I'm guessing there are probably other threads on this topic, but I can't seem to find them by searching. We have had our wonderful 7-month old chocolate lab for five months now, and knock on wood, she is incredibly well behaved. The only big issue I have is keeping the peace between her and my two boys, who are five and seven. Most of the time they adore her, and she adores them. I've spent a lot of time with them on appropriate behavior around her, and more often than not, everyone gets along happily. But come late afternoon, chaos erupts. The kids to play soccer/run around outside, and Biscuit wants to join in, which as you can imagine is fabulous for a while, until she decides to jump up on one of them or start biting their shoes. Bless them they really try hard to stay calm and ignore her, but it is understandably difficult to "be a tree" when you're a little person and there is a dog biting at your ankles. I know all of this is normal behavior, and I'm very careful never to leave her alone with them unsupervised, but I'm struggling with what to do. One part of me says she needs to be with us to learn impulse control, and that I should let her play, reward appropriate behavior, and remove her if things get out of control. The other part of me says I'm setting her up for failure, because there is just too much stimulation with children running and shouting and balls flying (even though she has her balls and we make sure to include her). But it seems harsh to not let her join us at all. I have been trying to exercise her alone first, so that she is not bursting with energy, but she's a 7-month old lab, so she's always bursting with energy . And it's difficult to judge the point at which she's had enough, and remove her just before. Any tips from people who have raised labs and kids?
I haven't raised a dog with children, but do have a lot of friends who have. It's essential that they learn to get along and can play together, but also important that the children can also have space to run around and not have to keep calm all of the time. Just like the dog needs alone time. I would allow them to play together for 10 mins, then bring Biscuit inside and maybe give her a Kong so the boys can have some playtime. It will probably take a while for this to work as Biscuit will just want to go and play with your boys, but it will help teach her to have downtime whilst the boys play. Hope this helps a bit.
It sounds very typical of the Labrador/children scenario ! First thing I would do is to explain gently to your children that dogs don't have an On/Off switch on their heads ! By this, I mean that yes, its lovely that they play together, but poor pup simply doesn't understand when the time comes for her not to be included , so they must be a little understanding too . You do right to tire her a little before the children have their non dog playtimes , and, as she has lots of play with the children , I cant see any harm in removing her from the scene for a while as her excitement levels will just keep mounting if she is with them ! My Lab is almost six years old, and still gets very excited when my grandson and friends come over to play , so for a seven month old pup , its almost asking the impossible to expect her to be calm , as you have discovered ! So yes, lots of compromise , don't feel bad about excluding her from some of the play , it sounds like they have a wonderful relationship x
