Hello, I have a lovely (entire) fox red Labrador who is just over 18 months old. He is really well behaved in the house with me my husband and our new baby and freinds and family who enter the house who are calm. Problem is he really loves small children and gets very over excited with them. To a point where he doesn't listen to us or is less obedient when there is a small child in the house. We have been getting him to wait inside his crate (door open) whenever a person visits our house and let him out when he sits down and calms down but he is straight away very bouncy and bounds straight back to the child. We have also tried sending him to his crate for a time out when he gets too excited which only works when it's an adult visitor. The other day a freind visited with their one year and she was very calm with him but he kept on licking her ears for the whole afternoon even though we told him not to and gave him some time apart from her. He also started to lightly nibble a friend who came to visit the other week which he has never done before. As soon as this happened play was stopped immediately and the guy folded his arms. I am aware this could be his age and we do need to do some training with him to help with this but would like to know what is the best training to do as I am starting to get nervous having him around small children. I have read that some people use stair gates to separate dogs from children but hour house is laid out in a way that this is not possible. Sorry first time dog owner here. Many thanks
Hi Julia, welcome to the forum I think your boy probably recognizes young children as 'also young' and therefore more likely to be playful. What he doesn't understand so well, is that human children don't play in the same way as young dogs! This article on our main site has lots of tips for mediating encounters between dogs and children, I hope it helps you. Good luck and let us know how you get on!
