I need some help with an issues.....please!

[Toby love]

Ok so almost 2 weeks ago we got a 7 week old male boxer puppy. Our family consists of me and my husband, my 10 yr old stepdaughter (she's only here everyother weekend), my 8 yr old son with CP, and our 2 yr old daughter.

Our main issue right now is that Toby (our puppy) all of the sudden this week has taken to jumping on and chewing on the 2 yr old. He even occasionally makes a growling noise when doing it. She of course thinks he's playing and that it's funny, but it both frightens and worries me and my husband. Nothing other than totally isolating the two of them from each other seems to help or curb the behavior. Pulling him off of her or any kind of command just seems to make the behavior worse. Our only option has become to put him in the laundry room until he calms down and even then he sometimes goes right back after her when let out. It usually happens in the evening and the rest of the time he's sweet as can be with her. My son's CP is pretty severe and all Toby does when we put the 2 of them together is lick him to death and curl up next to him and take a nap (supervised at all times of course) The only one he seems to target is the toddler.

If anyone has any suggestions or insight I would appreciate it greatly!!!

 

[sandy's mom]

He is just a baby, he is probably playing.

You can teach him not to jump on your baby by a simple correction and giving him something else to do, get his attention on something else. Especially the chewing, have him something really yummy to chew on.

Good Luck!

 

[Cami]

Our main issue right now is that Toby (our puppy) all of the sudden this week has taken to jumping on and chewing on the 2 yr old. He even occasionally makes a growling noise when doing it.

Boxers are VERY vocal dogs. A puppy that growls is only playing....you will learn to know the difference in their sounds and levels of growling as he gets older. At his age it is 100% ALL play growling.

The puppy is playing with the 2 year old in this manner for a few different reasons.
1). Because he is being allowed to. (telling him anything at this point is useless, he can't speak English!)
2). Because the child is the closest thing in size to him.
3). Your duaghter makes FUN noises that entice the puppy to play.
4). Pups explore their new world by putting everything in their mouths, (even human fingers) and whatever "other" skin they can find. OUCH!
5). Boxers JUMP. (he just hasn't been taught not to yet).

Pulling dogs off won't teach anything. It will only stop the behavior for that specific time but they will go right back to it. He needs to be taught specific commands and what behavior those commands mean. For example....
OFF=all four feet on the floor (hence no jumping and or stop jumping)
LEAVE-IT=leave something alone, (human, dropped food, any item that isn't his). This comes in very handy.
OUT=leave the area or don't go into a certain area.
ETC....

He is just a baby himself. He has a long way to go to learn whatever rules you want to put in place. You also have to work with your children and make them understand the rules as well. If you don't want to escalate the pups excitement level all people in the home have to remain calm. No loud noises, screaming, yelling, squeals, etc....All of which will make a Boxer (most ages) go from couch potato to SUPER PLAY MODE.

Confining him to a room at his age is more along the lines of a form of punishment rather than correction for an undesired behavoir. He won't know the reason since he doesn't know that his actions caused it. If that makes sense? They have to know the rules before they can "mess up". He doesn't know them yet but with a lot of patience and persistance he will learn them. THEN you can do a "time-out" when he isn't behaving. He will get it then and more often than not learn from his mistake.

 

[Toby love]

Boxers are VERY vocal dogs. A puppy that growls is only playing....you will learn to know the difference in their sounds and levels of growling as he gets older. At his age it is 100% ALL play growling.

The puppy is playing with the 2 year old in this manner for a few different reasons.
1). Because he is being allowed to. (telling him anything at this point is useless, he can't speak English!)
2). Because the child is the closest thing in size to him.
3). Your duaghter makes FUN noises that entice the puppy to play.
4). Pups explore their new world by putting everything in their mouths, (even human fingers) and whatever "other" skin they can find. OUCH!
5). Boxers JUMP. (he just hasn't been taught not to yet).

Pulling dogs off won't teach anything. It will only stop the behavior for that specific time but they will go right back to it. He needs to be taught specific commands and what behavior those commands mean. For example....
OFF=all four feet on the floor (hence no jumping and or stop jumping)
LEAVE-IT=leave something alone, (human, dropped food, any item that isn't his). This comes in very handy.
OUT=leave the area or don't go into a certain area.
ETC....

He is just a baby himself. He has a long way to go to learn whatever rules you want to put in place. You also have to work with your children and make them understand the rules as well. If you don't want to escalate the pups excitement level all people in the home have to remain calm. No loud noises, screaming, yelling, squeals, etc....All of which will make a Boxer (most ages) go from couch potato to SUPER PLAY MODE.

Confining him to a room at his age is more along the lines of a form of punishment rather than correction for an undesired behavoir. He won't know the reason since he doesn't know that his actions caused it. If that makes sense? They have to know the rules before they can "mess up". He doesn't know them yet but with a lot of patience and persistance he will learn them. THEN you can do a "time-out" when he isn't behaving. He will get it then and more often than not learn from his mistake.

Thank you for your advise! It all makes total sense and we have been working on the commands and training since day one. Sit was amazingly easy, LEAVE IT is going pretty well except where my daughter and mulch are concerned, OUT is so so. I've set aside an hour in the morning, afternoon (while the kids are napping), and evening that are strictly Toby time (as if all time right now isn't Toby time....) so that I can focus on working with him without other distractions right now(ie... the husband, toddler, other children). Then slowly when we have more commands down and some understanding on both the childs and the dogs part we will work with them together. It's usually in the evenings that the situations occur so we are going to focus more on separate activities for them in the evenings. My husband is going to bath and play with her (as well as work on her manners with the dog) while I work with Toby. Hopefully this will help without punishing anyone unnecessarily. Any oppinions and or advise would be appreciated

 

[carbaugh]

I have noticed that when Gus plays with my daughter who is now 7 he is gentle but he will jump and nip at my son. Reason we think is because my son screams loud and sometime even like a girl when playing with the dog, therefore is almost seems that Gus thinks he is getting hurt and trys to pull on this clothes to "pull" him out of what ever is making his scream, not realizing that it is himself that is making my son scream. they are just playing but also when my son goes screaming and running across the house will Gus jump up and knock him down. again my son is the only one that he does this with.