hi everyone, I have a 12 week old black lab called Luna who we all love. Even the kids who she gets very excited around and keeps nipping. She will "sit down" when asked and I am trying to teach her to do this when they enter a room and walk calmly to what they are doing. (Though trying to get my youngest to listen to me about how she should behave around seems harder than teaching the puppy.) But when she does jump up and grab at their clothes she doesn't let go. I suspect it is actually a combination of them pulling away and her thinking it is a game and actually the clothes getting stuck a bit on her teeth. She doesn't nip when gently petting or if you put you hand near her face so I am struggling to follow the advice I keep seeing about teaching them by moving your hand near to their face an rewarding no nip. But this is distressing, and exhausting. If I completely keep them separate until she grows out of it am I not teaching her bite inhibition? If I replace the clothes with the toy am I avoiding teaching her just to let go? What's they best way forward?
It sounds as if you're having a difficult and tiring time, managing your puppy's behaviour around your children. You have my sympathy as Molly was a terrible biter which was very wearing and I didn't have young children to cope with. The good news is that it will get better and in 3 or 4 weeks things will be much better. I think to cope I'd do a combination of keeping pup and children separate some of the time, so the children can be themselves, and having periods of interaction where you supervise as you are doing now. It sounds as if you're doing a good job in directing your children to be calm and stand tall and still when the puppy grabs them. I would use a toy to distract your puppy too. That way you're teaching her what she is allowed to chew.
Thanks Joy. I just had a really good session with her outside in the lead with my 3 year old. I got him to give her the treats when she didn't nip. We are quite open plan but I have shuffled the furniture to allow the boys and her a bit of space to chill!
We have recently gone through this. We were novices so it was unexpected and distressing! But then it just ..... stopped!! She is 5 months now and I'd say it stopped at 18-20 weeks. Such a relief. I still supervise all dog child interaction but I am 99.99% sure she won't bite or nip a child anymore. Unfortunately I'm not so confident about her knocking children over and licking their faces- still a work in progress
Hi and welcome Sophiathesnowfairy (love the name...) Have you seen the advice about teaching young kids to "be a tree"? (It is somewhere on this forum, someone will point you at it.) We used this with huge success. It goes along the lines of: "Have you ever seen a puppy jumping up and biting a tree? No! and why? Because trees are really boring, and the puppy wants to play with interesting things. So, when puppy is rough - nipping or jumping at you - you need to immediately pretend you are a tree! Stand absolutely still, don't look at the puppy, don't speak to him, fold your arms, ignore him completely. Then he will stop, and (even better) he will know that you think the biting game is very very very boring and you don't want to play it." There were a few young kids that Pongo met when he was a pup, and they understood these instructions really well. And we used exactly the same technique ourselves. It didn't take Pongo long at all to figure out that nipping doesn't get rewarded with play. By 15 weeks he'd got the message. (As an aside, I never quite managed to train my husband not to play the nipping game with Pongo. Boys will be boys. But the dog understands that Daddy is Different when it comes to rules of behaviour )
Welcome to you Sophie - here is a great article http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies-biting/#biting-children .
I have seen real progress today. I have been working on "leave it" with her using a video that was posted on the Labrador sites's fb page. Then I took it one step further and waved a ski sock around to get her to hook on, and maybe get her teeth stuck, and then "Leave it" when I asked. It might take a couple of "leave it's" when she is in full throw, but she does. The kids have had a much better experience this afternoon with only a couple of nippy incidents which they stayed calm through and she left them after a couple of "leave its" and being distracted by a raggy toy. It is hard hard work, but I am seeing progress, and I'm loving it. This forum is great, it's so relieving just to find others who have been through the same to offer support.
Excellent thread going through exactly the same with Hugo 14 weeks tomorrow my daughters 8&9 are getting fed up of biting and him ripping their leggings! X
Yes I'm dealing with this too - my poor little 7 year old gets it the worst and he's so good about it... no jumping around or making a fuss. He just stands there with tears in his eyes as Nugget hangs on to his foot and asks me quietly if I will please get him off! @Sophiathesnowfairy - could you post a link to that video? I looked on the FB page and couldn't find it. Thanks
http://www.prouddogmom.com/4-essential-commands-to-teach-your-dog/ @Calbury I hope this works j haven't put a link in these forums before. We are really seeing a difference today, it has taken maybe 4 days of hard work but this morning I have Been gardening and she has been pottering about as have the kids and it has just been v chilled.
Thank you @edzbird - I tell him that too And thank you @Sophiathesnowfairy - the link worked perfectly and I found the video very useful. I'm going to try it tomorrow. Nugget was worse than ever tonight - he kept launching himself at me and biting really hard. If anyone had told me that the cute little pup I brought home at 8 weeks would turn into this ferocious creature, I wouldn't have believed them!!! But the advice given in these forums gives me hope it will be over soon He's 15 weeks now so not long to go (I hope!).
I tell everyone who mentions how gentle the dogs are that as pups they are total utter crocodiles - far worse than other breeds! My friend came to visit when Tatze was 10 weeks old (she breeds schnauzers) I said "don't let her mouth you". She put her hand in Tatze's mouth and said "oh, it's OK, I'm used to puppies" then "OUCH!!" Tatze drew blood! - and my friend hasn't done it since with any of them!
I've used standing like a tree with success with my two young nieces. But they only visit occasionally. When Homer was a pup and became over excited we calmly put him in a the downstairs loo for 30 seconds, absolutely no more than that, then let him out without a fuss. It was just enough to beak the cycle of him getting more and more over excited.
@Calbury hoe is it going? Things are better here with the kids but she has been really nipping at me today, I suspect it is becasue I have a long flappy jumper on it, but hoping for a breakthrough in the next couple of weeks.
