Hi all Been really enjoying reading the forums, we picked up our beautiful black lab Murphy 10 days ago, he is 10 weeks old tomorrow. He is doing fabulously - but I just have one question. I have a 5 year old daughter. Now as mouthing/nipping/crocodile mouth goes, Murphy is not that bad really - he is already learning to be softer mouthed with myself and husband - but when he gets excited around my daughter, we tell her to stand still (the 'like a tree' technique) but he will jump up all giddy, and try and mouth her/grab her clothes. Now to my eyes its not that bad really, and we are just saying "off" to him and separating them with baby gates and stuff when hes a bit giddy - but he is actually pretty calm for his age (and breed)....just wondered if anyone had any other tips re handling this stage with children - we have visiting kids a lot and obviously I want to socialise him as best I can with children - but as he wants to taste them this is tricky getting willing (calm) volunteers! Any advice, greatly received, thanks!
We've been and are going thru that with Maui now ... She is 12 weeks old today. Funny, from her litter there were 2 pups named Murphy .... must be a popular name now! Nice! Anyway ... with my 6 and 8 year old granddaughters it wasn't a huge issue since they already went thru the puppy thing with their 2 year old Chocolate Lab. My challenge was really with my grandson who just turned a year old in May. Neither one of them have any conception of 'easy' I swear! Jackson, my grandson tends to 'bonk' when patting her and of course she wants to jump on him. Basically it's a one on one with lots of supervision on my end. Alot of the time I just had separate them if I couldn't be right there. Some neighbor children came over ... the older one, almost 9 was good with it, telling Maui 'no, down or easy', and standing still, but her brother who is just about 5 was more frightened. It's tricky as you said. I find with Maui that she really responds to quiet commands more so than loud, which is tough for little kids. They tend to shriek and/or run, which only excites them more. And really, like your Murphy, Maui really isn't all that bad with the mouthing. I did start from day one letting her do it, but telling her 'no bite' and 'go easy'. When she came down too hard tho, I DID make a big deal out of the 'loud OUCH' and she stops! They do of course want to please us! But, all that being said .... aren't Lab Puppies just the best??!!
It's difficult! Gypsy came to me after her original puppy walker couldn't cope with her crocodile ways and her 4 year old son - and Gypsy was only 10 weeks old and nothing like as crocapup as Tatze had been. A lot of it is about perception. She thought she was doing everything wrong and that the pup didn't like them. She wasn't and had done a great job with Gypsy for the three weeks they had had her. I find, with two year old twins in the family (not mine! - my niece's) that separating them when I can't closely supervise is the best. Then, when I can give both 100% attention I let them together.
I think that's it in a nutshell! It's a challenge and requires just as you said, 100% attention .... especially early on.
I'm with Mags on that bit of advice...I don't have children myself but I have a niece and nephew that visit most days.They were only 18 months and 2.5 years old when Dex came to us at 5 months old, My approach was the same as Mags , the kids were taught never to go in Dexter's crate and bed or shut themselves in anywhere with him.No running,no lying on the floor with him,put your things on the dining table up out of reach,don't run ( don't run full stop really when I've got tiled floors!) .......of course they were too little to be trusted to do all of this on their own ,we had to be responsible for it ,but by supervising and reminding them I think we built pretty good habits.They are 6 and 4 now and confident around him but I still don't leave them alone together,if they are doing something downstairs and I need to go upstairs,I take Dex with me.There are times when they are puppies/ youngsters that you need to put them away from you for a little break but I really wanted to avoid doing that too much ,preferring to try and trach everyone to cope with each other.There were times when I wanted to put myself in the crate for a bit of peace and quiet!!!!!!!x
Thanks guys. Thankfully we have baby gates everywhere, and Murphy has taken to his crate like a dream - so its actually pretty easy to make sure they are separate unless we are right there with them - just carried Murphy up to give my daughter a puppy high five in bed - they are absolutely lovely together!
Awww .... that is so sweet! Have fun and enjoy! My other 3 grandchildren came yesterday to meet Maui and it went pretty well. They are 11, 9 and 28 months. I met them with her on the leash and they got used to each other. They all went in the pool, but I had to keep tabs on Maui so she didn't knock the little one over. But, they played nicely for the most part. I did crate her for a little bit once and kept close supervision the rest of the time. I think everyone had fun! I was exhausted ... but then I've been that way since I picked her up 3 weeks ago, LOL!!
So pleased it went well with Maui and the children. Well what a difference a few days makes - I got my daughter to work on doing some sits with Murphy. Doing this training with him, and teaching her the "be a tree" thing has really worked loads - mostly with her confidence! When he comes over now she just stands tall and he sits automatcally! she is getting much more confident and interacting with him more now than the first few days - When he was zonked out yesterday in the heat she sat on the floor next to him and stroked him for about half an hour - all baby steps but lovely to see they are both happy!
That seems really good: the puppy sitting when your daughter stands like a tree. Maybe that's an opportunity to start clicker training. It would be a shame to miss an opportunity. There's lots of articles here about it and some videos on the interweb. You probably don't need reminding to watch them (puppy and children) all of the time and make sure your puppy's sleep and meals are not interrupted by children
I started clicker training Murphy at 9 weeks - he can already sit, stay, down, roll over and 'off' (release/move head away) - when my daughter was doing the sit training with him I was clicking - Im a huge fan of it! and in terms of him having his space, he has a crate and the hall zoned off by baby gates, so no worries there! its as important to monitor it for his safety as well as theirs I think.
