By Guest
Date 10.05.05 11:01 UTC
please help, i have a 8 week bloodhound staffie cross she is a very clever puppy house trained in 1 week (and at night) but she does insist on biteing my two year old daughter, drawing blood on occasions. I know puppies are very nippy. Any suggetions on how to stop this behaviour.
By Dill
Date 10.05.05 16:46 UTC
Please be aware that young children don't usually make a noise when they are being nipped/bitten so you must watch them together (I mean actually keep your eyes on them) if they aren't to come to any harm. Also young children can be very rough on a young puppy, poking eyes, pulling ears, etc. ;)
Please don't think that a two year old can play with an 8 week puppy this will only end in tears
The above link gives really important info if your children and pups are to be safe.
My mother-in-laws GSD was wonderful as a puppy in regard to biting. She would 'teeth' at your hands (as you would expect, she was just being a normal puppy and to some degree testing boundaries), and all you had to do was very gently release your hand, touch down on her nose (again very gently) and say 'ach! No Bite'. She got to the stage where she would still mouth your hand in play, but was exceptionally gentle (I mean, exceptionally) until she grew out of needing too. She is now three and we never had any problems with her hurting anyone. She is happy to have her mouth opened, happy to have hands in her feed bowl, and generally a very happy dog. The article was very interesting, as I think it kind of confirmed that method, but I would most certainly say to be very careful having children around young puppies. Although the puppy probably would not intentionally harm the child, it is still testing its boundaries, and it is still an animal with razor-sharp teeth around a child who is vunerable. In addition, children can be very rough with puppies, as already said, and I think it is unfair on both the puppy and the child to be unsupervised.