We just adopted a 2 year old black lab from the shelter not quite a week ago. He keeps nipping at my 9 year old son. He caught him by the eye which required a doctor visit and eye medicine. How do I stop this and help my son to stop being afraid of the dog? My second question is how do I get my new dog to poo outside instead of in the house? We've been taking him out regularly. Thanks in advance for any advice!
Hi there and welcome here! It's really great you have adopted this dog, thanks for giving him a home! What is his name? We will need a little more info on the nipping before we can give you any advice, just because there are so many things that can cause this. And obviously for the safety of your son and everyone else you need to get on top of it. How does this biting behaviour start? Is the dog excited and playing, jumping up and being silly? Is your son playing with him when this happens? Or does this happen when your son gets close to him while he's eating, or playing with a toy? As you can probably tell, I'm trying to determine if the biting is all about playing and excitement, which can be very typical of labs, or some kind of resource guarding, which is a different thing altogether. These will require different courses of action so before we can give you suggestions we will need to get a better picture of what is going on. It would also be good to get some idea of how much exercise your dog is getting as well, and what his daily routine is like. Do you have any info from the shelter as to the background of your dog? You have only had him for a week, so this is very early days yet. It takes quite some time for a dog to get settled in their new home. For now, I would definitely make sure your son is supervised when he is with the dog, and it should only be you or another adult that interacts with him. As to the toileting, basically you should treat your dog as if he were a puppy and take him out at regular intervals. If he does a poo inside, just clean it up and don't make any fuss about it. If he goes outside, give your dog massive praise and tasty treats! He will soon get the idea that outside is the best place! It might be a good idea to restrict his access to only part of the house to begin, and gradually give him more freedom inside as he gets better at the toileting. Anyhow glad you stopped by! There are lots of people here who can give you great advice! Give us some more info and we will be able to start to give you some suggestions.
Hi Liane and welcome to the forum. What a lovely thing you've done adopting your new boy. You've had great advice from Lisa. It's a big upheaval for rescue dogs to come into a new home and, as much as we think they should be happy to be in a lovely home environment, it can be quite stressful for them at first, so he may just need some space and quiet to settle in and get into a new routine. You're definitely doing the right thing addressing the issues you have, I don't mean you should ignore them because you don't want them to become habit; I just mean that, with a bit of careful management and training, they might just sort out as your dog settles in. Do tell us a bit more about him, and post some photos if you can.
Welcome Liane from Hattie 8 years and our rescue boy Charlie 5 years. Thank you for giving your boy a new home When Charlie first came into our lives at 9 months he was like a hurricane, running, jumping he was just crazy, we even found him standing on the kitchen table this was because everything was so new, lots of people to get used to and we are his 5th home which we weren't told. Do you have a crate for quiet time? I know this helped Charlie just to have his own space was a good thing for him and he doesn't have it now. I totally agree with Lisa about the toileting, Charlie was difficult to housetrain but doing as Lisa advises you will crack that. Can he let you know when he wants to go outside, Charlie couldn't? if not there other ideas that could help. Keep in mind that rescue dogs can take quite a while to settle in their new homes, imagine if you were sent away to live in a totally new house with new people away from everything you know it would be pretty scary. Lots of time, patience and training you will get there. Love to see a photo of him and anything you know about him would be good. x Helen
Hello and welcome to the forum. You have been given some great advice from the members. Have you a photo of new friend and what is his name?
Excellent advice above , welcome from me and my two dogs One of mine is also a former rescue , and as already said , it can take some time for them to feel safe , to trust and relax , good luck
Just want to welcome you Liane, from me & our two rescues, Belle - around 11 years old and Coco - approaching 2 years old. We were lucky, ours were both house trained, though we'd had information that Coco was soiling his kennel while in rescue - it must have been stress, but you've had great advice so far. I can echo what Helen has said, patience and training - you WILL get there. Love to know more about him
Hello and welcome, Well done for adopting. Not much to add really but just to say we had real troubles with getting poppy house trained. We just treated her like a puppy. lots of treats and praise. It took an age though, its only been the last few weeks where i can say i think we have cracked it. A crate really helped. Good luck .
Welcome. Excellent advice from all above, however, I would add, do not let your son play excitedly or roughly with your new dog, this might get him to be play nipping, or it may well be fear nipping as some child before you had him had scared him. Perhaps your son could feed the dog and behave very calmly around him, do some little clicker training with him? As for the pooing, that could be seperation anxiety but as said by @Lisa treat him like a puppy and always reward when he does it outside so that he begins to understand that is the place to do it
Thank you all for the warm welcome! My new boy's name is Pitch (as in "pitch-black"). I only know that he came to the shelter as a stray and his family never claimed him. He is not neutered yet. He has nipped 3 times at my son. The first time, they were playing and Pitch jumped up and bit him over his eye and down his cheek. We were lucky that he didn't injure the eye itself! The second time, my son had just brought him in from playing outside and was taking the leash off. I really don't believe that Pitch meant to hurt him. I think he just doesn't know how big he is and that my son is not a litter mate. My husband and I and our two older daughters supervise both of them together at all times. My son's fear is lessening, but he is still very cautious. As for the toileting.....he will pee outside but once he comes in, he runs off to another room to poo. Frustrating! I plan to read the articles on this site and learn how to train him. There's a massive amount of information here! I'm so glad I found you!
Hi Liane and welcome to the forum. Many times when puppies or young dogs nip children it is because of the language barrier between child and dog. Dogs use body language to know how rough to play and when to start and stop playing, whereas children use verbal language such as squeals, which dogs misinterpret. I hope you find this article helpful http://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-play-safely-with-a-labrador/
