Dex and my 4 year old

[Guitarzan]

Dexter is 15/16 weeks old and now weighs 31lbs. My four year old son (Christian) is 50 lbs. Dexter thinks that he is the more dominant of the two. When my son plays with Dexter he bites him. Not hard, but hard enough for a four year old to get scared and cry.

How can Christian show Dexter that his is his boss, not the other way around?

He will also try to hump him (but without wiggling his rear). He just gets on top of him and holds on. I know this is a sign of dominace.

 

[Tulsa-Dan]

Have your son work on training the dog, just as you have done, with the five basic commands. The dog has to learn that your son is not a littermate, which is what he thinks now. The way to do this is to have your son do EXACTLY what you do with the dog to train it to sit, stay, down, etc. This way the dog knows that he is not Alpha to your son, but must obey his commands as well.

And, of course, never leave the two of them alone together unsupervised so that you can stop any inappropriate behavior.

 

[MandyMom]

I totally agree with Dan.
Cooper started acting that way(biting and wanting to be the boss) to my three year old daughter when he was only about 10 weeks. We broke it by her training him also. He will sit, or lie down when she tells him to! (those are the only things he knows so far!) It is really cute to watch also, he just follows her command and wags his stubby tail waitting for his treat!! Cooper outweighs my daughter by about 15 lbs. so that makes it all the more funny.
We are starting training classes tomorrow at PetsMart and my daughter is going with my husband and I so she will be part of his training.
Good Luck and keep us posted!

 

[hrb]

We don't have kids but we have quite a few nieces and nephews. Whenever any of the "little" ones come over the first thing that Jackson tries to do is jump on them. I have made it somewhat of a game with them where I tell them to talk like a bear (or lion) and whenever Jackson jumps I stand behind the child and we both walk forward into Jackson and use our best bear voice and say "OFF". After a couple of times it helps the child not be scared and shows Jackson that he won't be boss.

When we were in puppy class they said the 3 reasons that dogs like to jump and go after little kids is they have high pitched voices (hence the bear voice), they back away and they move their hands. When we watch Jackson anyone that backs away and acts intimidated he will start to go towards them to jump on them.

I totally agree that you have to make your son part of the training.

Good luck to you and your son.

Heather

 

[Jennifer -Pharaoh's Mom]

Let your son feed him, walk him, train him. That should take care of it. Also, make Dexter obey a command each and EVERY time he's to be fed or played with.

Example: Get some food out to pour in his bowl and make him SIT before pouring it in. (Your son should do this as well.)

Follow Dan's advice, it's good.

Jennifer

 

[joanna]

When we brought Maggie home she was 6 mos. old and out weighed my then 3 yr old by quite a bit. She is now four and we joke that in the house Maggie thinks that my husband is the alpha and Terah is the second alpha. Terah loves to "teach" Maggie as she calles it. I would give Treah a handful of the little training bits and she would spend five minutes a day telling Maggie to sit or shake or down. If Maggie doesn't listen to Terah, Terah would take her by the collar and say "no". She never accually issued a physical correction but her hand on the collar was enough. Maggie and Terah are now like peanut butter and jelly and besides Maggie and I have the closest relationship in the house. Maggie now lets Terah climb on top of her like a giant pillow, and they cuddle. I look at how precious they are together and know that I have a great dog.
Your four year old needs to assert himself as above the dog in the pack of the family, you need to help him by letting him train the dog with basic tasks. I agree with Jennifer make evrything that the dog does relate to a trainning task and the more it can come from the four year old the better. If the dog won't listen at first because hes challenging the authority, you or your four yr old need to correct him, and not let him get away with it. Or for sure Dexter will never listen to him.

PS- All this was done at the same time Maggie and I were going through obedience classes, I recommend classes, to all dog owners.