Son intimidated by the dog

[dsch]

My 9 year old son gets very intimidated by our 3 month old boxer. He likes to nip at him constantly. My son gets in a chair and pulls up his legs to get away and then eventually escapes to another room. The dog was actaully bought for him to have a companion and a playmate. Our two other dogs are elderly and not much fun for an active boy at this point. It's pretty sad because he really doesn't want anything to do with the dog.

 

[Kilby'sMum]

Have you taken your puppy to puppy school? We don't have kids but at the puppy school we went to there was a little boy who was scared of his labrador. The kid (I'd say he was about 7) sat with his legs pulled up on the chair during at the start and really looked petrified. But, by the 2nd week he did some of the training with the puppy during class (with mum there of course) and by the end of the 6 week course he was walking the puppy into the class. I think it just gave him a bit of confidence and the puppy seemed to respond too.

 

[Jan]

Your boxer sounds like a fairly typical boxer pup. Tell you son to yelp, when the pup bites at his ankles and if he persists he should leave the room. He is actually doing exactly the right thing when he leaves the room. I would definitely get him involved in the training. Once he understands that he can control the pups behavior he will be much more comfortable in his presence. As others have suggested get your pup signed up for puppy class and make sure that your son can go too.

 

[BoxerMoments]

When we first got Dakota at a little over 2 months old, our daughters at the time were just turned 3 and 6, and it was the same thing you're saying. It was winter time so they were wearing pants and he esp loved their pajama pants and would terrorize them, nipping at them and chasing them to get their pants to the point of them not wanting to be around him at all. It was sad to see because they had been so excited about getting him and now they didn't want to be anywhere near him (esp the 3 year old who pretty much became afraid of him). So it started out with changing their clothes as soon as they woke up because at the time he just couldn't resist the flapping pajama pants. Secondly we made sure the kids only walked at a normal pace around the house, once again esp the younger one because she was more his size, never running because obviously he would chase them. Then we worked on showing him that if he's not going to play nice with the kids then he will get no attention from anyone and that everyone would leave that room or would stay up on the couches and he would be on the floor alone with nothing to do. Lastly, like Kilby'sMum said, we had the kids help with the training every day.. even if it was something as simple as them being at different ends of the house, calling his name and tell him to sit or lay down and then giving him a treat. I have to say I think that was the thing that made the biggest difference and the kids really loved it. We also had the kids telling him to sit, getting his food ready, putting it down and telling him when he could eat. It really didn't take long before calmed down and stopped all the things he was doing before. Now he'll be a year old in a few weeks and the kids love him more than anything. My soon to be 4 year old actually has more control over him then my husband does sometimes and he will let her do ANYTHING to him. She has fallen on him more then once and he'll jump and see it's her and lay back down. If she is crying or hurts herself he is the first one to the scene. My now 7 year old is his favorite playmate and he knows he can be a little more rough with her so they obviously play a little different. It makes you so happy to see it now because in the beginning I got the the point where I thought maybe we made a mistake and that we should have waited until the kids were older but now I wouldn't change anything. You just have to be consistent in what you're doing and I think getting him to help with the training would be a good idea if you're not already doing that. Good luck!

 

[momtobrndon]

We are going through the exact same thing with our 11 week old puppy. I have 3 kids in the mix though. 10,5 and 4. They end up crying several times a day because of how much they get hurt by the puppy. We are working on it. But the puppy cannot resist them most the time. She even goes after me when I try to remove her from my kids. I try to keep my cool but admit I will yell and push her off of me. It is hard to stay calm when a dog is biting your leg or food and not letting go. Good luck! We need some here too!

 

[larrygs]

Already great advise given. It is a little too much to expect untrained puppies and untrained children to naturally know what to do. I have repeatedly seen young children gain confidence and have fun with pups as the children (and parents) learn what to do.

I will add that treaching both puppy and children how to play with a toy or ball can help. The pup will refocus on a ball thrown by even very young children, rather than play fighting with them.

There is much more on teaching "bite inhibition" to puppies in the other areas of this forum you may want to read. My guess is biting, jumping and pulling on the leash are three most common subjects for training. They all can be dealt with in a positive manner.

 

[Baileysfam]

Agree

Your boxer sounds like a fairly typical boxer pup. Tell you son to yelp, when the pup bites at his ankles and if he persists he should leave the room. He is actually doing exactly the right thing when he leaves the room. I would definitely get him involved in the training. Once he understands that he can control the pups behavior he will be much more comfortable in his presence. As others have suggested get your pup signed up for puppy class and make sure that your son can go too.

The above is absolutely correct. Once your son sees he can totally control the pup with a treat in his hand all the fear will be gone. I experienced this with my wife, although she's an adult she has no dog experience and was intimidated by our boxer. When the dog rolled onto it's back to earn a treat my wife laughed and realized the dog was a big baby who just looked tough haha. Also by yelping or saying "Ouch" as we did is the best way to prevent the nibbling.

 

[esabbott]

great advice! We have three grandkids and right from the beginning I taught them to play with toys with the puppy. If the puppy was awake, she wanted to play, and as soon as they would come in, she would wake up! My oldest grandson had been bitten by a lab and was very afraid of dogs, he at first would run in the house and jump up on the bar stool, never to get down while at the house with the dog. He was 8years old when we got her. It didn't take long for him to see that he could be of help in training her and he felt reassured that I would never let her nip at him. The children were always supervised if they were playing with the puppy. His brother who was just 5 was teaching her to sit and giving her treats and playing fetch. This seemed to help the older one. I would not allow her to nip at the kids, I would remove her from them and tell her "no" firmly and give her a toy. They learned to tell her no firmly and get a toy and put it in her mouth. The youngest is just turning two this month and just loves our Maggie. He will run around the house yelling" Stop chasing me Maggie" and he has no problem telling her no! It is so much fun to see the children enjoying such a wonderfully playful dog!

 

[dsch]

Thanks!!!!

Thank you everyone for all the really great advice. I'll let you know how it goes. I actually did start with my son training Moose with treats and he really likes doing that. In fact he taught him how to "high five" just yesterday and of course thinks that's very cool! I think he'll come around it's just going to take work and patience.