Ear Biting and Pouncing on Child

[ckempf]

My almost 4-month-old Boxer is jumping up on my son (3), biting his ears (causing a substantial cut), and not listening to us at all. Kobe is in puppy class, but nothing seems to work. The last time he jumped up to bite, we pushed him down and yelled "no," which only made things worse. Now he just runs and leaps trying to bite his head and then runs away. I know that he is being playful, but now the two cannot play together at all. This is very sad for me as my son loves Kobe and cannot interact with him. We went with a Boxer because of how great they are with children, but this is not the case at all. Our trainer suggested trying to step on his leash so he cannot jump on my son. We tried that, but as soon as the leash is off, he is right back at it. He is VERY stubborn.
Any sugestions would be appreciated.
Craig

 

[lorib257]

My boxer, Guiness is 6 months old and I have my daughter's little boy living with me (he's almost 2). We've had our moments with Guiness getting a little rough with my grandson. I found what works best is to stay close by and monitor them constantly. Some things that work with the jumping are I've told everyone who comes in the house that they must command Guiness to sit and wait until Guiness sits to pet him so that he is not encouraged to jump for attention. The other thing I do is when he gets out of hand and starts barking and jumping at us while we are playing with him, we tell him no and then turn our backs on him and ignore him until he calms down. I was told by our dog school that if you respond to his jumping by pushing him down then he will think it's part of the game and it will reinforce the jumping. Ignoring him does work - he hates it! I have also found that the puppy class and then the "Listen to Me" class which is the second one offered at the school has been a great help in training him. You have to have a LOT OF PATIENCE with these boxers but they are very intelligent and very trainable - it just takes time and a lot of repetition. Good Luck.

 

[Storri]

We had this trouble too, but my son provokes Joe ALL the time. He is constantly pulling on him, pushing on him and messing with him when he is sleeping.....not the thing to do to a sleeping dog! He has been snapped at many many times (not bitten) and warned to stay away. He is one stubborn kid. Okay so back to the issue at hand. We use a spray bottle and it stops him in his tracks along with the word NO BITE or OFF if he is jumping up on him. Now all I have to do is show him the bottle and he stops. Very rarely do I actually have to spray him any more. Sometime I spray my son too just to make him stop and listen to mom and know that she means business....he does not like it too much and it certainly gets his attention. He has selective hearing ya know :rolleyes:

 

[Brutus and Amaya's Mom]

My trainer recommends keeping the leash on pups at all times. Then...when they go to jump you can control the situation. The leash allows you to control the dog and teach them how to behave properly.

He is still a puppy and needs to learn how to behave. Training is a long process that takes some time and patience.