My puppy is now 17 weeks and as I’m sure you have already read he seems to aim a lot of his biting at My 5 year old. We have had a trainer come in to help as she said if we don’t address this now then even when the usual puppy biting stops he will continue to bite my son. She recommended ow and time out. Ow doesn’t make a difference and the time out seems to become a game to him. He is biting so hard now and it’s like a magnet between him and my son. My son has never played rough with him in fact my son can’t play at all with him. I don’t know what to do. He is completely fine with my 7 year old. His biting is also worse now with me and my husband but we can cope with it...my poor son is at the point where he says he wishes we never got the dog...and I’m ashamed to say I have times where I start to feel the same. Even on a walk he jumps and bites at my son. Feel like this will never end.
I do feel for you but it is still early days(probably doesn’t feel like it) I was told to use ow in my training classes but I don’t think it is recommended on this site. It only works if it is a distracting enough noise to stop the behaviour instantly. I believe you need to distract in other ways. Hopefully someone else will offer further advise. Do you go to weekly training classes? Try to find one that allows children to be part of the training. Maybe your 5 year old could go and be part of it(however it is many years since I had anything to do with a 5 year old so perhaps this is unrealistic!) I hope things improve for you soon.
We do go to weekly classes and my little boy does go as well, we have also got my little boy feeding Hunter his meals. Nothing works at all and I’m worried we are stuck with a dog that will always behave this way towards my son. I have never met anyone who has had a similar problem which makes me feel even worse.
We had a real problem with Bruce and my wife, with biting have you tried to get your little boy to yelp and really go overboard with it when the biting starts it really worked for us. Hope it gets better for you. Lee
Hello, for what it’s worth (and I am no expert ) I don’t agree with your trainer. Yelling and saying ow never seems to work. Distraction is the only thing that helped us. I also don’t believe that this will always be the case towards tour son. I do think puppies are more attracted to younger kids because of the way they react, it’s more appealing to them as there is generally more response that rewards the unwanted behaviour. I had 6 year old twin boys when we got Meg. I kept them pretty much apart until she was over this biting phase, I can’t quite remember when but 6 months ish. I would not have let a 5 year old interact with her at 17 weeks, she was a crocodile. Puppies and young kids never seem to work out well. Keeping them apart did not have any impact on their long term relationship, they all adore each other. Maybe you could limit their interaction whilst gets over this biting phase, then build up their relationship from then. ?
Ow Saying 'ow' really made no difference to my dog. You are definitely not alone - I remember feeling the same when I got my dog - all my colleagues and friends had never met such a horrible bitey dog and were full of terrible advice, I ended up just not talking about it to them and venting online instead! I think dogs focus in on one person as it gets them attention, you inadvertently reward the bad behaviour because you have to intervene to protect your son. I'm not sure what the solution is - with us I had to use all his food for training and anticipate every likely problem. If you can keep your dog focussed on you with games and food then maybe he won't need to go for your son to get your attention.
You are definitely not alone I agree, biting is frequently discussed on here as it’s so unpleasant. It can take a while for things to improve. I don’t have children and we still find the biting behaviour difficult to deal with. I have read people discussing separation and also use of house line to help redirect the dog. Hope things improve for you all soon
My puppy is 18 weeks tomorrow and still a little crocidor! She always goes for me, biting my hands, back or my legs, ankles, feet and jumps up when out for a walk too. Ow doesn't work for Luna as she thinks it is a game. In the house when she starts this I go straight into training mode getting her to sit, paw etc and rewarding this with treats. Does she listen to your son at all? Are you able to get him involved with the training and that when he listens he is rewarded? What do you do for time out? If he is over excited then it could take a couple of time outs for him to calm down. We used to put Luna in her crate and turn out back, start with 10 seconds and let out when quiet, 2nd time she got 30 seconds and this usually done it. When out walking maybe try have him on a tighter lead so he is closer to you, does he walk on a loose lead? When we get to the park this is when Luna is super excited and jumps up and tries to bite me. Again when this happens I get her to sit straight away and put her on a tight lead, walk a few steps and start to loosen it - she the realises than she can explore more when she is calm. The biting has got worse for us just now because she is teething pretty badly. What do you give him for helping with teething? We use frozen carrot, frozen rope toys, frozen face clothes and cow ears. Also to help calm her we have a likimat we use with banana and peanut butter as the licking helps to relax her. I hope you find something to help and your son is okay. This is our first puppy and we have learned so much in the last 10 weeks. It is just trial and error to see what works for your pup.
Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to work...the noise almost makes it worse. But I really appreciate you offering your advice and I’m also really glad to hear it worked for your wife. Puppy biting is not fun to deal with.
Thank you, that’s nice to hear that you don’t think this will last forever. The way the trainer spoke it made me feel so much pressure to resolve it now or we would live with this. I definitely keep them apart as much as possible. We have a baby gate on the door between the living room and kitchen so my son and daughter can play in the living room without the dog being in there. It’s just the second my son wants to come in the kitchen Hunter is straight up and his mouth is round his hand. If we tell him to keep his hands out of the way the dog will jump and bite. My 5 year is small for his age so this is quite scary for him. Thank you for replying
This might help although I’m sure you have already seen it. https://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies-biting/
Give it another month, am sure it will settle. I used to give Meg cardboard boxes to shrewd...made a judge mess but kept her teeth busy. Maybe give her one or something else frozen carrots, kong before your son walks past...keep him busy and distracted
Poppy used to bite all the time when she was younger, then around 4-5 months it just kind of stopped. We just used to stop stroking her anytime she bit and I used to go “AH” and stop stroking her and put her out of the room or on the floor etc. It’s just strange she just kinda stopped with the biting even though she had started teething and has lost a few baby teeth! She still does bite sometimes when playing or excited but she has good bite inhibition now so she doesn’t hurt us so it might just ease off naturally ? Maybe try training your puppy bite inhibition. Anytime poppy went to bite us when we tried to stroke her we went “AH” and then stopped going to stroke us and just kept trying over and over until she licked us instead and then gave her lots of praise. Making the high pitched noise like a lot of things suggest and pretending to be hurt didn’t work for us either she just bit us more. But saying “AH” in a firm tone works with poppy for some reason.
Willow is 1 year old now and still is very mouthy. I tell her no biting and she licks me then. She still bites my son and husband but not hard. I would try a different trainer. Maybe your dog is getting over excited and is play biting your son as pups in the pack do. He is also being dominant over your son so you need to address this asap.
I really hope that’s the case. Shouldn’t wish time away but I’m hoping in a couple of months we will see a change.
Hi. I can’t really add anything to what has already been said. Yelping didn’t work for Hugo as he just went beserk and as someone has already said ‘Distracting him’ worked better. If it’s any consolation I think many ‘new puppy owners’ ask themselves at some point the question “Why did we do this”? I thought Hugo was the worst ‘bitey’ puppy around but then realised I had ‘Elevated the others to Sainthood’ when they had sadly gone and thinking back they were just as bad! Hugo at 6 months is now so much better with me but strangely not with my poor husband! However it’s easy for me to say “Hang on in there” as I don’t have children to consider. I do hope you solve this problem.
Definitely play biting, definitely inappropriate and needs addressing but I don't think the motivation is dominance. This article spells it out nicely: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/dog-dominance/ I think my dog was made worse by his previous owners' belief in outdated theories about dominance and packs.
I hate the theories of dominance as well and that’s all I seem to hear when I speak to people regarding the issue with me son...’oh he needs to show the dog who is boss’ etc etc. I’m so lost as to what to do. He is an amazing dog except this issue with my son.
