I have a male 6 1/2 months old nutered.He is really smart and learns really fast.He can sit-stay-laydown-shake and heel pretty good,my only problem with him is that he is really rough with my daugther,shes 4.he will listen to me but ignores her commands.He bites at her heels and legs playing i'm sure but he already weighs 70lbs.How can I teach him to obey her.I tried letting him drag his leash and following him and when he starts to bite I pick it up and firmly tell him no.I've also armed my daugther with a squirt gun to make him stop ,he thought that was fun.I could really use some advice on his rough behavior. Thank you Cathy

Cathy, IMO your Daughter is not strong enough to control a puppy with the power of her determination, which is after all what we do, not only with pups but children too. So I think you will have to avoid the situation where your dog and daughter are able to play until one or the other grows up, that will probably be your daughter. Large dogs, especialy castrated ones, take a long while to grow up, by which time your Daughter will be well into school and will have learned to express herself without slaping and waving hands about, which at the moment will only make things worse.
Ja:)kie

Jackie's very correct. I just want to add that:
Dogs, especially puppies do not recognize children as authority figures. Your daughter, trying to discipline him and only being 4 years old, is not a good idea. I've seen kids that young tell dogs "no" and then get angry at the dog as if another child for not listening. The child then "chastises" the dog the same manner as being a pretend-parent-- either by smacking, getting loud, stamping, or getting upset.

Not good because neither understands what's going wrong. They are about the same age in maturity at the moment, despite the massive size difference :)

When he starts nipping her, separate both of them and stop the play immediately. She might be instigating by pulling on tail/ears or running around thinking that's it's fun which he'll respond to in puppy way :rolleyes: I did when I was that age --many kids do, it's their nature to tease their friend ;) :) You just don't know what's going on when you're not looking.

Remember, just because he's a large dog, doesn't mean that he's as mature as he looks until 2-3 years old.
good luck,
toodles