Hiya
I've got a 16 week old Cocker spaniel. He is no problem with my husband & myself as he knows we're in charge. The mouthing & nipping trouser legs still goes on but not nearly as bad as it was, I can see light at the end of the tunnel lol. The trouble is my daughter, shes only 4, she seems to act very submissively to Dylan, he knows he can get away with anything with her. Hence he still pulls on her clothes & bites at her ankles whenever he gets a chance! I need to know how to make him realise that my daughter is above him in the pack. I'm trying getting her to feed him, & she always eats before he does. (Can you tell Ive read The Perfect Puppy lol) what else can I do so he knows shes boss???

Try and get her to ignore him when she first walks in teh door for a few minutes, the tendency with small children is to rush in and make a big fuss of the dog which reinforces the dog's belief that it is more importnat than said person ... make her walk in the door, no eye contact with him at all for a few minutes until he settles down/leaves her alone, THEN have a treat in her hand and call the dog to her, if he comes then she can make a fuss of him. There are are lots of other things you can do which I'm sure other people will be along with. Nicki

I would make it very unpleasant for Dylan to bite and mouth at your daughter. The problem is that if she squeals and runs away she is rewarding his behaviour, and he will give chase. I wouldn't say its a boss thing, and I wouldn't imagine he's taking any notice of her eating before him - you need to take things to a very basic level :)

I cured my Dane puppy of targetting my 3 year old this way - its very effective, but it must be done correctly.

Arm yourself with a squeezy water bottle (something that gives a good soaking though - not a water pistol, and a saucepan and a wooden spoon. Don't let the dog see you have these, hide them. Then as soon as you see Dylan going for your daughter run up behind him as fast as possible and whack the saucepan as loud as you can with the wooden spoon. He should sit down and wonder what the hell was that!! Repeat this ONCE, then move ontop the water if he continues to reoffend - give him a good soaking in the face. It must be YOU who does this, your daughter should not be seen to have any part in it, and you should try to look innocent aswell.

The point in this is that Dylan learns that something unpleasant happens when he pesters your daughter - they learn fast - it took Willis 3 goes and he never chased Zack again :) Good luck.

An alternative to that suggestion, and I have posted this before on the board, is to put your child in a pair of wellies so that when the pup bites/mouths, she does not react, all the puppy wants is a reaction, as already said sqealing and screaming is as rewarding as praise to them. We told our daughter, as soon as the pup started on her feet [with her wellies on], was to stand stock still, arms folded and stare straight ahead - no eye contact with pup. He will soon lose interest and walk away. If the pup starts on her hands, get her to stand up immediately and do the same thing, cross her arms and look straight ahead until he loses interest in her. He is then getting no reward for his behaviour. This took about a fortnight to solve. Nicki

I did try the wellies thing & it worked in that it stopped him being able to nibble at her toes. Trouble is that my Daughter (Beth) won't stop dancing about. I keep telling her to stand still, but she insists on sticking her foot up in the air out of the pups way. Of course Dylan sees this as an open invitation to carry on playing :-(
I'm going to try the other suggestions when she gets home from school. Can't wait to see what happens with the saucepan & wooden spoon, I reckon that will do the trick lol

It is a problem when children won't co-operate. :( As you realise, the more Beth reacts, the better the game for the pup, and the longer it'll carry on.