked pretty well. You'll probably be bit more than a couple times doing it this way, but it'll save your fingers in the long run.

What you do is take a strong-smelling treat, and hold it with your fingers curled around it so that they can smell it, but not grab it. Hold your hand out towards the fox. Generally they'll lunge fangs-first; quickly pull your hand away and say "No! Be nice." Keep your voice calm, but firm. Offer your hand again; if they lunge or snap again, do the same thing as before. Rinse repeat.

Foxes are very fast, so you'll probably get your knuckles bit more than once while doing this--but no matter what, do NOT drop the treat; otherwise you'll just be reinforcing the biting behavior.

Eventually, when you hold your hand out, she won't lunge. She may sniff at it curiously, or she may just ignore it, or she may give you a baffled look. So long as it's not a lunge or a snap, immediately release the treat and praise her gently while she eats it.

Get another treat and offer it in the same way. If she lunges, pull your hand away and say "No! Be nice." again in the same firm tone. Basically repeat what you did above.

Continue until you have given her three treats, then take a break from it by playing a game she likes.

If you do this 3-to-5 times a day, and give her 3-to-5 treats a "session", and keep this up for a week straight, by the end of the week, she shouldn't be snapping at treats.

Once you start this training, though, it's very important that from then on out, you never, ever give her a treat if she snaps at you. "Only polite foxes get treats" should be a rule that is set in stone. If she bites you and gets the treat anyway later on, you'll be right back to square one again.

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How to Handle a Play-Biter

A common problem on the fox-boards that new fox owners mention is that their kits play too rough and bite too hard during play. This is a very common problem in canines of any sort (domestic dogs included), so I figured I'd make a posting on how we broke Gizmo of it.

We had a bigger job teaching Gizmo to play gently than most new pet owners do, for the same reasons that we had an easier time socializing him. Because he was bottle-fed and raised away from his littermates, they weren't there to do the preliminary teaching on how to play nice, so when we got him he didn't have any of the starting bite-inhibition that most new puppies had.

We had to start from scratch.

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With Gizmo, I first tried bitter apple to discourage rough play. ...Only to discover that he loved the taste of it, and I might as well have been trying to discourage him with BBQ sauce. To even phase him a little bit, I had to squirt a bit of it directly in his mouth, which I really wasn't comfortable with doing.

What seemed to work pretty well with him was yelping like a wounded litter-mate. Whenever he would bite down hard enough to cause pain, I'd let out a high-pitched yipe like I had been terribly wounded. On the first two or three nips, I let out a shrill yelp. After that, I would "scruff" him (grab him gently but firmly by the loose skin on the back of his neck), look him in the eye, and give him a short, sharp growl. Usually that would stop the too-rough play right there.

Scruffing isn't painful for them, and it's very similar to what a vixen in the skulk would do to correct a kit that's playing too rough. The goal here, both from the yelping and the scruffing, is to play to their natural social instincts.

If scruffing doesn't work, then I'd get up, walk off, and completely ignore him for five minutes. And ask any Gizmo, being ignored is the worst thing ever.

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Something else we did when Gizmo was little was to used a sturdy oven-mitt to wrestle with him with. We'd "fight" with him with the mitt on, and then suddenly pull the mitt away and hide it behind our back with a firm but gentle "Stop.", and go to pet his ears with the other hand.

If he stopped being an "attack fox" and let us rub his ears, we said "Okay!" and the mitt came back and he got to fight with it some more. If he ignored the "Stop" command and went after the hand with no mitt, the game immediately ended, and I walked off and ignored him for a good five minutes.

He learned very quickly that to keep playing, he had to stop roughhousing when we told him to (I've always been impressed at how quickly he grasps things like this--much faster than any dog I've known.) Plus, the oven mitt gave him a very clear signal that "this is an okay thing for you to nom on when we play"--a shrill yelp whenever he happened to bite above it got him to focus his "attacks" only on the glove.

It was nice because with such a clear, visual signal that it was time to rough-house, we didn't have to worry about him spontaneously pouncing on and trying to nom on new people. We eventually phased out using the glove, but to start with it was a godsend. Not only was it a good learning tool for him, it helped up our confidence about our ability to handle him.

He's gotten pretty good about it, but I won't lie and say that this was 100% effective--if we're playing without the oven mitt, he still sometimes gets over-excited and nips too hard, but generally a yelp of pain from me is enough to get him minding his manners again.

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